A Missionary in Manila

Christian Missionary True Stories #3

by Natalie Vellacott

After 10 years in the British police and a 2 year stint on a giant missionary ship in South East Asia, Natalie Vellacott has fallen in love with a ragged group of solvent addicted Filipino street kids.

In a flurry of activity, she gives away everything she owns, eagerly packs her bags and books a one way flight to the other side of the world.

Her vague idea: to reconnect with the street children, find a church, help the poor, and offer hope in Jesus to all that cross her path.

However, the Christian life is never straightforward and things don’t always go according to plan.

Don’t delay, order your copy of this light-hearted and humorous memoir to discover whether it's really more fun in the Philippines!

Genres: Christianity, Christian Non Fiction, Nonfiction

174 pages, Paperback

First published May 6, 2017

About the author

Natalie Vellacott spent a decade as a police officer in England before swapping her badge for a Bible and heading for Southeast Asia as a Christian missionary. She volunteered on Logos Hope, a giant ship, for 2 years with 400 people from 65 other countries enduring the cultural catastrophes in order to enjoy the exciting adventures.

Natalie began writing in the Philippines when she fell in love with a group of street children addicted to a solvent called Rugby. Having founded a charity to help the boys and draw attention to their plight, she naively entitled her first book and has been trying to get it out of the Rugby Union chart ever since.

Natalie has also dabbled in Christian fiction for children, in the choose your own adventure style, mostly for the benefit of her nephew, Reuben, who is pleased that he takes centre stage.

Natalie is now involved in evangelism in the UK. In 2023, she published a new book about her recent experiences, as well as a series of contemporary short stories based on some of the parables that Jesus told.

Reviews

[Linda J.B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"This account is a true story. However, some names may have been changed to protect the identities of individuals." Oh yeah, when I read that I knew I was in for a treat. Even the cover of A Missionary in Manila: (Missionary Stories) by Natalie Vellacot grabbed my attention with those suspiciously sweet looking mischievous little guys.

Vellacot runs the reader non-stop with amazing vignettes of her missionary work in the Philippines. Even though I have never been there, I truly caught the flavor of the country and people. Being a true story, my jaw dropped many times with what she had to deal with, some happy some sad and some just plain crazy! Some of her English translations made me laugh as she tried to explain that "Jesus was living in my cat," or "My coffee likes to drink me."

How Vellacot described the sadness of homeless children, the everyday substance abuse, pregnant young girls and a multitude of other everyday lifestyle will make you admire those who are serving God for His glory.

I think it takes special people called by God to do missionary work, serving others and helping meet their needs just to live a basic life. As Vellacot states: "We are a product of the culture we live in...We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We stand in need of His rescue."

Whether you are called to be a missionary or not, this book will sink into your soul at how the mighty power of God works within us.

[Loz Densham · Rating 4 out of 5]

A follow on from ‘they’re rugby boys, don’t you know’ about Natalie’s continued life living in the Philippines as a missionary. She writes with an authenticity and honesty which makes this such a great read and really helps you feel like you come away with a truer understanding of the hardship (but also the tremendous joy) of life in the Philippines. You can really see how much the boys in this story mean to the author and in turn, you as the reader find yourself really routing for them to get not Just their physical lives improved, but that they would truly discover the joy and peace found in a friendship with Jesus!

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

This review is from: A Missionary in Manila: A Former Detective Investigates Claims that "It's More Fun in the Philippines!" (Paperback)
I was very much looking forward to this latest book by Natalie having read and enjoyed her previous three. It did not disappoint. In her own inimitable style Natalie highlights the many difficult and often traumatic situations that she found herself dealing with. The extreme poverty and many hopeless situations are something that we in the West know very little of. Not to mention the difficulties of adapting to a different culture, trying to learn the excruciatingly difficult language,dealing with the extreme heat and monsoon downpours and the many and varied forms of insect population, and the VERY different food delicacies on offer! However, Natalie's strength of faith and purpose shine through inspite of the many set backs she encounters along the way. She never loses sight of her ultimate goal, to offer help and HOPE to the many who cross her path. Along the way Natalie also manages to retain her sense of humour as she recounts the everyday life of a white person trying to settle into a totally different culture. The fun of mouse hunting having discovered that a whole family have taken up residence in her new home, a temporarily missing cat, the man who fell asleep on her on a very long bus journey, the frustrations of dealing with officialdom, and much more. I look forward to discovering what the Lord has planned for the next phase of Natalie's life.

