凌晨3点多起床，马尼拉尚在睡梦中，我和杰明坐出租车到机场，4点多过了安检，到登舱口，等待6点半飞往那伽(Naga)的飞机。计划是，一个钟头的飞行到那伽(Naga)后，Compassion负责人从机场接我们，再坐一个多钟头的车，到Resty的家乡，一个名叫以瑞伽 (Iriga) 的小村庄。若一切顺利，当天9点就可与Resty一家见面。
轻舟对菲律宾最早的印象来自80年代的亚洲首位女总统，菲律宾华裔科拉松·阿基诺夫人，如今，菲律宾的总统 Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo，也是一位女总统。菲律宾的主要宗教是天主教和基督教，种族是菲律宾本土人，马来人，华人，印尼，印度人，西班牙人后代的混合。等飞机时，我们阅读起菲律宾报纸 Philippine Star Newspaper，菲律宾语言有本土语Tagalog和外来语英语。Tagalog用在口语多些，书面语言大多数是英文：路标，商店，书店里的报纸刊物，清一色的英文。
当天（6月4日）的Philippine Star报纸第二版头条是大篇“Air France (法国航空)”3天前从里约热内卢飞巴黎飞机失事，坠入大西洋的报道。而右侧栏目是一小篇题为“100 Million More Poor People in South Asia （一亿多南亚穷人）”的文章，配有小幅卡拉奇乞讨老人的相片，文章写到，全球经济危机，粮食价格上升，对穷人的冲击最大。两则文章让轻舟印象深刻，感叹生命脆弱，战乱，天灾人祸，事故，都可能夺走人的生命，可正是因为人生有限和无常，我们想着，如何倚靠神，尽微薄的能力，帮助穷人，Make a difference for others，轻舟常带着理想主义的色彩想问题。杰明务实些，他在教会作鼓励美国人赞助贫困孩子的演讲时，引用了圣经的一句话：“From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (Luke 12:48b) 因为多给谁，就向谁多取；多托谁，就向谁多要." 他还用了一个很形象的比喻：夕阳下的海滩，潮水退后，无数的海星 （Star Fish）被推到岸上，一位老人弯腰拾起一枚又一枚的海星，不停地将它们投掷到海水里，一旁的小男孩不解地问老人：“岸上的海星这么多，你如何救得过来？”老人弯下腰，拾起脚边挣扎的海星，扔向海里，对孩子道：“我无法救所有海星，但是，我确实救了这只，它得以幸存，我改变了这只海星的命运（I made a difference for this star fish.）" 贫穷本不是孩子的过错(Poverty is not children's fault)，若给孩子接受教育的机会，孩子的智力，潜能方得以开发。Compassion International与普通救济或救灾不同的是，救济或救灾能够缓解一时，然，“授人鱼不如授人以渔”，通过赞助孩子教育和医疗，并让孩子参加所在社区的基督教会主日学活动，了解神的大爱。身量，学识，灵性并重地成长，成熟，孩子长大以后找到工作，可以帮助家人和社区，对改善贫困社区的境况，起良性循环的功效。
话题扯远了，回到马尼拉的候机室，6点快到了，我们被告知，飞机有故障，在修理中，飞行被推迟到7点半。我们只有祈祷，愿飞机快快修好，安全飞行。7点半过去了，飞行继续推迟，但仍被告知当日会飞。直到9点15分，飞行公司正式通知大家，飞机故障一时难以修复，飞往那伽的飞行被取消，大家住机场附近的一宾馆，明天同时间再飞。可是，我们和Resty一家已约好今天见面。明后天返程机票已定，难道，我们不远万里到了马尼拉，却无法与Resty见面吗？
候机室等了几个钟头的旅客纷纷找飞行公司的负责人问话，他们用本土语Tagalog交流，我和杰明通过一旁的菲律宾医生夫妇了解到，另外一家航空公司(Cebu)今天中午飞那伽(Naga)的飞机有5个空位，但这5个位子很快就给了5位会说Tagalog的菲律宾人。当我们向菲律宾医生夫妇介绍了此行的目的，并给他们看了Resty的相片，他们连忙帮助我们用Tagalog打听，我和杰明唯有继续祈祷奇迹。
奇迹果真有了！Cebu航空公司下午飞往另一个叫勒伽斯匹（Legaspi）的飞机，尚有空位，我们是外国人，从未听说过勒伽斯匹（Legaspi）这个城市，但医生夫妇和他们的朋友们高兴地告诉我们，Resty的家乡以瑞伽(Iriga)介于那伽(Naga)和勒伽斯匹（Legaspi）之间。而且飞行公司为弥补改机的不便，到达勒伽斯匹（Legaspi）后，有司机专程开车送我们到以瑞伽(Iriga)，热情的菲律宾人还告诉我们，“从勒伽斯匹（Legaspi）到以瑞伽(Iriga)的路途，将经过菲律宾最大的火山 - 美丽的Mayon，你们会喜欢的。”我和杰明十分感谢那些好心的菲律宾人，更感谢神，我们的祷告得到了回答，在机场困了9小时之后，我们终于坐上了飞机，离Resty越来越近了。
附上部分英文游记
We flew to Manila that day and the next morning got to the Airport around 4 a.m. for the flight to see our child. The 6:30 flight was delayed, but they assured us it would fly soon. We prayed, but it was delayed again, and they kept assuring us it would fly soon and we kept praying. Finally around 9:15 they cancelled their only flight of the day and we thought we’d never be able to see our child! The way the plane schedules worked, we only had 1 day! They eventually sent a supervisor to advise everybody what to do and when he started talking, he spoke in Tagalog (the Filipino language) and we found out later there were 5 seats on another airlines to the same city, but others got those seats because they understood his language and we were left without seats. We’d been praying all along and it was getting close to noon on the only day we could see him. And there were a couple of people (especially this Filipino Doctor in front of us) who somehow mis-understood our attempt to get tickets and thought we shouldn’t have any priority.
We spoke up and showed the picture of Resty and explained how we’d travelled all the way from America and this was the only day we scheduled to see him. We said how we’d been sponsors for 10 years and wanted to visit our child! The doctor couple understood what we were saying, they did a complete reversal and went to the supervisor and spoke boldly in Tagalog language about our situation and need for immediate tickets. The 5 tickets were gone! They asked us what town our child was in and when we answered…
God did a miracle! There was another flight to another city we’d never heard of that had some seats that they told us was close enough that if we got on it, the Airlines would pay for a Mini-bus/taxi to drive to the town we needed to get to. It turns out Resty’s town was in between the new city we were flying to and the city that had the cancellation! We didn’t leave the Airport until afternoon (9 hours stuck in the Manila Airport which made us exhausted), but we were flying.
