WELLOFLIFE Ministry May Update
Greetings in the Name of Jesus the Prince of Peace,
What is pure and undefiled religion? To visit the fatherless and widow in their affliction...what does that word affliction mean? A condition of pain, suffering, or distress. This religion which is pleasing to God requires action, compassionate love and caring for others who are suffering from pain and distress. AMEN...but that's not all to pure undefiled religion, there is a personal application. TO KEEP HIMSELF UNSPOTTED FROM THE WORLD! Who has to keep himself unspotted from the world??? Is it God who has to keep us unspotted from the world, no it is us who has to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. It is the desires of the flesh the things that are unpleasing to God which hinder us from living the abundant life in Christ Jesus our LORD. Repent! God is Good all the time!
I was talking to a a couple voluntary heath workers at the Government Health Clinic yesterday and they were very accommodating friendly woman. When we started talking about religion they said "what religion are you?". I said born again Christian, they were Roman Catholic and Seventh Day Adventist. They asked what is born again, does it mean you have no vises?, the Roman Catholic said but nobody is perfect. I explained about the relationship with Christ and how we had to confess Jesus is LORD and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead and you will be saved. Many religions tend to complicate salvation and that leaves their hearers confused and unsure of salvation. Please pray for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in this place and yours!
We are thankful to God for the ministry He has allowed us to be involved in here. Since October we have been training our volunteer community health educators and we have 23 volunteer members in our NGO now. We had our only full time paid employee Gerry resign last week, he was the one helping us with the daily chores in the garden, ministry etc. We have a Bible student staying with us right now but he will be going back to school in June. We also have our volunteer social work Ellen who receives a weekly allowance from us and a helper. Please pray we will find the right person to join us and that we would have the budget to pay them.
We are very blessed by our volunteer young people from our church as they love to serve the LORD. Recently they have been going to the community on Tuesday afternoon to do a baseline survey, which is a series of questions regarding the health and financial situation of the family. They average family makes anywhere from $5-$200 a month. They are very courageous young people as some people are drunk others get irritated by them etc., they experience rejection but most people are very accommodating and welcome them to come back and are interested in spiritual things. We have almost finished surveying all the houses in Purok 16 Concord Compound or Carson is the community names. Now they will follow up the families once a week and disciple them by doing home visitations and teaching a physical health topic like nutrition and a spiritual topic like confession.
We have been having our children's CHE program every Thursday afternoon at the Elementary school where we do a spiritual lesson and take them to do baseline surveys in another community Purok 2. The attendance for this Thursday activity has been dropping each week but we plan to have it on Saturday mornings instead when school starts back up and advertise it to the children so it should be well attended. School starts back up in June. We had two of the participants join our church for service and participate in some of our other activities.
Starting next Wednesday Lydia will be conducting mothers classes in our multi purpose training center which is still in need of repairs like tiled bathroom, faucets, grills on the windows and paint. Please pray we would get the needed funds to get these things done. Our social worker has been hunting for pregnant woman in Purok 16 and has some who would like to attend pray they will join. One of our teams as we send the young people in groups of twos into the community was on a house visit on Tuesday and a young pregnant girl confessed that she tried to abort her baby in the first month but it didn't work so she will push through with the pregnancy but is scared the child will have complications. We pray we can show these woman the love Christ has for them and even hope to be able to have a budget to give them vitamins etc. to help them have healthy babies. Some of the woman interviewed only eat 2 times a day and one meal is simply banana. Lydia would also love to have a Doppler to allow the woman to hear the heart beat of the baby but they cost $500, none of the midwives or government health workers have these equipment so some woman never hear the heart beat of their baby inside the womb.
An eye doctor who is my friend just did a workshop with our volunteers on eye screening so we are partnering with him to do the screening in the community. We will have our practice run at our church on Sunday. If we find people with 20/100 vision or poorer we will refer then to the Dr.'s clinic and they can do free cataract surgery etc. We can give people free eye glasses and it will cost us about $1.25 and the Dr. will pay $1.25. This is nice to offer the families we are working with in the community because if they can see they can read, if they can read they can read their Bible and grow in their faith.
Please pray for the availability of our volunteers when school starts back up, that these programs will go strong. They started with the first 18 families this week and the response was good in the community. We also have a Tuesday night Growth Group for our volunteers where we study the book of Acts, how to evangelize using the strategy of Kirk Cameron and Ray Comfort, and micro enterprising. They will all do a business plan and start a very small business in the upcoming months.
Our major project we are working on now is an organic school garden/park with vegetables, fruits, fish ponds, rice, corn crops, goats for dispersal to the community, rabbits, chickens, herbs, mushrooms, flowers, organic fertilizer production etc. The principal has allowed us to use the 1 hectare (2.2 acres) of land behind the school complete with irrigation. We have been negotiating with the department of agriculture and we have been approved for a free 60 x 60 sqft. greenhouse, seeds, a care taker paid by the government and I will request a shredding machine for producing feeds, and livestock tomorrow. The head of the City Agriculturist office in our district has been meeting me regularly to discuss our project. We have submitted the rough draft of our Memorandum of agreement to be approved for the Adopt-A-School program which is recognized by the Department of Education through the Philippine Law. We are now waiting for the response and policies and guidelines from DepEd. The proceeds from the garden will be used for the nutrition program of the school to feed malnourished children and other needs of the school. We can teach all subjects through gardening such as math, science, history, geography etc. it will truly be a hands on way of sharing the Gospel, giving exercise teaching gardening skills that will last a lifetime. We will teach the children how to make a garden and then if they complete one we will give them free seedlings produced in our greenhouse. Many details to be worked out but we are confident this project will be a model which can be multiplied and used to benefit many schools and children all over the Philippines.
Josiah is getting big he's 8 and a half months now and standing while holding on to things. He is a happy child which brings much joy to those around him. We have a great church family here and thank God for these brothers and sisters. Lydia is doing great and always looking beautiful! I have started to do video Bible school which is a two year course and accredited through AFCM International Training Center based in the US, I'm now trying catching up to the Pastoral staff of our church so I can graduate with them next March.
We are in need of a TV as we are borrowing one now, an office computer and office furniture, a Doppler, a vehicle, and land of our own. Please pray for God's provision.
Thank you to all who make this mission happen by your support, prayers, encouragement, love etc. We are truly grateful and have joy that you are able to share in the wonderful blessings these precious people are receiving. God bless you and your family abundantly!
Love Jeffrey, Lydia and Josiah Smith