The Only Christmas for Some

Every December, CSC hosts a Christmas for our outreach clients. Primarily our outreach clients consist of children that came and spent time at CSC but then returned to their birth families. And since most of the time children came to CSC because of some crisis in their family, the situation the children return to is less than ideal. In fact, it's always less than ideal. Quite often we must return children to home situations where we know there is going to be crisis and even suffering on a continuing basis. The Philippine justice system does not give us a choice. Except in extreme cases, if parents want their children back, they get them back.

Because of those continuing crisis situations, CSC has routinely kept its foot in the door trying to help many of those children through some kind of assistance. Often it is educational, medical, or job training assistance for the children and their families. We also host an annual Christmas party for these children and their families. And because of their situations, it is certainly their only celebration of Christmas.

Each year we are able to bring a little joy to these wonderful children for an afternoon. They get to come and visit the shelter, have a party for a few hours, play some games, eat some good food, receive some gifts, and hear an evangelistic message about what Christmas is all about and how it can be meaningful in their lives. It's also a great time for the staff to get acquainted with many of the kids we once cared for. Often it is apparent that the kids and their families are struggling mightily, but occasionally we are surprised by how some of the kids have broken free of the desperate poverty and crisis that has consumed their lives.

We know that God continues to know all of their needs and loves each one of them. We're grateful for the chance to have an impact in their lives and to see some of them benefit from it. We're also grateful to be able to bring Christmas to their lives - the only celebration of Christmas they may know.

Bizarro World

During my 25 years of living in the Philippines and being a part of the ministry of CSC, I've had the chance to have a lot of different experiences and see and hear things that boggle the mind. Sometimes those things are the result of an American's westernized perception of a vastly different culture and that culture's values, other times it's unrelated to culture and something that's way too close to home, and occasionally it's an unfortunate collision of those two things. Being a participative observer of one of those unfortunate collisions can leave a person almost speechless and shaking one's head. I've been shaking my head way too frequently lately and today was another one of those days. But who doesn't have an occasional visit to Bizarro World?

But later in the day I spent some time at the shelter just cruising around to see what different kids were up to until I finally plopped myself down for a while. While making my "rounds" I got to see: one of our short term staff playing a spirited game of basketball with a group of kids, one of our teachers doing some prep work at school and explaining to me how one of her kids who used to hate doing puzzles now loves doing puzzles, one of our teen girls successfully playing a prank on kids and workers in the home, one of our younger boys repeatedly calling my attention that he likes lions, one of our Level A students reading part of a book to me that she thought she couldn't read, that same Level A student showing me a very touching picture her sister had drawn of their previously intact family, and a small group of precocious toddlers trying to convince me that I was, in fact, not myself but one of the other CSC staff. And upon my goodbyes to these wonderful kids as they sat down to eat with their houseparents, I received several invitations to stay for a while and share their meal with them.

I couldn't, but it was the final dose of the perfect antidote to Bizarro World.

(Not So) Extreme Makeover: Cherne Home Edition

If you have been following our newsletter, website, and staff blogs over the past month, you have probably been reading about the Eicher Home kids moving to our new Duterte Home and our Cherne Home kids moving to the Eicher Home. You are probably wondering why all of our kids are moving around willy nilly and how our newly built home got occupied by our existing kids. If you haven't had the chance to visit here (yet!), the logistics of it all probably wouldn't seem to make much sense. There is rhyme to the reason, however.First of all, our brand new Duterte Home is a much different facility that our 1992 editions Eicher Home and Cherne Home. It serves several new purposes, is quite a bit larger, and has a larger load of responsibility along with it.

Expanding our ministry by an additional home means hiring new houseparents to be the authority figures in that home for both the children who will find a home there and for all of the childcare workers employed by us there. It is a tremendous amount of new responsibility for any new houseparents (there really isn't any such thing as hiring experienced houseparents since it is such a specialized job) that requires at least a two year learning curve to begin to feel comfortable with the job. It would be very unfair to ask any new houseparents to take on the responsibility of a home that is much larger, specializes in the care of children with special needs, and has the additional functions of a storage facility and game room for the rest of the compound as well. We felt that one of our existing houseparent couples would be better suited to the higher level of responsibility of the new facility so that our new houseparent couple could start off in a bit lower-key facility.

