Project Destiny VISION Update.

This was written by our leader Teresa Woodard. In this note she shares what's been going on with PDK as a whole and also looking toward the future at where God is leading this ministry. Please take the time to read it...the links for the ministry blog and website are on the right hand side of the screen...just scroll down.

Check back tomorrow for NEW PHOTOS...and for what God's been showing me about my next step...

"Things seem to be going very very well. We have 5 kids now in the Shelter House. And we have 9 staff. All are happy and content and seem to be enjoying everything. Today we are taking in a possible 3 more new kids all the siblings of one of the boys. We have 1 staff and Susan who will be leaving soon, and another leaving end of January....so we are really praying for replacements.

We have started girls night and boys night every Sunday night. Our one girl and her baby come to the staff house will all the girl staff and the two boy staff go to the Shelter house. We do girly things like, watch girly movies, crafts, cook, and we started a Bible study on the life of Sarah. The boys on the other hand, throw colored water balloons at each other, run around like wild indians and watch funny PG action movies and eat snacks. We are working on getting the Bible study on Wild at Heart started for them.

All the kids were baptized 2 weeks ago, and continue to grow and change in their attitudes and behaviors. We are so proud of them all. We are starting a new school arrangement which everybody likes. It's called A.L.S. (Alternative Learning System). It is a modular system created and set up for out of school youth to complete a high school equivalency test. One of our board members has been a high school principal for years and is an incredible educator. She was recently promoted to Dep Ed office which allows her to have weekends off. So she is coming every Saturday to test the kids on the modules they complete during the week. We have had one week so far and everyone LOVES it. The staff are learning to be teachers now and love it! After the kids finish the A.L.S. and pass the final test they can then enter TESDA which is a vocational school where they can learn cooking, restaurant/hotel management, welding, carpentry. auto mechanics etc....

My heart has been heavy with vision...

1. I really want to open a girls home. There are so many girls and new ones every day. We just can't take in any more girls in the one house, we really need a separate house for girls. Which means a separate staff for the girls. It takes 7 people to run one house.
   
2. I also want to re-open the drop-in center NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We need 5 people to run that.
   
3. I am also dreaming of an alternative school for all the street kids not just the ones living in our shelters. So for that we would need a whole teaching staff M-F.
   
4. I also have thought about the possibility of starting a business here where the kids could work...thought is a coffee shop where live bands would come and play and board games would be on the tables sort of a family place but definitely a place where street-people could walk in and be welcomed and ministered to.
   
5. I also want to start "Frontline"; their ministry would be strictly to the streets and those who are still in and on the streets. The Frontline team would go out nightly and witness, pray for, bring food and medical help to those on the streets.
   
6. I dream of one day having a YWAM Children At Risk School here in Project Destiny Kids, where people form around the world will come and learn how to do street kid ministry.
   
7. I will be asking one of the local Bible Colleges to partner with us. I would teach a course in the college on street kids then the 5th year Bible College students would intern by working in either the drop-in center or one of the Shelter houses or be part of the Frontline team

All of these dreams will happen in God's timing, it's just that they are burning in my heart now. And kids are literally dieing in the streets now. So we are praying and belieiving for more staff, buildings, and increased financial support."

A Day in My Life

how can i explain what life looks like here? this post will share a bit of the reality of life here. if you're not interested in reality, please stop reading...you can scroll down to the photos in the next post. i wrote this last week.

"yesterday i drove the kids and staff to church and 10 little street kids showed up there, aged 6 to 15. teresa and i ran into them at the mall early last week and invited them. i really doubted if they would remember our invitation.

but right after we went in, they showed up at the door. hovering outside. waiting for someone to see them and usher them in. i sat with them in the back. they were so dirty. and skinny. and full of skin disease. they really smelled like street kids. but they were there. one of them fell asleep in his plastic chair immediately. the others looked nervously around, wondering if it was ok that they were there. half of them left after worship. it's too hard to be inside for so long.

the little guy sitting next to me was tiny, and i found out later that he was 13. he was reading my Bible while i held it and then when i passed it to him to hold, he looked up, shocked. after 20 minutes he passed it back and said thank you. he fell asleep at the end. the little guy smelled so bad...made me wonder if he had a digestion issue...it really was like a poop smell, different from the other kids. i asked him if he was coming back next week. he said he would. i'll be looking for him. one of our kids asked him why he was so skinny...and if it was because he sniffed glue. the boy said no. it's cause there's no food.

