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.