But why all of the additional shuffling kids around? Well, we are taking the opportunity to do makeovers on our two original homes, the Eicher Home and Cherne Home. Having just completed and occupied the new Duterte Home leaves one of the older homes unoccupied for the next few months. It gives us the chance to do a comprehensive overhaul of both homes. That's why the Cherne Home kids and houseparents moved over to the Eicher Home for a couple of months. We have the opportunity to clear the house of everything and do some very dirty and messy work, work that we couldn't do with a house full of kids. We will do the same for the Eicher Home when the Cherne Home kids can move back to their own home, hopefully the weekend before Christmas.
In both homes we will be resurfacing floors, re-tiling bathrooms, painting all rooms, fixing grout, repairing any termite damage (a constant battle), upgrading the kids' closets and personal storage cubbies, replacing part of the kitchen counter and sinks with a new stainless steel unit, and adding more ceiling fans and lights. It's a lot of work, but we've gotten a good start already.
We're making the most of a good opportunity and look forward to having three fresh facilities to use for the care of our kids as we expand the number of kids we care for early in 2010!

Ron Would Be Pleased

Since we dedicated our new facilities a few months ago, my work at the shelter has taken me many times past the plaques of recognition we put up for that event. One plaque was in honor of Ron Duterte, our close friend and the president of our foundation for more than 25 years. When I pass this plaque in his honor and in memoriam, I often think about him and what he meant to CSC's ministry and our staff.
I think to most people in Cebu, Ron was known as an attorney, or mayor of Cebu City, or president of the University of Southern Philippines, the positions he most prominently held. I think to most people in Cebu, Ron was known as someone that people could ask something from, or even expect something from, the unavoidable expectation of being a politician and person of power in the Philippines. I have to imagine in some ways that must have been a lonely side of his life - never being able to meet the expectations of everyone that would come to his door, and then to have people stop coming when he was no longer in a position to provide.

It was not that way at CSC for Ron. Sure, Ron did countless things to help CSC get off the ground in its fledgling years. He continued to do things for CSC and our kids until the day he passed away four years ago. Helping our ministry was a top priority for Ron and we wouldn't be were we are today without his help. He was always happy to give and didn't have to be asked to meet one of our needs. God certainly used Ron mightily for His kingdom.

But CSC was a place where Ron could relax and catch his breath away from the pressures of court appearances, leading the second largest city in the Philippines, or running a major university. Ron was our friend, our mentor, our golf buddy, a facilitator and host for a lot of our recreation, and a fierce competitor at table games. He was our kids' defender and also their Santa Claus. He was just as comfortable with a child on his lap as he was helping to provide legal counsel for one.

No single person has ever done more to help CSC be the champion it is for homeless and neglected children in the Philippines. He brought CSC from its infancy to the mature and respected ministry it is today. For that reason we honored him by naming the Duterte Home after him - a home that provides love for the least of God's little ones in Cebu. The plaque that honors his name and his memory hangs on the wall outside Joemar and Jacob's room, two of God's children with special needs that Ron knew for 20 years.

Ron would be pleased.

The Chance to Do Better

Saturday, October 24, 2009 is now a red letter day in CSC's history. It signifies the end of a nearly four year process to design, fundraise, build, and occupy our new facilities and marks the fourth major expansion of Children's Shelter of Cebu in 30 years of ministry. Yesterday was the day that the Duterte House became the Duterte Home when 35 children moved into its six bedrooms and nursery.

Yesterday was also a day marked by prayers of blessing by our children and staff, hours of excitement as the children moved their things into their rooms, and a fair share of exhaustion by the houseparents and staff. When one walks into the new Duterte Home or the Frankie Wright Medical Center it is evident God has richly blessed CSC through its many friends and supporters. Our additional facilities are new, beautiful, and much better equipped to handle our children with special needs and just more children in general. And in effect, we have enabled our ministry to expand its reach to homeless and neglected children in Cebu by 40%.

After all of work done to build our beautiful new facilities, it's now that the real work begins - taking care of more children with needs that make the difficulties of construction pale by comparison. Now is when CSC has the chance to do more, and to also do it better. The needs are certainly there.In just a week or so, we will begin the process of remodeling our 1992 facilities, the Jackie Cherne Home and the Arman Eicher Home. Although we work very hard to maintain our facilities, 17 years of being filled with dozens of children in an unforgiving humid climate, the foundational buildings of our ministry are needing an overhaul. We will take about two months on each building to bring them up to speed. There is no better opportunity than now when we have an empty building (having just moved the children from the Eicher Home into the new Duterte Home) and the ability to temporarily move children from one house to the other while the remodeling is being done.
In early spring the remodeling should be finished and then we will begin to add to our population by starting to fill the empty Eicher Home. With new houseparents, new childcare workers, and refurbished facilities we will begin the process of doing more for children in need, and doing it better.It was a great day today - one of excitement and celebration. But after four years of hard work by so many people, the really hard work is just only about to begin.

We're Live!

