Hope Blog

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A letter from the founder of Hope House -- David Wilkerson

I started Hope House in 2009, after arriving in Cebu City in March 2009. Hope House began as just a personal ministry on my part to feed and help children who lived near our rental house. I was chatting with old school friends from elementary school about the very terrible poverty in Cebu and they suggested that I sponsor children, and they sponsored the first few children. We grew very fast much to my surprise. I think people like that they could see where their money was going. It was a couple of years later we experience our first attack. We has a person who thought that spreading lies about us was their thing to do. We would experience several big attacks over the course of time. If you really get up and get out of the comfort zone and work for God, you will be attacked. We learn from those things however, and we become much stronger.

Over the course of our ministry in Cebu City, I would come to learn about the child sex trafficking in that region. I learned that some mothers were selling their own daughters. I learned that nobody wanted to talk. The girls coming to church would tell stories about what was happening to them. We could never get them to talk to police. I was always told to stay out of it and don't get involved. We did get involved and we helped many who had been trafficked. I was frustrated that nothing was being done to have traffickers arrested. Occasionally I would see someone arrested, but it was always some tourist that got in some kind of trap, and sometimes people are innocent when arrested in the Philippines. The police and BI are used as weapons by those who have money.

It came about that a girl brought me video evidence and that 7 girls were willing to make statements. I tried to get anyone to go to the police with the girls, but nobody would go. They were afraid. I took the 7 girls along with two female police officers to the Talisay police station and we filed criminal cases on the trafficker that were submitted to the court in Talisay. When the trafficker was not picked up, I thought that things were not going well. I had concerns about being shot.

It was shortly after this, that the BI (bureau of immigration) showed up at my house and arrested me. I was held in Cebu City less than two weeks, and then transported to Bicutan Jail in Manila. I was there about three months before I learned they were charging me with illegal entry. I realized that something was amiss, because I of course was not illegal entry. The reason they charged me with that is that is a crime and carries a 5 to 10 year sentance. They were threatening to put me in prison for this if I didnt agree to deport. They legally could not deport me because I have a family, unless I had a criminal charge. I had no crimes, so they came up with that. It also took them 18 months to deport me. My wife played a big role in my release.

The Philippines is a very corrupt place, and I saw a lot of wrong things done to people while in Bicutan. My wife continues with Hope House and I am in daily contact with her. I have a good relationship with a missionary there from the Netherlands and they have the Cebu House of Prayer. I am working to bring my family to the USA, and when Ailene does come, We do have people there and we have people who are going to help so that Hope House continues. I am working to get my family together. At some point, I will get an attorney in the Philippines and go about getting my file cleaned up. I do expect to return for periods of time in the Philippines. The children in urban poverty there need us. I work driving Uber and Lyft and I support my family and I give to Hope House. I will never be able to turn my back on the children there knowing what I know.