A Very Long Weekend - Trip to Biñan


Last Friday night, I went back to Manila to visit my friends in BP. Just a few hours ago, John called and told me that BP will visit the ministryit supports at Biñan, Laguna. It is a "Feeding Program", where a local church would gather children from depressed parts of the community, tell them Bible stories and feed them afterwards. I arrived at Frank's place at 8 and just in time, I saw Frank, John and Peter Lane came from the elevator. Peter is Exodus Asia's director and was a guest speaker at BP's Friday meeting. Outside the hotel, an FX was waiting for us and by 8:30 we are on the road along South Superhighway going to Biñan. It was tiring journey, due to the fact that I'm still tired from yesterday's travel however, it's really good thing there's Peter around. He talks animatedly and shares his experiences while living in India, in England and from his home country Australia.

By 9:30, we arrived at the place and Bible lessons are going on. The scene reminds me of a VBS in our own church. The kids were divided according to age. It makes my heart happy, seeing these kids having a good time while you can see the sting of poverty in them - those round lonely eyes ,tattered clothes and soiled feet. I felt so humbled, I'm fortunate when I was a kid. John and I rounded the entire church area and when we got back, the feeding began. Children were eating caldereta. John took some pictures however, the cam's battery ran out so I was asked to buy some digital batteries at the market. It took me quite a while. When I got back, the children were gone but Peter wants to visit the area where those children lived. So we hopped onto the tricycle and have a short ride to the place. We stopped in front of concrete houses but when we got around them, the shanties came into view and some children who were in the church a while ago were washing their clothes, some carried pails of water. The children happily greeted us and were having a good time imitating Peter's way of speaking. (He had a British accent and man, his accent is so infectious!). Well, watching the entire scene reminds me of the documentaries shown in I-witness about families living in the slums. This is just one face of the Philippines. Anyway, it was 10:30 and we decided it's time to go back to Manila. So we got back and bought a Biñan puto specialty along the way.