Staff Blog
A few weeks ago I had a heart attack. They put in five stents because of significant blockage. I spent a few days in the hospital and went home to embark on a new lifestyle. I exercise every day and am very careful about my diet. Because I am diabetic, the need for controlled intake is doubly important. I am super blessed to have understanding staff at CSC, a loving wife who takes good care of me, and health insurance that will pay for much of the medical bills associated with my surgery, hospitalization, therapy and medications.
In addition to exercise and diet, I have been advised to try and identify areas of stress in my life and work to lessen them. The past year has been very stressful at CSC with lots of personnel and program changes and some difficult situations to handle. There is no way to eliminate stress in my job, with the responsibilities of overseeing a ministry that employs 135 people and provides care for 80 children. But I can say that, in the midst of changes and challenges, God has provided some significant "de-stressers" for me through the people on our Leadership Team. They help manage the challenges and absorb a lot of the stress that would otherwise come my way. For example:
Eldie, who directs our new Human Resources department, takes on issues relating to managing our employees. He handles problems and policies. When we recently had to terminate an employee, he handled it. We discussed it and came to the decision together, but he was the one to implement it. Ging, our Financial Director, manages our funds. This is budget preparation season and she has handled much of the work of gathering the information and working with the staff on the preparation of the various departmental budgets. Klaris, our Social Work Director just got back from a quick trip to Manila for pre-matching one of our children with the Inter-Country Adoption Board. Six months ago I would have had to make that trip and deal with the challenging work of choosing a family with all the complicated procedures and policies of the government for matching. She also does all the editing of child study reports that go to the government for all our kids, again, something I would have been doing a year ago. Jinkee manages the Child Development department, seeing that our kids get the care they need from our house parents, child care workers and therapists. Marlys heads up the medical team of four nurses, making sure the children get the medical care they require. Ben and Cris are at the reins of Children of Hope School, managing the teachers and curriculum so ably and professionally. Although I am responsible for the care our children receive, our relationship to the government, and our financial and human resource management, I don't need to worry about the details of the work being done by these fine people and their teams. They handle problems and challenges, spreading around the potential stress that I need to minimize.
Our generous supporters are also de-stressers. This is crunch time at CSC. We need to raise a lot of money in November and December to meet our income needs for the year. We watch the daily mail counts carefully and prayerfully. Admittedly, we worry a little at this time of year! But much of that is alleviated by the knowledge that our supporters always come through in big ways. Our hope for year-end 2017 is based on the awesome provision of our God through our supporters every years since 1979. That's 38 years of faithfulness! God's admonition for us in Philippians 4:6-7 not to "worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." Not only is it important to show our faith and appreciation to God for what He has done, we will avoid stress as we "experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. " Truly His peace will "guard our hearts and minds as we live in Christ Jesus."
Thanks for your important role at CSC for the children, first of all, but for those of us who lead this ministry as well.
Precious Water
What do you do when there’s no water?
It was a very fine cold (relatively speaking, of course, because the temperature rarely gets below about 70 degrees) Tuesday morning at Cebu Children of Hope School. Everyone was ready for their classes. Later during our first morning class, one of the Level B2 students asked to go to the bathroom. I said, “Can you wait until 9:25 at snack time?” The student replied, “Yes teacher.” So at 9:25 everyone left to use the bathroom and wash their hands before heading to the snack room. Unfortunately, when they turned on the faucets, there wasn’t any water because one of the float switches wasn’t working.
Instead of getting upset, the kids found other
ways to wash their hands so they could eat their snacks. Thankfully we didn’t have to wait very long
for the water problem to be fixed.
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Let's Eat!
Food is made up of nutrients that are very essential for our bodies. It is good to teach kids the importance of eating nutritious foods.
Every July is Nutrition Month for all schools in the Philippines. On July 28 we had our culminating program for Nutrition Month. Lots of activities were prepared and the kids were very excited. There were coloring activities, preparing and cooking food and classifying pictures of different foods. The kids enjoyed the coloring activities. They also liked being involved in preparing and cooking food. The kids were divided into groups and each group was assigned a food to prepare and cook. The different groups made garlic bread, chicken nuggets, fruit cocktail and calamansi juice.
