The Adventures of Team Mox: Feeding Hungry Kids

Saturday morning, Jason and I scrambled into a jeepney to meet up with two other ACTION missionaries. We were headed to Quezon City to do a feeding.

ACTION Ministries partners with local churches in reaching the community for Jesus' namesake. This particular church reaches out to the squatter communities located along the river.

"Squatter" is a term used to describe a residence that is built on someone else's

land, such as government property, vacant lots, or in this case, along a river.

Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines

We arrived at the city plaza, where some fifty children were already gathered. The church does feedings twice a week, along with follow up and Sunday morning activities.

A typical feeding starts out in prayer. We play games, dance around, and sing songs of praise and worship. All the kids knew the moves; we had to follow them!

Usually the meal consists of rice and vegetables, but on the menu today was a special treat...

Hamburgers!!

Hamburgers--for squatter kids-- is a very special treat. McDonald's or Jollibee (a Filipino fast-food chain) is rare for most of these children, and to patronize one inside the restaurant area... whoa. A huge deal.

So when these kids saw Jason unload some 60 cheeseburgers, their eyes got wide.

We noticed a handful of children get suddenly serious when handed their burgers. Instead of eating them, they closed the lids of the boxes, or quietly nibbled at the bun or around the edges. When I asked Kuya Jeff about this behavior, he explained that a lot of kids will bring food back to their family. Sometimes they want to share the meal with siblings; other times their parents instruct them to bring the food home.