School's out for the SUMMER...

For most everyone the end of the school year is a crazy time with graduations and tying up loose ends before summer. Here at the New Faith Family Children’s Home we are no different. The minute graduation ceremonies were over we busily packed 34 kids to head down to summer camp in Malaybalay!!!! The kids have been craving for this for months now and the time has finally arrived. 34 kids, 10 staff, most of the Long family, and a small team from Faith Academy headed out early in the morning to fly down to the southern island of Mindanao and visit our sister children’s home here in the country. City kids meet country kids! For the older kids in the home this was their second time to be able to go to Malaybalay for summer this time we brought all the older and younger kids (not including the babies). For many it was their first airplane ride, which is always a fun experience to be a part of. Since arriving the kids have played and run around to their heart’s content. For all the little kids this is their paradise; a huge outdoor playground of dirt, fields, rivers, and space space space to run on and play games! It has been wonderful watching their spirits come alive when they can truly rest from school and the life of the city and the home. Was it stressful getting them ready? YES! Did people think we were crazy to bring this many kids down here? OF COURSE!!! But to see their faces now makes all the stress and work worth it. All the gracious amounts of donations given in order to make this kind of experience happen for these 34 little lives fill all of our hearts with joy. We will be down here until March 31st. You can continue to pray for continued safety and health of the kids and staff. This year for the devotions for the kids we are focusing on the fruits of the spirit. This month it is JOY and that is definitely what it has been so far!

Rachel and DJ

Graduation 2009

March 13, 2009 we had our 3rd graduation/moving up exercise for Cuatro Christian School. About 70 students graduated in our two locations. It was a fun day full of medals, certificates, dramas, dancing, singing, and of course food. One of everyone’s favorite numbers was some of our Kinder students dancing to “Pearly Shells.” One of the pictures is of them dressed in their Hawaiian outfits. Our grade school students put on another wonderful drama and dance. The adults I think enjoyed the graduation as much as the students. A couple adults were crying as they went up with the students to receive their awards. This year was the first year for me to present a Director’s award. We are trying to develop these students in leadership, character, and academics; and the director’s award was presented to the student who portrayed that the best. The person who received that this year was one of our community kids, Rica Mea.

Thank you so much for those that are involved in making this school a success.

Kim Courtright

Getting Settled In

Here we are, only to here a few days, and things around here is continuing to change. The staff meeting that I had to hurry back to on Monday was postponed until Tuesday due to an intern at the camp getting appendicitis. Larry and Belen, two of the house parents, had to take him to the hospital for a diagnosis and treatment. Praise God that he was seen in a timely manner and had surgery and is now in recovery.

We rescheduled the meeting for Tuesday afternoon, and again after hurrying back from town to be on time, when I arrived, I found we had just admitted two new kids, Roldan and Eric, to our home. Their family had asked a couple weeks ago if we could take them and another brother, but we were waiting for a home assessment prior to accepting them. Unfortunately we had to decline the other brother who has special needs, because at this point we don't have the ability to provide proper care for him. So about when the meeting was scheduled to start, we were busy accepting these new ones to our home. Thankfully the nurse from Manila, Marilyn Curtis, is visiting for the week, so she helped get them off on the right track with bathing, medication and such.

We eventually did get to our meeting. We had a good opening time of discussion of roles and responsibilities, as well as orienting Sarah and I to what everyone is responsible for. We were also able to decide on some changes in scheduling due to the different requirement of our new location. I believe everyone left the time encourage that we had worked through a few problems and we had a plan for moving forward. Thanks again for covering us with your prayers.

For the next couple of days, we will be focusing on going through the accounting and getting the financial records up to date, as well as getting the new kids accustomed to the home. We are also preparing for the kids from the Manila home to come visit for two weeks, which is a large undertaking.Here are some specific prayer requests as well:

1. Health for the children's home kids. One, Cedric, currently has the mumps, and the new boy Eric, seems to be ill with something and will be going to the doctor soon for a checkup.

2. Continued unity for the staff, and for grace and patiences a we get to know them and they us.

3. Funding to continue the construction of the children's home and camp site. We currently have one unit complete, and three more partially done. As news of our home grows, we are receiving more requests for children to be place here, and I believe we will be needing more room soon.

4. Favor with immigration as our missionary visas are being processed.

5. A more permanent place for our family to live. So far none of the houses that are available have been acceptable to our board. One idea is to begin the building of our administrator's home. We have a lot provided, but as with everything, we would need God's financial provision to proceed with this right now.

6. Smooth planning and the ability to finish all of the projects for a fun and successful visit by our Manila home, who will be arriving on March 14th.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this and pray for us, we are so grateful and excited to be here and be involved, working to serve these kids in Malaybalay.

Blessings,

Jeremy

A 4th Anniversary in Manila

In our devotions this month at the Children's Home the leaders are covering the word “joy” with all the kids. Imagine the JOY we experienced on Monday, March 2, as we celebrated four years since the NFFCH opened its doors to receive its first child! Highlights of the celebration were listening to the kids sing to God and hearing from several long-standing members of the crowd share their thoughts on what the Children's Home has meant to them. Those sharing included Filipino community members, Philippine board members, stateside board members, an original volunteer—Chris—who showed up in Manila to pave the way before the kids arrived, Kim—who has served on our staff for three out of the four years, and my daughter, Janel—who as a little girl helped get us all going on the idea in May of 2003. The resounding theme in my mind as people shared was what a JOY it is to be involved in something greater than oneself. That the Home truly is impacting kids’ lives by providing a safe, Christian environment for kids to thrive in seemed to resonate throughout the time of testimonies.

As we move into our 5th year, more JOY is coming our way. Please pray for the new parents of the twins as they transition to Manila to complete the final pieces of the adoption puzzle and take their little boys—Daniel and Jacob—home with them this month. Everyone involved in the ministry has put much into this culminating achievement in the life of the Home. Four years ago we never dreamed or imagined that any of our kids would be going through this experience. Yet today, in God's sovereignty, we are confident that these little boys are going to a great home where they will learn more about Jesus from a mom and dad. As we approach this time, we as “Aunts, Uncles, and Cousins” are blessed to know that these guys are going to be well cared for! We are filled with JOY!!

Pray for our Manila kids this month as they participate in our first summer camp experience. Most if not all of the kids will be traveling south to visit their “cousins” at our sister children’s home in Mindanao. There they will experience the joy of being cold, of hiking in the mountains, of attending our Christian camp with many other local Filipino kids, and of meeting new friends and seeing old ones. This trip will take place from March 14-31.

What gift or talent has God given you that might spread HIS joy to our kids? If you are interested in helping, let me know!

Jeff

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