POC Christian Academy

It’s hard to believe that it has almost been a year since the students of POC Christian Academy have been able to have face-to-face classes. We praise God that we have been able to continue to provide education through modules. Though it is by no means ideal, parents have worked hard with their children who are progressing steadily through the modules. Last year the Department of Education inspected our school and gave us 8 months to comply with their requirements before they will grant us our “permit” to operate our grades 7-10 for the next school year.

We would value your prayers as we seek to raise some of the (P330,000, £4,853, $6875) 

funds locally to complete the necessary renovations on the facility and fulfil the other requirements.

A number of our faithful supporters have seen the “Renovate to Educate” video on Facebook for this special fund raiser and have expressed a desire to come alongside us and support financially. For those in the U.S. and U.K. wanting to support this project, it is much easier for you do so through the usual method using the bank details below, with a special memo.. “Renovate to Educate”.

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For details go to our Renovate to Educate page.

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Lupang Pangarap

We have been so encouraged by the number of villagers attending the church services regularly.
A wonderful team of musicians, ushers and Shine Kids ministry workers from our main church in Subic are fully committed to helping us get the church in Wea: (Lupang Pangarap) established.

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On Valentines Day we prepared special give away bags of candies for the children and Monique baked cookies and special cupcakes for the adults. More attended than were expected but we had just enough cupcakes to go around for each of the 31 adults (they were so delighted with their treats!). Sadly there isn’t a suitable venue to run the children’s ‘Shine’ simultaneously so they just gather the kids under the trees, while the main service is going on. We were able to buy some sturdy fold away benches that can seat 24 of the 60+ children who regularly attend. The wonderful thing is that they are not deterred even if there is nowhere to sit. They simply remove their slippers (flip flops) and sit on them. But Lord willing little by little we will be able to purchase more benches and chairs.

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The people are very desperate for God to intervene for them. Young mothers pull us aside after the services to ask for private prayer for God to provide work for their husbands (as many have lost their jobs during the pandemic) or to provide for them to buy metal buckets (costing a massive £50) so they can start their own businesses selling soya products from door to door, just so they can feed their children. Some asking for prayer for God to provide them with passports so they can take the next step in their job applications, or fares to get to their interviews. All opportunities to see God move on their behalf.

click here for a downloadable version and for the previous issues

Integridad

Whilst we are still not able to conduct outreach services inside the jails, it is wonderful to see that their children living in POCCH are not forgotten.
The children do feel isolated, and bored because of the severe ‘lockdown’ restrictions on them, so it is especially meaningful when they get visitors bearing gifts showing that ‘out of sight’ doesn’t mean ‘out of mind’.
We would like to extend our grateful thanks to Dr. Rachael and the team from ‘Integridad’, who came at just the right time bearing gifts of toiletries and other essentials for the children.

prayer requests

Continued prayers for churches, businesses, charity shops, and individual sponsors who support missions. Pray that God will continue to provide seed to the sowers and blessing upon their lives.

Continued Financial provision for all our ministries, (incl. the urgent Renovate to Educate project), salaries and regular needs of POCCH kids.

Please continue to pray for the completion of our church building in Wea, Lupang Pangarap and chairs/benches for the children’s Shine meetings.

Continued to prayer for Mailyn and Thelma’s Healing.

Please pray for prison ministry to soon resume.

POC Children's HOME

This February as everyone celebrates Valentine’s Day, the children in the Children’s Home’s celebrated by having “Houseparents Day”. With only very little help from the Head Houseparents, the kids prepared a special program in celebration of their love for their Houseparents. They handled the whole program, prepared a presentation including a song they wrote themselves, presented hand made cards, special speeches for all houseparents, carers and social workers and even had mum and I join in the games. It was a lot of fun and both houseparents and kids had a great day. The Kids did a fantastic job organising the day for all the staff, we all appreciated it very much. The kids decided that they would like make it an annual celebration, dedicated to appreciating all the staff who work so hard everyday to take care of them. 

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Clark (one of our beloved Special Needs children who came to us when he was 8), is blind, has mental retardation and suffers with severe seizures. Doctors told us he wouldn’t survive to
reach his 18th birthday.

As his actual birthday is not known, we have always celebrated on February
14th. He absolutely loves to play in the water, so the houseparents thought that
it would be a great idea to take him swimming. The staff contributed in order to celebrate his 25th Birthday! Thanks to the kindness of our workers he really enjoyed his day!

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We would also like to thank our kind sponsors gave specifically to help us give our workers the pay rises that we promised and they so deserve. It is a wonderful testimony for them to learn that within days of receiving their increase, finances came in specifically for that purpose. It is wonderful for them to see God working on their behalf, as well as on behalf of the children, especially for those who are new in their faith. God is so good!

- Monique

More updates

Thank you for your prayers for Robert. We have had a wonderful answer to prayer. As you know we have been trying for years to get the government to acknowledge the seriousness of his situation and provide him with suitable care. We were very concerned again as the hospital contacted us and told us that he was being discharged from the hospital facility again and that we would have to collect him. But praise God, when one of our social workers submitted a written appeal one of the head physicians in the facility, reviewed his situation and agreed that his case was severe enough to warrant long term care and admitted him into their long term confinement facility. We are so thankful to the Lord and to those of you who prayed for us. It has been a heavy burden for us as we wanted him to be in a place where he can receive the love and medical care that he needs. We were also very concerned for the safety of our other children. Of course we will visit him there from time to time. We know that he is happy in that facility as he knows and is friends with a number of patients there. So we are praising God for this.

We are still praying for a miracle for him. He is very dear to our hearts of course, as we have raised him from being a toddler.

As you may remember, six months ago Kelvin left POC to be adopted into his uncle’s family. It is usual for our Social Workers to do a follow-up visit to check on the children’s wellbeing after they have left POCCH. They kindly allowed me to join the home visit. It was such a blessing for me to see him doing so well (Remember Kelvin came to POC as a babe in arms). His family are Christians and are actively involved in the ministry of the church. Kelvin was so excited to see us. We had a lovely time both with him and his family. His family are so kind to keep us regularly updated with his school progress, regular photos and even video messages from time to time. Lord willing they will bring him to visit the boys at POCCH after travel restrictions are lifted.

Thank you all so so much for your love, sponsorship and faithful support. We would especially like to thank our former volunteers and supporters from Germany who also stepped in just when the kids ran out of food, shampoo and other necessities. Words cannot express our grateful thanks.

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God Bless,

Love Chrissy, Dondie & your POCM Family