The day that we have long been waiting for has arrived. Early this morning the electric company (VECO) came to install our new transformer, which means that we have the power capacity to fully operate our new, together with our old, facilities. This means that we will be able to push through with our plans to move our children into the new Duterte Home on Saturday. The kids have been so excited anticipating their move that we get pummeled with questions daily about it. Finally we get to give them an answer. Saturday is the big move!

Things We Can't Control

In a sense, one might look at our world and say there is little or nothing we can control. A spiritual person might also say that God is control of everything and it is really up to Him what happens each second of each day. But it is also very logical that people have free will and that God has entrusted us with different talents, gifts, responsibilities, and commitments to fulfill. Now before this gets way too philosophical or theological, I believe (at least from the way I think) that while God is in control of all in the universe, we humans get a lot of discretion in how we run our personal lives, families, businesses, and ministries. We get choices. As individuals or small organizations, we are able to have a lot more input and impact on things on the micro level. On the macro level, however, we're basically a piece of sand on the beach.

Let me digress. As CSC's missionaries and administrative staff, we are several individuals here in Cebu City, or a small organization. Micro level kind of stuff. We work in a situation where we are affected by the U.S. economy, the global economy, and fluctuating currencies. Macro level kind of stuff. One government fiscal policy pulls things one way and another government monetary policy pulls things another way - stuff we've all been affected by. But working in a dual currency ministry we are subject to things we can't control. From January 2008 until September of this year, we watched the dollar recover about 50% of the value it had lost against the Philippine peso during the two years previous to that period (from P56:$1 down toP40.2:$1 and back up to P48.7:$1. Now over the the past few weeks we have watched the dollar slide again to P46.35:$1, a 5% loss. An individual like me or a small organization like ours can't just say to all of those macroeconomic players, "Hey, how about a little more strength for our greenback?" Somebody might hear it, but nobody would listen. There are things we can't control.

And when there are things we can't control, we've only got a couple of choices. We can let it drive us crazy, or we can choose to trust God.

God entrusted this minsitry to us. God gave us the talents to do it. God gave us the great group of loyal friends and supporters to make it happen. And God knows what all of our children's needs and ministry's needs are. I'll choose to trust God. I'm crazy enough already.

A Special Young Lady

This evening we had the joy to celebrate the birthday of one our pre-teens at the Eicher Home. This young lady, Adelyn, who turned 12 today, celebrated her golden birthday. It was her day, her evening, and I think she soaked up all of the happiness she could from her birthday. Adelyn is like that.Adelyn came to the shelter three years ago with her two older brothers and younger sister. To say that life had been very unfair to Adelyn and her siblings would be like saying the sun is hot. It would be quite difficult to describe it all, but in one sense life only just began when they came to our home. There was so much room to grow.

And Adelyn has not stopped. She likes to take it all in, even though it may take her a bit longer when compared to others. But that's okay - at least she has the chance now to take it all in.

We are very proud of Adelyn as we are of her siblings. Given a lot of room to grow, and the opportunity to do so, they have grasped what they've been offered. And Adelyn usually does it with a broad, if sometimes uncertain, smile on her face. She likes to share with others what she's seen, learned, or heard. She loves to ask questions to know more about what's going on in her world, even though she doesn't always grasp the answer quickly. But when she understands, or begins to connect the dots so that things make sense to her, the toothy smile always comes to her face as if to say, "here's another thing that connects us together."

Adelyn's special day today was another event in her life that connected her together with others and let her feeled affirmed and important. It was her day to shine!

Birny the Reader

Often it is just the small things or the simple things that bring a smile to one's face at CSC. Nearly all of the kids that come to our shelter are working with quite a deficit of "world" experience. That deficit may show itself in such ways as an unawareness of anything outside their previous community, not knowing when their birthday is, a lack of knowledge of anything technologically advanced, or zero education, even at an adolescent age. So those of us on the staff get a chance to see a lot of things the kids will marvel at or just begin to gain knowledge of that we probably take for granted.

For Birny, one of those things is reading. And his reading brought a broad smile to my face just yesterday. Academics have been a struggle for Birny since he came to CSC 4 1/2 years ago when he was just shy of his 7th birthday. But each school year his teachers have worked patiently with him and saw him make slow, but fairly steady progress. Any time we received a piece of good news about Birny in the classroom, it was noteworthy.

Much of that good news has been due to a lot of special efforts on Birny's behalf to help him in the areas he struggled in, primarily reading. Birny has spent many an hour over the past four years benifitting from one-on-one instruction (or II, as we call it here), which brings us to this week.

