Thursday, April 11 th Carmona Jail and Cabuyao Police Station & Lockup: 5 Services today 7:45 a.m. rise and shine to be picked up by Pastor Noel and his trusted friend in the ministry, Polly. It is expected to reach 95 degrees today with a night-time chill of 82. Polly is our daily driver of the trip van and we don’t know all of his certifications for being a professional driver, but there is no doubt Polly is the best driver in The Philippines! The amount of weaving in traffic, getting through tight roadways with literally 1 mm of space between our van and a wall or another vehicle or a jeepney or a motorcycle was just beyond logic. In the mornings he was always there on time to pick us up with his worship music playing in the van and A/C on high. Polly was an invaluable part of all we did!
The "Chicken McDo" becomes a surprising favorite for some of us
We start the day with breakfast at McDonald’s and devotions led by GVT. He shares from Psalm 91 and encourages the team with “Fear Not and see what the Lord will do!”. Our services today will be at Carmona Jail and Cabuyao lockup which is similar to detention holding before court arraignment. We learn that 90% of incarcerated individuals are being held on drug related crimes. The term used for prisoners in The Philippines is “PDL” = Persons Deprived of Liberty. There are only a few judges and a PDL’s case will be heard within 4 months. If the case gets postponed, then they have to wait another 4 months. In some prisons, those held in lockup, there is no government support for food. The government provides seventy Philippine pesos per day (apprx $1.20 USD) for all costs associated with their care. Some people die in lockup due to malnutrition if they do not receive support from family or humanitarian aid from churches and ministries. Carmona jail has 3 separate floors with holding cells: mostly male PDLs. Our team starts services at the main floor which has a large room that looks like it is used for family visitation and special programming. The room fills with a modest group of PDLs chosen to attend our services. From
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