What if...

What if you had to go to school but couldn't because you didn't have enough money for the bus fare to get there?

What if you had to sell pandesal (Filipino bread) at 4 o'clock each morning so that you could make enough money to attend school and provide for the daily needs of your 8 siblings and parents?

Or what if you were a very pretty young lady already dressed in your school uniform, ready to go to school in the wee hours of the morning when your haggard and busy mother (who is so absorbed in taking care of your 3 younger siblings) hands you a rusty, large, and heavy piece of metal and tells you to go to the junk shop (which is still closed) so that you can sell the junk for the money you need to go to school that morning?

What if you had to sacrifice, endure pain, and even put up with humiliation from your own family just in order to fulfill your dreams?

For the the young people in Cogeo… they don’t need to ask "what if" - for them this is their life.

Dudong attended the weekly Bible Study in Cogeo. He was timid and apprehensive when joining in. Though he is a very kind and industrious person (he often fetched water for his family and other families for a fee, carrying it up the mountain side), we always saw anxiety in him.

When we had the chance to talk to Dudong, we asked him about his studies, his interests, his family, and his personal life. As our conversation went deeper, we learned an awful fact about Dudong that our hearts found difficult to absorb. He told us that when he was a little boy, his stepmother used to put him in chains and only ever fed him bananas. She gave him bananas for his breakfast, lunch and dinner, while in chains.

Dudong told me that he felt like a monkey especially because people were then calling him “unggoy” (Filipino word for monkey). Tired of the harsh treatment and pain, Dudong left. The Lord brought him to Cogeo where he found loving relatives.

We realised that Dudong’s shyness stemmed from this experience. He is fearful of how others look at him and at how others might treat him.

Last summer, Dudong told us he needed to stop schooling so that he could financially support his family. He started doing construction jobs at the early age of 14. Later, someone told us Dudong was in jail for snatching a cellphone.

Pushed by desperation, he had resorted to deplorable means to provide for the needs of his loved ones.

Please pray for the young people in our poor communities right now.

Find a way to get involved. They need help. We can all make a difference.

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