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This weekend before easter the ministry ran a retreat weekend for the participants in a program that walks with those who have experienced loss. It was held on a "farm" that belongs to a close friend of the ministry. The beautiful property was set outside Manila and out of the earshot of vehicles or city noises.
Lorrie told me that it would be food for my soul being there on the property, what with my farm roots and all. I did not know how right she was until I got there. It held more associations with "home" for me than anywhere else I'd been in the Philippines. I don't know that I'd call it a farm as much as a country estate turned retreat centre, but whatever the case, it hit the spot. Its welcome spirit and open spaces reminded me of those places in Canada where i feel the strongest sense of belonging and of being home.

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face...

I can only guess what feelings this place conjured for the families in the program. All of them live within the jaws of Manila. Squatter communities at best. Its safe to say that for them, staying at a place like the farm would not have been a common occurence.
On the way back from the weekend we dropped off a mother and her daughter that were two of the program participants. While the other families, at least, had somewhere to go back to, this family unit works and lives on the streets. We dropped them off on the street. We dropped them off at their work. We dropped them off at their home. That made this goodbye harder than most.

But there is hope for them. We see it as a light cutting the edge of a thundercloud. We pray that it finds its way to victory. We keep looking up for the moment the sky clears.

I, for one, believe that there is more to "home" than where you spend the night. Even if we're not quite sure what it looks like yet.

...Now I know in part; then I shall know fully" (ESV)