When Teacher Shari (our school consultant Shari Reasoner) is here in Cebu during one of her four or five month-long stints each year, she will take special time to work with some of our students who need a little extra help. A few times each week Birny will get to come into the library, put on a special "reading" t-shirt, and proceed to do some fun reading with Teacher Shari. He loves it, looks forward to it, does it with a lot of enthusiasm, and gets a great boost to his self-image. Having had a love for reading and books myself since my childhood, I get a lot of joy out of hearing a young reader enjoy a book and read it with passion and eagerness. Way to go Birny (and Teacher Shari)!

Encore!

Poise is the first word that comes to mind. I think we began having recitals at our school about nine years ago, but this is now the second year that we have had a formal recital and dinner. Eight of the kids from our shelter were involved in the performances and they practiced hard in preparation, dressed sharply, and played very well despite their nervousness. They were definitely poised.

Jeneviev, Analiza, Riza Mae, Bernardo, Jenive, Leheca, Paula, and Charryto were the performers and Teacher Francis had worked long hours over many months to help them hone their skills. It is a blessing to see the talents God has given our children and how they use them to bless others and bring glory to God. But it doesn't come easily. It takes the wonderful talent of Teacher Francis and his enthusiasm to help draw the talents out of the kids. And then it takes hours and hours of hard work by the kids to perfect their keystrokes on the piano, their touch on the clarinet and flute, and the ability to draw the bow across the strings of the violin.

We had a great crowd of special friends that came to see the kids perform last night. Since our kids come from very difficult situations and do not have their parents to see them perform, we are very appreciative of our close friends in Cebu who have become our kids "extended family." We were all very proud of the way all of our kids strove to excel, playing their pieces confidently, and quickly composing themselves if they played a wrong note. I think we learn a lot more about our kids, and they about themselves, when they make a mistake, make the needed adjustment, and go on to finish strong.

Our kids, from the beginning to the end, performed fantastically last night. And they certainly finished strong!

In the Middle of the Action

When our family returned to Cebu in June from a one year furlough in Washington and Minnesota, we came back one member short. We left our older son, Anthony, there to begin college in St. Paul. Ruth and I always knew that day would come, but we didn't really realize how it would come rushing up on us. I suppose most parents feel that way. But his 17 1/2 years of living in our home, most of that time here in Cebu where he was born, didn't seem long enough considering the thousands of miles and one very big ocean away that we would be. There was still too much to do and so much to impart. I suppose again that most parents feel that way - the thoughts kept drifting in that we should have done this or we should have done that. But then again he probably wouldn't have been able to leave home until he was in his 50s if we would have done all the things I thought of. We enjoyed all of our time with Anthony as a child in our home, but we raised him to be an adult. Now he is and he's getting along just fine (and many heartfelt thanks to many wonderful friends of ours who are a great extended family to him). We are very proud of him and the choices he is making.
It has also been Anthony's dream for some time to be an officer in the Marine Corps. He has long had a desire to serve the United States of America and it's causes for freedom. And even as a young boy the attack on our country on 9/11 seemed to have a profound effect on him. Perhaps being a resident of the Philippines where freedoms and justice are far less concrete gave him a desire to be a part of a cause where they are. But with that all said, he watched one idea about how he wanted to become Marine Corps officer fade and then saw another get clearer.

He Skyped us in the middle of August and said he would like to enlist.

It would get quite lengthy to go through all of the details of the past 6 weeks, but it would be saying enough that we wanted to make sure he knew what he was getting into. With his own initiative and the help of good friends he seems to be well informed and with the right motivations. And he still has the goal of being an officer - an infantry officer. So a parent, at this point, has to ask. Why? Why not choose something a little bit safer (what is safer in the Marines)? Now all of that may come to pass, or it may not. There are a lot of hurdles between signing your name on the dotted line as an enlisted personnel to becoming any kind of officer in the Marine Corps. But his answer? He wants to be challenged and to make a difference where the action is. Somebody has to do that job.

Where does he learn this stuff???

I had to reflect a bit on what Anthony has been exposed to his entire life. He has lived among a group of people (his parents included) who, in a country far away, have been working to make a difference in other people's lives. There are certainly some who would say we are maybe a bit touched to live halfway around the world in sometimes very difficult conditions to help Filipino children. And those people may be right. But when you know you are in a work God has ordained and you see the way your efforts result in changed lives, you know you are doing the right thing.

The situations that most of our children at CSC come out of are desperate, if not sometimes horrific. And while some children may continue to face challenges as they move beyond CSC to adoptive families, by and large they are doing well. Through several means, we maintain contact with many dozens of our former kids and their adoptive families to see them be successful in school, maintain a healthy spiritual life, get productive jobs, and start families of their own. Those success stories would not have happened without a dedicated group of people here in Cebu in the middle of the action, doing the work that few others choose to do.

