Miracle in Montalban

Just a wee note about our children's ministry. It has been great to be part of the team here in the Philippines working with children in Montalban. Week by week I am slowly learning names and getting to know some of children. It's hard because they don't really speak English and I don't speak Tagalog (although I am learning).
Working with the community means joining in their ups and downs. A few weeks ago a 3 year old boy died of (I think) infected tonsils. The parents either did not have the money to go to the doctor or did not realise how serious the illness was. The funeral cost around 15000 Pesos ($300 NZ) which was a huge amount for family to pay. We ended up helping them with some of the money but it was so difficult because we can not afford to help with it all and it is not our position to give out money. Some people here think we are a foundation with money to spare, they do not realise we are voluntary missionaries living on providence and fund raising. To many of them we are rich foreigners.

A long running problem for us is a place to hold our Saturday ministry. We were originally in a school building but this is currently being renovated and we cannot use it. Then we tried using a half-built chapel before being given a smallish room used by another community group. However when it rained we had a waterfall running down one wall and a third of the room became unusable. A few weeks ago it rained heavily and we decided not to go but to spend the time praying about the ministry and for another venue to hold it in.
We also needed to find somewhere to hold our Christmas party.
As we prayed we felt inspired to pray for the parish priest who until this time has not for whatever reason been very interested in our work. We also felt God wanted to involve the children in a mass (pretty hard if you have no priest!). Many of the children may never have been to mass or have any connection with the church, they simply like to come along to our session on Saturday. Our director had been in contact with the priest about a new place and he told her we should talk to someone else. The situation seemed impossible and I began to wonder what God was up to.

So last Saturday we went early to Montalban to look around the community for a new building. We found a temporary place after talking to various people and then decided to pay the priest a social call - just to introduce ourselves and say hello.
I also held out some hope that somehow he might be able to help us.
Intially he was reserved but as we talked (about 5 of us) he warmed up and after we told him about our christmas party he, out of the blue, offered to say mass for the children before the party and agreed we could use the church gardens for the party! We were stunned - we had not even mentioned mass and the gardens are very nice.
Thank you God!
We are still hoping for a permanent home for our children's ministry. Please pray for us if you are the praying sort.