Haven of Hope Orphanage

                                                    CRC - June 2011 Update

Start of Preschool Classes in the Villages

Preschool classes in Biao & Guihing started Monday.  Small children in these two villages woke up very early to take a bath at the village water pumps to get ready for school.  Those with rice at home, ate their breakfast.  Those without, ignored the hunger as they eagerly went to school with mixed feelings of excitement and fear.  They marched in with big smiles into the school holding on to the arms of their mothers, who themselves were equally nervous for their children.   All of them wore their best clothes and they all looked beautiful!

Our teachers worked hard for several weeks prior to the opening of classes to prepare for this day and for the school year.  Both teachers and pupils greeted each other with eagerness and anticipation in their hearts.  This is just the start of our village children’s journey toward this opportunity for education and a better life.  We continue to pray for doors God will open to influence the children for the Lord as they train them in the basics of reading, writing and Math.  Forty-five children are enrolled in the Kalagan village, and fifty-five in the Laminosa Muslim village.  We look forward to a fruitful year!

Our supplemental feeding will start next week as everything is finalized and mothers are grouped and organized this week for their cooking schedule.  For the children to receive food at our school, the mothers must be involved in the preparation and serving.   

Church Planting/Community Development Work  in Balic Balic

This small community by the seashore, located a few minutes away from the Kalagan village has opened its door to the Gospel.  The Fun Fair/VBS held in their village in May was well attended and the parents yearned for more Bible classes for their children.  Our staff/missionaries visited the village twice after the Fun Fair and have started holding children’s classes by the beach.   The children patiently waited for their teachers to arrive, showing their great interest in Bible stories. 

Please pray for us as we plan to do a regular children’s ministry/outreach every Saturday afternoon in the village; conduct adult Bible studies (the Lord has given us a few people of peace that are eager to hear the Word and gather their neighbors for Bible study); assist in the village day care center once a week and do supplemental feeding on that day; and to teach Values Education in their elementary school. 

A Bible study for adults started this Saturday.  Please pray for a good crowd at the studies and a positive start.  Continue reading to see how God is funding this ministry opportunity.

A Discounted Store for the Village in Guihing

The village happily welcomes CRC Repeat Boutique, a store of medicines for common illnesses, vitamins, and used clothing, offered at a very minimal price to help the impoverished village people.  These items come from donors abroad who wish to help the HOH children and the village people.   Wanting to help the needy, and not wanting to create dependence, we started Repeat Boutique.  Our goals are to help the village people afford this much needed items; increase our scope of connections in the village; and generate income to support the newly started church planting/community development work in a neighboring village.   The small price is to allow them to see a value for the items.  Ten  vitamins cost the villagers about the same as four cigarettes or two soft drinks.   So we are trying also to teach them better ways of using their meager resources.

Our hearts are full of thanksgiving to the Lord for our generous people from the States and Singapore who untiringly donate, gather, and ship those items to us.  We are grateful for those who assist Kuya Peter in his efforts to campaign, sort out, and ship these items.  May many people be helped and souls be blessed and brought to the Lord through these donated items.   We use many of the items for the HOH kids, the CRC staff, scholars and distribute clothing at no cost to other pastors and missionaries in our area.   They also are so grateful for these items as requested that we pass on their thanks as well.

CRC Scholars

With the start of classes this June, several grateful young people from the two villages enrolled in high school and college.  We have one who entered a Bible College in Cebu, wanting to be trained for full-time Christian work and three in Digos, who are training to be teachers.   We also have several students in high school. 

CRC, the scholars, and their parents are very grateful to our sponsors who make it possible for these young people to get the much-needed education which they will not otherwise enjoy due the impoverished conditions here.

Thanks so much for your faithful prayers  and financial support.   We all are rejoicing in the many opportunities God is providing for the ministry here in Digos.

Philip Pabalate

CRC Director

Please check out the website at www.hohkids.com for more pictures and stories.  Also, there is now a Facebook Page for the Haven of Hope Orphanage Philippines which also has updated pictures posted of the CRC ministries. 

Donations can be sent to The Sowers International, PO Box 2260, Orange, CA 92859 or through the website www.sower.org.  Please mark accordingly for CRC Philippines.