Somebody has to do this job.

The Youngest of Nine

I think it would be pretty safe to say that nearly all of our children, when they come into our shelter, have absolutely no idea when their birthday is. That would be true for older children as well as the younger ones. And having no idea when their birthdays are, few of our children have ever celebrated their birthdays before coming to CSC.

But it doesn't take our kids long to find out what celebrating a birthday is all about. We do it about 70 -80 times a year so that each child gets their own special day to be in the spotlight. We don't do anything too fancy, but it's a very big deal for each child. The staff will join the home of the child that's having a birthday for a special meal (chicken and spaghetti are the most common menu items!), we have some cake and ice cream, and each child will receive a gift bag with some treasured gifts.

Tonight we celebrated Jashley Mae's 4th birthday. Jashley is the youngest of a group of nine siblings we have and this was a very big deal for her. The rest of Jashley's siblings had already celebrated their birthdays this year and Jashley knew her birthday was on September 29. Now, as a four-year-old, Jashley doesn't really understand that she's the last of her siblings to celebrate during a calendar year, but she knew the date and she knew it had been a long time since her last birthday. In fact, she has regularly let us know her birthday was on September 29 since early summer.Well, Jashley celebrated her birthday "outside the box" tonight. It has long been CSC tradition to wear the color red on your birthday and rarely is that "violated." But tonight Jashley was dressed like a little princess in a shiny blue dress. Cute, cute, cute. And don't let Jashley's expression from the pictures deceive you that she wasn't having a good time. That is Jashley's happy face and she was having a GREAT time!

One Step Closer

Today we finally received the occupancy permit we need to move into our new facilities! The occupancy permit is given when all of the post construction inspections are done and the Office of the Building Official concurs that the buildings have been built according to the previously approved plans and that everything meets code.

This has been somewhat of a slow process as virtually nothing moving through the city government's various offices gets done expeditiously, but here we are one step closer. The last step is for us to use the occupancy permit as one of the requirements in applying for a larger transformer to handle the bigger electricity load with our additional facilities. We will start that tomorrow, so we'll see. We should be moving in soon!

Beyond the Call

A few weeks ago, Joemar started attending a Saturday P.E. class that the physical education instructor, Teacher Al, from our own school started having for children and young adults with special needs. Joemar was so excited. Several times a day we heard how he had played volleyball the previous Saturday or he was going to play volleyball the following Saturday. Since then it has progressed into other sports and Maria, from our teen home, has also gotten involved.

Yesterday, I stopped by the local college where they were learning how to play basketball. I couldn't take the smile off of my face as I watched Teacher Al and some assistants very patiently teaching the participants the various basketball skills. They were just all having a great time and Joemar was proud to show off his skills and the new friend he has made in the class. The ante was upped a bit when I got my camera out to take a few pictures.

Maria, who was decidedly tired and had called it a day, became decidedly untired and determined to go back out on the court to take a few more shots. And Joemar became a little more animated and very light on his feet!We appreciate the effort that Teacher Al puts into his classes with all of our kids. Trained and experienced P.E. teachers are very difficult to come by and this is the first time in the 11 years of our school that we have had such a teacher. Al is very patient to teach all of the skills the kids need for the different sports they play and he is very methodical about getting them warmed up and cooled down after. But the truest side of Teacher Al comes out when he is with our kids with special needs. He wants everyone to have a chance to play sports and be phyically fit. And he wants everyone to have a fun time doing it!

Great Friends

Last night our whole staff gathered at our house for a potluck dinner with two of our great friends (and CSC's great friends). It is a pretty regular occurrence that all, many, or some of our staff are together for lunch or dinner meals. We work together and we often socialize together. It's been that way for my 25 years here. But we always enjoy it just a little bit more when we have good friends with us.

With us last night were Howard and Marilynn Plucar who are with the leadership of Reach Global, the international missions wing of the Evangelical Free Church of America. We have known Howie and Marilynn for many years now and they have been not only good friends personally, but wonderful friends to the ministry of Children's Shelter of Cebu. We have been in their home many times, and they in ours. But they have always had a keen interest in the work we do with children in the Philippines. They have helped to support our children and ministry as a whole. And Howie has even gone to the great lengths of being Santa Claus for Christmas with the children here (a very hot, but not thankless job!). If I recall correctly, Howie even got to spend a little time in the therapy room jacuzzi as a part of our annual Santa Claus hijinks with the kids.

