WELLOFLIFE January 2010 Update
Greetings from Davao City,
How are you feeling?
Praise God for another month of life in the LORD! AMEN!
Family News:
We are well by the grace of God. Lydia and I are well, Josiah got sick this week from amebiasis (a one-celled parasite that infects the intestines). He had a high fever, vomited once and was weak but we medicated him and he's good now. We think he got it from a swimming pool when we were visiting some friends from the US & Germany.
January was a bit of a struggle for us financially as we had to renew our Mayor's permit for our NGO and that affected our food budget, but there is people here who are a lot worse off so we are thankful we had rice and vegetables.
God's Provision:
I had to get our NGO Financial Statements for 2008-2009 audited by a CPA (Certified Public Accountant) which can be a bit expensive especially when we don't have budget for it...but you know I was so blessed. I was praying hard for favor from God and man and you know I asked this CPA who our bookkeeper referred to me if she could help us do our FS in less than a weeks time and asked how much it would cost, she said meet her in her office and she will help. So after submitting all the documents I asked how much because of coarse I'm worried about the fee, and this precious woman said to me "why do you have the money?" and I said "no" so she replied "for this...FREE!"...I almost fell out of my chair, usually I don't get this kind of response as most Filipinos see whites as rich foreigners and charge skin tax. She told me that this would be her contribution to our ministry. God is good all the time!
SEDS "Sanitary Excrete Disposal Systems" Proposal:
I had a wonderful privilege to meet some Christian's from California from Giver's Trust Foundation on Friday. I've been working on a proposal since the end of November for a grant to build 100 EcoSan Composting toilets in the communities we serve who don't have toilets. I was invited to have a meeting with them to formally propose the project and I think it went well. It's in the LORD's hands now so if it's His will we will be approved and can bring the Gospel to more families by helping them address basic needs to prevent diseases which sometimes lead to death in children and infants.
The things we take for granted in the west. When is the last time you thanked God for your toilet??? Many of our comforts we take for granted and couldn't live without but don't notice them when we got them. In our house we have a toilet with no seat cover and it doesn't flush with a handle, we have to manually pour water down the bowl. One day if I get lots of money I will buy a seat cover and enjoy the comfy cozy luxury of a padded seat...he he one day!
Administration Month:
It has been a month of going back and forth to different offices, coordinating with the government on different programs, and working on our year end reports while doing strategic planning for 2010. I'm thankful for our team and their servant hearts as they faithfully carry on the ministry in the community day after day. I was coming home from a meeting and it was so sweet to see a small crowd on the side of the road at the end of our street in a very low income place and there was our staff...John Rey was teaching them the Word of God I think and Rhea Mae sitting with a little girl on her lap. That's what it's all about! Empowering the Filipinos to transform their communities. They will be left to carry on the ministry for 5 1/2 weeks in our absence and I'm confident they will do just fine, the investment of training them for a year will produce fruits in their ministries for the rest of their lives I'm sure!
Thank You Partners in this Mission!
We are very thankful to Park Road Church for faithfully and generously blessing us with monthly financial support, and others who generously give from time to time! We were able to pay all our bills this month as we prepare to leave Davao for 5 1/2 weeks.
ALS Program:
ALS (Alternative Learning System) is a non formal education system offered by the Department of Education and also implemented by other groups concerned about the education of out-of-school youth. We have made our communications with the DEPED and met with their ALS coordinators about starting an ALS school in our community Barangay Lubogan, Toril, and they are happy we will offer these services to the poor. There is a BLP-Basic Literacy Program; Lower & Higher Elementary and High school level A&E (Accreditation and Equivalency) program. The school is for school drop outs from age 15 and above, I think we have a student in their 50's. We will meet all day every Saturday for 10 months and those who are ready will write a test with the DEPED and if they pass will be issued a diploma for their respective level of completion. Then they can proceed to formal education system if they prefer. We have mapped up over 50 students and I must thank our staff who went door to door throughout our whole community looking for students and enrolling them. Some young people cannot read, one could not even write his name.
We have training for our staff from the DEPED all day on Monday and Tuesday Feb. 1 &2 for orientation and to be taught how to facilitate using their materials. We have to cover the the cost of snacks and lunch and transportation fare for all participants only about 8 from us and then their facilitators. We still need to reproduce the materials for the training and the teaching topics modules for the school.
Our official launching of the ALS school will be held at the local Elementary school and we have a Memorandum of Agreement with the Principal to use his classrooms after hours for the school weekly. The launching will be on Saturday Feb. 06. We need to provide snacks for around 65 people and lunch for about 15 of the DEPED representatives and our facilitators. Thank God for His provision again as we were able to get a donation from the local Office Depot store as the owner is a Christian. They gave us notebooks, pens and pencils good for 100 students.
International Apostolic Bible Collage Denmark Team Outreach:
A team from Denmark will be coming to Davao for 12 days to do an outreach with us on March 13. It is our honor to host this team as we have been communicating the details for a couple months now and 4 people have their tickets already and 3 more waiting for provisions to come. The school they are attending has a Faith Project and they have selected the Philippines to be their destination. The team will work along side our ministry for mission exposure and to bless the community we are working in and our team here also. We are very excited to meet these student as they come from various places around the world, it's always nice when our brothers and sisters in the LORD come to aid us in God's work!
Cleft Lip Patient:
There is a young boy from the mountains (Lower Sabang, Marilog) who I told we would help get the needed surgery for his cleft lip last time we were in the mountains. There is an annual outreach program called "Operation Smile" that does this surgery for free every February. We will just shoulder the bus fare and other transportation for the family to bring their son for this operation and they will stay at our house for a week. We will be in Thailand but we've made arrangements with our staff to take the family around. This boy doesn't go to school anymore because the other kids make fun of him. The community he's from hyave a cult religion where they don't believe in medicines and are banned from their church if they go to a doctor, that is why we have done very limited medical there. The leaders of the church have talked to the mother and she can bring him but will be disfellowshipped for awhile after, then if good behaviour will be allowed to reattend. Pray he will pass the screening and get the surgery, and his family will not have too many problems by doing this.
Trip Update:
Lydia's brothers have pitched in to lend us the $700 to buy our tickets to Batanes!!! So the tickets are bought and Josiah will finally see his relatives on Lydia's side!!! We are so excited to see her parents, brothers and sisters etc.. We go to Manila on Feb. 07 and fly to Batanes Feb. 10-19.
We go to Thailand on Feb. 23-March 16 for our CHE conference, and hope to be able to visit Cambodia while we are there.
Please continue to pray for our financial needs for these trips as we still don't have any funds for any of these trips. But we do have big faith in our rich Father in Heaven so we are not worried...OK to be honest I'm a bit worried but not overly. God bless you all!
In Christ's Service
Sincerely Yours,
Lydia, Josiah & Jeffrey Smith