Great Gifts Come From Above

Hi friends of K.I.M.,

Our teamsters of KIM are pictured here in front of the YunJin Lyso Ministry Center. This month God provided the funds for our ministry to purchase this OMF facility that has served the Faith Academy kids for over thirty years as a dorm. It is a solid building with over twenty bedrooms that will house the JEEPNEY magazine staff and office, a guest house, KIM missionaries, KIM Filipino staff, and loads more. In the coming years we envision using this home as a place for our children's home kids to transfer into as they reach high school and college age....

The name of the building comes from an incredible circumstance only God knows how to explain.. We have great friends in the Lyso family. A year ago God wanted Amos' wife to come home with HIM after twenty days of marriage. In the past year Amos, his family and YunJin's family have dedicated themselves to see this building be purchased and used for HIS glory to help K.I.M. help kids..

We are grateful for this amazing gift,
Jeff

Well, we are a month into the school schedule, so life at the Home has adjusted back to kids coming and going from school every day. With the majority of our kids behind in their education due to the inconsistency or lack of schooling before they came to us, it is good to see kids already moving up grade levels as they can get caught up with the flexible curriculum at the Cuatro Christian School.


Construction on the dining room/nursery addition progresses every day - we are excited to see it take shape and look forward to it being nearly completed.


We have had a great group of volunteers from various places working with the kids all summer. Between the school and the home, this has been really helpful in providing extra attention to the kids. This also gives the staff a break at times, which is appreciated.


With the reconciliation of a few kids back to family in recent months, we have seen some go, but are still always ready to accept more kids into the home. Our social workers are well-connected, and it seems likely that we will be welcoming in more children soon, whenever the right referral comes along.


DJ and Rachel

Busy Times

Well July has come upon us with a blurry of activity and a few unexpected events down here in Mindanao! For a start our home has shrunk considerably! We had a set of four siblings (Diana, BonBon, Jessabel and John Lloyd) who for some time we had been waiting for them to go back to their family, one Tuesday morning suddenly were gone. It was a sad and hard farewell, we had been caring for them for over 2 months and some very strong attachments were made, naturally. It was hard but they are with family who love them so we can thank God for that and the time we had with them. Then only a few days later we got some more very surprising news, two more of our kids would be leaving us. Angel and Jaypee, who had been with us 8 months. The grandfather had planned to come in 2 more weeks but suddenly had a change of heart and gave us two days warning of his arrival. It was devastating news to some of us. These two beautiful kids had become so much a part of our home, our hearts and our lives. Angel had started school for the first time and was doing great, and Jaypee was developing in leaps and bounds. The Day arrived quickly and there was much crying from all the kids and staff as well. Letting go can be so hard! The grandfather we trust is a good man and will continue to provide for their needs, they have left a big hole in our family though and are still greatly missed. So now, in the space of a week, our family of kids was down to 7! Things continued to keep rolling along however. We had the joy of hosting a youth group from Hong Kong for about 6 days. They came ready to serve in anything, and though they were young they got stuck into some hard work out at the construction site of the new children's home! Moving dirt, building a wall, shoveling gravel, pouring cement, whatever was needed! Then in the afternoons they had fun spending time with the kids at the home. Learning the kids favourite game - kick ball, taking them swimming down at the river, and even giving the staff an afternoon off, while they helped the kids make thank-you cards for those who help look after them. The kids loved it and were very sad when it was time for them to say goodbye and head home! During that time we also had a team of 13 Australians from Perth arrive!! They overlapped about 4 days, so it was a busy time feeding all these hungry hard workers and getting everyone from A to B, but God provided and we truly thank God for the amazing weather he gave us! It is supposed to be wet season right now, which means rain most afternoons for the whole afternoon. But the week that the Aussies were here working and preparing the second level of the children's home for the pouring of that slab, barely any rain fell! Then on Friday the 11th we had a massive day! We were up at 5am ready to pour the whole slab for the second storey of the home. Preparation was done by 7:30am and the two cement mixers were started up. Fortunately we had a lot of help from the local Bible College and other Filipino workers, and we worked all day until 8pm when the slab was done! With a break for lunch and one due to rain, we spent the day shoveling cement, passing buckets of cement, pouring cement, shoveling gravel and sand or carrying sacks of it up the ramp or stairs to the mixers! There were many sore hands and legs and backs the next day, but a very big feeling of satisfaction and a rather large, finished slab. And amazingly the day after we finished the slab, the wet season weather returned. God is good, and certainly has his hand of blessing on this ministry in Mindanao! Then on the Sunday we got a whole lot of second hand clothes, toys and a bunch of snack foods and headed up to one of the poorest communities in town with the Aussies. We attracted much attention, and a good crowd of the community, mostly kids came out to get the gifts we had bought. Once we had a good group, Ollie, the pastor of my church back home shared his testimony with the crowd, which Larry our houseparent translated for the crowd. It was very well received and only the Lord knows what seeds were planted, but it was a great opportunity to share Gods love with this very poor and highly Muslim community! The Aussies have headed home and we are now just back to us. What e blessed and busy these first few weeks of July have been!! Felicity Taylor Malaybalay Children's Home Manager