Often our conversation will center around something to do with the ministry or the kids, but last night we took a little detour to 1950s, 60s, and 70s television - who remembered or watched which shows, who the characters were, and how the theme songs went. Instead of talking about how the teachers' days went or which kids were up to what, we got into the Munsters, Brady Bunch, Lone Ranger, Addams Family, Gilligan's Island, Three Stooges, I Love Lucy, Fury, and so on and so on. We had a great time and a lot of laughs!

Do you remember the theme song to the Munsters?

Parent - Teacher Conferences

A few times a school year we have the chance to go to our school and hear how our kids from the shelter are doing. So perhaps it's a bit of a misnomer to call them parent - teacher conferences because our kids do not have their parents in their lives. Instead, the children's house parents from the homes at the shelter and all of our staff gather together to hear our teachers share about how the kids are doing. It can get to be a bit of a marathon at times, but that's unavoidable. We usually are hearing one-by-one how 50 of our kids are doing, so yesterday it took about 3 1/2 hours to hear about their progress! Even with that length of time, we don't get to hear about each child for very long.

Our teachers always do a great job of putting together narrative reports that really give a good picture of how each child is doing. It's hard work and they make them interesting, noting the strengths of each child and perhaps where they need improvement or extra help.

It is so encouraging to hear that each of our kids is making progress - some excelling, some faster than others, but at least they are all moving in the right direction. It is just amazing to hear about their progress when you are aware of the situations the kids have come out of. Many of the kids did not start school on time and missed several years. Others started, then stopped, started, then stopped, started, then stopped do to their unstable home situations. Because of this, most of the kids end up playing catch-up for the rest of their academic careers. And even after many of these children get to our shelter and get enrolled in school, it may take them two or three years before they really start to get any "traction" and start to make steady progress.

It is hard, hard work being a good teacher in our school and seeing that the needs of each individual child are being met because the needs are so many and so varied. I think our teachers are heroes and great role models for our kids. And it's also hard, hard work being a child who is behind in school or with some learning difficulties to be able to cope up and catch up. In our school it takes a lot of hard work all around!

Joemar Has a Lot to Say

Anyone who has been to visit CSC for any length of time knows Joemar. CSC is Joe's home. It has been now for 24 years. If you don't know Joe, he came to CSC when he was just short of his 9th birthday. Joemar, who has special needs, was clearly traumatized when he came to CSC and didn't really talk. We weren't sure if it was because of the trauma he had gone through or if he had some speech impediment. All these year's later, Joemar still isn't able to speak clearly. But it doesn't keep him from trying. Touch on a subject close to Joemar's heart and he can ramble on for quite a long time including demonstrative hand gestures, creative sound effects, and entertaining facial expressions. In fact, Joemar has a lot to say. Those who are wise will listen closely.

Joemar starts each day with the same enthusiasm he has had every other day in his life. His cognitive limitations have never limited his desire to live each day to the fullest and to be happy doing whatever he is doing at the moment. Every single day is a happy day for Joemar. Any visitor worth their salt can tell you about Joemar's smile, his laugh, and his willingness to help out with anything he is asked to do. Nothing is work for Joemar if he's doing it elbow to elbow with someone else. I don't think he has ever felt limited by what other's may see as his limitations.

Joemar is also a very kind and caring young man. If you know Joe, you also know he works three short shifts a week at McDonald's. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he is in his uniform early and ready to be taken down the hill to catch a ride on a jeepney to work. Joemar takes his work at McDonald's (clearing trays, cleaning tables, and pouring extra gravy for those customers with fried chicken) very seriously. He takes a lot of pride in wearing the uniform and doing his best to serve others every minute he's at his job. It's important work Joemar does.

And each day before he leaves his work, Joemar gets to bring home lunch: McDonald's spaghetti and a Coke. This is very important to him as it should be - part of a man's pay for doing a good day's work. But more often than not, Joemar won't eat that spaghetti himself. He saves it to give to his good buddy, Wilmar, a young boy with special needs that Joemar has kept under his wing since he came to CSC eight years ago.

If you don't know Joemar well, you might just notice he doesn't really talk too clearly. But Joemar's got a lot to say about enthusiasm, happiness, helpfulness, a good work ethic, and kindness for his fellow man.

Confidence in God

I have been with CSC for more than 25 years now and I have seen God meet the needs of our ministry in so many ways. Some have been routine and some have been quite miraculous. Some have been in ways that we wanted or expected and some were met in much different ways than we could have imagined. Some met the needs of the whole ministry, others met the needs of groups of kids, and countless have met the needs of an individual child. If we gathered our whole staff around and reminisced about the way God has provided for CSC through the years, we'd have a many-volume set if we put it to paper. The dozens and dozens of visitors we have each year would be enthusiastic witnesses to it all and maybe could add a few volumes of their own.

