Giving Spirit

The past few months have been some very challenging times for CSC, especially in light of the fact that we are early in the process of our latest expansion of the ministry - from three homes to four, including our teen home. Over the three summer months, we have received nearly $100,000 less than what our budget calls for. And although we have been able to make up some of that difference with reserves here in Cebu, it has meant that we are not doing many things we need to be doing for the ministry. We have not had to cut basic daily services yet, but many maintenance projects are going undone, a couple replacements of nearly 20 year old vehicles are off the table, much needed vehicle repairs are being put off, outreach assistance is being restricted, a child's surgery is being delayed, IT systems are not being upgraded, and the hiring of a few more staff needed to fill roles in the expanding work is on hold.

We are trusting that God, who knows all of our needs, will provide. CSC's stateside organization is working to better make our needs known to our current donors while also taking steps to bring CSC to those who don't know about us yet. And it's encouraging that in the middle of CSC's great needs this summer, God has brought two new couples to help our ministry here in Cebu. Two Filipino couples, unknown to CSC before, both found our ministry through the Internet. Both sent e-mails expressing a desire to visit the shelter and to help in whatever way they could. Both couples did visit the shelter and shortly after gave very generous donations while sharing a desire to continue doing so. That has been a very rare occurrence here in Cebu.

We are encouraged that God is showing his provision for us. Those gifts we received may barely dent the summer shortfall we have experience, but they were very generous and help a great deal towards providing food, medicine, and education for our children.

We so greatly appreciate the giving spirit of these two Filipino couples - they were both so excited to be helping the children at CSC!

Two Minute Conversation Between Peers: An Expression of a Life Lived to Its Fullest

Competition With a Lot of Laughs

Life at the shelter can be a bit confining at times because of the unsafe reality of the surrounding neighborhood and the protective nature of CSC's ministry. It's just not possible for kids to go out the gate and roam the neighborhood looking for play opportunities. For any who have had the chance to visit the shelter, that would be very evident. Drugs, gangs, and occasional violence are not uncommon to our locale.

So our kids relish every opportunity to have some time out from the hustle and bustle of the shelter. It might be a weekly outing with their houseparents, going shopping with Auntie Sandy, Jollibee for lunch with Uncle Paul, bowling with Teacher Amy and Teacher Tammy, or out on a boat for some snorkeling with our family. We also enjoy going out for a bite to eat with the kids and playing several games of P-I-G at a local billiards room. P-I-G, introduced to our kids by one of our teachers, is an elimination type game that involves a billiards table with two balls, lots of action and strategy, and a ton of laughs.



While all of the kids play for fun, most of them want to win really badly. For a few it's pretty important. But more than that, they like to see me lose or make a silly error. That gets the most laughs. And if I end up on my back on the floor, all the better. Nothing like a good laugh at the expense of Uncle Mitch.



It's just a good experience for everyone all around. The kids get to get out and enjoy themselves, they get a chance to compete in a game where even the less talented kid has always got a chance to win, they get to see me do badly, and everyone gets to laugh a lot.

Our Friends from Stavanger

These past few weeks have we've had a couple of families visit the ministry who adopted children from us back in the late 80s and early 90s. Both families are from Stavanger, Norway as well as another family that adopted two other boys from us in the 80s but weren't able to come for a visit at this time. The family of Andreas Hernan and Anne Riyah arrived at the end of June and stayed here in the Philippines for about three weeks. It was exciting for us to have a chance to visit with their whole family on several occasions, but especially with their two kids, now adults in their 20s. Both Andreas and Anne were a delight to have and it was fun to hear about their lives after so many years. Anne was a top 10 finalist in Norwegian Idol a few years ago and is very talented young woman. Andreas is a very impressive young man who obviously has a very kind spirit. The night their family joined us for a birthday party, Andreas sat for the better part of two hours with Julieto and chatted with him while showing him pictures on his camera. I've never seen Julieto feel comfortable enough to sit with anyone for that long and carry on a conversation.

This week brought the adoptive parents of Mark and Jay to the shelter, although the boys, also both now adults, were not able to come with them to Cebu. Jay and Mark were both adopted in the early 90s. Mark and Jay's parents shared lots of stories about the boys and it's wonderful to hear they are both doing well.

