Today's update is about our ministry in the Philippines. For the benefit of those of you who are newer to Unsheltered, I thought it would be helpful to break down the ins and outs of this wonderful ministry that God has blessed us with.
Our involvement in the Philippines began in 2014 when the Sharpe family joined a medical mission trip with the Gospel Preacher Association. This trip was right after a devastating typhoon and was a real eye-opener for us. It was on this trip that we met Pastor Antonio Ner and his wife Merliza. Pastor Ner expressed a desire to have us return to the Philippines and help him start a ministry to children who lived on the streets in his hometown of Bacolod City.
After much prayer, we packed up and left for a six month stay in January of 2015. It was during that time that the ministry of Unsheltered International Philippines was born. We started by helping in the meal centers that Pastor Ner already had established and also ministering on the streets to the precious children who were living in extremely vulnerable situations.
We formed a board of directors, led by Filipino pastors, and began to work hard to reach as many vulnerable children and unsheltered adults with the gospel as we possibly could. To say that the Lord has blessed it would be an understatement. We have seen children rescued from the streets, families put back together, thousands of decisions for Christ, and much more. God has been good!
Today, we have three main areas of focus in the Philippines ministry.
1. Children's meal centers. We have about 400 children per week who attend the 16 meal centers that we help operate. Through this ministry, we try to reach vulnerable children before they become victims of exploitation and wind up living on the streets.
2. Street outreach. Two or three evenings each week, the team goes out into the streets to deliver hot soup and lots of love to the street children and unsheltered adults. This ministry is as "raw" as it gets. It can be one of the saddest things you have ever witnessed, but also one of the most compassionate ministries you will ever see. Learn more here.
3. Rescue center. The rescue center ministry happens on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The team sends a van out to pick up the people they met while doing street outreach. Not everyone comes, but the ones who do are blessed with showers, a good meal, Bible study, and more. Because we bring them to our facility, it's a much better environment for preaching, teaching, and counseling. Learn more here.
I hope you will be much in prayer for these important ministries of compassion. It's our joy to do our best to be a light for the vulnerable and wayward. God is doing big things through this ministry and he alone gets the glory.
P.S. Mark your calendar for our upcoming live ministry update evening on March 3rd. We will be talking about all of the above plus, what we are doing here in Alabama!