[Barton Jahn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Two of the best final chapters I have read in a Christian book.

This is the fourth book by Natalie Vellacott I have read.

All four are well-written, thought-provoking, and take the reader out into the frontlines of the battlefield of the beginning foreign missionary trying to share the Christian gospel message and at the same time minister to the worldly needs…health and financial…that go hand-in-hand with lifting people in third-world countries out of sin, darkness, and the poverty that undermines finding the potential of their new, born-again lives in Christ.

Missionary In Manila describes very accurately the dilemma of every foreign missionary taking the Christian message of salvation and hope to nations that have political, economic, and cultural problems structurally systemic throughout the country…as an independent solitary missionary working within local organizations…to bring about positive change on some scale.

The biblical idea that even one person is of great value to God…and that most Christians cannot change and fix the whole world all at once on our own…sets up the real-world context of bringing the love of Christ to a few people one at a time…requiring the exercise of all of the fruits of the Spirit…with special emphasis on patience, faith, endurance, forgiveness, self-sacrificing love for other people, and trust in God.

Natalie Vellacott describes all of this in a series of honest and revealing short episodes that depict the challenges of being a Missionary In Manila

An excellent and insightful read…I would highly recommend it to all reading audiences.

[Eric Roth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good

I liked the read. Many many stories relating to culture but also to faith and serving God. A good primer for anyone considering working among the Filipino poor.

[richard · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brilliant read of modern day missionary work in the Philippines. A real look into the everyday life of Filipinos and those on the poorer side. A book that calls you to action. Very enjoyable read.

[Robin Morgan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve received a mobi.file copy of this book from the author through a giveaway she recently had on LibraryThing.com, and the following is my honest opinion.

What does a British police officer/detective do when her rekindled Christian beliefs start to interfere with her desire to perform the responsibilities associated with her job? If you’ve read this author’s [Natalie Vellacort] memoir “Planet Police”, you’d have learned about this conflict in her life, a conflict which ultimate caused her to retire from police work and to perform tasks associated with her now renewed passion of her Christian beliefs.

In this memoir, Ms. Vellacort, takes her readers to the work she did in Manila, in the Philippines, as an independent missionary. Her time there can best be described as being like a roller coaster.
A ride where the author gets instantaneously entrenched in the country’s culture, which lasts for a few years.

During this time, Ms. Vellacort, constantly faces a myriad of issues: homeless pregnant women who are about to give birth, young children whose parents have tossed them out on the streets to fend for themselves, young teenage drunks who should be in school, just to name a few. The author faces all of this and more, while at the same time she’s attempting to bring salvation through the Lord’s messages to the massive number of urban poor living in the slums of Manila, in order for them to be uplifted from the depths of sin and darkness they’re living in.

For wanting to share her own religious experiences of doing missionary, in the hope that others might want to do something on their own, albeit on a much smaller and more local scale; I’ve given this book 5 STARS.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! It's an interesting and eye opening read bringing the reader face to face with the realities of life for too many people on this earth and the missionaries who try to help on a physical as well as a spiritual level. There are street urchins who have little sense of right and wrong, well meaning but clueless parishioners, both caring and self aggrandizing church leaders, and the faces of crushing poverty. Read this one to learn how one person learned a lot and did make a difference.
I entered a LibraryThing Giveaway because I had enjoyed an earlier book by this author and was fortunate to have won it.

[Parker Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I admire people who do missionary work and this book and its details is no exception. I'd read Rugby Boys by Vellacott a couple of years ago and enjoyed that book as well as this one.

There are some great stories that come from Vellacott's experiences in this book along with some heartaches. All in all, I'd recommend this book to others especially those considering missionary work.

[Sam Fury · Rating 5 out of 5]

Im not religious but I love traveling and am a big fan of the Philippines, so I thought this would be an interesting read.

It was!

A nice collection of entertaining antidotes about the authors time in Manila. Some funny, some sad, and some heart-warming. A gread light read.

