Welcome to the Family

April has been an interesting and busy month for us in terms of the growth of our family down here in Mindanao. At the very beginning of the month we had to say goodbye to three of our kids. It was a time of very mixed emotions. Iman, Ira and Isaiah were the very first kids we received into our home. It had been an amazing journey being a part of their lives, watching them grow, learn, change and be transformed by God's love and come to a better understanding of Him. While it was great to see their mum come back to get her kids again, it was also very hard to let them go. Not knowing for sure how they would go back home with their mum it was also a time of anxiety, but having to commit them to the Lord and pray that the things they have heard and learned would become seeds that grow. When the time came for them to go, many tears were shed and long hugs exchanged. What a privilege it has been to be able to love and care for these kids who God bought under our care for a time.

Just over a week later though our home began to grow again with the arrival of another girl Gemicel, better known as Ge-Ge. She has come from a very broken and sad past, so it is great to see her happy and feeling accepted, and safe here with us now!

Then a week after Ge-Ge coming we received 4 more! Siblings, whose father is unable to care for them for now. Diana - 6, Margie - 4, Jessabell - 2 and John Loydd - 1. They have certainly bought more activity, noise and energy to the place! They have settled in fairly well, and it brings our family kids to 13 now! Its great to finally have more girls, we were beginning to wonder what was going on. So while we have had some kids move on from us hopefully to better things, its a joy and a privilege to welcome 5 more kids in need, into our family and we pray, into the Kingdom of God.

Felicity
Malaybalay Children's Home Director

School Fun

Here are some highlight from school this past year….

And we are looking forward to another fun year coming up.

Kim Courtright

The terrific 2's

What do you do with an Angel that’s not quite, well, an angel?

Today I came home to my room to find that some of my things were out of place. “That’s strange” I thought to myself. Then I noticed a toy bucket on the floor and realized that I had had a visitor. My room has two doors, one leading outside to the living room and one that leads to Moses and Angel’s bedroom. . . . I then heard crying coming from my bathroom and had a pretty good hunch who was in there. I opened the door to discover that Angel, 2, had been playing dress up during nap time. I assumed she was only upset because she hadn't had a nap, because it looked like she had quite the time going through my toiletries. She had used her finger to dig my lipstick out from its casing and applied it to her mouth, cheeks and dress, there was nothing left in the tube. Angel then proceeded to paint all her fingernails and toenails with my red polish. I was more in a state of awe and weariness than upset that she had done all this. That’s some skill for a two year old. I took her back to her room where Moses was sound asleep and put her to bed.

Later today I saw that my camera was out and picked it up to look through the recent photos. I really was surprised to find that there were weird blurred pictures that I had no remembrance of taking. Then I came to a few photos of the culprit herself. At some point she had taken pictures of her “pretty nails”. I was very mistaken to think that she could even turn a camera on. Well, we all live and learn. I’ll not underestimate a two year old ever again. And our Angel had better think twice about going into my room.

Daisy Chell
New Faith Family Nursery Director

Moving Forward

In the last week, the construction of the new kitchen/dining room and nursery at the children's home took a big step forward with the pouring of the second floor. Thanks to the hard work from the local guys working on the project, plenty of volunteers from the Cuatro Christian Church, and the 12-man work team from Australia, the pour is finished and now they are working up to the roof. Even the children's home kids got involved in the building of their own family dining room - the nine oldest boys ditched their shirts and got in the bucket brigade line, helping for hours to pass buckets of cement. It was a long day, starting the pour early in the morning and working into the night, but a lot of help got it done. It is exciting to see this much-needed project move forward. Not only will it improve the way we can all gather as a family for meals with our growing number of children, and allow for our nursery kids to be back on-site at the children's home, but the completion of this project will be critical in finalizing some things with our accreditation for adoption process. A visitor from the Department of Social Welfare and Development was with us for two days this last week, going over every detail at the home in order to approve this additional accreditation. Things look very favorable - they will just wait until the construction is done to give us the thumbs-up. Thanks for praying with us for funds to come in to finish! DJ Langefels Director of Child Development (New Faith Family Children's Home)

Continuing to Grow

In Manila God has provided nine new children to care for this past month. As exciting as this is it also brings on some significant issues on how to feed the kids, care for the kids, where will they sleep... Fortunately we have known of this possibility for several months and were ready to spring into expansion to meet the need. In January Pastor Charlie Robinson came over to visit from Sabetha, KS. and as he went home dedicated himself and his church members to try to help us with the need. Praise God over 13,000.00 dollars has come in from those folks, another 5,000.00 from a church in Nebraska and this past Sunday a 3,000.00 dollar gift was received. We have an Australian work team in at the moment with 12 guys dedicating two weeks of their lives to seeing the project go forward! Thanks for praying for progress.... in 24 hours time they will be pouring the second floor.. Praise God. We believe we are about half way there in seeing the building raise to the top with a roof , all the walls and two floors... We'll catch our breath after May 1 and see how God will provide the windows, doors, lights, plumbing etc.. in the weeks to come! Anticipating great things from our Great God...... Jeff

