Staff Blog

I have been allotted six minutes by the emcee for the history of the school, which comes out to 18 seconds per year. I've already lost a couple years by telling you this! So lets get going.

It would be foolhardy to try and capture the whole history of Children of Hope School. Even the many red letter dates would be too much. And as I prepared for this presentation I realized that even mentioning all the people who have had significant contributions here would be too time consuming. Suffice it to say that hundreds of people have given of their time, talent and treasure to help this school, including many of you here tonight. So I'm going to summarize.

I'll talk about two groups – the heroes and the unsung heroes.

Some of the heroes of Children of Hope School are here and will be honored or mentioned tonight.

Dan Chalmers, with his wife Carla, made the donation that allowed us to build this school. Without their generosity and responsiveness to God's leading, we would not be here tonight.

Lisa Saavedra was one of the visionaries who started this school. Her progressive ideas about education and her willingness to go to bat for CHS with the Dept. of Education, and her work as our school principal for many years was foundational.

Shari Reasoner's hard work, talent and foresight allowed our school to improve and be more responsive to the needs of our kids.

Those are our heroes and we will be sure to honor them tonight.

But I want to mention a few unsung heroes, people whose contributions might not be known to many here tonight.

Ron Duterte was the best friend that our staff ever had in Cebu. He was generous with his time, his influence and his heart. Many don't know that Ron was, technically, the first Principal we had at CHS. We needed a name when we submitted our papers for registration, and we penciled him in. His doctorate was respected and we were off and running. Like the pace car in an automobile race, he soon pulled over and let someone else take the reins, but he was our first.

Nancy Healy helped us greatly by writing the first curriculum for our school, using her knowledge and experience in multi-age classrooms, and her big heart for the CSC kids. She helped us pioneer a type of education that was previously not known in the Philippines and was a big help to our first teachers. She and Lisa worked together to get CHS started and provide a standard for our education that is still being realized today.

Brian Kusunoki heard about CSC from a friend from Minnesota where he used to live. When he moved to Hong Kong for his work he told the Union Church about CSC. He came down to visit us on behalf of the church and went back excited about our school idea. His promotion of our ministry in that church resulted in a major contribution for outfitting our school, particularly our main activity room which is named for the church.

Jan Druckenmiller is an early childhood educator who had a vision for our pre-school program. She wrote a curriculum, did teacher training, sent over materials and came often to help out with our younger students.

I want to mention one more unsung hero, and that is Paul Reasoner. Shari's commitment to the school and coming here several times a year had a cost, and Paul generously gave her up, though it meant that they were often apart. Paul's willingness to have her in Cebu so much is a contribution to CHS that we often overlook. Not tonight.

There are many more. Many more. People who came along just when we needed them to teach, contribute or encourage. God has always filled the slots and raised up the heroes that we needed to establish this school and keep it going.

It was a great weekend of celebration. Children of Hope School is 20 years old! Recently we had several events to commemorate this anniversary. On Saturday morning, June 16 we had a carnival for the CSC children and the kids of our workers in the playground area of the Shelter. It was a time of laughter, fun, eating and playing. The various booths were manned by CHS faculty and some of our high schoolers. That night there was a banquet at the Grand Convention Center. Friends, former teachers and administrators and current staff and faculty were in attendance to see videos, enjoy cultural dances by the children, eat and celebrate 20 years of God's goodness at CHS. The night featured several testimonies from former and current students and faculty using the theme, "Stories of Hope."  On Sunday morning a worship service was held at the school. We praised God for who He is and what He has done at CHS. Our kids were in the worship team and gave testimonies. Rev. Lowell Tallo gave an inspiring message and 20 of our children were dedicated in an emotional service after the main worship time. 

Children of Hope School has truly been a blessing to many children over the years, as well as those wh0 have had the privilege to teach there.  It was fun to hear all the stories of how God has used the school to bless people and prepare our kids for whatever will come next in their lives after CSC.

The following was written by Marlys yesterday when we found out that our little TomTom would need surgery the very next day. Today. Please pray with us that he will recover from this dangerous surgery. We love him so.

Hello everyone,

Dr. Aldana is the son of a prominent neurosurgeon in Cebu, who was one of our doctors way back in the early 80's. He is here with a team from Florida, doing surgeries at the government hospital called Vicente Sotto Medical Center. He examined Thomas yesterday, along with our own surgeon, Dr. Mark Gigataris, and a Pediatric Intensive Care specialist, also from Florida.  They have an organization that raises funds to do surgeries for low income patients, and they happened to have one vacant bed so admitted Thomas yesterday afternoon to VSMC. The director of the neurosurgery department, Dr. Briones, was also at the meeting. Dr. Briones said that VSMC has the best and most complete facilities and equipment to perform the surgery that Thomas needs to address his urgent need, which is to remove the fluid that is building up in his brain. The surgery, called Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy, will be done in a few hours. While doing the surgery they hope to drain the fluid, but if they notice that it isn't working well they will put in a shunt during this procedure. They would prefer to put the shunt in two to three months later, but they will have to wait to see how things progress today.

Thomas is in the pediatric ward, which is about the size of our lab in the infirmary. There are six patients in there, and there is barely space for a chair in between the beds. There is an air conditioner, so that is a blessing.  

Thomas has complained of headaches lately, and the Aunties told us that sometimes he just lies down suddenly, so those are signs that the hydrocephalus is starting to cause some problems.

The next surgery will be done in a few months to reconstruct the back of the skull, as there is an obstruction there, which caused cysts to form on the spinal cord. Six titanium plates will be needed, which cost P40,000 each. Dr. Aldana brought plates with him, so he will donate some of them for Thomas, and the surgeries will all be free. As you can imagine, we were thrilled to hear that. He said that Dr. Gigataris has a huge job ahead of him to help our precious Thomas. Dr. Gigatiris is thankful that Dr. Aldana is here to help with the ETV, as it sounds like he hasn't done this particular surgery very often.

Thomas adores Dr. Gigataris, and whenever he gets a bit nervous he calms down immediately when we reassure him that Dr. Mark will be with him every minute of his surgery.

When Dr. Gigataris first met Thomas four years ago he told us he would need to do complicated reconstruction of his skull for sutures that were fused prematurely. When he heard how he needed surgery in Manila for stents in his nostrils to breathe when he was five months old, he told us with tears in his eyes, "This boy has been fighting for his life, and I want to help him fight even more." He did an amazing job with Thomas in 2014 and has taken good care of him ever since.

Dr. Gigataris' wife is Tom's neurologist. One day when we were in her office she told Tom that she loved him. He said, "I love you" back to her, but was looking at the colorful decals on her walls, not really paying attention to her. She held his face in her hands and told him that if he is going to tell someone that he needs to look the person in the eyes, so he looked up at her and said, "I love you." It was a touching moment. These two stories illustrate how wonderful this couple is, and we are thankful to have such loving and caring doctors for our children.

There is no doubt in our minds that the Lord brought this wonderful team of doctors here at the perfect time for Tom, and we have all the confidence in our own doctors here in Cebu. Thank you for your prayers for this incredible little boy.

Rovelito is doing well following his surgery. He has some discomfort which is very understandable. The doctors feel that the surgery went well, The skin graft was taken from the right thigh, and his left arm will be immobilized for three weeks during the recovery.  His attitude is great! Thanks to all who have prayed for him.

Hi from Cebu. Rovelito is having surgery tomorrow (8:00 am Cebu time - 7:00 pm MN time. He is nine years old and suffered severe burns before coming to live at CSC. They will release contractures and do a skin graft. He will be hospitalized for five days and will have to wear splints for several weeks in our infirmary. Please pray for him!