Staff Blog

Morning Meeting!  This is one of the most popular activities in school that CCHS children look forward to.  Each level is given a slot every quarter to share what they have learned in SRA (reading and language arts) class through songs, poems, stories, and other activities. 

Level B1 students did a great job in their morning meeting last week.  They shared about kindness and sharing stories, the two most recent themes they had covered in reading.  There was a variety of presentations. 

One group of students shared a song about kindness.  

Another group told a story using hand puppets.  

One of the boys talked about sharing stories using a big hand-made book.  

The children ended the morning meeting with a dance about sharing.  

It was fun to see Level B1 students perform!

Typical day in the therapy room: student having his speech therapy session with the therapist.

Conversation:

The therapist asks, “Where do French fries come from?”

Without any pause or hesitation, the student answers, “McDonald’s!”

My co-therapist and I burst out laughing. I know we are not supposed to laugh when a student makes a mistake, but we couldn’t help ourselves. It was so cute! The answer does make sense though, if you are a kid. The student just looked between me and my co-therapist with a look that said, “Okay, so what’s funny?”

It was, in fact, a true and genuine answer coming from a seven-year-old boy. McDonald’s and its counterpart, Jollibee, are a hit here in the Philippines, especially for the young kids at the shelter. It is a big deal for them when they are able to go to one of these establishments. (My blog is not about advertising for these businesses, by the way.)

Sometimes as adults we are so caught up with our adult stuff that we forget how to live life like a child, worry free. The kids at the shelter remind us that, in spite of the difficulties they have already faced at a young age, we have a God who is bigger than our worries.

I sat in the therapy room with the speech therapy session still going on thinking how blessed I am to be in this environment. I teach and treat kids with special needs and in turn, they too, teach me even more. As an English proverb says, “The soul is healed by being with children.”

Of course, most of the students at Cebu Children of Hope School are from the shelter since that is the main reason for the existence of our school.  However, over the years we have had a handful of community kids attend the school for varying amounts of time.  There was VJ, Andree Kaye, John Ray, Rufa Mae, Christian, and a few others.  CCHS is not big enough to be able to open its doors to the community at large, so we have always brought in community kids just by word of mouth.  It has usually been the case that a commmunity student attends CCHS because he cannot go to another school due to extenuating circumstances. 

For the past three years we have had our hands pretty full with the kids who need schooling from the shelter, but we had our eyes and ears open for a community child who may fit into our school.  Well, meet Lael.  Lael lives with his family nearby and his parents heard about CCHS from someone who works in their church.  Lael is eight years old and suffers from a rare syndrome called Lennox Gestaut Syndrome.  His mom and dad have been looking for a school where Lael can interact with other kids his age in a safe, caring environment. 

Last week Lael started attending CCHS for library and art classes two times a week.  It was a great start for everyone and we are excited to have a new student in our midst.  After all, we are Children of Hope for children of hope. 

This morning I had the honor of eating breakfast with 45 amazing donors. CSC held it’s second annual Shareholder Meeting today. This shareholder group consists of donors who have given a total of $50,000 or more in gifts OR 150 or more lifetime gifts. I was calculating what that looks like and realized that in order to hit 150 lifetime gifts, it equals monthly gifts to an organization for at least 12 1/2 years. That’s a really long time. And a serious commitment to a ministry.

I was honored to be in a room with people so dedicated to helping the children in Cebu. In a way, everyone who gives to support the ministry is a shareholder. Whether it is your first gift or your 200th gift, you are investing in the work of changing lives in the Philippines. Thank you for your support!

Last Sunday I had the opportunity to preach at my home church, Central Baptist. I spoke about Zebedee, the father of James and John. The title of my sermon was "Stay in the Boat." I took a look at the life of Zebedee as he saw his boys leave the boat to go and follow Jesus. Zebedee's calling was to stay in the boat, to not get in  the way of his boys' leaving, and, almost certainly, to keep working hard to be able to support their calling to follow Jesus.

While some have been called to leave their homes and go to Cebu to serve. Others have answered the call to remain in North America, in their communities, families and places of employment. The financial and prayer support of the missionaries who went to the Philippines has been crucially important to success of the ministry in the lives of the children that God has brought to us.

Praise God for the Zebedees who have blessed CSC over the years, who put the food, medicine, clothing and books in the hands of our staff to brighten the lives of homeless children in Cebu.