SLearning Conference 17 - 18 Mar 09

A big part of my work is linked to schools and educational institutions. The cliche, youths are the leaders of the future.. over-used but true. If nobody told me about HS, I would not know, so if I do not tell them, how would they know? True, we do not have the structures to absorb the many students who have to fulfill their CIP hours.. but then again, we don't want them to come and go through the motions. We want to invest in the lives of those that come, to share God's heart for the people.. share what he sees. So we had a booth at this conference to tell the teachers and principals who came about what we did. It was the first time many of them heard about us, think that in itself is a success :)


There were many speakers who came and spoke about giving back to the community. The one I went for was very good, by this guy Antonio 'tony' Meloto who heads the Gawad Kalinga movement. They get land from huge land owners in Philippines, build houses, get running water, give each family that moves there farmland and develop a communal farm so the proceeds can go back into that community... these people are relocated mostly from the slums. So through this, the people get a new lease of life & chance to escape the poverty trap. By developing just 2 acres of land, they can house up to 100 families. He didn't say if it was difficult in the beginning, but I believe it couldn't have been easy. Especially to convince the landlords to give the land.. but now it's been proven that these communities increase the value of the land for, the land is developed and crime reduces in the other parts.. he testifies that now, they are up to their ears in land.

Many times we look at others and see them as second class citizens - Filipinos, Bangladeshis, Indians, Chinese... that they begin to believe that they are second class citizens.. But the fact is we are all made the same, in the image of God. When we strip them of dignity and place a yoke on them and use them for our own means... aren't we like the head servant who beat the other servants and took advantage of his position? What really hit me from what he shared was the dignity and hope that was returned to these people. The yoke of poverty and chains of injustice that were lifted.

I believe there are many in our region that are in similar situations... we can choose to look the other way or we can choose to pray and see what 'doors of opportunities to help' the Lord can open to us.