Current News & Events |
Here's whats happening at CSC - click an item for details. ) Sunday was a summer highlight for some former CSC residents. In fact, one parent confessed their son had been exercising all summer just to look good for it! We gathered for what has become a CSC tradition, the adoptive family picnic. Getting the chance to gather back together is one of the things that makes CSC adoptions so special. The kids love it. There was much laughter, celebrating and fun. No one's faces smiled wider than those of our founders, Paul and Marlys Healy. They were thrilled to catch up with the kids that they loved on in Cebu for years. Parents were blessed to discuss unique aspects of adoptive parenting together, while a group of kids got a huge game of football going. Others played catch, four-square and tag, and many just took the chance to talk and catch up with each other. What an amazing thing that they lived together in some of the same houses, even rooms, back when they were orphaned children in Cebu City. Sunday they gathered together with their families to see some very special friends, and to celebrate God's bringing all of us together.
) Jacob started working at Philippine Christian Book Store as a greeter. With the help of his Dynavox he is able give a greeting to each customer with the push of a button. Teacher Jinkee and Lloyd set up the Dynavox so Jacob can use the touch screen to select his greeting. After two days of work, Jacob is already loving it. Philippine Christian Book Store is a not a big store. Jacob is positioned in the middle of the store, giving him a clear view of the front door and the majority of the store. He has surprised some customers with his greeting, "Welcome to Philippine Christian Book Store." It took them a couple of moments to realize it was Jacob greeting them. This made for some good laughs! Jacob continues to work two days a week at the Children's Shelter of Cebu office. Starting this second job at PCBS means he will have less time at Children of Hope School and also less time in therapy. Jacob is a busy young man! ) The toddlers have the run of the shelter when the older children leave for the school day. They can explore the yard, run around, and play inside and out; the options seem endless to a toddler. Most mornings the toddlers have an activity to help their development of gross and fine motor skills, following directions, and interactions with others. These activities include bubble chasing, drawing on the driveway with chalk, bowling, hula hooping, finger painting, navigating obstacle courses, and going on nature walks. The toddlers take full advantage of these activities. Recently the activity was finger painting. Most of the toddlers enjoyed the feel of the paint on their hands; however a few of the younger toddlers did not like this new texture. Of course, with two and three year olds, the paint was everywhere - on hands, foreheads, arms, paper, table, ground, lids, noses, cheeks, necks, and armpits. There was purple paint everywhere! Each toddler needed a thorough cleaning at the end of toddler time. $100,000 is a lot of money. At 4,600,000 Philippine pesos, it is almost incomprehensible to the communities we serve in Cebu. But it is a number we must get our arms around at CSC. $100,000 is how much we've shorted our sendings to Cebu this summer. We're behind budget by even more. Most of us can't give that kind of money. But would you be willing to help us chip away at it? Would you consider clicking "Give Today" and making a donation? Or, taking a moment to lift our situation up to God in prayer? We wish we didn't have to ask. We wish we could use this space to tell you something special the kids are doing today. The truth is that without this income our ability to do what we do for our kids is marginalized. Our ability to take in new kids already is. We believe in what we're doing, we believe it is guided by God's hand...we are asking his people to help keep us strong. Thank you for standing by us. ) The day a child leaves the shelter with their adoptive family is a wonderful day. One of the babies from the Duterte House just left CSC with her adoptive family. Many prayers were answered to arrive at this day. Many more prayers will continue to go with her in the day, weeks, and years to come as she grows with her family. ) The teenage boys meet each week with Uncle Joel and Uncle Eldie for a Bible study. It is a time of learning from the Word in the company of friends. The group has been focusing on being young men of God. Usually Uncle Joel leads the Bible study, but this past week there was a change in leaders. One of the boys volunteered to lead the Bible study! He chose to focus on one of the most well known verses in the Bible, John 3:16. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Many good questions were asked by the boys, which led to good discussions about God's love for us. It was great to have one of the boys step up to the challenge of leading the Bible study. Funny stories from Boys' Club Part way through the discussion, Joemar pointed to Jacob, who is in a wheelchair due to cerebral palsy, and said, "Tiki" (which is Cebuano for small lizard). There was a lizard crawling on Jacob's neck and he could do nothing about it! The "tiki" was quickly caught and released outside. As you might guess, it took several minutes for the laugher to fade. ) Paul and Marlys Healy said farewell to the children of CSC as they left Cebu to start their one year furlough. They are returning to the USA with their daughter, Jenny, after their latest three years of service in Cebu. It was hard to say goodbye for everyone, even though it is only for one year. Paul and Marlys will represent CSC in the USA this coming year by speaking to churches and individuals, raising awareness, contacting supporters, and visiting adoptive families. Pray they will have a safe trip to the USA and also a restful and productive furlough. Get an inside look at the Summer 2010 CSC News. It is just going to press to be sent through the mail, but you can read it here already! The highlights include: new kid introductions in Kids' Korner, a word from Paul on self-esteem, the role of visitors at CSC and a special focus on missionary Amy Luck. Enjoy! ) Just last week we had a visitor from California come to spend about five days helping out the ministry. Our visitor, Vern, came to visit CSC after spending time in Manila on a missions trip with his church. Vern gave a talk to the teenage boys centered on the "Greatest Commandment" (Luke 10:27). He also gave several piano lessons to some of the children who have been learning piano themselves. On his last day at CSC he performed a few songs to the delight of everyone at school. It was a blessing to have Vern at CSC when Bigfoot Entertainment donated ten Mac Mini computers to the shelter. His expertise with Mac computers was key as he helped CSC's IT employee set up the computers. It was great to have Vern as he was a big help in several areas during his short trip to CSC. Since June 2009, CSC has been working with Senator Amy Klobuchar on a bill to reopen the possibility of adoption for our kids in sibling groups with members between 16 and 18 years old. It is Senate Bill 1376. Today, an attempt is being made to "hotline" it through the Senate. Please pray for its passage. This would change the lives of some amazing kids! Update, 10:00pm Central Daylight Time:
Senate Bill 1376
passed! Senate Bill 1376 passed! We are blown away and thanking God.