Both families have been to visit Cebu several times and we feel as though they are close, but distant, friends. The families also stay involved with each other in Norway along with the other family who adopted the two boys, Jan Allen and Tor Alvin. All three families keep in touch, socialize with each other, and even share vacations together at times. We appreciate, too, how they stay involved with CSC, always make it a point to visit us, and support the work we continue to do.

With these three families, we feel like we have a little part of CSC that continues on away from Cebu on the southwest coast of Norway!

Kim, Now Joey

In recent months we have had quite a few of our former residents come back to visit CSC, including a few who were at CSC in its early days, 25 to 30 years ago. Arlie, Andreas Hernan, Anne Riyah, and Joey were all with us a various times in the 1980s. And just now as I write this I've had an IM pop up from another of our kids from the 80s, Cherry. Wow.

It's always a thrill for us to have our kids come back to visit us. Occasionally it is a situation where we have had little or no communication with the child or the family since the child left. It presents the occasion of having many years of catching up to do. Often a returning resident will have the desire to search for and visit a birth family, usually successfully. And sometimes they are adults already and have their own families.

Whatever the situation, it's always a blessing for us to welcome back those we have cared for and invested a big part of our lives in. It's really no different than any of us that have our own children and then getting to see them again after a very long absence. We feel as though they are one of our own. The affinity is still there even if the familiarity is not.

When Joey came to visit with his father, Frank, and sister, Kim, it brought back so many memories. We were all a lot younger back then and I remember being on duty (our CSC staff provided most of the childcare back in those days) with Joey, then named Kim. We fed him, bathed him, changed his diaper, and put him to sleep. But most of the memories come from playing with Joey. He was a solid little guy with a big smile and a lot of energy. I spent many hours on my back in the original Bulacao home on the floor with Joey and his buddies crashing down on top of me. Once thrown off, he would always come back for more. Always.

We hope he comes back for more here at CSC someday, too!

Our Kids Are Praying for You

Our staff takes turns covering for our houseparents whenever they have their days off, so we get a regularly rotated evening duty in the homes two or three times a month. We spend a lot of time with the kids during the days and on the weekends, but the evening duties gives us the chance to spend a little extra special time with the kids in a more relaxing setting. Maybe it's an evening of games, or perhaps a movie shown outside with the projector and screen. Whatever the evening's activities, we get to end the evening with a prayer time with the kids. Each of our staff may do bedtime prayers differently with the kids in each of the homes, but we all probably spend time talking about different prayer needs or requests.

The prayer requests can vary greatly, but here is a sample of tonight's requests: Ginda - who is in the hospital; Jacob, Danielle, Rowena, and Rustina - who are sick and in isolation at CSC; Teacher Michelle - that she would be safe while now back in MN (I'm not sure why she would be unsafe!); that they would all have adoptive families; thanks for all of the aunties and houseparents who take care of them; for safe travel for the Healys when they leave soon for furlough; that God would provide CSC with enough money during this time when donations are low; for all of the supporters and friends who give their money to CSC.

The last request is one that has been consistent for many, many years. Our kids never forget to pray regularly for the people who make CSC's ministry possible, people who they mostly do not even know. While CSC has different avenues for our supporters and friends to pray for our kids like the FrontLine prayer letter, website, and word of mouth, our kids will always pray for CSC's supporters and friends without prompting.

It's important to know. Our kids are praying for you.

Our Kids Love School

Classes began at Cebu Children of Hope School yesterday, our school's 13th year. Each day of opening classes is a very exciting time for the children. While all of them enjoy summer vacation and all of the activities that brings, most of them are very excited for classes to begin again when summer is done. Why? Our kids love school. Why? Because our school takes education very seriously and our teachers make learning fun. We have terrific teachers and a knowledgeable and creative support staff. There are a lot of fun activities throughout the school year for the kids that enhance the whole learning experience. The fun activities are not done at the expense of learning, but to make learning more interesting and complete.

The kids in our school come with so many challenges as many have never been to school before, some are far behind their age group, while others face a diminished capacity due to the ravages of malnutrition and sickness. Our teachers must do so much specialization for each and every student. But it really gives our ministry, school, and teachers the opportunity to focus on the individual needs of each child. None seem to get lost in the shuffle. And with such an intense focus on each child, the kids realize their education is important and tend to enjoy it more.

The bottom line is our kids like to be in school. It makes our teachers' jobs a lot easier and our kids benefit from that. It's a win-win situation!

