The Typhoon is coming

As you may have seen, another Typhoon is headed our way. So this is the last update until our power returns. It has been an eventful week as Shawn is nursing wounds from a fall on the motorcycle, Marie fought off a 24 hour bug with fever and vomit and Ellie got another tooth!! On top of that we were able to help with the construction of a new church for the Manyan tribe. Cool story, we'll share more about it soon.
We are excited to get home and continue on this justice adventure! There is so much more that we want to do...ok losing electrisity...bye bye

Ellie is on the move!

Ellie has taken off. She has a new tooth (lower left) and more on the way! She is on all fours and moving forward. She is becoming much more opinionated about where she wants to be and what she wants to be doing!
Marie is very much 2 and exploring life in every area. It truly is a non-stop question of "who is in charge?"...keeps me on my toes! She is so good with Ellie and loves to sing.

Hello, my friends

It's rockin' good to be back with people we know here in Puerto Galera (on the island of Mindoro) and continue to work on Tagalog, chilling with our neighbors, and helping those doing healing in the tribes around. It's heart wrenching to look at the rest of our time here and know that we truly only have a few weeks left to love and be loved in this season in the Philippines. As Jenna mentioned, we went to two tribes on Sunday. Pastor Toto (whose real name is something like Alfena) grew up in one of the tribes and has begun an awesome church there. He would like to establish contact with some of those who have not yet heard much of Jesus. We are considering helping him and the other Philippinas do a medical outreach in the area. However, we really covet your prayers on this. It's not as simple as it seems. The needs of the people are massive...malnutrition, despair, lack of opportunity, lots of infection...doing a medical clinic that even just includes white people could enforce their sense of inferiority and hopelessness by only being a drop of balm on a gapping wound...a reminder of what they do not have access to tomorrow. So, we are attempting to train the church leaders to do what we do...differentiate serious illness from basic and become masters of prevention and education (which is by far the most important aspect of health for the whole person...behavior change...real connection with the healing God and the resources He has given us). Instead of doing a medical clinic, we want to do house visits/family check-ups and prayer in which the Philippinas play the major role; and then doing a few funny, educational skits for the whole villiage that includes Philippinos as actors. Then, we want to leave as many resources (books, medications, prayer, relationship) as possible with the church leaders. We are not sure if this is the right aproach or even a good one...but this is what we came here to be...healers part of a healing community. May God cover and infuse every interaction with heaps of grace and tastes of true transformation; and may the effects of our "Americaness" shrivel to nothing.

The return to urgency...

Upon our return to Puerto Galera we could feel a shift in the air. Not only had the tempature dropped a good 10 degrees (yes, it's now more like 85 instead of 95!)but the official tourist time is kicking in, so new businesses have sprouted along the streets, prices have increased and the volume of people have increased. We also learned that one of the prostitutes from the red light district we had been praying through had been brutally murdered by a group of tourists. It was so sobering to think that it might have been one of the young dancers that we visited with just a few weeks ago. I found a new sense of urgency in reaching out to these women. We will be praying there again tonight and we invite you to join us!

Yesterday Shawn and I trekked up into the tribes with Marie and Ellie and assisted with prenatal visits and did some medical checkups. I love being able to do breastfeeding classes and chatting with the new moms. It's amazing how much formula is pushed here. It might require 1/2 of the families monthly income to buy a jar of formula, so they end up watering it down, or worse, they give the baby sugar water. This of course leads to malnurishment. I am told that it is very powerful for them to see a "white woman" breastfeeding as most assume all rich foreigners give formula. Yesterday I had one woman say "I thought all Americans gave formula?" I was happy to shatter that rumor and maybe help these moms give their kids a little more nourishment!!

We are so happy to be back in Puerto and not travel for a few weeks. Ellie has a new hamock bed and we are trying to teach her to sleep through the night. Marie is the sweetest little girl and loving everything but the spiders! Both girls are well and I am so grateful for all your continued prayers for their health! Shawn's eye is much better and he is back to wearing contacts:)

On the road again

This am we board the "Super Ferry" to head back to Manila. We will slowly make our way back to Mindoro, Puerto Galera. We'll be off line for a few days!

