Day 8

Good evening all.


David Pleysier and Scott Puzey reporting to you from exciting day eight of the inaugural ACC Manila Tour. It is a great honor to be able to update the many supporters back home who have been following our progress and faithfully praying for us this week.

Before we get underway with the actual events of the day I wanted to take this opportunity to make a couple of points.

1. To all parents of youngsters on this trip, YOUR CHILDREN ARE AWSOME!! (I am sure you believe this already but everyone we have met has been blown away by these young adults.) I have worked with over two thousand Western Australian children in my career. The ACC tour group is a stand out team for me. I have never experienced such a hard working dedicated mob.

2. All of the ACC staff and people associated with Kids International here in Manila have been thrilled with the energy and commitment everyone has displayed all week. These youngsters have been called on to do some of the worst tasks imaginable and without complaint they have nailed it!

3. You should be so proud of what your youngsters are doing. They are making the most of every opportunity and actively looking to contribute everywhere, anytime.

4. Australians have a reputation for working hard in Manila and the ACC team has only added to this reputation. The building site has progressed very quickly, making a challenge for the management here to keep materials up to the project.

5. With this trip our youngsters are creating a legacy. The impact they have made here in Manila and their witness to each other and all they have met has been phenomenal. I look forward to the impact they will have on their return to Australia.

6. Be prepared to welcome home a travel wise, mature and responsible adult who has a new perspective on life.

Now Day eight.

None of us though it would ever happen but the Beech Man let us sleep in today. Perhaps a moment of weakness or a brief glimpse of compassion. The "Task Master" actually left us to rest in to the dizzy hour of 8.00am. Dressed in our finery we carefully negotiated breakfast keeping the ties and cuffs clean and tidy. With dresses flowing in the muggy tropical air we hiked the 18 meters next door to church.

Pastor Pete kicked off the service with a message about putting off the World (restraining his desire to demonstrate with his shirt) and then putting on Love. We then heard from Pastor Ray with a message of getting out of the comfort zone with examples from the New Testament and the book of Paul. I want to introduce Pastor Ray. He is a church leader in a region to the North of Luzon and I believe we will see more of him in the coming years. He is currently working here in Cuatro on 15 day shifts, establishing support to develop income for the churches back home. He has two children still at school and his community has suffered losses with the recent flooding.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were thrilled to see twenty people from the Cuatro community visiting the church for the first time today. These twenty were personally invited by our youngsters and are casual staff here in the community, people we have worked with all week.

 

 

A quick change after church and it was into the van and Jeepney to lunch and the markets. When we passed through the same check point for the third time we realized the Filipino shortcut was not all we expected it to be. Several quick stops for directions at the road check points on the way and we arrived in "Eastwood." A region named after the Hollywood star. The place looked like the Hay street mall, complete with high rise apartments, underground parking and boutique shops. Italian for lunch.... a unanimous yum!

Back to the vehicles for another short trip to the markets. We stopped briefly for a photo with one of the many armed guards on the way. At this time we lost teddy to the back pack for the rest of the day. Apparently he is afraid of guns. For those not quite sure what this is about.... Mrs Tidy has been preparing the youngsters at school for her trip, telling them all about the tour she and the teddy will be taking. The children have been eagerly searching the blog each day to see if they can find the bear in the photographs. He has faithfully joined us in all parts of the tour, sneaking without ticket into the theatre, onto the boat and visiting the worksites.

At the Green Hill Markets we spent several hours in the pressing crowd searching for the ultimate bargain. With gold Rolex watches available for $25 Au we were all sure to secure the buy of a lifetime. (Bobs watch stopped even before he left the markets.) At the markets we witnessed firsthand the miracle of retail therapy. Enter one rather flat zonked out Jasmine to the flurry of money changers and bargains. Exit one hyper, chatty whirlwind of energy ......welcome back girl. Unfortunately the opposite was true for two others with Luke and Jean surrendering to the D&V bug before the day was out.

Bus home and straight to say goodnight to the children at the New Faith Family Children’s Home where we sang together before sharing a bedtime story. It will be hard to leave as the children have really adopted the ACC students into their large family. With the work program on hold for two days the students are a little more energetic tonight. Not quite ready to collapse into bed...........yet.

God Bless.

PS: True to the Aussie character, the number of blog responses to each day’s chapter has developed into a competition. The current blog champions (riding the wave of beautiful birthday emotions for Jamie) have achieved 39 responses!

Here you were thinking that the blog was all about sharing with you. But no...... You have been manipulated. Take a look over the past couple of days and discover for yourself the cunning ploys of entrapment designed to entice you to comment on the blog!

Now that this is all out in the open........how about a response comment for the hard working staff to sink this thing once and for all!