The focus of so much work, prayer and hope has
gone through. What an amazing God we serve. What an enormous day for CSC and our kids! So, now what? The House version is in judiciary and they are trying to
rush things (the US CONGRESS is rushing because our Jeneviev is about to
turn 18!). There is reason to believe this will also pass, especially
now. Then it would go to President Obama...quickly. Thanks be to God! Please keep praying! ) Bigfoot Entertainment, a local movie production corporation, donated 10 computers to CSC! The Mac Mini computers will be spread out between the school and the four residential homes - six to the school and one to each home. The capabilities of these Mac Minis are perfect for word processing, Internet research, and educational games. CSC was fortunate to have a volunteer, Vern, visiting when the computers were delivered. He knows Mac computers very well. It was great he could help CSC set up the computers and show everyone how to use them. Even though these are the first Mac computers, the children have been able to use them very well even though they use a different operating system than the PCs they usually use. The children are very excited for the opportunity to learn all they can about the new computers! ) Ginda, who is 23 years old and has lived at CSC for her whole life, is quite sick in the hospital with pneumonia. She is having some difficulty breathing. Please pray for her quick recovery. UPDATE: Saturday, July 3. Ginda is not doing well. She is coughing, has a fever and has a high respiration rate (70). Her appetite isn't good. We are very concerned for her. Please continue to pray for healing. UPDATE: Friday, July 9 Ginda continues to struggle in the hospital. The doctors are very confused as to why she is not responding to the antibiotics. She is getting very tired, weak and discouraged. They are having troubing finding a vein for her IV insertion. She is still coughing and has a fever. We are very worried about our darling Ginda. Please continue to pray for her. UPDATE: Monday, July 12 Ginda showed some improvement today! Her fever is down and her respirations are some better. Her cough is productive which shows that the medicine appears to be working. Finally! Thanks for your prayers and love. Please keep praying for our darling. UPDATE: Monday, July 19 Ginda has now been in the hospital for more than two weeks with very little overall progress. She is not responding to the medications given to her. The doctors are confused and don't know what they will do if the lastest, and strongest antibiotic does not touch her pneumonia. She is very thin and very weak and very much in need of prayer. UPDATE: Wednesday, July 28 Ginda is finally being discharged after spending a month in the hospital! We're grateful that God has healed her enough to be brought home today. Please continue to pray for her as she still has more recovering to do, as well as gaining back her strength and lost weight. ) Summer vacation is over and school starts on Monday. Vacation was filled with many fun activities for the children. There was basketball, cooking, playing, soccer, guitar, and much more. Children of Hope School's teachers have been preparing for the first day of classes on June 28 and everything is ready. The children are excited to go back to school. Check out the video of the teachers welcoming back the children. ) The Berean Baptist Church from Burnsville, Minnesota sent a work team to CSC to host a Vacation Bible School for the kids ages four to sixteen at the shelter. It was a great week of songs, stories, crafts, and lessons for all ages. There were different key verses each day and many inspiring stories of people from around the world. The children especially enjoyed the new songs they learned. Every chance our children at CSC receive for spiritual growth is a blessing. ) CSC Praise Night 2010 was another great night of worship to the LORD. This was the 5th year CSC invited church groups and other homes for children to join together in song. Christ for Asia, Sonshine Corner, Kahayag Home, International Southern Baptist Church, Banawa Bible Fellowship and CSC filled the school to standing room only. Pastor Eldie, CSC's new counselor, gave a wonderful message. For two hours praises were raised to the LORD. The CSC Praise Night has become a night everyone looks forward to each year. Praise be to God! ) The 2010 CSC banquet was a great success. With more than 700 friends in attendance, the evening started with a song, The Longest Time, by the TC Cats, a Twin Cities doo wop group. They also performed classic love songs during dinner. Amy Luck from the CSC staff introduced the adoptive families while a delicious meal was served. After dinner Rob Ryden, Worship Director at Emmaus Church in Northfield, MN, and Craig Wasner of Over and Back sang When Love Finds You. Matt Buley, CSC's US Director, talked about the significant contributions to CSC that happen behind the scenes. The banquet video, Love Abounds at CSC, was shown and afterwards the Candy Kids, with help from the CSC kids in Cebu, distributed candy to all the tables. Then we heard from Amanda Polzin, a former CSC resident who is soon graduating from Boston College and going into social work. She shared about her life and talked about how CSC has shown love to her and the life changing results of that love. Heidi Erickson, CSC's Board Chair, talked about the things she loves about CSC and gave the offering challenge. Andrew Merkouris and Mary Sorlie performed Love Never Fails during the offering collection. Amy Luck told about the facilities in Cebu, including our new buildings that are being used. Al Sannerud announced the offering total of over $91,000 for the children in Cebu! Shari Reasoner closed the evening in prayer. The program also included live Skype feeds with Cebu and Will Healy as the banquet emcee. It was a great night of fellowship, emotion, fun, food, laughs and opportunities to see what is going on in Cebu. Click here for a photo album from the banquet. ) Manny, an eight-year-old boy in our new sibling group of seven, is the 800th child in the history of the Children's Shelter of Cebu! |