Purses for sale

Many of you have asked about purchasing a purse from the Arms of Love children. I am posting some pictures so you can get an idea of what they look like. These are designed and made by the kids and 1/2 of the profits go directly into their personal bank accounts for when the leave AoL. The other 1/2 goes to support Arms of Loves opperating costs.Again, the cost is $30. I am leaving here on Saturday, so you will need to email me before then if you want me to bring one home for you. (You can send your check to Jenny Strout at 26 Farwell St. Lewiston, ME 04240 and I will pay Arms of Love on this end).
I am so delighted to support this small business!

New photos

Happy Birthday Mom Strout!!

CHeck out some new photos on our photo link...

Shawn went to the hospital today to check out his eye. He is still in a lot of pain, but now has the antibiotics and stuff to hopefully make it better. Please keep praying for him!

Another day, another blog

It is so hard to hear the life that these kids had before coming to this wonderful place. You look at a sweet, shy girl playing badminton and here "we found her in jail". You hug a little munchkin with vibrant eyes and a contageous smile and here of the way she was abandoned. Many of the kids here at Arms of love come from big families. I love that there is a place that all 8 or 6 siblings can be together!

Spent yesterday in the "Chocolate Hills" in Bohol. Beautiful, but slightly disappointing to Marie who thought she was going to have "a little taste" as she likes to say! It was a day outing with the Arms of Love staff. As you can imagine, there days out are few and far between! We'll poast some photos later today.

Ellie and Rie are both well. Shawn needs your prayers as he has developed some sort of infection in his eye and it is really painful.
Last night we lead a party for the kids. They all painted their faces and we made a huge thing of popcorn. Felipe lead worship. We just love worshiping with these kids. Even the littlest ones belt it out as they close their eyes and smile!

Ellie update

Ellie slept 6 hours straight last night!! Thank you so much to all who have been praying for her. Her fever is coming down...she never did stop smiling!!
Shawn preached in church yesterday and did an awesome job. Many of the teenagers really responded to his challenge of letting God fight for them! He called it "fighting naked" and spoke out of 1 Samuel 13 & 14 about Jonathan and his armor bearer...good stuff!
We continue to invest in the staff and kids here. Many of their stories are overwhelming but you would never guess it by watching them sing and play! Worship music plays non-stop. Marie was walking around yesterday singing "alltogether lovely, alltogether worthy, alltogether wonderful to meeeee" Precious!

Children's Month in Bohol

Tonight we will eat the pig they have been roasting and the lamb that was killed. The kids have prepared special music and the staff is making Boka salad, which is the inside of a young coconut, mixed with fruit, mayonaise and sweetened condensed milk...I am not totally sure how my taste buds feel about it yet. Shawn and I had the honor of the first sample. I was grateful for his sweet tooth!
This month is "Children's Month" here and tonight is a community celebration. The mayor stopped in yesterday in honor of the preparations. We have made 2 masive chocolate cakes (quite an American touch :)) and will also join in their musical presentation! It is a fun time here!
This morning we did a health teaching with all the kids on hygene. Shawn and Felipe dressed up as "Captain Nemo" and kept the kids laughing as they learned. The most valuable lessons here can be washing your hands or remembering to wear your shoes outside lest the hookworms get you!
I was able to teach many of the teenagers about inventory and how to track your costs and develope a marketing strategy:) It was a blast. I think they had the most fun posing as models with their purses and arranging them just so! These kids are so full of life and love! (I have posted my photo as an example as I don't have permission to post their photos yet.)
Last night our team ran the "Friday night surprise" complete with face painting, chalk drawings, games, music and prizes. I am delighted that we have another week to really invest in the relationships here.
Ellie has been running a fever for 2 days now, so I would ask you to pray for her. They have been low grade with a running nose. It may be teething as she just hit 6 months old, but around here we watch extra carefully!

What an option!

