Luzon Media Team Member - Tyler

Tyler
Media Team Member for Island of Luzon - Philippines
Age: 20
Student at Mississippi State University
Mission Verse: Jeremiah 17:7-8

I had some help from a friend at Open Door

Then I met a new buddy at New Faith Family

With a Few Pencils...

Tyler – Luzon Media

At Open Door Orphanage, it’s hot, humid, tiresome, and AWESOME!  The kids steal your heart immediately; there’s nothing you can do about it.  Their excitement for anything, generosity, and loving nature draw you in, and before you know it you’re hooked.

The youth at Open Door are a bit more reserved.  Even after being there a few days, we still didn’t feel like we saw them very much or knew them well at all.  The girls were busy throughout the day helping with cooking, laundry, and trips to the market.  The boys helped with church functions and construction of new classrooms for the school.  Their tasks explained why we didn’t see them very much, but even when we did, we realized it would take some creativity to know them better.

The boys immediately opened up to Derek when basketball came into the picture, so they opened up to me by association.  Becca came up with an interesting solution for the girls.  Her passion for teenage girls and her background in psychology helped her build a bridge between the girl youth at Open Door and the team.

Becca:  We wanted to do something special for the girls one night because we hadn’t had much time with them.  We arranged a secret get together in one of the classrooms.  When they arrived, we took out paper, colored pencils, and stickers.  Then the fun began.  We told the girls to write down their favorite things and decorate their “personality pages” any way they wanted to.  It really allowed us to see into their minds to know what they liked, allowed them to have some creative expression, and gave us glimpses of their personalities.  They really enjoyed making their pages, and we loved finally getting the chance to bond with them.

As we worked on our pages, the younger kids started showing up.  Eventually, nearly every child in the orphanage was drawing a page or writing a note for another kid.  They were all gladly sharing the twenty colored pencils we brought – not a likely occurrence in America.  

The kids want to participate

Later that night, we were able to talk with the girls about their pages.  They were beginning to trust us more.  Some of the girls even shared their stories of their lives before Open Door and their testimonies.  It was a beautiful experience to see God claim such a victory through something as simple as colored pencils.

And it all started.......

...with pencils

It's Amazing What a Ball Can Do!

Tyler – Luzon Media

Waking up on the first morning at Open Door, Derek and I were unsure of how we would bond with the children.  They know some English, but mostly speak Tagalog.  Our Tagalog is pathetic.  What do we do?

            We were happily told good morning by the children with “Magandang umaga, Kuya Derek.” or “Kuya Tyler.”  (kuya is a respectful term meaning older brother.)  They followed us to our luggage room where they waited intently for us outside the door.  Derek thought sports might be a good ice-breaker to bond with the children.  Well the ice didn’t break – it shattered!

            The boys’ eyes were the size of saucers as Derek and I pumped up a basketball, and they raced downstairs to the basketball court/play area for a game.  The bonding began with a ball and has developed into something beautiful.  It is a story best told through Derek’s perspective though. 

Derek:  Basketball has been my link to the Filipino children since I got here.  I had no idea how much they liked it.  They often ask who my favorite team is, or who my favorite player is.  They call me Dirk Nowitzski,  only because I’m white – no resemblance. I mean they call Tyler,  John Cena, clearly no resemblance there.  Anyway, I played with them for hours that first day.  They NEVER get tired.  It is now an everyday thing.  Even during school if they see me, they will scream, “Dirk Nowitzski!  We play basketball today?”  They are so happy to play that I can’t tell them no.

Two boys saw "Dirk" through the window during class

The news of my playing has spread to the youth boys too. On Sunday night, the youth from Open Door, as well as the youth boys from another church, played basketball with some locals as a fellowship and ministry time.  They said I was the first Kuya to come to Open Door that liked to play basketball.

Derek playing with local youth and men on Sunday night

Chucky from open Door's church shooting on Sunday night

Romer from Open Door Shoot on Sunday night

One of the boys, Clark, is a beast at basketball.  He is so little, but so good!  He’s fast, like a little ninja!  Every time he asks me to play, I say yes of course, and he runs to me, grabs on to my waist and says, “My team! My team!”  His little smile melts my heart. 

Clark - King of the Court

Clark dominating Tyler

Derek "Dirk" showing the kids how it's done

Ate (big sister) Victoria joining in on the fun

Journey to Open Door

Tyler – Luzon Media           

After five days of orientation, seven for team leaders, we should have felt like our trip was beginning, and the realization that we would be gone for two months should have set in.  It hadn’t.  The Open Door orphanage team and I discussed this thought on our way to the Atlanta airport.  Orientation had been an amazing experience and we had built strong bonds with our team members. It had felt like the most amazing church retreat EVER, and we should be headed back to our houses now. The 150+ Nehemiah Teams members had been shuttled to Atlanta in four different trips – the first at 1:00 a.m.!  Our group was the next to last to leave, and once everyone had arrived at the airport, we did another reality check.  It still didn’t seem like we would be across the world in the next few…well, next LOTS of hours. 