What only He can do

Hi Friends,

After attending church this past Sunday several of our Mindanao friends and visitors from Manila went to the camp site and future site of the children's home in Mindanao. After praying over and determining with engineers the best possible spot for us to dig the well...........God did something only God can do.... a light rain came and a rainbow appeared ...........it started at/near our ongoing construction site and went directly over the soccer field/future children's home area and back down at the point that was determined best to dig the well.... Hair stood on end, goose pimples rose and chills went out from their bodies as they witnessed something incredible over this place....

Thanks for continuing to pray as we break ground this week on the children's home porton of the ministry site..


Continually amazed,
Jeff

Kids being kids

The other day I noticed that Andrew (10 months) had some strange skin or something that was peeling and flaking off of his ears. I though to myself, “What in the world is this?” Then I remembered, “Oh yeah, Angel (2) and Moses (2) fed Andrew his cereal this morning!”

Clearly the New Faith Family Nursery has really been enjoying life. We did all experience a time of loss though. During a healthy and happy family reunion we had to say a tearful good bye to Jimber and Jimbert. They were able to go home to their father, aunt and grandma, as well as other family members that will be a big part of their lives. Even though these delightful babies were only with us a short time, they will be in our hearts forever and we will continue to pray that they will come to know, trust, and love our sovereign LORD.

Daisy Chell

New Faith Family Nursery Director

Cuatro Christian School Update

Right now we are enjoying summer break from school. We had a great year teaching 72 students, and I have a great group of teachers. Teacher Merriam taught our 1st, 2nd, and 3rd graders. She will be having a baby in August and we are looking forward to that. Teacher Nica taught our Kinder classes and Teacher Loida along with a Canadian volunteer teacher Janey taught our pre-school.

As for next school year, beginning in June, we will be having most of our same teachers back. Teacher Janey will be going home and we will have Teacher Maricel replace her with the pre-school. We have been using these summer months to prepare for next year. Along with the teachers, we have been preparing applications and we will have meetings in the next 2 weeks and hopefully have a formal list of students and classes for this coming year. I will also be holding teacher workshops before school starts again June 17. I will be getting teacher training materials when I go back to the States as well as other supplies for the school. After our first complete school year in the new Cuatro Community Center facility, we are very excited for this upcoming school year.

Kim Courtright

Goodbye...

Saying goodbye is never easy. When you pour into children whose past lives have been all but normal, and you love them with all that's in your heart it's hard to say goodbye. You may ask why I am talking about goodbyes a month before I leave...

I discovered it's harder still to say goodbye to a child that leaves the home. These kids are the strongest I've ever seen - for them no tears were shed - yet they were seeing a child go home that's been in the home for several years. Darwyn - a beautiful, sweet boy full of mischief and energy is going back to join his mother today. He's excited - he's talked about it all week- yet when the time came this afternoon you could see a sense of reality striking. I pulled him aside to say goodbye - biting back my personal feelings and tears - and asked him if he was excited. He shyly nodded his head. I asked if he knew what nervous was. He said no, so I asked if he was a little scared. He said yes. He's going back to what he knew before - it won't be like what he has here, but it will be better than what he came from. 

For me I know leaving is going to be hard; it's going to tear me apart. Granted I miss home- I miss my friends, boyfriend, beef, MILK, and hot showers, but I've also grown to like living here. It's hot and usually there is no air-con. There is pollution, it's dirty, the traffic is ridiculous, but at the same time playing with these children day in and out, providing them with an atmosphere they can feel loved and secure in, has been an absolute joy (more some days than others). But, no matter what the end of the day brings, there is always something that happened I can think back to that makes me chuckle and smile - EVERYDAY. 

Darwyn left, and I asked him one final question: "Who's always number one if your life?" His answer, with a smile: "Jesus". This little boy found Jesus and knows with his whole heart that he is forever loved by Jesus and has a Heavenly Father who will never leave him and always love him. 
I'm thankful he was one to add New Faith Family Children's Home to his life story. He knows he is loved - not just by us but by God. No matter how hard it may be to say goodbye, every one of us here knows we'll see him again one day- in Heaven. A day of rejoicing that will be- and I'm so blessed to be a part of his story - and been given the chance to love him. God's got bigger plans for him - now he can share with his friends and family the love of Jesus that he knows and glows with. I know God will use him and have no doubt that I will see others in heaven because Darwyn went home and shared with them the love of Christ!

Tessa Frye

Volunteer