Caring is fun!

This past month (FEB) our family "adopted" four of our precious young boys. Under a program where K.I.M. staff are assigned 3 or 4 of our children, a month at a time, with the intent to be extra intentional to love and mentor on these little hearts. We go by the NFFCH once or twice a week and take them out of the home for 4 - 5 hrs at at time. What a blast it is to suddenly have four energetic little guys back in our home!!! For FEB we had Rodolf, Jan, Gerald and Jaypee. For the five of us McMillin's it has been so rewarding and FUN to share our hearts with them, take them swimming, have them over for meals, play with them, etc... What a way these little guys can make you feel younger too (or older!!)!! While these young boys are by no means angels, it is also encouraging to see the dividends from the love and training that our staff have invested into our children's hearts and minds come through during these times with them. For us the special ministry of Kids International Ministries, being "Jesus" to these little ones in words and action, is a fun opportunity that we are thankful to be apart of!! We are already excited to see what children we get in March!!!

The McMillin Family

New Smile

It's easy to take teeth for granted. When I was young, my teeth were OK, but in the socioeconomic world of my childhood, dental care was taken seriously and was preventative. In order to prevent future problems, I had braces for awhile and then did the whole retainer process, eventually transitioning completely out of orthodontics. Now my teeth are great, I guess, nice and straight and all that and no major problems. However, for the kids at the home, the same is not true. They have not had the benefit of growing up in a world where dental care is taken seriously, or where it can even be afforded. That's why these kids usually show up with some collection of rotten, broken teeth; if we are lucky, they are still young enough where they will all fall out anyway and we can start again with a clean slate on their adult teeth. Many of you are probably familiar with Maricel's dental story since coming to the home - her teeth used to be horribly disfigured and not much could be done, but a generous gift was given to fix her teeth, so now she has a prosthetic replacement in the front. That kind act did everything to boost the confidence and personality of a girl who already has enough struggles communicating. Now, our newest "Maricel" is Noel. Noel is a newer member at the home, having come in September 08. We were told at first that he was probably around 7 years old, but there was no definite birthday since he was abandoned at birth. However, we were all very suspicious of that when we met him and saw his teeth. He has huge teeth, and one of his oversized front ones protrudes awkwardly out of his mouth. A recent round of dental check-ups and pictures shows all kinds of other problems in there. It also tells us that he is more like 10 years old. Noel struggles with developmental delay and has received inadequate care for his whole life up until now. We want to change things for him and give him the kind of attention he deserves, especially his teeth. He will need braces, which are cheaper here than in the States, but expensive nonetheless. There is already a children's ministry program from a church in Minnesota ready to start collecting money for Noel. If you are interested in helping as well, please let us know. We would like to get this taken care of as soon as possible for him.

On a separate note, good news out of the legislature here in the Philippines - the president just finally signed into law a bill that has been pushed through the government by the Department of Social Welfare and social workers who want to see the way abandoned kids' cases are handled revised. Up until now, children who were abandoned and in residential care like ours had to go through a whole battery of legal proceedings before being officially declared abandoned by the courts and ready to move on to permanent family placing through adoption. What was designed to be a thorough process to protect the kids and make sure they were not becoming victims of trafficking has turned into a long exhaustive process that ultimately ends up keeping untold numbers of kids stuck in institutions across the Philippines. This new bill successfully takes the responsibility away from the backlogged courts and puts it in the hands of the Department of Social Welfare alone, making the job of processing the kids' cases so much easier for our social workers.

DJ/Rachel

The Power of Prayer

As time goes by, prayer seems to become more important to me. Maybe that's because I see more and more evidence of God working through prayer, such as in our recent visit to Kids International Ministries. The three boys and I came to visit Liz as she works in the Manila childrens home. We ended up working construction with an Australian team at the Malaybalay childrens home, and reading to children in Manila, and painting on the JCCV building, and meeting Threads of Hope on Mindoro, with a few other adventures thrown in along the way. It was great to see the Manila ministry of our good friend Chris Cordova.

By the time we got back to Colorado, I had collected many stories of believers who prayed, saw God at work, and decided to join Him in impacting peoples' lives.The children touched my heart, each one in a different way. I've made a commitment to pray daily for a certain one of the older children. I'd love to return to be involved in the Malaybalay project. My own children have all been changed by seeing God at work in amazing and miraculous ways in the Philippines. And my heart is challenged to dwell less on being comfortable, and more on being like Jesus to those around me.