Not Just a Job

This evening I had to run back to the shelter for a couple of things before heading home and I had the chance to sit down with one of our housefathers for a while. He seemed a bit down and shared some frustrating things that had been happening with the kids in his home. It was nothing too out of the ordinary for kids, but it was wearing on him nonetheless. He shared how he had spent time with the children in prayer that evening and how each of the children really like him to pray individually for each of them every evening. And despite being a bit burdened, he was encouraged by the prayers of one of the girls in the home - prayers that were mature beyond her age. She had prayed that God would really help her and the other kids apply the things in their lives that they had learned in their Bible lessons. It was so encouraging to me to know how seriously this housefather was taking the spiritual health of the children in his care.

Then he went on to share even more about how he prays for the children he and his wife have been entrusted with, even to the point of praying for the children that have YET to come to their home - children that SOMEDAY God will bring to CSC for them to minister to. SOMEWHERE there are children in Cebu - in an abusive home, in a crowded maternity ward, on a dirty sidewalk beside a busy street - whose lives are already being affected by the prayers of one of our houseparents. I sat down to encourage, and left incredibly encouraged myself. It had been an incredibly long day by that time, but a day never gets too long for that. I left thinking how fortunate the children would be that would come into these houseparents' care.

"Kung Walang Karup, Walang Mahirap"

The title phrase is a Tagalog slogan used by Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino, proclaimed winner of the May 2010 presidential election in the Philippines. It means, "if there is no corruption, there will be no poverty." It's a catchy phrase, especially in a country where there is so much of both elements. It's also incredibly simplistic. But it's also fair to say that if there were little or no corruption, there would almost certainly be far less poverty.

Poverty slams us in the face every day here in Cebu, especially as we on the staff of CSC strive to make critical decisions about children's lives and the direction of the ministry. Nearly every day we are faced with decisions about admitting children to the shelter, how we are going to care and provide for them in light of their sad and usually tragic backgrounds, and often about how we will fund certain needs. It's pretty easy to feel overwhelmed at times with the enormity of it all.

It never goes away, so it's helpful to be able to constrict our view a bit to focus on the needs we can help - our 75 kids. We don't want to delude ourselves that the ocean of depravity and poverty around us has disappeared, but it's helpful to know we have an island to stand on and do our work with the children God has brought to our care. We can swim if we need to, want to, or God directs us to, but we always have our island.

What is our island? It's made up of our wonderful facilities of the shelter, school, and teen home. It's our staff with a combined 167 years of experience. It's our few thousand loyal supporters who give generously and pray regularly. It's our families who have made the sacrifice to let us go and do this work. And it's our God who sustains us and gives us the wisdom we need to plow through it each day.

Noynoy Aquino faces an insurmountable task. From our island, it's hard to imagine the corruption and poverty in the Philippines even being lessened. We face challenges at CSC, however difficult they may be. But we get to see victories and God's blessings around us daily.

Eight Million Devotees?

This past week in Cebu City was the annual Sinulog Fiesta, a Catholic festival devoted to the Santo Nino, the image of the child Jesus. The week had several masses, processions, and parades around the city culminating in the Grand Parade yesterday where dozens of groups danced their intrepretation of the Sinulog dance. Thousands of people come from abroad and around the country to participate in these celebrations as well as family reunions.

But if you are not a Catholic devotee, there is not much to look forward to during this annual fiesta. The traffic is horrendous, the sidewalks are clogged with vendors, and the perpetual beat of the Sinulog theme song in stores and restaurants is trying at best. It is purportedly a religious festival, but somewhere along the way it "caught" the commercialization that we all experience with Christmas. The religious symbols are there, but most of Sinulog has very little to do with anything spiritual.

I had to chuckle a bit when I read the headlines of the newspaper from the past two days. Very bold, large type proclaimed the millions that had come out to participate in the solemn procession (reportedly 2 million) on Saturday and to watch the grand parade (reportedly 8 million) on Sunday. Common sense tells anyone with common sense that the numbers were exaggerated many times over. Attendance numbers of this sort are pretty routinely inflated here, but never this outrageously. Something tells me that the upcoming election season had something to do with it since city officials are involved in running the show.

But it gave me something to think about. What if Christians had the same kind of devotion to our Savior? What would compel eight million, two million, or even just 500,000 believers, many traveling from around the globe, to come together for a time of common worship, celebration, or glorification of our God and Savior? One day that time will come.