Staff Blog
Imagine what it would be like to wake up knowing today is the last day you will see your child. I wonder how carefully you would choose their clothes or the last words to share with them. I wonder how hollow it would feel to stand on the sidewalk as they are driven away.
Imagine returning home without your children in tow. They were with you when you walked out of the neighborhood, but now you walk alone. Your world is upended. You’ve lost the title “mom” or “dad.” To make matters worse everyone is watching you from their front step or window. Secrets don’t keep long where you live—especially secrets like this.
People know what you’ve done and they don’t restrain themselves from staring. This is a lonely walk back to an empty home.
You can’t believe it got to this point. How could it? You didn’t have children to abandon them. But then he left, and there were no jobs to be found. The life you dreamed of isn’t visible anymore, and you don’t have anywhere to turn. Somehow the best option became giving them away.
Sometimes when I’m speaking to a group a person will ask how our kids end up in the care of the Children's Shelter of Cebu. I’ll confess that for most of the children a parent is still alive. “How could their parents just abandon them,” they wonder. It’s hard to explain. In our good-Christian mentality, you just don’t ever give up on your kids.
It’s hard to describe the straight jacket that is total poverty and utter hopelessness. It’s hard to explain not being able to protect or provide for your child. I can’t pretend to understand, but I know it’s easier to demonize the mom who couldn’t care for her baby than to put myself in her shoes. She doesn’t deserve to be understood because of what she’s done. Right?
I don’t know. High horses are easy to climb on when you’re propped up in a world of options. Judgment comes easy on this, but judgment has always been easier than understanding, including when a mom concludes her child is better off without her. Judgment isn't our job at CSC. Our job is to love that child the best we can. It's the least we can do for those moms whose seperation is not the mark of selfishness, but of sacrifice.
Teacher Amanda
Yesterday we celebrated Teacher Amanda's
22nd birthday. Amanda graduated from college this May and arrived in Cebu the
beginning of June. Just in time to start the school year at Cebu Children
of Hope School. Amanda has adjusted well to life in Cebu and is a great
addition to our school. She has a contagious positive attitude about everything
and is a wonderful teacher and team member. We are thankful to have
her at our school this year.
As we were celebrating her birthday last night, I couldn't help but think about how our stories are some in the same. Seventeen years ago I arrived in Cebu after graduating from college the month before. The school was opening for the first time and teachers were coming together from the U.S. and Cebu to start Children of Hope School. I was young and excited to be in Cebu.
What was a one year commitment for me has turned into 16 additional years and counting. Days full of blessings and learning and growing experiences. Daily seeing God's hand at work in my life and the ministry of CSC. Not to mention marrying my husband from Cebu and the joy of having our first child together. God has blessed me in ways I never could have imagined at the age of 22.
Thank God for Amanda today as you think of her in your prayers. Pray God would give her wisdom and strength for the year ahead of her. Pray He would guide her steps for the future He has for her.
Thanks Amanda for sharing this year of your life with us at CSC. You are a wonderful addition to our team!
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | Staff Reflections |
Thanks Grace!
Last August, Grace arrived at CSC having committed to giving a year of her life to this ministry---whatever that might entail! And she did just that! Grace has spent the last year creating and implementing a daily educational experience for our toddlers, she has spent time teaching and encouraging our children's musical interests by facilitating individual voice and piano lessons. Grace also built relationships with our kids by just being on the playground with them having fun. Additionally, she has been a great help to the Child Development department in keeping good records on the infants and toddlers she oversaw.
Below you will find some pictures of how Grace spent her time at CSC.
To you, Grace, CSC thanks you for your service. You have left a mark on this ministry in more ways than one. You have a place in the kids' hearts because of your investment in their interests and your time spent helping them hone their talent. And for our youngest residents, you have helped them learn and have taught them that learning is fun!
Please keep Grace in your prayers as she embarks on her next journey!
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | Staff Reflections |
Meet the HR team
I'm Marcel, the guy on the right! I am happy to be back in Cebu after spending the past year in the States with my wife and her family. It was great to meet so many of you while we were there. Upon returning to Cebu I have joined the Human Resource Team at CSC. We are working together to make improvements for all of the workers and processes for the organization. I am excited to be a part of CSC and work alongside Joel and Peter!
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | General News |
Friendship Knows No Boundary
Friend. Pal. Buddy. Comrade. Everyone has one or maybe more. It is a need in human life. As the old saying goes, “No man is an island.” One can’t go through life alone.
The recent CSC banquet’s theme was: Friends. CSC, in its entirety, has many friends all over the world. Different connections, but connected nonetheless. CSC is standing because of its many friends supporting, loving, and praying.
Inside the four walls of CSC, friendship starts. The kids come from different backgrounds, but it is amazing how quickly they form a bond; a bond they keep forever. Distance is never an issue between friends. Whether it is 10,000 miles or a couple of staircases away, they find a way to exchange a few words and be in touch in each other’s lives.
At CSC, when you get sick and if it is contagious, you are put in isolation. Now, the word isolation seems scary because you are separated from your friends. However, most of the kids like to be in “iso” because they get to watch movies all day long, which is the only entertaining thing you can do when you get sick.
Being sick and being in “iso”
did not stop these two friends from having a little chat. The girl on top is sick while the girl on the
bottom is well. There are no visiting
hours in the infirmary, but that did not mean she could not visit her friend. They found a way. And to top it all, she was not scared that she
might get sore eyes from the friend she was visiting.
That’s how friends are.
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | Shelter News |
Erna!
Erna is helping out at Cebu Children
of Hope School for a couple of months. She is assisting in preschool
while Teacher Junelyn is on maternity leave and helping out in a number of
classes in the afternoons.
Erna lived at CSC years ago. She and her sister were adopted by a family in the United States in 1999.
It's great to have Erna back with us at CSC for a couple of months. Thanks for sharing your gifts and talents with the kids at CSC Erna!
| Show Comments | | | Leave a Comment | | | Category: | School News |