Imagine the little 14 year old that approaches me as I am making some cereal for Ellie..."Atte (their word for sister) You give her breast milk?" "Yes, and a little cereal at night." "Oh, my mother never give me breast milk. She threw me away when I was born and my aunt rescued me." Stop here. "What?" It's one thing to see on paper or to hear from the social worker "her mom threw her away" or "we found her in a garbage can" but it was quite another to hear this little girl stating it from her own mouth in such a matter a fact sort of way. I stutted about how glad I was that her aunt was there to rescue her and how God must really love her a lot to give her such a wonderful Christian family to raise her here at Arms of Love...but inside I am screaming. "Lord Jesus! Thank you for sending that aunt!"and "Oh my gosh please send someone to rescue the other children!"
People here have such a resiliant spirit. They talk about trama as if we were discussing their favorite color. I think the most powerful thing has been the worship and the prayer with their staff! These people serve the children who are rescued from severe situations day in and day out! We have been praying for our team to be a breath of fresh air for them. I am so blessed by the staff here. Many of them come up to us and ask for prayer, many of them ask us to pray for patients and for trust. Would you join us in these requests?
Shawn has been leading the health teachings for the staff. We are leaving them with a copy of "Where there is no doctor" and teaching them how to use it. It is so fun to see them discover how to better help these little ones. I have also had the opportunity to help the staff further research and develop a small microbusiness that they are looking to start with some sweet coconut purses. The children build them during their "craft hour" in the summer break and then, if they sell, the child has 1/2 of the profits go into their personal account for when they leave the home. Brilliant!! We are looking into ways to sell them in various markets.
Marie and Ellie are doing very well here. Marie is delighted to have so many friends to play with and so many books to read :)

Grateful

Shawn and I spent our 5th wedding anniversary on a boat to Bohol in a cabin with 5 other single team members, very romantic. I keep telling myself we will celebrate when we get back.:)
Marie is now back to normal and barely even has a runny nose. She is currently sleeping at our new location of Arms of Love children home in Bohol!!!Click here. We attended the Vineyard here this morning and really enjoyed it. So great to worship to some familiar tunes! Marie did great in Sunday School and already latched on to a little 4 year old orphan girl named Jazel. They were hugging and holding hands and sharing the Strawberry shortcake doll back and forth! So cute!!
Shawn and I met with the directors here this morning and are very excited as we have a full week of ministry and health teachings. Much of our time will be invested in the staff as well as the kids. Every morning we'll be meeting with them for worship, Bible teaching as well as health teachings. I am praying that it will be a refreshing time for them!
Last Saturday we got to spend some time with Justice For Children International'sClick here traing program for kids rescued from the brothels. It was very good to see what they are doing. There are many students from our program considering that field as a full time life work, so we were happy to conect the programs and we look forward to future interaction with them too. In fact, this March I will be speaking with one of their staff members, Kathy, at the Children at Risk conference at the Anaheim Vineyard. God is so moving in these areas of injustice. MORE LORDclick here
We continue to pray and ask for Jesus to meet these people right where they are. I read something in Chasing Daylight by Erwin McManus this week that encouraged me in this area.."We can touch only those within our reach and can change only the world in which we live, but we can do that often. It requires us to move from the isolation of our invisibility to the dangers of visibility if we are going to make the invisible visible.That's the amazing thing about seizing devine moments. We choose to no longer be invisible, to take the risk of letting others see us, and so when we become visible, the invisible presence of God becomes visible."
Some days I long for a "normal life" and I wonder what we are doing with our 6 month old on a dirty boat heading to a childrens home in the Philippines. It is those days that I thank God for you all, your love and your prayers. I thank God for Janice Smith who looked me straight in the eyes that day and said "Jenna, Go! Do it or else you won't" and for Lora Glenn, who modeled to me what it is to really trust God with her beautiful blue eyed blonde baby in the ghetos of Worcester, I thank God for my college buddy Lindsey who told me to dream a dream so big that unless God interviened it would surely fail. I thank God for every little face that is smiled at. Last night we read in Proverbs 15:30 that "a cheerful look brings joy to the heart..." I think of all the prostitutes in Mindoro, and the little ones here and I am grateful that I do get to be here with my 6 month old. Maybe in a small way we are bringing joy and some hope to "those within our reach".
With love,
Jenna

