An appeal for compassion
Late January the Government announced to a community of 350 people that live and work at the rubbish dump site that they had less than ten days to vacate this land and move their houses or they would be bulldozed.

In a frantic panic they searched for land in the surrounding areas… hoping that someone would have compassion on them and allow them to transfer their houses there… but to no avail.
We were at the dumpsite everyday meeting with the people and praying with them believing for a breakthrough. We have an extensive program in this area and many of their children are sponsored with us and attend our community education program, but this came as a complete surprise to us all.

These people are broken, hurt and drowning in hopelessness. The government officials have treated them with less respect and importance than the piles of garbage that they are protecting… there are laws of the land that prevent this type of action being taken… stipulating that there should be reasonable time given to the squatters to move on… assistance in transferal etc. But in honesty the people are just too scared to approach any of the agencies that can assist them, as this would mean that they are formally making a complaint against the Mayor and his officers… and they are very afraid of the consequences of that. The atmosphere of fear and intimidation is strong… you read about this sort of pressure and intimidation… you read about humans being treated in such a way but you are confronted with it face to face it is a very different matter. It sure takes some soul searching to see where God wants to go and earnest seeking of His wisdom for every step that you take.

As a result of our prayer and seeking God we felt very strongly that we needed to offer our help so we began to serve the community with all our strength and all that we had available to us … We brought our truck and a team of able bodied men to help with the transference of their shelters — literally made hundreds of trips back and forth for them — then we discovered they didn’t even have nails or hammers… saw’s or anything else... so we visited the hardware each day buying more supplies… I think in total we purchased more than 100kgs of nails… eight hammers… 4 saws… 60 bundles of bamboo… and more than 100 meters of tarpaulin plastic used for their roofing.

We prayed that it wouldn’t rain. There were some very distressing stories of older people that could hardly move let alone rebuild their houses.

There was one team of young men that literally picked up the feeble frames of the houses on their shoulders and moved them from one place to the next… but there were more than 60 houses marked for demolition. When we walked through the area they have relocated to, and we just couldn’t imagine how such a pile of rubbish could become a house…we were also very concerned about how far away their living area is to water access. We really want to install a water pump with shelter so at least they will be able to cook and wash themselves. Our entire team was quite tired at the end of the four day mass exodus… we were all a bit sore and sun burnt but we knew we had done all that we could to help… more than anything else we wanted to express to this community that GOD loves them and no matter what, He will never leave them nor forsake them. He sent us there not because we are good people or because we have anything special to offer… on the contrary… He just sent us there to be His ambassadors of reconciliation… His agents of love and mercy.

Out of darkness and adversity came a most precious sense of community spirit… there was an anointing during that time, we have been meeting with them and assisting them in making plans to move… just listening to their concerns and helping allay their fears and concerns… Gods message of hope and love has been most assuredly shared in such a powerful and real way. We are truly thankful to God for the privilege of being here at this time… we are really yet to see the full affects of what has transpired… we know that the quality of life will be further affected by these moves… as the people are now living in more cramped conditions than before… but we will be there with them increasing our support where ever we can…

The truth is that unless we had gone there and assisted them with the task of moving their shelters… they would have lost everything that they owned.

History in the Philippines of squatter removals are usually always violent… riot police are brought in… there is huge media coverage… people get hurt… and houses are destroyed… we are thankful to God that this was a very peaceful event and there was no sign of government officials as they saw our team of vehicles and workers literally picking up the houses with the people…

What was meant to be a harsh day of destruction and distress… turned out to be one of community spirit… hard work and the consolidation of good lasting relationships… and no bulldozers can destroy what was built between us during this time...

Can you help?
We are appealing for building supplies for the families.. ply wood for their walls… roofing iron for their roofs… more nails and more supplies…

Any donation will be gratefully received...

Donations can be given through CMF Danmark's account in
SkandiaBanken, Reg.no.: 6610 Account no.: 2276664.