An afternoon visiting the new building to see the progress made by the SECAF team before our arrival, then on to visit some local families who we hope will use the new Peace and Hope Early Learning Centre.

Our first church service. Giving out glasses donated by members of Gorsley Baptist Chapel and The Peace & Hope Trust

If you don't follow the Peace and Hope Facebook page, this is from today (Monday 13th July).

At 5 a.m start for our first day at the construction site, the team and a local builder who we met a few days earlier, gathered for a short briefing before heading out to work. We were amazed and delighted by the progress already made and by the number of volunteers who had arrived to help. Mixing concrete, filling the columns, and painting the support beams for the roof all got underway quickly, and the energy on site was contagious. It was truly inspiring to witness the outpouring of support from local churches as they worked together to build the Peace and Hope Early Learning Centre.

If you need some tree branches cut in the Philippines, you don’t call a contractor with a cherry picker. Someone will climb the tree barefoot, carrying a large machete, and carefully trim the branches by hand. Watching this kind of resourceful, hands-on work is both humbling and impressive.

The craftsmanship of the welder was a joy to behold as he carefully shaped and joined the metal for the building’s windows. After a long morning in the hot sun, the volunteers were well cared for with food and refreshments, and Marissa made sure to pitch in as well, helping wherever she was needed.

Apologies for very little upload content, I'm seriously struggling with upload issues at the moment, having to tether my phone to get a signal and even then uploading to the P&H Facebook page is taking up to 10 minutes to upload anything!

A slightly better connection here at 3.30am! A few photos that didn't make it to the P&H Facebook page yesterday. The photo on the phone is what they asked for.....the item is what they got (well it is the same colour!)

A slighty modified version of the P&H Facebook page.

A 3.30am (!) start helping to cook 150 rice, chicken and noodles dishes, and package them up for distribution at Sindangan jail. This time we were allowed in with one camera last time all photo and video was banned, with the jail suppling a few chosen images they took.

Richard Geary gave a short message translated by Pastor Kim, based on ‘The man on the middle cross’ from an Alistair Begg book, it went down well with the inmates who actually seemed to respond to the appeal and then clapped at the end.

After passing out all the food and gifts of soap, flip flops and other personal items they actually let us out (despite Marissa trying to walk off with the guards iPad).

Then it was back to the centre for a quick change and on to the building site. where huge progress has been made, especially with the roof.

3 of the guys responsible for making the mortar today were fascinated with the Kodak Instant camera and took a print away with them.

A suggestion was made to try to equip the new centre with some furniture, some desks were found from a previous Peace & Hope Trust container and these were rubbed down ready for staining and varnishing.

After a long day in the hot sun, the volunteers from today were given bags of rice and a small token of thanks toward expenses. The last photo are the main builders who enjoyed a laugh and a joke with Richard even after such a long day.

There is a short video of Sindangan 'High Street' on YouTube - https://youtu.be/KZw0eNLyQRA

taken with a newly aquired DJI Action 4 camera - on my last visit in 2024 I was very dissapointed with the 'car' shots, I'm more than happy with this camera for smoothing out the bumps and jerks!