Stories from ABM
The Youth Group from Fairview Parish teach the kids at the Church of the Transfiguration. For many of the kids this is the only formal education they receive. Photo ABM
The Anglican Church is criticised for all sorts of things says Stephen Daughtry, Communications Officer for ABM, but there is some wonderful work being done.
ABM's recently produced DVDs are proof of some of the wonderful things that our church is doing through ABM in various parts of the world: proclaiming the gospel, helping with HIV/Aids education, health projects, raising the status of women in some cultures and providing clean safe water for people.
Stephen Daughtry said, 'Mission today is about enabling people to make changes in their life that will allow them to embrace what it means to be fully human. It's about recognising their integrity as children of God and assisting them to grasp God's promise of abundant life. It's no longer the business of us 'fixing' the lives of people who are needy.
'Today mission is about partnership and respect - and it works. I wish every Anglican could watch these short films. I'm sure that if people knew what amazing work they are enabling, they would be incredibly proud to be Anglicans.'
One of the stories
On the edge of the Montalban Landfill, on the outskirts of Manila, sits the Church of the Transfiguration-the home of the Rubbish Dump Kids. These kids, with their families, struggle to make a living by scavenging on the dumpsite for plastic and metal to recycle.
Many of them moved from the old 'Smoky Mountain' site in metro Manila when the government bowed to international pressure and moved the dump-and the depredation of its community-far from the public view.
The Church of the Transfiguration is an Anglican mission church established by the Episcopal Church in the Philippines to care for the people who have to make a living in this awful environment. It is an offshoot of Fairview parish, also a poor community, whose priest, Father Rex Reyes, has recently been elected president of the National Council of Churches of the Philippines.
His parish is committed to outreach to the poorest of the poor and the young people of Fairview have been brought up to work for justice and hope. Part of that upbringing has involved leadership training resourced by the Anglican Board of Mission(ABM).
It's no surprise then to discover that the young people of Fairview are the ones making a difference in the lives of the forgotten children who scrounge a living from the rubbish dump. Each week the youth from Fairview parish travel by jeepneys, tricycle and dump truck to meet with, teach and feed these kids the world has forgotten.