Let me share some prayer requests with you.You can pray for Kids International Ministries, that it will grow at the right speed, building on its good foundation. Pray that churches in various nations would catch the vision, sending teams to help in the Philippines. Pray that each child would grow strong in their faith, being a good influence on Philippine society, or wherever they live. And be sure to pray for Jeff and Colene Long as they seek people to give their talents to the Filipino children. Please pray for Chris as he encourages the Filipino men to step up and follow the Lord. Remember especially to pray for the construction progress on the childrens home in Malaybalay.

Thanks!

James

The month of February has been a very busy month here at the Children’s Home and the Cuatro Community. With forty one children in a family (and growing) each new day God gives us, it brings new challenges and different needs. We have been blessed this month to have the resources to administer the much needed vaccinations to the older children.

Often, I walk through the Cuatro Community (on my way to school) with a bag of supplies consisting of much needed donated medicines and baby food. I see the poverty, hear the cries of hungry babies and see the physical needs; at times I am weighted down with what appears to be hopelessness on the faces of these people. I stop to help, hold unkempt infected babies clean their wounds, encourage malnourished pregnant mom and many times invite them back to the Children’s home for much needed vitamins food and clothes. Our God, the creator desires to reach all of these needs with His amazing love, and He has blessed us to be a part of the Community of God’s people here in Cuatro. As well, this month I have visited medium and maximum security prisons, on one recent visit I had the privilege of meeting and ministering to several families of death row prisoners, these impoverished families travel many days to spend just a few hours with their dads, utilizing the open field outside the prison as their make shift home, not having the basic requirements of daily needs. The needs here are so great and at times seems be insurmountable but as we continue to help we ask you to continue to pray that God will provide wholeness, health and life. Many thanks to everyone who have donated medical supplies etc. enabling us to help the impoverished we meet everyday. Please continue to pray for this growing ministry.

Marilyn B. Curtis

Patient of the Month: a prayer for apples

An apple day, may keep the doctor away; but what if apples are hard to find?

Well, then you’re off to see the doctor every day of the week.

For 15-month-old Kenth, a trip to the doctor is a daily occurrence. Last year, Kenth was diagnosed with hypo-thyroidism and has needed to be on daily medication and attend regular check-ups through a specialist doctor. During this past year, Kenth has also suffered from multiple Urinary Tract Infections, which then led to a complicated circumcision. In addition to these medical issues he has been to see a developmental doctor and has been referred for several test. It seems that when it rains it pours.

The past month has been filled with appointments for a variety of different doctors’ visits, lab work, and test. And I must say, Kenth has been quite the trooper. Just about every morning, he’s fed, dressed, showered, and loaded into the car, diaper bag in tow. Of course each trip out is expected to take several hours; lots of traffic and up to a two-hour wait for the doctor is always anticipated. It seems that with a lot of care and the right medicine, Kenth has finally made a 180 towards complete recovery.

One challenge that we still face is an upcoming surgery to correct his circumcision. As physically difficult as this will be for him, there is an equal financial difficulty for us here at New Faith Family Children’s Home. My prayer has always been that each of the children in my care would come to know, trust, and love Jesus. A further prayer of mine is that Kenth would continue to be held in the hands of the great Healer. I trust these things with our amazing Lord and ask that you would too.

Daisy Chell

Soccer and Translation

As we all know very well here in Manila, basketball is the sport to play. We are trying to introduce soccer to the Cuatro Community area. I am working on putting a team together to play in national tournament for the Homeless World Cup. We are working in this area to get people out of poverty and this is one way we can do that by presenting people the opportunity to play soccer. We recently had two Cameroonian professional players displaced into our community. We are able to use these two players to help coach and train Filipinos to be able to play soccer in hope to represent the Philippines in the World Cup in Milan, Italy in September. We have had two training sessions already and it is very interesting. The two Cameroonian players speak French and I speak English and our players all speak Tagalog. So as you can see we have a fun time translating from French to signing to English then to Tagalog. We are also hoping to have a time where a local pastor will also start doing a Bible study with these players at the end of practices. Please pray with us as we are looking for more players and that maybe soccer can catch on here in the Cuatro area.

