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.