Having first arrived as a volunteer, I was the youngest and least religious person of the group, I remember being intimidated and unsure of my own footing within the community. However, having endeavored to spend the next 3 weeks in the ICPE Mission home in Manila, I found that my experience here would not be confined to continual prayer sessions and household chores (as I first initially assumed). The ensuing days were compiled of different experiences, from running around with the kids in Montalban to teaching English in a barren classroom with nothing but a few chairs, I found an abundance of wealth and fulfillment every step of the way; a feeling new and revitalizing to me. One of the key elements which satiated my constant hunger for new experiences, was the community. One of the people I first opened myself up to within the community explained to me the beauty of God’s blessing in allowing us to share in a part of some one else’s journey in life.
Within my first week here alone, I had been so warmly invited into the journeys of so many of the lives of the children in Montalban. It was possibly the most humbling and gratifying experiences of my entire life. However, my adventures did not end simply after leaving Montalban, instead, they continued within the home. Staying in a house with 14 other people who are all so different in nature has taught me so much about myself and inspired me in a multitude of ways to want to change my life for the better. Never imposing, but always approachable, I found a second home here within the community in my first 5 days which offered me a warmth and love I had never discovered before.
Perhaps the most memorable experience within the house was my first ever Prayer and Worship Session. I had never been “touched” by God up till this point and I never understood what people meant when they say that God had “touched” their lives. On the session itself, one line came ringing out to me; “God is a repairer” and we talked about opening up our lives to him to be repaired and at that moment a flood of tears and torrents of emotion just hit me. I had suddenly come alive again, after 5 years of not really identifying with my own emotion, I was now confronted by it and I could no longer escape. However these tears, were not of sadness, but of relief, of hope, of finally coming home. Home to Christ.
Name: Marlene Ditzig
Age: 18
Alumni of Class 2009 United World College of South East Asia
Soon to be student at Bard College, Annanndale Hudson, New York
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