Kim Courtright

Targets

You’ve likely heard the saying, “it’s hard to hit a target when you don't know what you’re aiming at.” To clarify what we at NFFCH are aiming at, we’ve been busy setting goals and defining roles for the new year. We desire that each of our 41 children in Manila and 11 children in Mindanao grow in their knowledge of Jesus…and so are busy mapping out strategies to effectively pursue each child's success in that area. What an awesome responsibility! Please pray for our missionary and Filipino staff. Do you feel God would have you help us? Please let us know!

Short-term teams continue to converge and transform our landscape. In Manila, over the past three months we have been helping a local church get back on its feet. In turn, their building, facility and yard area have provided us community outreach opportunities we only dreamed about in the past. The combined effort of a few teams and some donations has resulted in hundreds of children previously seen playing in the streets of our community are now seen running and playing on grass, swinging from trees and enjoying the sports of basketball, volleyball, soccer and badminton. To take advantage of these facilities, all kids and adults attend a Bible study prior to each time of play. A new energy level has overtaken the place, and the pastors and lay people alike have jumped in to help. What a blessing for us to be involved in the local body! We are praying that more teams from schools, youth groups, friends, and churches will join us in 2009!

In Mindanao over 100 short-term team members from Australia and the United States have joined forces and literally allowed us to build two more of the eight living units on our donated property near Malaybalay, Bukidnon, Mindanao. The teams have welded, poured concrete, done plumbing, electrical work, and carpentry. The first unit is ready to move into. We are pushing hard to complete sections 2, 3 and 4 in the first quarter of this year. Our camp site is developing as well. We have aspirations of hosting a camp for impoverished kids with a group of Faith Academy students and staff on March 14-20! Please pray that this could happen. Also pray for Jeremy and Sarah Moody and their three young boys to finish up their support raising and join our team in Mindanao this month. In addition to building structures, roads, septic tanks, fences, etc., we also get a chance to build lives. God is so gracious to allow us to take part in these opportunities. Each day our kids in the homes go through struggles. They cry and share with their NFFCH aunts and uncles. Many times our community people come to us for jobs, advice, medicines or food. What a blessing to be in a position to find solutions. One such person recently entered our life—17-year-old Irene. Irene came to us with full-blown tuberculosis, two failing lungs, six months pregnant and a heart defect from birth. We loved on her, the doctors loved on her and in the end this brave heart gave birth to a little girl weighing less than three pounds. Praise God, the yet-to-be-named child is still alive and with God's leading will have a life ahead of her in our home. Sadly Irene lost her battle as so many of the impoverished people do. We are uncertain of Irene's eternal destination, but to honor her life we want to give her baby what Irene rarely had the chance for—knowledge of a Savior, a loving home, clean water, a safe bed to sleep in at night and more. Keep praying we will be found faithful in caring for the widows and orphans for which we have been called to help.

Josie has finished her hours of cosmetology school and is ready to return to the Philippines to launch “Josie's Cut and Curl and Coffee Shop.” We are trusting God will allow her and others through this place to give young women in our community a way to make a living and to equip them in sharing their faith in the Lord. A long-time friend will mentor Josie as well during these coming months. Josie will also be involved in our short-term mission teams. Please pray for the remaining support for Josie to come in.

Jackie is away at Faith Academy’s Outdoor Education this week. This year all the middle school students are in jungle survival training a few hours north of Manila. It's a fun time to learn how to gather water from bamboo trees and to catch and eat bats and snakes...you know, every 7th grade girl's dream! Ha! Speaking of dreams, Kyle got a new addition to his reptile collection this week. A five to six-foot python…maybe I should say nightmare?

God is good! Thanks for allowing us these opportunities.

Jeff for the family

Amazing STUFF in the SOUTH......

In the past few weeks we have seen over 100 people pour the blood , sweat and tears into our children's home project in Mindanao... It was a wonderful site to see so many people from the Philippines, Australia and the United States work together for God's glory and purpose. We are very close to being able to open the doors on the first segment of the children's home that will eventually be home to almost 96 kids!

God is allowing us to build 8 sections to an L shaped , two story building. To date we are 95% finished with the first floor on the first section and about 80% finished on the second floor to the first section. During the past couple of weeks we have seen section three/four raise above the ground with hundreds of hollow blocks, hundreds of pales of cement and endless amounts of steel all wrapped up with God's love to serve kids in the future... With additional teams on their way our dream to serve the children of Mindanao in a BIG way is FAST approaching!

