When the world stops, God doesn't ...
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Last week, CSC hit a tremendous milestone; an anniversary that none of us anticipated we’d be celebrating. On March 28th, 2021 we celebrated one year since the shelter and school went on lockdown. We held a special service to commemorate the event, had a special dinner, and went back to work.
When we wrote and enacted our lockdown protocol in 2020, we started with 40 locked-in employees taking care of 76 children at the Shelter (not to mention our locked-in residents and house parents at our teen/transition home). Life in the city was eerily quiet, unpredictable, and (at times) down-right scary, with armored military vehicles and helicopters patrolling the streets.
Our goal was (and is) simple: to continue to provide Christ-centered, loving, holistic, services to our kids, regardless of the ever-changing circumstances outside, all while keeping everyone safe. Equal to its simplicity, however, is this goal's complexity. We can't be content with averages; with protocols and procedures that kept most of us safe. We needed to keep everybody safe. We also needed to ensure that workers and kids alike were able to do more than simply survive; we wanted our kids to thrive.
We eventually began rotating workers in-and-out of lockdown, and all of us grew accustomed to a degree of flexibility in our roles/duties. Several of us would often find ourselves on a Zoom meeting in the morning, only to run quarantine barricades in the afternoon, helping to ensure that supplies and information continued to flow just as they had before this season of lockdowns and quarantines.
In March of 2020, we planned for a lockdown that would last a month, maybe two. A year later, it is evident to me how and why we were able to carry out a lockdown that has lasted this long. We were able to do this by the grace of God and through the amazing people He brought together to serve and support this ministry. Looking back, I don’t believe we could have accomplished what we did if not for the selfless Uncles and Aunties who so lovingly and diligently serve our children every minute of every day. Their steadfastness is heroic and exemplifies what it means to have a peace that surpasses all understanding. The expertise of our nurses, counselors, and social workers are evident in the joyful, confident, and hopeful smiles I see on the faces of our children. The fact that CSC has not missed a shipment of food or supplies, and that none of us have been stopped and/or harassed at the many military/police checkpoints around town, is a testament to the power of God and the countless people around the world praying for and supporting us.
I want all of you to know that you are part of a tremendous undertaking that has yielded miraculous results. It would be easy for anyone to be discouraged and exhausted after 365 days of lockdowns and government-imposed quarantines. I can truly say to you that I am not. I am excited, thankful, and almost inexplicably optimistic because God has done amazing things. I am looking forward to what He will do through all of us in the years to come.
373+ DAYS
Heather and the kids hit their 1-year milestone a little earlier. It was on March 22nd, 2020 at 3:00pm that all school-aged children, as well as adults 60+ years old, were placed on a mandatory 24/7 curfew. This means that our kids haven't seen "the outside world" in 373 days as of the time of writing.
Fortunately, the long quarantine hasn't impacted our kids ingenuity, creativity, and sense of humor 😊.
Our family prepared a goofy blog post that we'll be sharing this weekend. Since it's been a couple of months since we last posted, we decided to split up our newest updates between three separate posts that we'll upload back to back. In the mean time, here's a picture of a beautiful cake that May baked to celebrate one-year at home.
MORE SILVER LININGS
I couldn't write this update without mentioning the 8 high school kids at the Shelter that made the honor roll! I won't mention them by name, but I am so extremely proud of their hard work and diligence (you guys know who you are 😊). Our high school students attend school remotely, using laptops at CSC's picnic tables or inside of what used to be our Game Room. They are supervised everyday by one of our teachers, one of our therapists, and the daughter of our Eicher Home house-parents. It is far from what they’re used to, but they’ve managed to excel in this new setting.
Also, by the grace of God and through a relationship with the Rotary Club of Cebu (RCC), CSC has managed to procure 224 doses of the Moderna vaccine to be delivered in May (enough doses to inoculate 112 members of the CSC family). RCC has been a tremendous blessing as the Philippine government has cited difficulties in procuring and distributing vaccines, especially outside of the NCR (the National Capital Region, or the major cities that make up Metro Manila).
ANOTHER WAVE
Sadly, another wave of coronavirus infections have hit the Philippines. This latest wave appears to be far worse than the initial outbreak that hit last June/July/August. In the past couple of weeks, the Philippines has been breaking record after record for the most new cases of coronavirus infections reported in a single day. As the infections and death-tolls rise, hospitals in hard-hit Metro Manila have nearly reached capacity.
The numbers in Cebu City have stabilized after a sharp spike at the start of the year, and they continue to improve after a difficult February. In February, the positivity rate (the percentage of administered coronavirus tests that came back positive) regularly stayed between 15 and 23 percent. The numbers have dropped to 7.43 percent on March 28th, but the concern is that the outbreak in Manila will eventually make its way to Cebu. Please continue to pray with us for Cebu, the Philippines, and the world.
UPDATE: On Good Friday, April 2nd, 2021, the Philippines recorded a new record high for the number of positive COVID-19 cases in a single day: 15,310.
We pray you all have a blessed Holy Week and a wonderful Easter Sunday. We are so thankful to you all for your love, prayers, and support! We will post a more fun and family-oriented post this weekend. In the mean time, please pray with us for the following:
• Please pray for our kids' continued encouragement and joy as they enter their second year of quarantine/curfew. They have all been such wonderful friends to one another and have grown closer in so many ways (which is a huge blessing in-and-of itself, because it very well could have gone the other direction ... haha). Pray for our kids as they remain on round-the-clock curfew.
• Please pray for our upcoming vaccination drive. Pray that it goes well, and that the vaccine proves to be a useful tool in putting an end to this pandemic.
• Pray for our thoughts/plans regarding our first furlough. As you know, we were sent to the Philippines with the plan to take a 6-week furlough once a year. Because of the outbreak, we didn't take a furlough in 2020. Pray for wisdom and discernment regarding when to take our first furlough.
Thank you all again for being a part of what God is doing in Cebu! May the Lord continue to bless you all!
Learn more about the Children's Shelter of Cebu here.
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