i wanted to bring him home. he was so small. he wouldn't take up that much room.

tonton, who has all ready ran away twice from the shelter house was there. skinny. full of scabies. probably has worms again. he's so hard headed. and not ready to really break away from street life and make a change. i just hope that he decides to change before he dies.

another boy, wilbert, was there. our social worker sat with him, asking him about his life. asking if he's ready to change. he said yes. we're wanting to bring him into the shelter. but it's not the right time yet. we hope soon.

when i drove the kids back to the shelter, the police were driving into our barangay. we watched them drive over to the river. they were retrieving a body. a 18 to 20 year old male. with his hands tied behind his back. he was found floating down the river. street kid. he was a "salvage". that means the authorities caught him, tied him up and killed him. then floated him down the river as a warning to all the other kids. don't mess with us. we will kill you. that's the best way to deal with street kids. round them up and kill them. solves the problem. cleans the streets.

then last nite, in a huge contrast to what happened all day, we had nina and banban, her baby, over for girls nite. the boys and the male staff all stayed at the shelter to play boy games. the girls all stayed at the staff house for pedicures and movies. nina laughed so much, and so freely. banban slept peacefully on the foam. the boys had a glorious time being boys.

3 months ago they were street kids. smelly. wormy. hungry. desperate. today they are finally detoxed to the point that they can begin to heal.

right now there are 4 kids, plus a baby. that's not so many. but it is a beginning. they are the first batch. there are so many more to come. God is faithful.

my heart is starting to bleed."

and now today...

one of the street girls we know is a prostitute. she's 13 years old. she was in the shelter in the beginning, but chose to run back to the streets. her older sister nina is still with us. the girl dropped by the shelter today for 10 minutes to talk with her sister for a while.

her face was painted, and covered in white powder. she and the girl she was with had a job they were on the way to. at the barracks.

please pray for the children in the streets tonite. please pray for their families. please pray for God to move in to rescue and to save.

faces of Project Destiny

faces of Project Destiny

Vroom- vroom!

Teresa asked me to come down to Project Destiny for a couple of months while she went to the states for furlough. Due to a series of unfortunate events, which have resulted in knee surgery, Teresa didn't end up being able to leave. However, I am still here and still going to be fulfilling my role as assistant to Ate Sonia and driver and go-fer and common senser and problem solver and .....whatever else might come my way. :)
For now the plan is that I will be here until December. There are several options I'll have at that point and I'm still praying about what that will mean. The CDTS will be taking a year off of the school, so we don't start until January 2011. However, we do have a China trip planned for March or April. Anyone wanna join??
For now, enjoy these photos...I wanted you to see what I'm up to....:)

This is the handy dandy van...I spend alot of my day in this trusty little guy...toting staff and kids to various locations in the city.

We can get like 10 people in it...wanna come over? There's room for you!!

These orange trikes are like little frogs. They just JUMP in front of the van while it's moving down the street. FREAKed me out the first time. I've learned though. I'm now an excellent driver in the Philippines. :) ;)

Here's the kids and some of the staff. Aren't they a good looking crew?

2 more photos. why won't picasa upload more than 4 at a time?

This photo is a bit more realistic than the one at the end of the other post. :)

Sweet Rachel. She's so much fun and I'm looking forward to knowing her more.:)

Girls Nite Out in Baguio

So, the nite before i left Baguio the DTS girlies and i went out for some stress relief. They were like 8 weeks into their 12 week school and i was leaving early for my trip to Butuan. We decided to take a taxi to the Manor in Camp John Hay for coffee and dessert. :)

(L -R) Katlea, from Manila, her family's home was flooded during the typhoon last week. Rachel, from Malaysia, so funny girl. Sarah, from Canada, firecracker. Hazel, from Manila, i just love her. lots.

Even though it was 2 weeks early, we celebrated Sarah's birthday....:)

Isn't that cake gorgeous? Come visit me here in the Philippines and I'll if we can get you some.

4 sweet and innocent looking missionaries sitting in front of the fireplace in the lobby. We don't look like we could cause trouble, do we? Ok, the one on the right does, but the rest of us are pretty innocent i think. :)