Our goal is to teach,disciple and care for twelve kids at a time in each 4 bedroom home. Don't be intimidated and say I could never work with 96 kids, we'll only give you twelve little rascals to hang out with! See how easy that would be? We will even provide a centralized kitchen, laundry and nurses facility so you can just focus on the kids and bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

Will you please continue to pray for God's grace as we build?

Will you pray for Jeremy and Sarah Moody's support to come in so they will arrive from Oregon in February in time to help us open the doors?

Will you pray for God to raise up a team of Filipino workers and Missionary staff to help with these kids?

Will you pray for God's blessing on the home?

We desire it to be a safe place for kids to grow in their love for the Lord.

Many have come to help but we need many more as well.....
Jeff

Happy New Year

Happy New Year from the Philippines!

Christmas was a great time this year with several different missionaries and volunteers stepping in to be with the kids day and night while our core local staff enjoyed a much-deserved vacation. After enjoying the fun of Christmas gifts and treats and playing, the kids are back in school for a big educational push until school is finished for summer break in mid- March. We anticipate big things this year at the children's home with our first kids leaving and joining families through adoption, other kids being reconciled back to good family situations, and other kids beginning the first steps of possible adoptions through programs like exposure experiences in the States. As we continue to grow we will always be seeking God's best for each of these kids in our care and all future ones that come our way, for as long as they are with us. We look forward to this new year and all that it will bring and appreciate your prayers and support as we work together to impact kids' lives.

DJ & Rachel

Great Journey

You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand. Psalms 16:11




God takes us through a great journey called life. For most of the time we don’t know where it’s going or leading. The path itself is not important. The important part of the journey is the relationship we develop along the way with God.


In January 2007 I retired from Hospital Administration, being single and still young (relativity) and active I applied for a short term mission trip to the Philippines. I arrived October 2007 and stayed until February 2008, returning to Canada for four short months, knowing that I would return to the Philippines. I came back June 2008.
Sometimes we try to understand why God has put us here or try to discover our unique purpose or calling in life. I know that I have found that calling by giving and volunteering and working in Cuatro Cainta Rizal. There are so many opportunities that is presented each day to reach out and to be the extended hands of Christ in this community. This ministry in not confined within the walls of the children’s home to the 40 abandoned and neglected children God has placed in our trust, but through many other avenues including the squatters community and school.
God has provided me with an amazing opportunity to serve Him in the talents and gifts he has given me. I love working with children and assisting in health care. For the past five months I have had the privilege to be involved with these children, the community and the lives of those serving in ministry a His service.


As I invest my life in the lives of many children here in the Philippines, my prayer is to promote an atmosphere of trust, health, safety and love for the many children God may bring our way. Mt prayer is to invest in their young lives as they in turn give back to God their given talents and abilities to Him for the further development of their people




Philippians 4 7-9 Do whatever is true, noble, right, pure, lovely and admirable if anything is excellent or praise worthy –think about such things. Whatever you have learned or heard form me, put it in practice and the peace of God will be with you

Piano Lessons:

I am sitting listening to the simple sound of scales going up and down deliberately and rhythmically on a piano at the YunJin Lyso Ministry Center. Today is the first day of piano lessons for some of our kids,a huge blessing thanks to our friend Joy. Joy is probably one of the best piano players in Manila. She is the primary pianist for the University of the Philippines Chorus, one of the premiere programs around here. She plays in the worship services for Greenhills Christian Fellowship, one of the largest churches in Manila. And, she is the niece of Glenn and Grace Ayala, our friends in Mindanao that donated the land for the Malaybalay camp and children's home project.Joy is volunteering her time with the kids to teach them piano twice a week. For a young woman with so many other things going on, that's an awesome commitment, and we are grateful! I started piano lessons when I was a young boy, which led me into a lifelong love of music. Piano really opens the door for young creative minds to really understand and appreciate music. It gives such a good foundation for either continuing on with piano, or learning new instruments. Music is a huge part of Filipino culture, and consequently a great ministry tool. A lot of these kids have already shown great interest and potential in things like singing, guitar and piano at their young age. How cool is it to have a piano teacher volunteer to continue developing those skills and interests? We are thankful for Joy and her service and look forward to seeing the kids continue to learn and use music as a way to reach people. DJ

GOD works in amazing ways:

This past week we hosted a team of 24 middle school students from Hong Kong ICS.... This is the second year they have come to impact the children's home and community. My what an impact....