Grease

A lot has happened while the internet has been down...God is peeling the layers of nastiness blinding us to what He is doing here: brilliant smiles burn through confusion...people who drop what they're doing and snag our daughters no matter what time of the day or night just to hug on and love them lavishly...with the prostitutes who cling to Ellie like she's their own...in the darkenss, injustice, and oppression of the dance floors...seeing malnourished children have a meal...the doctor calling us for our daughter, struggling with fever (she's now much better)...love threatening to make us all truly human...God's sons and daughters...again. God has connected us with Pastor Toto (the boy on the couch is his son, Joshua) who's working on micro-businesses for the poor and actively breaking down social norms to display God's love better. Pretty cool stuff...we land with little and are learning a lot from God's vision here. The language is definitely a barrier. Pray the faces and names will continue to burn into our hearts. May God's Kingdom continue to be made real here!

Red Light District

It's hard to describe the mixture of anger and sadness and panic and greif that I felt last night walking through the red light district of Sabong. We've been doing prayer walks there every Monday but last night was more about getting to know some of the people there. The options these women face are apauling.

We met Joy and Christine. Joy is a waitress in a local turist spot and is often asked to perform sexual favors for clients. It's just part of the job. Christine is 8 months pregnant with her first kid, though she looked more like I looked at 3 months along. She will be coming to our midwives prenatal class next week.
Ellie truly lived up to her name "light source of Joy" last night as we entered one of the disco's. We wanted to talk with the dancers there. (Everyone on the prayer walk is a girl by the way). When I walked in carrying Ellie in the front pack, I was surrounded. These girls who were painted and dressed as whores all of a sudden removed their "sexy" masks and became women. They began to tell me about their children. Most of the women we met were single (most kids were fathered by tourists). Over and over I heard, my children are in Manila, their father is in America (or Germany or Australia). Oh, your daughter is so beautiful and "mataba" which means fat. :) Maybe you are saying "oh my gosh, I can't believe Jenna took Ellie into such a place!" but the truth is, when I was pregnant with Ellie and praying about whether I should bring my 2 girls to the Philippines I had a picture of me carrying her into such places and her being used by God as a universal symbol of light and motherhood. She beams a smile so big and all the women knew I was there to love them. We would talk about breastfeeding and motherhood and they would share their journey and how much they miss their kids.
Last night was also the first time I came face to face with a girl who was dressed in full prostitute outfit but when you looked in her eyes you knew there was no way she was over 13. This is where the rage and fustration came in. I just prayed my guts out, tried to smile and love on them (again Ellie broke the language barrier!) Where are their moms? How will we tell them how precious they are? My heart is so broken, and yet so grateful to know them now and to be able to build relationship with them!
One of the prayer walk teams got to chat with one of the disco owners last night and he invited us to come and do medical checks and prenatals with the dancers of his club. Please be praying as we feel like this is a God connection and we are so eager to love on these women who are so use to just being used.

