Makita ang dating kanlungan; tahanan ng ating tula at pangarap.
"And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together ..." (Hebrews 10:24-25)
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We have three exciting pieces of information to share.
EXCITING NEWS #1
The first is that we’ve boarded a jet-plane and will be spending about six weeks in the States! Our plan is to be in Minnesota until August 23rd. This will allow us to share more about the other exciting news (announced below) … in person … with as many of you as we can! The past few months have been filled with so much activity; the Lord has been at work in so many ways in Cebu. We’re looking forward to connecting with you; we want to tell you about the wonderful things happening in the lives of our family and at the Children’s Shelter of Cebu.
PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray specifically for Dietrich 😊. One of our goals for this trip is to help Dietrich get settled for his freshman year at UNWSP. When we depart for Cebu on August 23rd, he will be staying behind. It will be strange to have our oldest child—our panganay—living on the other side of the planet. Pray for this new chapter in his life; that the Lord would continue to be blessed, honored, and glorified in our lives, both when we’re together and when we’re apart.
EXCITING NEWS #2
Late last year, the Children’s Shelter of Cebu embarked on a new 5-Year Strategic Initiative. This initiative is aimed at the older residents of CSC (ages 14 and above) but will have an impact on the ministry as a whole. The initiative is as follows:
To promote and support the creation of programs and facilities that allow older CSC residents to be prepared to live healthy adult lives in the Philippines.
To provide some context, the landscape of adoption has been changing over the past decade. Global trends have resulted in fewer children being adopted from CSC to families overseas. On top of that, the cultural stigmas and misconceptions tied to adoption in the Philippines still remain. This, coupled with the crippling effects of the coronavirus pandemic, have resulted in the lowest number of adoptions at CSC in years (see graph below).
To address this, we will continue to:
Seek to fulfill our mission and vision.
Advocate for legal adoption and child placement at the government level, in local churches, and in our communities to push back against cultural stigmas and misconceptions.
Work with partner agencies and NGO’s to do our part to address the root causes of the family crises plaguing the Philippines.
But on top of that, we want to intentionally bolster our program for our older kids who will likely age out of adoption, or who already have. At the time of writing, we have nineteen kids over the age of 14, nine of which have already aged out of adoption (aging out means reaching age 16 for a single child, or reaching age 18 if the child has a sibling under age 16). While CSC has launched older kids into adulthood in the past, it has never had to launch this many kids at once; never before have we had to prepare a batch of kids this large for independent living. We want to make sure our prayerful and loving guidance, programs, and services prepare our kids for what lies ahead, whether that means:
To be launched into a beautiful and sustainable (financially, emotionally, etc.) independent adult life in the Philippines,
To be reconnected with existing birth family (if any),
To find placement through legal adoption, and/or
To require long-term, semi-independent support services that foster as much independence as possible (e.g. – programs for our kids with special needs who may not be able to achieve full independence).
This will require investments in manpower, investments in resources, and investments in facilities. We’re looking forward to telling you more about this during our trip to the US, and in the coming months.
Speaking of which, there is a big opportunity to learn more about this initiative right around the corner, which brings us to …
EXCITING NEWS #3
After three years without have a big annual gathering, CSC will once again organize a get-together at Bethel University. This is actually one of the main reasons for our trip to the US: to be a part of this year's event!
While this Summer Event will not be the full-blown banquet you’re familiar with from the past, it will still be a wonderful chance to learn more about how you can be a part of what God is doing in Cebu.
This year’s event will be held on July 23rd. Find out more and register for CSC’s Summer Event here.
PRAYER REQUESTS
Thank you all again for praying. If you can’t meet with us in person or attend the Summer Event, never fear, we will be posting more written information here while we’re in the US. Please continue praying with us for everything mentioned above, and for the following:
Please pray for our travels. I’m actually writing this while sitting on a flight from Cebu to Qatar. Our next stop, after a short 2-hour layover, will be New York, NY. Then, after an 8-hour layover, we head to Minneapolis. Pray that our kids (and Heather and I) will have the strength to travel well; we’ll be traveling for about 40 hours total.
Pray that God would allow us to accomplish the good deeds He has prepared in advance for us to do during our trip to the US. Pray that we are able to communicate well the plans which the Lord has impressed upon our heart for the older kids of CSC.
Pray about whether or not God is calling you to be a part of these big plans. Launching older children into an independent adult life will require paying or college or vocational school. It will require partnering with local agencies and business for on-the-job training. It will new apartment-style housing for our older kids with special needs who can’t fully launch. And most of all, it will require your prayers and the grace and mercy of Our Heavenly Father.
Thank you for being a part of this! To God be the glory!
Learn more about the Children's Shelter of Cebu here.
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