These pictures show community members utilizing the 'new' space that has been created by the hard working friends from HK... Yard work, concrete work, taking up old tile,putting in new tile, painting, planting , were all a part of the big week long service time.


A neighboring church/seminary approached us a few weeks ago asking if we'd be interested in buying their land and building. I was in shock as this facility, although lacking significant maintenance was a 'light' in the community. A seminary had been training dozens of future church leaders, a church was feeding the flock from the community, a youth group had been reaching out to the youth in the streets surrounding our children's home.


We graciously declined their offer and countered with, " let us help you breathe some new air into your sails" and keep your boat afloat during these stormy times. The end result was the kids from Hong Kong, some of the their donated funds, and community kids pitching in to right the ship and chart a new course. Praise God!

Today God has lifted the leadership spirits and we are looking forward to future partnership, including the building of playground equipment in their spacious well shaded yard, a couple of rooms in their building will house our community school-grades 3-6 someday, kids from the streets are coming in for Bible study basketball games,our staff will be enrolling in a course, '" how to study the Bible"and their building although far from being 100% sound is on the mend....

WHO WILL COME TO HELP US FINISH what 24 middle schoolers started?

Opportunities abound in the Philippines,

Come and help,

Jeff

Heartlyn's Story

The nursery has seen quite a few changes these past few months. The new nursery is finished, and we moved into it back in October. Also, on September 30th, we got 3 new additions to our nursery. Tyra, 2 years old, and Chris, 11 months old, are a brother and sister who came to the children's home. Also, we got a little baby girl, Heartlyn, who was 2 months old at the time.


All of the babies have amazing stories, but I am going to share Heartlyn's with you. Her story is such a clear picture of God working miracles, I still get chills thinking about it. We got Heartlyn late in the afternoon on September 30, 2008. She seemed to be drinking fine, though it was obvious that she was not used to being fed the right kind of milk. The very next day all the new children were taken to a newborn screening, just to see if they had anything extremely wrong with them. Heartlyn did not come back from the screening. She was so sick that she was taken to the hospital right away. She has green feces and green goop coming out of her eyes: the doctor said that she had an infection, but they were not yet sure of how bad it was. It turns out that her white blood cell count was so high that she could not even survive normally. As well as the infection, Heartlyn also had Pneumonia and at least 3 other sicknesses. The doctors said that she probably would not be coming home for months.


That night two volunteers went and stayed overnight at the hospital with Heartlyn. They felt led to pray over Heartlyn, the whole night! So they did, they prayed over Heartlyn's little body nearly the whole night. The next morning, the doctor came in to check on her as usual, and the doctor was amazed by the changes in Heartlyn. The infection was gone! She was eating normally and the fever had gone away. Heartlyn came home that very day. Everyone was just blown away by God's grace and His miracles! Praise God for his love!

Alex

Meet Alexandra. She is one of the newest arrivals at New Faith Family Children's Home, having come on the last day of September with her two younger siblings Tyra (2) and Chris John (1). The other two have plenty to say about them as well, but this is about the big sister - a picture of the kind of children we often care for. She is not orphaned or abandoned. But she comes from a very difficult home life. Maybe she is 7 or 8 years old, we are not sure. She is surprisingly big though; maybe it's survival of the fittest - her siblings are undersized with far more health issues.

Alex cried and cried when she first arrived, a fish out of water in this large, nice home with so many kids and staff. But her new reality slowly sunk in when she was given clean clothes to wear, was shown her own soft bed to sleep on, then sat down with the other kids for a good meal at dinner. After a month to adjust to her new life, she was able to start school for the first time yesterday, beaming in her uniform as she left with the other kids. She has been loved-on immediately by the staff, which had an instant effect in her awakening. Alex still has a very fiery attitude and temper that understandably emerges at times and she can really get into it with the other girls. But she is learning to abandon that as she settles in at New Faith and as we as staff keep pouring into her. She smiles a lot now and says she is happy. We are happy to see the changes in Alex; pray she continues to grow into the girl God wants her to be.

