OAK HALL (an organization that sends people for missions- exposure all over the world) sent 16 people from UK on an expedition to the slums in Manila for a week. This exposure has been going on for the last three years, and it is dubbed as A Taste Of Mission, or ATOM. Gareth and Malou Bolton, both veterans in intercultural missions through Operation Mobilisation, led this group. Gareth is British and Malou is Filipina. Letty Domingo, Malou’s mom, who is 76 years old also was part of this team. Our guests who came from Wales, Scotland and England stayed with our missionaries in the depressed areas and wholeheartedly participated in the work of the Lord there.

Perhaps the days on August 16 - 22, 2011, were the most unforgettable and challenging days for all of them—for those days really were a taste of living with the dispossessed and of totally depending on God. Having lived all their lives with all the amenities of modern living around them, they now have learned to live with only the most basic of necessities. They may not have realized it initially, but they were in for a good surprise from God. A couple and their teenage twin children embarked on this journey with much prayer. They were prepared to take whatever it was that the Lord wanted to show and teach them through the ministry of MMP among the poorest of the poor. This whole journey could be God’s invitation for them all to align every atom in their body with the heartbeat of God for the poor.

For most of them the trip was simply an eye-opener, a gentle beckoning of the Lord toward a commitment to love the poor.

God was at work among the poor even before anyone attempted to visit them. So, it is while they tried their hands on nailing pieces of wood together to make benches, or mixing cement, gravel and sand for a house of worship, or feeding the malnourished children, or praying over a sick person, or sleeping on odd beds, or riding a crowded tricycle, or eating strange food, like rice, or speaking without being totally understood by our missionaries, or wiping their tears and perspiration, or simply sighing over the difficult condition, or frustratingly  watching time pass by, or not knowing what is going on, or alarmed by the sight of a cockroach, God was doing marvelous things in their hearts and minds.

For them to be able to sacrifice so much of comfort back home and serve wholeheartedly the poor in Manila must have been a joy for them. But for them to be able to realize that God was with them while they were serving is eternal glory. That can never be taken away from them; material poverty cannot. They were digging, those fellows from the Developed World, spiritual goldmine, right in the midst of poverty in the Developing World. God was investing eternity in their hearts, and the poor Christ was lovingly leading each of them by the hand. One of them enthusiastically said that he was going to raise funds for the children and that he will be coming back next year.

Another wrote to Gareth, “It was an experience we will never forget. We have been talking a lot about the impact it has made on us and really hope to return again. We did a presentation at church on Sunday...and the congregation really enjoyed hearing about the work...we are so grateful for the opportunity to join the work and play even just a small part in all that is happening. It’s amazing how much we have also learnt from the Christians living in the slums. Their faith is immense, even though they have nothing and that really struck us. When we have been blessed so greatly, our faith should be massive. The whole thing from start to finish was so eye opening and just plain incredible. We just loved it and could have done another week...’ Another guest wrote, ‘What an amazing trip we had! How many people get to see what we saw, and actually live with the poor? We are so blessed”.

It was exciting to be in the company of “ATOM guys” as we call them. It didn’t matter so much that we had a degree of language barrier between us (we’re used to hearing American English, but perhaps if they keep coming we might be able to develop British twang and Scottish accent). We in MMP are grateful for them for being such courageous companions to the poor. Friendships have been formed between us. But as Juliet would have said it, “Parting is such sweet sorrow”. What was important was that we’ve met, and we’ve given each other a mirror of the Lord Jesus Christ so that we won’t forget how we, the world, and the poor would look like with him present. Oak Hall did a brilliant job in facilitating their missions- exposure with us, for the name “Oak Hall” augurs well for us all, the words of Isaiah which say, “…They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour (Isaiah 61:3)”.