Staff Blog

Recently we bid farewell to Amy, Marcel and Emily Pacada, who left for the U.S. The party included great food, a slide show and words of love and appreciation and love from staff, co-workers at the school and some of the kids. And, of course, they were serenaded with our traditional farewell song, "God Will Take Care of You."  Amy was  a teacher in our Children of Hope School since it began 18 years ago. Marcel joined the CSC team a few years ago in the HR department. They will be missed. We wish them well as they locate in North Dakota and start a new chapter in their lives. Thanks, Pacadas, for what you have contributed to CSC. God bless you.

Those were the words I said when the accounting team added up the donations at our recent banquet. We had a lower attendance this year: 650 instead of our usual 750-800 people. Statistically, the offering should have been substantially lower than usual.

The day of the banquet, the staff and volunteers gathered and prayed for the event. We prayed that God would work in the hearts of those who were attending and those who couldn’t attend, that the night would be honoring to God and that the donations received, whatever amount, would be what we needed to sustain this part of the ministry. 

And then all of you showed up. You stepped up to sponsor the event, gave donations that night, and many of you gave gifts despite the fact that you could not attend the banquet. So at 8:30 pm, when the accounting team gave the total of $142,820.90, we weren’t sure what to believe. Could it be possible that even with fewer people in the room, we broke a record for our banquet offering? Yes, it was possible. 

Just over a week later, when the online donations have been processed, all the checks have been double and triple checked, and a few other gifts arrived in the mail from those who wanted to contribute to the banquet offering, our total is now sitting at $144,686.43. It is amazing and is only possible because God used all of you to make this happen. We certainly aren’t in the clear for the rest of this year. The banquet total is about 14% of our budget for the year. But we know we will be all right because with God all things are possible.

They can do pretty much anything!  It's amazing!  OK, they're not your regular surgeons.  They are CSC's construction surgeons and they can create or reconfigure almost anything to make it better or different. 

So we (Principal Cris and I) had this idea to rearrange the principal's office during the summer break to open up the space and make it useable for a resource room when kids needed behavioral or academic help away from their peers.  The trouble is that the office is tiny and has built-in cabinets across the middle of it, dividing the space into two little rooms.   We asked Jerry, the head surgeon (aka CSC Facilities Director), if he could reconfigure the office to make it one space, taking out the cabinets and mounting them on a different wall so they could still be used.  Another idea was to have sliding doors made to still have the option of closing off the office when more privacy is needed.

School ended last week, so Jerry and his team of surgeons got going right away.  Cio (CSC construction and maintenance) is the main surgeon when it comes to these kinds of projects, so he started to carefully extract the shelves without wreaking them.  Verhilio (CSC maintenance and plumbling) was support surgeon and Bobong (school maintenance) helped with moving the shelves once they were cut out. 

And so before our very eyes, we can now envision a new function for the principal's office.  These guys are great.  They tackle projects without hesitation and think anything is possible.  I guess it is!

Kite season is underway at CSC. The kids are excitedly looking for plastic bags, sticks, and string. They are creative in their design and can't wait to get their kite flying in the air. The aunties are even excited to help the younger children make kites. You have to be careful walking around CSC these days as you might trip on string or be ran into by someone trying to get their kite in the air. Unfortunately the trees at CSC seem to collect a lot of kites these days. That doesn't matter though or stop the fun  from happening at CSC. I would encourage you to go out and fly a kite. It's a lot of fun no matter what age you are.

I sat in a referral meeting the other day.  We have these meetings to discuss children for potential admittance.  Often in these meetings the list of children in need is greater than what our homes can house.  The list is long because poverty is destructive; it untangles families when there are more mouths to feed than there is food to give.  The list is long because of poverty, violence, abuse, neglect, drugs, sickness, and death.  All of our children come to CSC for one or several of these reasons.

Our top priority was to discuss a 6-week-old baby boy very much in need of loving care and proper nourishment, some things he had not had much of yet.  He was so tiny, not even four pounds yet.  He had spent these first weeks of his life in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit fighting off sepsis and trying his best to grow but not receiving enough nourishment to do so.  His young mother had her own struggles, battling mental health issues and cognitive delays; she was also doing her best to be a good mom but was unable to do what was needed.

Here he is.  He is such a small little guy, barely able to keep his eyes open most of the time.

Our decision to admit this child or not might seem like a no-brainer.  He needs good care; he needs the kind of care that can be provided at CSC.  But he is so young, only six weeks old.  Doctors have met him, observed him, and run tests to try to figure out what is keeping him from growing and developing.  Because of his age, there is little they can know for sure.  The unknowns regarding his future are many. 

Of course, the same could be said about every child admitted to CSC and that would be true.  But with a child who has had such a rough start to life, permanent damage could have already been done.  The type of permanent damage that could prevent him from being adopted.  And that is what it inevitably comes down to.  CSC is a temporary place for children to come to for stability, healing and growth before continuing all of that in their forever family.  We need to admit children that will be adopted so there is space for others to come after.

Big decisions.  And they are not made lightly.  We seek and pray for God’s wisdom regarding which children we admit.  We take all of the information given to us by the social workers, our medical team, physical therapists and doctors in the community and cover it in prayer.  Individually and collectively.  These decisions are made easier when we spend time in the referral meetings talking about how so many times before, staff members have had these same conversations, sharing valid concerns about taking in a certain child with unknown needs.  And we have been blessed to see God's hand at work, healing children in miraculous ways.  

One such story stands out to me.  A little 7-month-old girl was referred to us, weak and malnourished and her limbs were so floppy.  They lacked muscle tone for such a while that doctors suspected she might never walk.   Fast forward 2.5 years and we have a rambunctious and mischevious little girl on our hands.  And oh how she RUNS!  And next week a family is arriving to take her home!  She is a testament to God sitting with us in those meetings and honoring CSC's commitment to venture into the unknown.  She is a living and breathing example that God heaps blessings on those who walk in faith!

I am so happy to report that the little guy above recently had a major test, the results of which we were expecting to be poor, but which were normal.  We are already seeing God's hand at work in his life.  We felt confident and happy to make him the newest member of the Eicher Home!  :)