East Coast Fun!

I bet you have never seen a blog from the east coast well, since I am the only one from "the team" from the east coast and this is the first time I have written one from here. Lots has been going on. I have been able to go to one fair already and will go to another one this weekend. But at the last fair was able to meet up with a girl who is really interested in coming for a summer to work at the Children's home. I have also received donations for the Home as well as being able to see some of the cards that Megan has made that highlight some of our kids. I was also able to host two open houses for people to come over and see videos, pictures, artifacts, and taste some food from the Philippines. those that came loved it. From that I have four of my friends that are praying about coming over to work at the Home for a couple weeks or for the whole summer. I have visited my alma mater and have made good contact with them in setting up trips and internships to the Philippines with us. SO lots of great things are happening here.

I am continuing to work while I am here in the states and enjoying being with family and friends. It has been a great time for me to be with my family as my brother is now training to be a corpsmen (medic) with the US Navy (hope to see him for Christmas), my other brother, in his senior year, won the conference with a strong possibility to go to Nationals with his college, my sister will take her Athletic Training Exam this weekend, and my dad having had several surgeries. My mom and I have been hold down the fort. Taking care of our chickens 2 dogs (that just had surgery), and our duck. As you can see never a dull moment.

Kim Courtright

Looking Back and Moving Forward

A year ago six foreigners were standing on the side of the road with luggage. Colene stopped, offered help and dropped them off at their designated spot. An hour late I got a phone call wondering if i could house these same people and 'oh by the way they are looking for ministry opportunities". A year later three ministry teams have come in separate months and done amazing things for the children's home in Manila, Malaybalay as well as the communities we reach out to... Over fifty workers and ministers of the gospel joined our efforts and many other groups around Manila this past month.

A year ago over twenty middle school kids were stranded at the Manila airport. They had just arrived and were suppose to head up north to minister however a typhoon shut down all travel and thus the call came to our children's home wondering if we could put these young adventurers to work. We did and a year later this same school has sent over administrators , two other work teams, and countless blessings for the homes in Manila and Malaybalay.. The middle school teams from their school arrive again next Monday!

Two years ago a team of aspiring workers showed up from Minnesota with a young couple named DJ and Rachel Langefels leading the team. A year ago this couple had enough of short term experiences and came to give their lives to God while working with our Manila children's home. This past couple of weeks the core group of the Minnesota team from 06 arrived again. After finishing their time one person wrote about the amazing change that had occurred in the lives of the kids and how impressed they were with DJ and Rachel's role and how they were being used by God!

God has indeed blessed our small group in 2008. We are pumped and excited to see what stories will be told a year from now as we see some of our first kids being adopted into forever homes all around the world!! First up are our twins, Daniel and Jacob who will be traveling to live with their parents in Elgin, Ill. sometime later this year or early next. Oh yeah, it was a little over a year ago that a group of short term medical missionaries were involved in saving the lives of the twin's mom, Daniel and Jacob....

What has your year been like? What will the next year hold? Keep looking for those God given opportunities to be about HIS work and have fun looking back at what God has done in your life in the coming year....

Thanks for allowing us this privilege...

Jeff for the Longs

World Racers in Malaybalay

For the last week and a half the world racers have been here in Malaybalay doing amazing work with the children's home. Between construction, working with the kids, and getting involved in the community they will definitely leave a mark on this town. The team helped with two big pours at the new children's home including the main stairs of the home. It was a messy job but they were more than willing to jump right in to the work, even the afternoon after they got off the plane!

The kids are also enjoying having the team around, new friends to play with who have an immeasurable amount of energy for them. There are basketball games every day, card games, puzzles to play with, they are definitely enjoying their new companions. It is easy to fall in love with the children here and the world race team has experienced that first hand.

Besides those two things, this world race team has taken initiative when it comes to working with the community. They are getting involved with the local church, visiting people in the hospital, helping the youth group, getting to know students at the schools, and even singing in the church choir. Their love for these people and excitement about getting involved has encouraged everyone. It has been incredible to watch what they are doing here.

Class Trip

On Wednesday I was able to go with the grade school class and we went and visited a Filipino school. We wanted to have our students see what it was like in a public school. It is so different from our school. The class sizes are above 65 in a classroom. The students are very well behaved to be in that setting. The teaching style is so different as well. It was very interesting to see.