But to have that many needs met and to have been blessed in so many ways means that there originally had to be several hundred thousand or more needs over the past thirty years that needed to be met in the first place. Where would we have been without God?

Now as I sit and write this, my head is beginning to spin. I can think of need after need after need God has met with a blessing in some way. I think of one need God has met and 20 more come to mind. I wonder if we take it for granted sometimes or if we also have an extraordinary amount of confidence that God will continue to provide. I think of the hundreds of children who have come through our doors, eaten at our tables, slept in our homes, called our homes home, been taught in our school, gotten hugs from our staff, discovered they are important, been taken to our doctors, had their first birthday party, kicked a ball on our playground, worshiped with us in church, called our God Father, learned what Christmas and Easter are really about, and left out those same doors with a family. The number of times that God has met the needs of even just one child who has experience all that and so much more, and blessed the ministry of CSC to make all of that possible for just that one child, makes my head spin even more.

The needs of CSC are very significant working in a country where there is poverty beyond description, a great chasm of spiritual and ethical depravity, and thousands of children who pay the price and face terrible neglect, abuse, abandonment, and homelessness each day. Our confidence comes in the fact that God is infinitely greater than all of those needs.

During the past few months the donations to CSC have been down very significantly, resulting in less money coming to Cebu for our operations than we need and have budgeted. The global economic crisis has affected so many people and surely many of CSC's donors are among them. This causes us to worry and be concerned when we consider how many children are counting on us. We wonder if things could possibly get even worse before they hopefully get better.

We need to keep our confidence in God that He knows all of our needs and that He will provide according to His will. He has blessed us so much in the past three decades. If we remain faithful I think we can expect God to do even greater things as we look ahead!

Kids Need Trees

Sometimes just the simplest things, things that we often take for granted, bring such joy and pleasure to our kids. Today was a fairly quiet afternoon and I took a trip up to the shelter to see what the kids were up to and to do a little work on the computer at school. As I was walking down to the shelter from the school, I heard this raucous laughter from the large empty lot between the two compounds. Some kids were yelling "hi" and I just assumed they were kids from the community as they will sometimes take a short cut through that area. I was surprised when I looked up and saw about 10 of our kids up in a big tree. Boy, was I glad to see that!

Our kids are quite sheltered most of the time. We have a lot of kids to keep track of and it just isn't possible to have them going outside the compound unsupervised in just any direction. There is far too much trouble to get in to without going too far from our compound. And if our kids didn't manage to find trouble, trouble would almost surely find them. Lawlessness is not unheard of in our neck of the woods.

And kids need trees.

A couple of months ago I had some of the kids and Uncle Patrick come over to the empty lot to watch some men finishing cutting down a tree that had had a huge branch fall into our compound onto a couple of our employees. What kids wouldn't like to see guys slicing through a tree with a big, noisy chainsaw. Anyway, there was another big tree in the area so I encouraged the kids to go play in the tree for a while. They had a great time so I told Uncle Patrick to bring them back over sometime. Today they did, even bringing along a big rope to make a swing. Everyone got a chance to play Tarzan or Jane and even Uncle Patrick and Auntie Lourdes climbed up in the tree with the kids. Hence, raucous laughter today.

Kids need trees.

Gratitude

On two different occasions today I was very pleasantly encouraged by expressions of gratitude by two of our former CSC kids (now adults). One former kid started a chat on the Internet this morning and just expressed how grateful she was to her adoptive family and CSC for being there for her when she needed it most. This young woman has experienced many challenging and painful times in her young life and was just very appreciative of what CSC and her adoptive family had done for her. Now she has a beautiful family of her own and is a terrific wife and mother.

The other young woman made a post on a networking site on the Internet about the anniversary of her adoption. She went on to publicly express her love for and gratitude to her family for giving her and her siblings a family and for sticking it out with them through some challenging times.

It is so encouraging to hear these expressions of gratitude from these wonderful young Christian women! We on the staff at CSC appreciate knowing and hearing that our kids are grateful for what has been done for them.

Talents

Earlier today most of the students from our school had the chance to watch a cultural presentation at Bethany Christian School, a local Chinese school. Bethany was having their culminating program for Buwan ng Wika, the Philippines' celebration of language and culture. The Bethany students did an awesome job of portraying many different dances from the different areas of the Philippines and around the world. It was obvious that they had spent many hours over many weeks and months practicing for this event. There were many dozens of students performing beautifully orchestrated dances one right after another. Each one came off without a hitch (except for a few ankles getting caught in the Tinikling sticks) and the dances followed each other with no intermissions. It was also obvious that the whole production was very much a team effort of students, teachers and parents. Not only were the dances superb, but the stage sets and costumes were elaborate. There's no doubt many thousands of dollars were spent on costumes alone. It all came together for a great show. I'm sure that all of the parents in attendance were very proud of their kids.