            The flight was the first time on an airplane for some Nehemiah Teams members, but everyone handled it beautifully. Once landing in Los Angeles - the weather really is perfect there by the way - we did another check.  It still didn’t seem real.  We stuffed down some food, called the parentals, and waited for a couple of hours for our flight. 

            We boarded the HUGE plane, took our seats, and waited to arrive in the Philippines.  Then we waited some more.  Waited.  Waited.  You could get up from the computer now, go grab a cup of coffee and come back - we were still waiting.  When we couldn’t sleep anymore we decided to all watch at least one in flight movie together. After five years of flying, we landed, examined our swollen feet, and headed to immigration.  It still didn’t seem real.

We claimed our bags, exchanged our money, and were met by Ate Nanette – the sweetest little Filipino lady walking the planet.  She met us, joked with us, and took us to one of the biggest malls in Asia – you would love her too now, right?  We went to the mall to wait for Victoria – she wouldn’t arrive until 6 p.m.  

Traffic in the Philippines is terrifying.  There are lanes, but hey, why use them?  Tricycles, taxis, and Jeepnies (public transportation) dominate the roads, and drivers pretty much make their own rules.  We got to the mall, I released my death grip on the seat, and we began our Filipino experience.

Naturally as Americans, our first significant feelings of our trip began in a mall.  There are NO white people here.  You could try to find them, but I’ll go ahead and save you the trouble. Therefore…we kind of stood out.  People stared, pointed, and smiled at us a lot (we hope out of happiness and not our ignorance).    The mall was HUGE.  There is not a font type or size I could use to express the size of this place.  We were there for nine hours, and we saw about half of it.

 I made the first stupid mistake.  We saw a Vibram FiveFinger shoe store. I got excited.  I saw the pair I wanted, and saw the price $950 pesos.  I get really excited – that’s less than twenty dollars.  I proudly said “Bag them. I want these!”  The register did something weird.  The price on it was 5950 pesos. Dumb me thought the 5 was a $!  So a very embarrassed me had to tell the worker to put them back and I booked it out of that store!

Later, we picked Victoria up, heard the epic tales of her travels (see below) and ate at McDonalds.  You can get rice with ANYTHING by the way.

Victoria's Journey: 

(Victoria:  I left orientation at 5:30 a.m. to catch my 11:45 flight to Houston.  This began my 36 hour trek to the Philippines.  The sixteen of us who took this alternate route to the Philippines quickly grabbed some Starbucks coffee and a hot dog at Nathan's in Houston, and then boarded the 24 hour flight to Singapore with a 1-hour stop in Moscow - lovely.  Twenty-four hours on a plane is pretty terrible...no other way to put it.  The food has to be some of the worst smelling substances on the planet, and the polite people of the airline thought it would be best to feed it to us every three hours.  By the time we landed in Singapore, I was starving, nauseous, and dirty.  As soon as I stepped off the plane though, my attitude completely changed.  

All of us immediately fell in love with Changi Airport in Singapore.  We spent our 8-hour layover there shopping, walking through five different gardens, having it our way at Burger King, and bathing in the bathroom sink - much to the surprise of a poor Indian cleaning lady.  We felt amazingly cleaner, co it was worth looking silly to the woman.  I think the best perk of the entire airport though was the free internet.  We all got to update our families and our blogs while we waited.

When we finally boarded our flight to Manila, I was still nauseous and tired.  I prayed the entire time we were boarding that I would get to sleep, and God generously answered that prayer.  I was blessed with an entire row of seats to myself, and I slept the entire three hours.  I woke to the sound of the pilot welcoming us to Manila.  After a quick check through customs and immigration, I was reunited with my wonderful team. I can now officially say that I have traveled halfway around the world.)

We stepped off the rental van and into the team’s home for the next two months, Open Door Orphanage.  The kids were waiting outside to meet us.  We tried REALLY hard to match their excitement, but most of us hadn’t really slept in about 2.5 days, so it was hard.  Derek and I met the boys by watching a movie with them.  They don’t have much, but they are so creative and generous with what they do have.  The movie was on an iPod Touch looped through a shoestring that was hanging from the top bunk of one of the beds.   You know in America there would be one kid holding the thing, refusing to give it up, and everyone would have to get at the same angle as that kid if they wanted to see it, or everyone would have their one.  All of the children were crowded around the bed watching.  This was when it hit home that we were not in America anymore and these children will change the way we see everything.

We crashed into bed, and before instantly drifting off to sleep, we prayed that God would use us to love these children and make an impact on them for the kingdom.  We already knew that would have a life-changing impact on us.

Open Door Orphanage Team 2011

Open Door Orphanage

Left to right

Sara, 19, of Blue Mountain College.  Mission verse – 1 Peter 2:9

Becca, 18, of Mississippi College.  Mission verse – 1 Peter 5:10

Team Leader Derek, 21, of Mississippi State University.  
Mission verse – 1 Peter 3:13-22

Victoria, 19, of Central Alabama Community College.  
Mission verse – Romans 1:6