Staff Blog

As you may know, my wife and I have been serving in Cebu on a short term basis. We were there for about 13 months. We returned to MN at the end of December because of an urgent health concern in a close family member and will be ending our time with CSC in March. While the circumstances which brought us home have been discouraging we’ve been blessed by how flexible CSC has been with allowing us to continue to serve.

Going to the office in Minnesota has been a slight adjustment. Instead of seeing Mitch each morning, we see Matt. At lunch time, we don’t hear Cebuano, we only hear English. In Cebu I was relieved to get to the office and sit in air conditioning, now I see snow outside and keep inching my chair towards the sunlight.

Strangely though, it’s the similarities that have been more striking. The people who come in and out of both offices are talking about what’s new with the kids.  The walls are covered with pictures of the same smiling faces. Even the work is the same; it’s true that many of the tasks are different, but that great momentum God gives us to bring glory to His name while serving these children, it remains unchanged.

What an amazing thing that God has done; bringing so many people with so many different stories together to share in the work He has in store for us.

CSC loves making new friends, and we made a few yesterday. I received an email about two women who were interested in visiting us in Cebu and learning more about shelter work in the Philippines. They feel called by God to explore this and potentially start a shelter. I got to spend some time talking with them.

It was a very exciting conversation! I was asked a lot of questions about how we do our work. Their hearts were big, but I was especially thrilled to learn about the careful consideration with which they are approaching this idea. According to my limited wisdom, Cebu could certainly use more people who are working to benefit the poor but that doesn’t mean it’s what God has in store for these two ladies. Big hearts can sometimes become so excited to give that they begin to serve because of what they get out of it, or because the need seems so great, instead of because God deserves the glory of our service. It’s okay to feel good serving others and the need is HUGE, but the point behind any ministry should be to bring glory to God. A big heart is an amazing first step. Being patient, listening carefully, and working hard in order to learn and grow are next steps.

It was an honor to be part of the next steps with our two visitors yesterday. I hope they will continue to listen to God and follow the path he has for them. Maybe that’s to Cebu!

It’s a busy birthday week! Today is Tuesday in Cebu, we just finished birthday parties on Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights. We have a small break and then, coming up we have two more celebrations on Thursday and Friday! Whew!

There are times (this week for instance) when I think it might be wiser to celebrate once a month for everyone who has a birthday that month but not most of the time. For these kids who have had very few special moments just for them, an individual birthday party, celebrating them seems more than appropriate. Here are a few photos...

Monday's birthday was especially exciting because the birthday girl turned 18. The picture below is of her reading a wonderful letter she wrote thanking her house parents, care givers, and God for the love and provision she's recieved while at CSC.

Many people who are familiar with CSC are familiar with Julieto. He hasn’t been around much the past several months because he’s been working as a baker. It was pretty exciting news when he got his job. You maybe read about it on facebook or heard about it from someone else connected with CSC.

I’ve been looking through old blog posts and seeing Julieto the other day made me think about some of the posts I read. He’s had quite a journey through his time at CSC and it’s been great to get to know him a little bit. You should get to know him better and read these two old posts!

Graduation Miracles

Baking with Jules

As I mentioned earlier he finally got that job as a baker. It’s common for many jobs in the Philippines for people to be employed on short contracts, usually six months or so. Julieto enjoyed his job and recently fulfilled his contract but he’s glad to have a little break. He was working very hard, often picking up overtime shifts and most of us rarely saw him.

That was last week and he’s already looking for more work. Please pray for Julieto and that God will lead him as he looks for the next thing!

CSC had a busy week last week. Among a whole line up of other things we played host to two families who had previously adopted children from CSC and were back for a visit as well as having a family come and meet their newly adopted son for the first time!

It was fascinating for me to see these families who are in very different places on the spectrum of adoption and child-raising all gathered at CSC. I like the idea that CSC is place people can come back to and not a place people want to get away from. We’re sheltering kids during a pretty tough time in their lives and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if they wanted to forget a lot of the challenges before and even during their lives at CSC. Some probably do want to forget, but I’ve met several who are excited to come back, who have stories to share, and are very proud to be from this place.

I like being part of an organization that measures success in terms of lifelong relationships.