As I'm writing this, there is a small group of kids in the library after hours at our school learning a new song and dance for their upcoming morning meeting presentation. The best I can tell is that nearly all of them are singing in the wrong key (several wrong keys) and with different beats. But just as the Bethany students surely started off with many wrong steps and dance moves, our kids are starting from "ground zero" as well. Whether a group is very large or small, you start building with a few steps here and a few notes there. It's a lot of hard work that makes it all come together. I'm sure our small group in the library today practicing with Teacher Michelle will pull off a polished presentation in a few weeks.

And one thing is for sure, we will be just as proud of them as all of the Bethany students' parents were of their kids today at the Buwan ng Wika.

Human Touch

Following is an excerpt of an opinion piece written by Michelle P. So, Executive Editor of SunStar Cebu, a local daily newspaper. Her introduction is not included because of length, but the piece is about her and her former classmates' visit to the Missionaries of Charity malnutrition center in Cebu City:

"We were not prepared for what we saw when we entered the rooms. Babies crying like they were playing Metallica rock, toddlers running around or climbing out of the cribs, and one skin-and-bones kid lying in one corner of the room. Many of us had not seen a severely malnourished child until yesterday.

The sight broke our hearts. The skin-and-bones kid looked up at our classmate Apollo, thinking that when he grows up, he’d like to be just like him-- never hungry for long and always well-fed.

The center has 57 malnourished kids in its care. Seven of the kids are girls in their early teens and afflicted with tuberculosis. The 50 others are children below seven years old but we could not tell their biological age from their small frames. One eight-month old baby looked like he had just been delivered.

The children have been put in the center to be nursed back to health. Almost all of them come from a large family who live in a depressed area. They were brought to the center either by their mothers or by public hospital staff.

Once the babies are put in the care of the Missionaries of Charity, the mothers can visit them only every Tuesday. When the mothers do not return after the babies have been nursed back to health, the MC sisters, when they can’t find the mothers, bring the kids to the social welfare department.

We were not allowed to pick the babies up because a handwritten sign on the wall said so and the fading ink no longer allowed an explanation of why we couldn’t. Besides, the caretakers had more urgent baby matters to attend to than sit and compose an essay of why visitors couldn’t pick up the babies.

But a female helper, who was bathing one baby after another (50 babies, remember?), said the sign was for the benefit of student visitors who know very little about handling babies and might drop them.

We knew the undertones of the sign. The babies might get used to being picked up when they cry and there are not enough hands to pick up each crying baby when the visitors are gone. The babies are sick and are easily susceptible to germs.

An argument for the passage of the Reproductive Health Care bill is found at the Missionaries of Charity center in Pasil. Those who oppose the bill need only to visit it to know why."

I finished that article with a mix of emotions. I was very sad for those children and the millions of others in this country that suffer in various ways. Granted the extreme nature of deprivation described in this account does not affect the millions, but certainly this level of suffering reaches the tens of thousands.

I was happy that we are able to help many children avoid this kind of life where every basic necessity for health and happiness is lacking, including the simple need of a caring human's touch. Many of our kids have already experienced the above-described deprivation to some extent, but at CSC we get to share with them a Savior's love and the other things in life they need to be happy and healthy.

Birthday and Prayer Meeting

Last night our staff and short termers met for prayer after Weeno's birthday. Weeno's birthday is one of two this week (tonight we celebrate Christian's birthday). He had a great time and it's always fun for the staff to socialize with the kids over dinner. With around 70 birthdays in a year, we usually end up sitting next to different kids at each party. It's a great time getting to talk with them about their day and what they did in school and play.

During the prayer meetings we share many concerns, praises, and things we have to be thankful for. In this work there are always so many things to pray about for the kids, workers, our own families and CSC as a ministry. Several things that we prayed about last night were: CSC's financial situation (income has been very low during the summer), Andrew M.'s trip back to MN today, Janice (who has been struggling with her behavior in class), Warlita (who severely sprained her ankle this week, Anthony O. (who is desiring to join the Marine Corps), some of our older kids who have recently joined adoptive families, thanks for the good health of our kids over the past few months, Teacher Eunice's return to school after a long illness, and my shoulder (I've had significant pain for the last seven weeks). There were many other praises and petitions as well. We're so grateful to have a God who knows all of our needs!