A moving story – Wes Bell’s trip to Manila in the Philippines. Wes is one of the young men who grew up in this church, and then trained in Christian youth ministry. He had the opportunity to go with Trinity College Bristol to visit the Kanlungan project in Manila working with street children (Wes’s wife Becca is training for full time ministry at Trinity).
On Sunday 20th May he came to tell us about it. Dedicated Christians have been working for 22 years building up their work just from on the street (which they still do), from running day centres, to live-in houses for young boys and girls. They now have their own farm, and recently opened their own café selling their own produce as well. The older young people now work at these places too. You can see more about how it all happens on the web-site of their UK support organization www.streetlight-trust.org.uk.
2 things about what we saw from Wes – 1st, just the long term commitment and dedication of Christian workers there in the Philippines (we saw pictures of mini villages built on stilts over a dirty river underneath a road bridge), 2nd how inspiring it was to see how Wes has got stuck into what he does, and become what he is. He is a father of 3 now, and couldn’t get pictures of his own children out of his mind while he was with the street children – Wes’s youngest was 12 weeks when he went! Thanks Wes for coming! (see pictures above on previous page)