Below are some pictures of our kids sitting in on a Filipino class.

Cuatro's Got Talent

On Friday was the first ever Cuatro Christian School Talent show! The students have been looking forward to this night for over a month and there was definitely excitement hanging in the air. At the children's home the kids were all getting ready, boys put in hair gel and girls got a little lip gloss for the special occasion, so much fun!

The second floor of the school was decorated with bright parachutes making a beautiful stage for the students to perform. With a very laid back feel, we invited parents and family members of CCS to simply come and enjoy the entertainment. When it was all set and done we had about 30-35 community members watching the students perform. The even began with the singing of the Philippine national anthem. The night was full of singing and dancing and what a great job done by all the kids. We had some soloists, some hand motions to popular worship songs, and of course a rendition of one of the songs from the famous High School Musical. It was fun to see all the students to use some of the gifts they have but don't get to use on a regular basis at school.

Over all the night was enjoyed by all and hopefully the students were encouraged to use their gifts for others in the future.

Kaitlyn

Simple Fun

I think the bottom line is that kids love puppies. It's so simple. Rachel's parent's have two dogs, and when a new litter of puppies comes along, they graciously let groups of the kids go up to their place to play with them. The kids absolutely love this. For some of them, it's playing with a puppy that gets them out of their shell, making them more excited and expressive than usual. This is a favorite activity and a great chance to get out and do something fun with a handful of the kids at a time. Here's pictures from the most recent puppy adventure:

DJ and Rachel

This and That

We have a great staff that are interested in taking great care with our kids. Today we were able to go through a refresher Red Cross CPR course at our newly acquired YMC building. Ate Laling's cinnamon rolls were a big hit as was lunch, the youth group from our local church provided back up at the children's home watching and caring for the kids.

Nurse Marilyn and her visiting Nurse sister Patsy also supervised and made sure all the little and not so little bundles of joy were well cared for..

The 'BIG" kids got to go to Faith Academy in the afternoon to watch Kuya Kyle play soccer and then they had a big swim in the Faith pool... Compliments of Uncle Ted and Aunt Rhonda McMillin who are paving the way for many cool things around the children's home already! Its been great having supporting board members surround us with lots of love. Thanks for praying for us and making ALL things possible as we seek to serve Jesus, the kids and the community around us.

Jeff for the team

Moving On Up!

At school things are going great. Our grade school kids will be going to another school tomorrow to visit and see what other students are doing and how other schools are run. Some exciting news at school is that in the last 2 weeks we have had a couple students move up.

Rene finished the third grade and now is working at the fourth grade level. He does very well in Math and Bible. Language and Science are a little tougher for him but he loves to learn and is doing great.





Angel Miles was able to move up to our Kinder A
class from the Kinder B class. She is ready to start
reading!





Jan Andre another one of our kids was able to move up to Kinder C on Monday. He is starting to put letters together to start reading simple words. And he is doing well in learning to write as well.




We look forward for more students moving up in the ranks soon. Thanks for all your support for Cuatro Christian School.

Kim Courtright

Farewell Tour

Last weekend the Children's Home staff got to spend a quick weekend away in Baguio, the "summer capital of the Philippines" to say goodbye to Jhett, one of our social workers. Jhett is heading to Vietnam to spend 13 months volunteering in program development for children with HIV/AIDS. For the better part of this year Jhett has already contributed so much to the home with her expertise and experience. With her leadership we received a key accreditation needed from the Department of Social Welfare and Development and she also helped pave the way for the first adoptions to happen in the near future. While we will miss Jhett, we are thankful for her months of service here and wish her blessings on her work in Vietnam. Plus, what we lose in Jhett we gain in our two new social workers Richelle and Sci. Along with Mae, we now have a dynamic team of three working hard every day for the kids.

Baguio was a great bonding time with the staff in a beautiful setting (and much cooler temperatures than Manila). We had fun seeing the sites in the city and also going out to spend an overnight at Jhett's family home, a 1920's traditional stilt house in the middle of mountains and rice terraces. We picked and ate plenty of fresh fruit, planted a rice terrace, and enjoyed each other's company out in the boondocks - literally. That expression actually comes from the Tagalog word for mountain, bundok. That's exactly where we were. Goodbye Jhett and thanks for all your hard work. And hurry back to Manila!

DJ and Rachel