Progression and Purpose

God is moving here! We have had an awesome time getting to know the rockin’ pastors and people of God loving here. I (Shawn) hiked with the medic team to two Manyan villages (Sipit and Ambang) Tuesday-Thursday. Marching through the massive mud and up steep mountains for 3.5 hours carrying packs rocked as we learned, sang songs, and joked about life. It was a blast to see God using the school teachers of the village truly serving and loving on the people there. Sipit is a tribe of coconut farmers without an outhouse, a well (they do have a good natural spring and gorgeous river which they let their pigs and caribou poop in), or passable road for their goods. Yet, hope and thankfulness is written all over their faces and spirits. Not having a grid for a loving God, it was obvious from even our extremely short visit that they long for real prayer and real connection. Sipit is a village rife with injustice and ripe for God’s transforming love. Disease runs basically unchecked (the health clinic is that 3.5 hour hike away and even if they got there the likelihood of them having the money to pay for treatment is extremely low). With the little money they earn from selling their coconuts, they buy tins roofs for their bamboo Nipa huts (and sometimes beer and materials to improve their dirt basketball court-the national pastime of the Philippines).
Jenna and the girls did great in my absence, though Marie did get locked in her room one night. Jenna had about 17 Filipinos trying to help her get it unlocked and eventually they just broke the handle off the door. Jenna stood at the window singing to her to minimize the trauma. That same night she fell off the bed onto the tile floor, Jenna said the whole night just prompted her to step up the prayer for the girls a little more!
Jenna is doing well and continues to meet more Filipino moms. Yesterday her heart broke as she got to know a young lady on the beach. This 25 year old mother of 2 was about to marry an American she met over the internet. It was clear that she was afraid and desperate and felt like she had no options. Jenna is talking a lot with the other missionaries here on what sort of micro-businesses might help these woman have other options.
Marie is getting over her fear of the ocean and now even likes to go “a little deeper” as long as I am holding her tight. We figured out that the fear originated from our boat ride to the island when the waves were capping over the sides. But, building sand castles and letting waves “tickle our toes” is helping her to relax a bit more! Yesterday she made a little Filipino friend who taught her how to build sand whales. When I said, “Marie, say ‘thank you’” She said “Salamat Po”, which was the first time she spoke Tagalog without being prompted! Too cute.
Ellie is teething and the drool doesn’t stop. She was running a fever a few nights ago but it proved to be nothing to worry about. Thank you so much for praying for our girls!

Paradox

Waking up to the calls of roosters, tuas (large lizards), my daughters, and the lapping of waves against the seashore...amazing sunsets shimmerings across the open sea...tons of fun neightbors waiting to chat. The Philippines remains a fantastic, lovely place. Yet the social situation is a eclectic mix of paradoxes: great neighbors who would share their last meal and amazingly dishonest trici drivers...gorgeous landscapes hidding illegal logging that causes and immense amount of unnecessary suffering...fantastic sunsets blindingly covering the desperation of the hundreds of prostitutes in this tiny town and the brokeness of the baclas (male cross dressers/prostitutes) running the beach bars.

Typhoon updates

I don't have a lot of time on the computer right now. We are experiencing power for the first time in about 6 days, which means everyone is in line to do email and such. Just so you all know, the Philippine experienced a catagory 3 typhoon this past week. It was so crazy to see masive billbords in Manila fallen onto buses, squatter villages and such. There were over 100 deaths and more injuries.
We are now on Puerto Galera, which at first glance is a beautiful island but once you look a little deeper it is a very dark place. On the boat ride over we were shocked with the amount of older white men with young Philippino prostitutes. My first reaction was anger toward those men, and then I started praying for them and my heart just broke for them. What kind of sadness must you live in to resort to such measures for affection? Come Jesus!
Shawn is doing rounds in the clinics here as well as home visits. I will be leading a prayer walk through the red light district tonight.
I will write more later. Please continue to pray for our team. We had our first experience with death this week as one of the medics helped a drouning victim. Pray for them as the process through this.
Marie and Ellie are very well. We are currently living with Ian and Rose Penwell, who have a 3 year old girl as well. So, Marie has a buddy!

The big move

Thank you so much for praying for us and our new friends. This weekend we had the tremendous priveledge of bringing a birthday cake to a little boy named Art's 2nd birthday. He lives in Welfareville with his parents and 1 month old brother in an area about as big as a twin size matress. (same family as the previous blog). What a joy to celebrate with them and see his smiles! The family also attended church for the first time on Sunday and said that they really enjoyed it! Please pray for their little son "Dos" who has a really bad crackle in his chest and is going on his 2nd week of sickness.

We leave today for Puerta Garela, where the Mercy In Action head quarters will be from now on. We helped pack up the clinic yesterday and last night we stayed with some wonderful news friends who are here with their 3 kids. It's been so fun to see who God is connecting our hearts with! They are teaching us about a tree that has all the nutrients of a pre-natal vitamin! The father was in hordiculture before becoming a missionary, so he and Shawn has some fun talking bonsai and such...

