An Unforgettable Scene

A letter from Barry and Shelly Dawson serving as Regional Liaisons for Southeast Asia, based in Thailand

September 2016

Dear Partners in Mission,

Even a casual observer can see that daily life for people living in the Tondo district of Manila is an extremely hard struggle. A struggle to find a job. A struggle to feed your children a handful of rice. A struggle to find a few pesos for medicine. A struggle to muster a sliver of strength to keep on surviving when the dawn promises only more clawing and scraping and scrambling to get you through another day until the numbing darkness temporarily hides those cruel realities that are too painful to absorb in the light of day.

Life is a daily struggle in Manila’s Tondo district Metro Manila, with nearly 24 million residents, is among the world’s five most populous urban areas, and Tondo is the most densely populated district in Manila. Tondo is home to hundreds of thousands of urban transplants, people who have moved to Manila from the Visayas region or other distant parts of the Philippines’ more than 7,000 islands with the dream of making more money than in their remote villages. But their stories are often unfiltered tales of dashed dreams or dreams deferred. Now they work long, monotonous hours meticulously picking through garbage, sifting through soft plastic, sharp metals, and the nearly 9,000 tons of refuse daily discarded in Manila, to see what can be recycled. Now they survive by making charcoal, hawking trinkets, relentlessly pedaling tricycle taxis, as well as selling the valuable nuggets from the ubiquitous mountains of municipal solid waste that increase exponentially.

Under the Bridge
Last month a few compassionate Filipinos guided us through one of the poorest barangays (municipal administrative districts) in Tondo. We traipsed through a labyrinth of one-room living areas constructed from an eclectic mix of re-purposed wood, corrugated metal sheets, as well as miscellaneous flotsam and jetsam retrieved from a nearby river that teemed with bobbing rubbish. Our serpentine path took us past the no-lock, no-door rooms where multi-generational families sleep restlessly on the floor next to each other.

Then our guides led us into one of the most unforgettable scenes we have witnessed during our years in Southeast Asia.

When confronted face-to-face with the packed-and-stacked squatters, we wondered about the dismal futures facing their children. We asked ourselves, “Where is the church for the fragile ones who live under the bridge?” And to muse more profoundly, even more viscerally, “Where is God for the broken ones who live amidst hunger, disease, neighborhood crime, and domestic violence that surely are part of the high-risk life that unfolds along the mud pathways of the barangay and in the dark shadows under the bridge?”

Solidarity with the Poor
Thankfully, we knew at least part of the answers to these perplexing, gut-wrenching theological questions that were triggered under the bridge. Thankfully, our PC(USA) mission partner—the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP)—is a church that lives its faith in Christ through social justice actions and by standing in solidarity with the poor. Thankfully, the people of the UCCP Tondo Evangelical Church (TEC) have seen and responded to the crying needs in their community.

In 2007 the congregation had a hope-inspired vision to provide free kindergarten education for some of Tondo’s most vulnerable children. In fact, TEC’s leap of faith led them to establish a kindergarten on the site of a demolished city dump. Their audacious goal was to give 50 children a free kindergarten experience because, clearly, the children’s parents could barely manage to keep their young offspring fed and clothed on their meager incomes. The barangay’s elected officials provided an adequate space for the kindergarten in the heart of the urban village, and, despite a roller coaster of challenges, the school has been faithfully living out its mission for almost nine years.

Education Is Liberation
One month ago we were blessed to visit the school—the Sunbeam Day Care Center—and experience the palpable joy of its students. Yet one of our immediate and lasting impressions was that many of the students who were age 5 looked as if they were only 3 years old. Malnutrition was clearly the culprit for their less-than-normal growth charts. But in spite of the obvious damage from childhood hunger they were eager—eager to learn, eager to engage with their energetic teacher, eager to interact with us.

Bess Cruz, the TEC’s project coordinator for community ministry, and church elder “Rocky” Divinagracia graciously briefed us on the school’s impact and also introduced us to the ebullient students. Rocky succinctly stated the church’s bottom-line reason for establishing the school: “Education is the best way to liberate the children from poverty.” That insightful comment showed us that the church’s vision was in perfect alignment with one of the Critical Global Initiatives, “Poverty Alleviation,” of PC(USA) World Mission. In fact, the PC(USA) is now working with our church partners around the world and in the U.S. to reduce poverty by positively impacting the education of 1 million children by 2020.

The Cost of Hope for One Child
This year the Sunbeam Day Care Center has restricted its enrollment to 41 students due to insufficient funding. So, we wondered aloud, “What is the cost for one kindergartner for one year?” Bess Cruz responded that it costs approximately $500 US dollars, an amount that includes teachers’ salaries, books, and school supplies. Would you like to give a gift of hope to a child in the slums of Manila? If so, please send your contribution to Presbyterian World Mission, PO Box 643700, Pittsburgh, PA 15264-3700. Be sure to write “E864200 – Sunbeam Day Care Center” on the memo line.

Sharing in Our Mission
We are deeply thankful for your prayers, monetary gifts, and messages of encouragement. We continue to be in need of additional financial support to fund our mission work, so any gifts sent before the end of December will be a great sign of your solidarity with us. Above all, your prayers for us and our mission partners throughout Southeast Asia are powerful sources of buoyancy and blessing.

In Partnership,

Shelly and Barry

Please read below for an important note from Hunter Farrell:

“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.
When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. (Isaiah 43:1b-2, NRSV)

Dear Friend of World Mission:

Thank you for your prayers and for your financial support of Barry and Shelly Dawson this year, and any previous year. I know from my 15 years as a Presbyterian mission co-worker that your prayerful financial support has meant the world to them.

Even as I thank you, I want to let you know that this is a critical time for churches and individuals to commit themselves to support Barry and Shelly. Our global church partners greatly value their service and you well know how important this ministry is in building connections between the body of Christ in the U.S., Thailand, and Southeast Asia.

We have historically relied on endowment interest and the general offering from churches to sustain the vital work of all of our mission workers. Those sources of funding have greatly diminished, and it is only through the over-and-above gifts of individuals and congregations that we are able to keep Barry and Shelly doing the life-giving work God called them to do. A year ago, in May of 2015, for the first time in recent history, we had to recall some mission workers due to a lack of funding. We communicated the challenge to you and you responded decisively and generously. Through your response, we heard the Spirit remind us, “Fear not!”.

Today, I’m asking you to consider an additional gift for this year, and to increase the gift you may consider for 2017. Sending and support costs include not only salary but also health insurance and retirement contributions, orientation, language training, housing, travel to the country of service, children’s education, emergency evacuation costs, and visa/passport costs.

My heartfelt thanks for your prayers and support of our Presbyterian mission co-workers. In the coming season, we will celebrate God’s sending of the Christ child, the source of the good news we share. May you experience anew the hope, peace, joy, and love that are ours because “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Thank you for saying “yes” to love.

With you in Christ,
Hunter Farrell
Director, World Mission, Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)