Staff Blog

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

"O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name: Make known His deeds among the people.  Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him: talk ye of all His wondrous works."  Psalm 105:1-2

Yesterday we celebrated Thanksgiving here for the kids and the staff!  Much fun was had and the children told of the many things they are grateful for: 

God

the Aunties

CSC

the Staff

Food

Family

We have many things to be grateful for here at CSC.  We are safe, the kids are healthy and happy.  We have food to give them, teachers to teach them, house parents to guide them and so MANY supporters who are praying for them and giving to this ministry.  THANK YOU!  And God's hand is on CSC, on our kids, on our workers and on our lives.  

We are truly blessed!

In response to the devastation on our island and on the neighboring island of Leyte, CSC has mounted some relief efforts to relieve suffering and give hope. Although we have not actively solicited donations for a major relief initiative, loyal and generous CSC donors have given. The outpouring of love has been amazing. Some of it comes from former residents and their families who want to help birth families. The rest comes from people who have heard about and seen the tragic results of the typhoon that hit our part of the country.

On Tuesday, November 19, Carmelita Baya, CSC's Senior Social Worker, went to northern Cebu to deliver food and water to families known to the CSC family. She and our driver, Edwin Martinez, brought mineral water, canned goods, rice, noodles and dried fish to three families of former residents. Although Cebu City was spared significant storm damage, northern Cebu got hit very hard. The families were thrilled to receive the boxes for good. Their only other option was to fall in line for hours at a government distribution center where they would only be given a small bag of food. One of the women that they visited was standing in the long line when someone came and told her that Carmelta was at her home. When she ran there Carmelita said, "You don't have to wait in line. We came to see you!" All three families have major damage to their houses which was assessed by Carmelita. We will try to help them with building supplies soon. We cannot help all the people who need assistance. We can't even offer aid to all the people we know personally. But we can help some and we are trying our best to do that. We are not a rescue or relief agency, just a group of people who want to help, even in relatively small ways.  

The next trip will be tomorrow. Carmelita and three others will be going to Leyte, the hardest hit of all the islands. Again, we will be distributing food and doing assessments of houses of people we know. This morning we went to the supermarked in Cebu City and purchased food for ten families. This will be a three day trip and the team will be going to several towns with these goods.

Here are some pictures of the damaged homes of the families that we are helping:

Quarterly Examinations! When kids hear these words, they have different reactions… some are happy…. some are scared… but for CCHS students, it’s anticipation!

As part of the education process, quarterly examinations are a means of measuring the students’ performance in school. The students prepare a lot for them. They take their studies seriously. They go through sleepless nights studying and hoping for very good scores in the end. The exams not only serve as encouragement for the students to work hard and aim for good grades, but also unite students to study together and strengthen, if not build, new friendships. For teachers, they make sure their tests reflect what has transpired during the quarter and show the true learning of their students. 

Quarterly examinations always bring excitement to every child at Cebu Children of Hope School. “For me, quarterly examinations are fun. It keeps you alert and makes you feel nervous at the same time,” a student from Level C said.  “It excites me because it tells me how far I’ve learned from my teacher. It also reminds me to always listen to her during class discussions because I know that quarterly examinations will soon come,” said another.

For teachers, quarterly examinations are a way of measuring how much the students learn from their lessons.  The tests give the teachers a sense of fulfillment especially when their students get good scores.  The exams also remind teachers about how important their role is, in shaping the minds of the young children. “My students’ scores do not really matter to me, although, it would be a great feeling if they’d get good scores. What matters most is, how they would use that gained knowledge in their personal lives and how they’re going to live their lives soon after,” one teacher said.

No matter how different people view quarterly examinations, one thing remains certain.  The exams are given to help the kids and remind them to always study hard and use that knowledge in shaping their bright futures.

A good friend of mine, Howard Plucar, missionary, pastor, blogger and devotional writer, who has lived much of the past decade in Japan and the Philippines, remembered something from his high school football days when thinking about the difficulties faced by hundreds of thousands of Filipinos these days:

"Back about 45 years ago when I was playing high school football, there was a rule against “piling-on” a player who had already been tackled and was down on the ground." 

I can also remember a guy who used to play football at the college where I attended. He as known as "Spike," and I can remember some classic late hits that resulted in "Piling On" penalties for our team. Well after the whistle he would race to downed ball carrier and jump on him with his helmet leading the way. 15 yard penalty. But, as Howard Plucar notes, "it seems there is no such rule for life because life has a way of' 'piling-on' when we’re already down and discouraged.  The people in The Philippines whose lives have been devastated, first by an earthquake and now by the monster typhoon, surely must feel as though life is “piling-on” when they are already down.  Even in our personal lives, we go through periods when we wonder, “what’s next?”,  as we go from crisis-to-crisis ourselves, or walk and pray with family and friends who are getting piled-on by life. ...... We pray…”Your Kingdom come; your will be done on earth…”, clinging tenaciously to Jesus while working toward rightness in every way possible (especially toward those who are being “piled-on”) in anticipation of complete rightness being established at the return of the King."

We have been told to expect another storm in the coming days. It isn't supposed to pack the wind power of Yolanda, but will bring lots of rain. And it could develop into a stronger typhoon. Piling on! Lord, I pray that you would calm this storm, right out in the ocean, as it moves towards our part of the country. The people of Leyte and other battered islands just can't handle any more destruction.  

Thank you for your concern for CSC and the Philippines as we endured a super typhoon in Cebu today. We are feeling protected. Three trees went down, one on the roof of our small music building, but we are okay. This was a dangerous storm, so serious that several news outlets have reported it may be the most intense storm recorded in world history.

Blessedly, the 87 children in our care don't have a concept of that. They think the typhoon was fun because more staff were in the homes all day and they got to watch movies, do puzzles and play games. We are thankful they are naive to what could have happened.

Our founders, Paul and Marlys Healy, appear to have the worst damage at their home on our staff. They have a wall in the back of their house down and a tree leaning against their house. Please pray for them to be safe from break-ins, and also for their daughter Jenny. Power is out throughout Cebu City, and Jenny, who has special needs, finds that very difficult. I know they would be grateful.

Please pray for the part of the Philippines that was hit more directly. We are concerned for what must have happened in the places where they had wind gusts of 235mph. We can only imagine the destruction and loss of life that might have occurred.

Thank you for all those prayers and your concern for CSC. We couldn't do our work without people like you.