LATEST NEWS

We were driving along the 'main' road to the dump site today, shanty housing lines the sides of the road, communities selling items they have scavenged, setting up stalls selling food and generally surviving.
As we past one row of shanties we saw crowds of people carrying small bundles climbing into trucks and lots of men in blue shirts knocking down the houses, often just a few pieces of board, but homes to these people.
 When we asked the driver what was happening he said the houses were being knocked down by government officials as they needed to widen the road. When I expressed concern for the people he said " they will be shipped somewhere else", and he seemed unconcerned.
This sort of thing is being threatened on the dump site as well, the thousands who live there are after all illegal squatters and have no rights. Just the other day the Livelihood workers could not come in as there was a 'tagging' day. Officials 'tag' people in their shanties and if you are not there at the time they allow someone else to move in.
It ponders the question who was moved out of the house that they now live in. Left us feeling very sad about how people can be treated as disposal assets, out of sight, out of mind.
Some good news this week :

• M, the girl with Dengue fever, is recovering

• We've paid the salaries and the payments to the creditors this week

• The HR issues are slowly being resolved

• Supper at the home of the British Ambassador - all we can say is it was heartwarming to see where our taxes go - made sure we had a second glass of Chateau Lafite and loved the lemon sole (where on earth did they get lemon sole in Manila?)  -- and the oddest thing was the patio air conditioning instead of a patio heater!

We thank the Lord for his continual guidance and you for your prayers.

We have some great work going on at PCF this week:

• British School parent arranging funding and installation of shower blocks

• British School parent painting rainbow murals and furnishing the Rainbow Room (for trauma counselling)

• The Sholing School from Southampton (28 students and 10 teachers) and a volunteer from Playdale Playgrounds painting and decorating classrooms and a library and installing two playgrounds on the dump site - we watched as they removed the ropes at either end and  we saw the children stream over the (thankfully very sturdy) equipment.

• For Viva Films who recorded at PCF before Christmas. Their film was shown on cable tv here in the days leading up to Christmas. When they came they said it was just a job, but when they saw the conditions on the dump site they all left in tears and said they had no idea of it's existence (they are all Filipino). The film co-stars a certain Mr Stan Rothwell.

We thank the Lord for putting PCF on all their hearts.

Love to all, thank you as always for your prayers and support.
Sue and Stan xxx