During the classifying foods activity, the groups cut out pictures of different foods and classified them into three categories: Go, Grow and Glow foods. Then they glued the pictures on a poster explained their work.
One of the students who was reporting for his group kept practicing his lines and asked, “Teacher, sakto ba ko? (Teacher, am I right?) Go foods give us energy, Grow foods give us protein and Glow foods give us vitamins and minerals.” I answered him with a nod of my head and a thumbs up.
At the end of the program, the kids enjoyed eating the food they had prepared and cooked. Yum!
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Kids helping kids
It is always fun when kids reach out to help other kids who are in need.
And it is especially gratifying when in involved kids who were adopted from CSC but want to help those who are left behind. There is power in their prayers and so much love in their giving!
Recently we heard from a family that adopted some of our kids last year. Their oldest son announced that he wants to raise funds to buy hearing aids for his best friend who still lives at CSC. He hasn't forgotten his buddy and his special needs! I don't know if those who are reading this blog can know just how good that makes us feel here in Cebu. This boy has not forgotten where he came from or the needs of his friends who are still waiting for adoption. It is a testament not only to his big heart, but to his parents who have kept kept the ministry in front of him and encouraged him to think beyond his own needs and desires. It warms my heart and brings a tear to my eye.
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Memorial Gifts
I have always appreciated the memorial gifts that come in to
CSC. It is a real honor for us when families designate CSC as the recipient of
memorials given at the funeral or memorial service. It is humbling to receive
those gifts, and challenging to use them in a way that honors the life of the
deceased, and his or her love for our ministry.
Recently I have seen this whole thing from another perspective - from the side of the family designating the memorials for CSC. My dad, Jer, passed in June, and it was his desire that any memorial gifts go to CSC. I know some families have disagreements over such decisions. For us it was easy. Jer loved CSC. Up to his dying day he was proud of the ministry and talked it up with people he would meet or who would visit him. He visited Cebu several times, served on our Board and volunteered as our banquet emcee and narrator on many of our media presentations He and my mom have always been generous supporters of CSC. In the early days of the ministry, when supporters were hard to come by, Jer's colleagues at Bethel College rallied around us out of respect for him. They knew how much he believed in the ministry of CSC. And Jer sacrificed a lot for my decision to leave home to serve on the other side of the world, not having me or my family around much for the past 37 years.
I can tell you that, as a family, we appreciated being able to honor Jer by designating his memorial gifts to a ministry that he and so many people loved. Many of those who gave memorials are regular CSC supporters. Some have visited Cebu. It was a natural thing to do for us. And I believe that the same can be said for lots of families. We can honor the deceased with the gift of life for the childen in Cebu.
Thanks to all who give memorial gifts for friends of CSC.
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Exploring the World Through Reading
Reading is the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning. Through reading, you expose yourself to new things, new information, new ways to solve problems, and new ways to achieve things. Who knows – you might find a new hobby. Who knows – you might explore something you really like and it may end up becoming your career. Exploration begins with reading and understanding. Reading exposes you to a world of imagination, showing you nothing is impossible. By reading, you can explore different ways to look at things and how different actions lead to different results. Books expand your imagination. It’s like a huge spider web, where you link together things you know. You also learn new things creating new solutions and answers.
Last week we had our Reading Challenge Kick-off, a six week reading contest, at Children of Hope School. During this activity we encouraged the students to become broader readers and to appreciate how wonderful and amazing books are.
What struck me the most during the kick-off was the excitement on the faces of the students. Everybody wanted “in.” No complaining here. Instead the kids said, “Teacher, when can we check out books?” “I will not play anymore, instead I’ll keep on reading to earn points.” “I want to earn the highest points!” “I want to read as many books as I can.” These words amazed me because our children were really motivated to read.
Read, read, and read more to learn and explore the world around you. Reading is fun!
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