CCS Gears Up for a New Year

The CCS faculty and staff welcomed students for the third year in a row on June 17, 2008. Every classroom was filled with laughter, smiles, and first day jitters. The faculty and staff worked together to make it a successful day for everyone. This year, the CCS has 8 teachers and 69 enrolled students. Currently, the classes offered at CCS are: 2 sessions of preschool 2 sessions of kindergarten grade level classes (1st-3rd)

Students began the first day by reciting the Filipino pledge.	JP is working hard on coloring his letter “A”

Another Perspective

Hey ya'll, here is some news from the nursery. Daisy was gone for about three weeks, down in Mindanao at the other children's home. So instead I (Elizabeth) spent some time taking her place with the babies.
Things have been running at full speed, with six (recently seven) babies and their needs. Baby seven is a girl! Leila will be with us for two months while her foster family is in the States. All the other babies, especially Moses, seem to love her a lot. Moses will come up and just pat her gently on the head or lay his head next to hers. It is the sweetest thing to see :)
Moses and Angel have this new routine every night. After all the showers are done and the other babies are in bed, they go bug hunting. They started one night because Moses noticed a bug on the ground and Angel just had to come see. At first they were both terrified of the bugs and would both shriek and run to me for safety! But now, Angel is not scared of the bugs anymore, so she picks up the bug and chases after Moses, making him scream. I laugh so much when they do that!
The twins are growing like crazy. They are standing up and even walking with help now! When they wake up from their naps (or don't want to take naps) they stand up in their cribs and hold on to the edge. I love walking into the room and seeing them standing there, they are so big now! The twins and Leila are crawling everywhere now, getting into everything and chewing on everything too.
Andrew is such a joy. We have a game, where he sits on my lap and then stands up and tries to run away. but he is just toddling, so he usually does not get very far until I grab him and put him back in my lap. He laughs so hard when that happens, and that makes me laugh too. His laugh is very infectious :)
Kenth is sitting up with help, sometimes he does it on his own but usually his head is so wobbly that he can't. He is such an angel though! He can lay on the ground and play with toys for a long time, and he is doing really well at rolling over. When I look at Kenth I see God's handiwork; even though he is not the healthiest baby he is still so joyful and smiles all the time. I can learn a lot from Kenth, that even during times in life when things are not perfect, I can still be joyful and smiling.
There is so much going on in the nursery every day, new adventures, games and experiences. Pray for the babies, for their continued good growth and health. I thank God that He has brought the babies into my life!

Hi praying friends

Thanks for praying for us as we travel in the states. We celebrated Janel's 18th birthday yesterday,Hard to imagine! We have kids that are moving on up in age! That must mean the same for me! And as of a week ago or so I could verify that with my first ever sciatic nerve problem that left me in the hospital for 4 days and 3 nights in Manila! NO fun at all....In fact it was the worst pain i have ever experienced.

We are grateful to have a great staff to hold down the fort in Manila and Malaybalay while we travel around the U.S. sharing the ministry. Praise God for short term team members as well that fill the void and allow us to work with many of our kids one on one! God has blessed us in so many ways as we care for kids.

In July we have three teams coming to serve the kids in Malaybalay and help us build the future facility.Pray for Felicity Taylor as she transitions back to Australia later on this month. She has served our kids well down south. Brandon Stewart will also head down under after leading the way in our construction efforts in Malaybalay. We have been blessed by having these two Aussie's lead the way for us... God is so faithful.

Pray for Kirk as he is the only remaining LONG in the Philippines. Kirk has just started his second year of college. His first major games begin on July 6. Pray he could play well and be an effective person in sharing his faith.

God is definitely GOOD!

Jeff for the Longs and the kids