[Justin Tapp · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is in a series of works by this author, I have not read her previous work. The author was a missionary who first came to the Philippines as part of a Gospel-sharing cruise ship ministry, then moved independently to Olangapo City where she built relationships with solvent-abusing boys (the subject of her previous book), then moves to Cubao and works with a local church to reach out to the homeless (the subject of this book). The book seems to just be an edited version of the author's personal journal, some of the thoughts are tangential, verbose, and often stream-of-consciousness. I am familiar with conservative Baptist circles, but a reader who is not may feel quite confused or put-off by the author's beliefs and practices. The appendices have the author's profile and an explanation of the Gospel that she shares.

The value of this book is the insights into the daily living of an immigrant here living in a relatively unprivileged lifestyle, particularly dealing with the Philippines bureaucracy. Her chapters on travails at airport immigration and just trying to move out of her house are worth saving. Cubao is a densely-populated part of Quezon City, Metro Manila. It's not the massive slum of Tondo, but slums and homeless people exist all over the Metro. The author accurately describes the people who live in the medians, the kids who play in filth, and the life-threatening dangers to these people of dozens of typhoons a year. The author does what she can to help many children and their families. It's a very draining lifestyle, and only toward the end of the book do you get the sense that the author was completely drained by the end-- she eventually moves into a more luxurious high-rise to get a reprieve from the life of the streets; then moves back to England.

From my own personal experiences, I question the wisdom of simply showing up as an independent foreign missionary, hoping to latch onto a church that agrees with your values, and then trying to find people to support your efforts. People in the officially Catholic Philippines have a strange relationship with religion, particularly protestantism. Baptist churches tend to be the extremely conservative variety of the author's liking, straight out of the United States circa 1900. I have seen them all over the country, even in remote areas. (A good doctoral thesis for someone at a Baptist seminary in America would be to trace the history of Baptist churches in the Philippines from colonialism.) One trinity-denying cult that believes it is the one true church is also mentioned in this book. Many people in these circles seem to thrive on rightness of doctrine and everyone who isn't "right" is "apostate." But in my observation, and reading this book, very few actually live the morals that align with their doctrine. The author's comments about "worldly" behavior like watching movies and listening to "secular" music may be incoherent to a non-Christian reader.

The author's church does not have a different contextualized service for children, so children are forced to sit in with adults to hear a long sermon in a language they don't understand. Forcing them to go to church and sit seems nonsensical, at best. Better to take the church to them, and in their context and language. The church services and Bible studies that the author describes are basically a semi-organized chaos of distractions. The author notes that at bus stops, evangelistic preachers will board a bus, preach a prepared message, then ask for donations. At the next stop, someone will preach the same message to the groans of the hostage passengers, and so on. The author is the oddity who passes out Gospel tracts and buys people meals or pays for medical care, showing actual compassion for the people and asking nothing in return. The author struggled to learn Tagalog and writes that she gave up trying. Whatever her mistakes, she did her best to help several children whose lives were in grave danger on the streets. Missionary work in this context is about like the parable of the boy picking up beached starfish and throwing them back in the ocean to live. You can reach all, or even many, but you make a difference to the ones you can reach. Vellacott does that.

Given that the book is often stream-of-consciousness and not all the chapters are in chronological order, the reader may get confused. It's hard to picture the scenes of her writing without having lived here and seen how neighborhoods are built. The reader may also be put-off by conservative Baptist culture.

I give the book 2.5 stars overall. I enjoyed some of it because I live in Manila.

[Esther Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

Odd book..

The beginning of the book is entirely dull and dry as the author recounts in detail traveling amongst places which have no meaning to the reader at all. The rest of the book seems to primarily serve as a recounting of how foolish, impetuous, and ill-prepared she was for the task she undertook. There is a good reason to go under a mission organization or at least the auspices of a sending church. They are there to help you make decisions, ensure you have proper cultural acclimation,and hold you accountable. It appears she is self-funded as there is never any mention of interaction with supporters or accounting of fiscal fiascos to others. Not a book I would recommend to someone thinking of missions, except as a cautionary tale.

[Albertus Minimus · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Western missionary tries to adapt and assimilate to the Philippine culture and embraces a group of people living in extreme poverty. Through her experiences, God molds and grows her patience and wisdom as she proclaims the Gospel to a foreign people through her words and the testimony of her loving actions. Very insightful.

[Dakota · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid book!

[Kristy Hetzel]

An almost-brutally honest memoir--I felt like I was there! Eye-opening.

[Amy Hagerup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delightful account of a missionary's life in Manila. She certainly has a love for the people and reaching them with Jesus' message.