Marie was a little upset to be uprooted again and kept asking for "my other house" (what that means is anyones guess at this point) so I am excited to have them in one place for at least a few weeks! It looks like the girls and might do a little less traveling than we originally thoughts, but keep that in your prayers as we are making a lot of those decisions right now.
We are not sure about internet access for the next few days but will update asap.

Baby home and Welfareville

Shawn and I spent Tuesday in Antipolo at a baby home.The baby home has 13 babies from 2 months to 2 years and the Children In Crisis students will be taking 8 hour shifts during the weekdays to help take care of them. It was heartbreaking to hear the various stories of these little babies. One was found in the garbage at a mall in Manila, he is now over a year and doing well. Others were left by parents who knew they could not afford to feed them. We will spend our time praying over them and giving all the love that is possible. I personally will not be pulling the long shifts with them, since I have 2 of my own and they won't let the toddlers be with the little one, but I'll get in as much as possible.

We also did a prayer walk through one of the main slums here, Welfareville. It was crazy to see all the men standing around. Unemployment is a serious problem. I got to pray with one young mom who was really worried about finding a job to feed her two little boys. She said she was willing to do anything, even move to another country away from her boys if she could find work. She explained that she was an orphan and so she didn't have family around her to help her. I can't imagine what it would feel like to feel like you have so few options in life. My heart broke for her. I take comfort in knowing that Jesus knows her better than anyone as is working on her behalf. Please pray for her to find a job here in Manila so she can stay with her kids!

We are well. We chopped off Marie's curls yesterday due to heat rash. She looks super cute! There are new pictures to view...click on Stepp Photos

Institute for Foundational Learning

We spent this weekend at a wonderful orphange called IFL in which the kids are really cared for in wonderful ways. The orphanage is pretty much self-sufficient, growing it's own produce, farming fish, chickens, pigs, goats and more. It was a wonderful place where the worship music never stopped, the laugher was contageious and every corner of earth was alive. Herbs, veggies, fruits, flowers, bananas and such covered every corner.
Shawn preached at the Saturday youth service. It was a powerful time of worship and prayer. IFL is definately raising up passionate lovers of Jesus and fully encouraging and empowering their youth to be radical followers and leaders. I was challenged and encouraged.
Marie really bonded with this little boy named Marlo. He was so precious. They played finger puppets for hours and sang together and danced. Marlo came from a broken home and had been at IFL for 6 years after his mother left the family of 6. He and his brothers and sisters are being cared for at IFL. We were so taken with him and our hearts broke as he cried when he had to say goodbye to Marie.

I was also taken with a precious staff member named Sheila. She was a passionate, fiesty lady who had been serving the kids for 6 years. She pretty much ran the place and was just so gentle and encouraging to everyone. She had recently adopted a little girl who was very sick with TB and more. The coolest part of the story is that the Mercy in Action that was here last year had encountered that same little orphan girl while visiting a hospital in another city. One of the medics was really taken with this little girl and spend the last year praying that God would intervene for her. He was blown away when we got to IFL and he found the same precious little girl, still very fragile but now in the caring arms of such a compassionate Philipino mama!!
Our team also attended the Sunday morning outreach that IFL was doing for their community. It was awesome to worship in Tagalog!

This was our first encounter with the culture here. I love the sense of humor. These people love to laugh and have a good time. It reminded me of Chile as they absolutely love making fun of each other! We were not so sure at first, but as time went on and they just kept laughing and mocking us it became really funny. :)One little boys looked at Ellie and said "O, She very fat like her moma!" I smiled. Then he looked at Marie and said "She more like her daddy." Gotta love the honesty!! :)
Personal space does not exist in this culture, especially when you are holding a white bald baby with blue eyes! I think I went throug and entire bottle of hand sanitizer in a day! No matter where I go with Ellie I here "Magdala" which means "beautiful".