Staff Blog

Hi, I’m Michelle.  It’s a blessing for me to be a part of Cebu Children of Hope School.  This is my second year working as an instructional assistant in the school ministry and I’m glad I am working here.

I’m Wilmar’s Math teacher.  Part of our studies in Math have been about spatial concepts like full and empty (just sort of a review), and for him to understand more about it.  For a recent lesson, I prepared one empty cup and one full cup of water.  (We had done this before and Wilmar drank the water!)  I pointed to the cup without water as I said to Wilmar, “This cup is empty.”   Then I pointed to the other cup full of water and said, “This cup is full of water.”  I was expecting Wilmar to drink the water, but to my surprise, he didn’t.  This young man has matured a lot.

Marbles is one of the traditional games played by Filipino children.

Last week, Level C2 kids read a story entitled “The Marble Champ” by Gary Soto. They were so excited to read the story! They wanted to know the rules and how to play the game. When I announced to the class about our upcoming marble game championship, everyone was frantic with excitement. At first, everyone was laughing because they had a hard time rolling the marble from their thumb to hit the targeted marbles. Good thing they didn’t give up! Whenever they had extra time, they spent it practicing. One of my students even asked me how to squeeze the eraser (that is the thumb exercise the main character of our story was doing) properly to strengthen their thumb muscles!

Friday came and the game began! They were divided into 2 sets with 3 competitors each. Everyone was taking the game seriously.

The winner of each set competed with one another in a new “arena”. Everyone was holding their breath and wondering who would win the game.

At last, the games ended and Level C2 kids announced their first MARBLE CHAMPION!

- Karen Faburada

The past few months we, the therapists at CSC, have been grooming Jacob into an inspirational speaker. Our main goal is to spread disability awareness to people around the city of Cebu and, through Jacob, inspire them to try to approach life positively, praising and worshiping God.

A great way to kick-off Jacob’s speaking career was within the walls of CSC at Children of Hope School on June 19. We invited the kids, CSC workers, staff and visitors. Everybody was excited for the day to arrive.

Our speaker, Jacob, got more and more excited as the day approached. He was nicely dressed in a polo shirt and tie, and was probably not expecting a huge number of people in the audience. Joemar, Jacob’s trusted roommate, opened up in prayer.  Auntie Sandy introduced our inspirational speaker, and what an introduction it was!

In his speech, Jacob talked about his home, CSC, the people around him and how they influence him. He also shared about living with cerebral palsy and how he has dealt with his disability every single day. He reminded the audience to be happy and content in whatever state and condition we are in; God made us perfect and will use us to bless others. Jacob showed a video of what a typical day for him is like from sun up to sun down and he gave a video tour of his room and home.

Last week was Jacob’s first speaking engagement outside CSC. Evangelical Theological College of the Philippines or ETCP, with its dean Pastor Lowell Tallo, was very generous to have Jacob speak to their students. They all gave Jacob a warm welcome and asked a lot of questions.

Jacob left ETCP, happy, inspired and blessed, looking forward to his next opportunity to meet and share with others.

Check out the videos below: A Day in the Life of Jacob and Jacob's Speech

Level B2 (grade 3) has 8 students.  During my first day at Cebu Children of Hope School, I was really fascinated with the students that I have. In my 2 years of teaching at other schools, I had more than 30 students in my classes.  I am lucky that I am now at CCHS.

One day last week, one of my students touched me so much. He asked for help because he didn’t know how to answer a question. To be fair to the other students, I told him to read the question again and analyze it.  However, he insisted so I explained the question to him and at the same time I tried to get to know him a bit more.  We talked about where he had come from and a bit about his family.  Suddenly he started crying.  His classmates told him to stop crying, but it didn’t work.  I talked with him some more and asked him, “Did you cry because of your family or did you cry because you could not answer the question?” He did not answer and instead he bowed his head.  I asked him again, “Is it about your family?” He nodded.  Then he looked up and smiled at me and said, “I’m okay teacher and thank you for helping me.”

-Clayd Verzales, Level B Teacher

Level A class has one girl and six boys and that lone girl is a sweety.  She always wears a beautiful smile every day. But one day during the first week of school, her smile turned to a frown and she eventually shed some tears. The reason she was crying was because she got tired of writing her name! The class kept on encouraging her to do it, but it didn’t help. She was then brought outside the room to calm down. After a few minutes, she was back with her beautiful smile again.