Tuding, Benguet, Philippines

My experience at Bethesda Children’s Home was one that I don’t think I’ll forget anytime soon. It essentially served as the culmination of all the work we had done here in the Philippines, and I’m incredibly thankful because this particular workshop almost didn’t happen. We were scheduled to leave on a flight back to the states departing from Manila early Wednesday morning, but decided we weren’t quite ready to leave everything behind yet and cancelled our flight at the last minute. Instead, we embarked back up North to Baguio City to join my Lolo and Lola (grandparents) in celebration of their 58th wedding anniversary on Thursday. Upon our arrival, my Tito Marlon rushed to me with noticeable excitement on his face. “I think I have an orphanage for you, a special one too,” he said. This was our second visit to Baguio in the past three weeks, and unfortunately we had spent the better part of the first trip trying to link up with orphanages, only to have our search go unfulfilled…hence why Tito Marlon’s news put such a big smile on my face this time around.

Every place we visit has been through their own share of testing circumstances, some more extreme than others, but all equally worthy of a helping hand. My heart ached for this particular organization because on the Tuesday just days prior to our visit, an electrical fire had destroyed their church and nearly burned their orphanage to the ground. As a result, the children had been relocated to their nearby school as the rebuilding process was just beginning to start. We descended down a steep, winding path, almost reliving the destruction the fire had caused – smoke still bellowing from the torched buildings above. As soon as we walked through the gates opening up to the school, we were greeted by a sea of children – their heads held high and their spirits even higher.

When we arrived, there was another group there, a local branch of the national news network ABS-CBN…but I’ll talk more about them later on. The news crew was still waiting on their cameraman to arrive, so we opted to move forward with our soccer program in his absence. However, we couldn’t get started without a proper greeting from the kids. In perhaps one of the most uplifting moments of the entire trip, I closed my eyes as my ears were met with the sound of nearly a hundred kids singing in unison. First, there was a duet between two of the younger girls. Then, the whole group loudly joined in on two more pieces. I looked to my left, noticing that my mom was struggling to hide her emotion. It wasn’t just because of how beautiful the kids’ voices were, but rather because of the lyrics of the songs they chose to share with us that really struck a chord. I’ll never forget one of the lines from the song the two girls sang, which read as “Would you dare, would you dare to believe, that you still have a reason to see. Because the pain that you’ve been feeling, can’t compare to the joy that’s coming”. The refrains of the next two group songs were then “we are the light of the world” and “thank you Lord”. I mean, we’re talking about kids who had just experienced a major tragedy in their life. Kids who barely had anything to begin with, just to yet again have everything taken away from them. And to hear those same kids, just days after, singing songs with such lyrical depth and meaning like that…well, I couldn’t help but get a little emotional too. But despite a brief moment of weakness, I soon snapped myself out of it, knowing that the kids looked up to me as a role model and I didn’t want to be seen bawling my eyes out in their presence.

Songs
Girls playing
Using hands
First point of contact between soccer and them first meaningful exposure to the sport
Abs-CBN