Earlier this year, Alex, Tamar and I travelled to the Philippines as part of the 2019 Philippines Missions Team and we were given the opportunity to experience the different culture and interact with a number of different people.
Although there were so many great experiences and learning opportunities throughout our time in the Philippines, our visit to a small community called Payatas truly opened our eyes to the hardships of the people but also the amazing hope they carried.
Previously being used as a dumping yard, the Payatas community is surrounded by mountains of rubbish, which was a source of income for the local residents as they would sell bits of scrap metal and also cook and sell the leftover food in the rubbish piles. However, following a recent collapse of the rubbish mountains and the deaths of countless people, the dumping yard was closed and the income of the local people disappeared overnight.
In spite of this, when we visited the community, they displayed hope and smiles as the residents with the help of local social workers began using newspaper and other materials from the rubbish piles to craft amazing items such as roses and picture frames.
We were touched and inspired by their resilience and hopefulness and are wanting to celebrate and support the people of this community by importing the roses crafted by the Payatas residents and selling them at our upcoming school musical, A Beauty and the Beast. It will be an invaluable opportunity for us as a Heathdale community to get involved and directly support the people of Payatas and we want encourage all of you to purchase a Payatas rose at the musical.
The musical is on July 26th & 27th. Don't miss out on tickets, which are available from: http://www.wyncc.com.au/whats_on/beauty_and_the_beast.