Home Outreach Leaders Articles for Outreach & Missions Sharing a House With 29 People (and Other Lessons From the Philippines)

Sharing a House With 29 People (and Other Lessons From the Philippines)

I currently live in a small, pink, three-bedroom house with 29 women and children. It’s crowded, I sleep on the living room floor, and I usually get woken up at 6 a.m. with the giggles and talking of women, followed by a 1-year-old boy who likes to run around screaming with my belongings in his hands.

As I begin to open my eyes in the wee hours of the morning, the women who were talking and giggling in the corner yell “Atte Meghan” or “Miss World” (because it so happens that Miss World and I happen to share the same name) and cover me with hugs and kisses. And even though I am exhausted, I can’t help but giggle along with them.

This is my life and I wouldn’t change a thing, because each one of these women I live with represent a promise—God’s promise to go after that one lost sheep.

It’s overwhelming when you look at the world as a whole. It seems that all we hear about in the news these days is shootings, lies and greed. And after traveling the world, I’ve seen more pain than I can even begin to describe.

I’ve talked with women who have been beaten within an inch of their lives, raped and left for dead. I’ve heard stories of parents selling children and children robbing parents. I’ve seen sickness and death, lies and deceit, but there is something else I’ve noticed across the board.

Love.

Love has relentlessly pursued each and every one of these stories. I’ve found love in the bars and in the brothels. People have found God in the darkest places, or maybe it is that God found them.

You see, I am learning something about God and about his promises, and that is that he always keeps them.

So maybe when we have seen over 20 women (and counting) come out of the bars, I shouldn’t really be surprised. God promised he would go after the lost sheep, and he has been using us to do it. And now I have so many new friends that literally the only space for me is on the floor.

Each one of these women has a story of how they left their old life and began a new one, but one thing remains the same. Jesus.

We are bursting at the seams here at Wipe Every Tear, and our family is gaining people of all ages: infants, children and women. And just to show how faithful He is, God provided us with another house, just a few hundred feet from the other two houses.

So we celebrated with cake, laughter and some new dance moves. And as laughter filled the air, I looked around and was reminded that even though I might feel lost and overwhelmed at times, my God never is. He always sweeps in and provides at just the right time.

And our stories happen to be proof of that.