SCHOOL DELAYS

The Department of Education announced that the New School Year was to begin on August 24, so the teachers and staff at POC Christian Academy worked hard to prepare for that. Just after our parents and teachers meetings preparing for the start of the school year, the government suddenly announced another delay that schools would re-start on October 5th 2020.  This was a devastating blow. The Department of Education were scheduled to distribute sample modules in all subjects, for all grade levels for schools to follow the government curriculum, but the delay means that they have not yet been distributed.  Our teachers however have worked really hard to produce their own to compensate. 

Covid-19 has been so hard for the children and youth in Filipino society.  They have been locked behind closed doors for the past six months and are still not allowed in public places, with no hope of change anytime soon.  It is so strange and heartbreaking to just never see children or young people in our streets, shops and especially our churches and schools.  What’s worse is that many of them live in much less than comfortable homes with little or nothing to do to entertain themselves. There is not even a prospective date to aim towards for getting back to face-to-face classes and now a delay of even continuing their education from home. More delays would mean severe financial struggles for private schools trying to pay their teachers while there are no students enrolled.  Needless to say we prayed that the Lord would intervene for students and teachers alike and especially for our own school POCCA.  Praise God,  within days the government announced that private schools did not have to wait until October 5th. We are so grateful to all those in Denmark, the U.S. and U.K. who responded to our fund raiser “School’s Not Out”.  Your help has enabled us to keep our school open during these trying times.  As you are aware, we did not have sufficient office equipment to produce modules for the students to continue their studies at home.

We praise God that with your help we were able to buy a few printers to help prepare for the start of the new school year which will start at POCCA on September 14.  When we started to raise the funds, we didn’t realise that it was going to be so hard to get hold of the supplies we needed.  The shops have sold out of affordable laptops and suitable printers, so we are going to have to order online and wait for their delivery. But praise God we do have sufficient at least to get the first few weeks of modules printed and ready for distribution.

We also greatly underestimated just how much paper was going to be needed.  Now the teachers have produced their modules it is estimated that they will need 180 reams of paper every month!!! That’s almost £800 ($1,000,€850).  But we are certain that God who has faithfully supplied for us thus far will meet the needs as long as we have the need. Each of our teachers are now busy preparing their 15 reams of seat work for their students for their first month’s studies.  This is a wonderful achievement and it was only made possible because of our faithful Lord and faithful sponsors. As we mentioned in our last issue, whilst other schools have almost half the number of students enrolled for the school year, we at POCCA have our largest.  It is a wonderful testimony that parents entrust their students to us even in the most trying of times.  Please pray that we will be able to reach our students and parents with the gospel, in spite of all the hindrances of Covid-19.
 

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EDMON

Edmon, has been unable to work and therefore struggling to pay for his dialysis.  There was a case of Covid-19 a month ago in the hospital where he has his treatment, and he had to pay £63 ($82, ,€70) for a Covid test before he was permitted to receive the life saving dialysis.

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It has happened again that the hospital had another case of Covid and all outpatients were required to pay for another Covid test!!! 
POC has once again been able to help them, but we would ask your prayers for them, because they really need a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus.  It is too heavy a burden for them to keep carrying alone.

prayer requests

Financial  provision for all our ministries during this time of more relaxed quarantine. 

Please continue to pray for Mailyn. Miracle healing for her thyroid condition.  And Thelma for a miracle healing from lung cancer. 

Please pray that the door for     on-line or recorded ministry for Iba, San Fernando, will be opened to our prison ministry team. 

We would value continued prayers for churches, businesses, charity shops, and individual sponsors who support POCM and other missions in spite of the pandemic. Pray that God will continue to provide seed to the sowers and blessing upon their lives.

HOME OWNERS AT LAST

Though we were all expecting Mum to move in her new home by now, it looks like we’ll be moving in first. Me and my husband Simeon have been very blessed to finally been given the keys to our New Home. After being married in 2013, we lived in a leased home that flooded every rainy season, for 5 years until our contract ended and we were left homeless. We have been living in the POC Guest House since then. It was a big step of faith for us to apply for a mortgage because we knew that our combined salaries were not enough to be approved. We were denied by 3 banks but after a few months of prayer and seeking the Lord, we were finally approved a 10 year loan for our home.  This too is a step of faith because we were requesting a 20 year loan for us to afford monthly payments, but the Lord told us that He will pay off the house in 5 years.

Simeon’s mother who works in Japan helps us with our monthly payment and she will be retiring in 5 years also. So, we have no idea how He is going to do it, but we are believing that He will do what He said. He has faithfully provided everything in our home so far. We thought we would be moving into an empty home because we had to sell most of our furniture and appliances after moving out of our last home. But God has replaced it and more! Though we are still working on a few things and a lot of DIYing before we move in, we are hoping to be in by the 15th of September. It has been a real challenge for us to get our own home, but one thing I have learned during this process; God always wants us to depend on Him and seek Him first. we don’t need to be anxious about the things we need or want. We serve a generous, loving God. He will provide everything we need. Thank you so much to everyone who has been praying for us and supporting us, this is such a great blessing to our family. God bless

– Monique

Matthew 6:33-34

MORE UPDATES

Thanks again to our valued supporters in Germany who funded the solar project in our Girls house, it is a tremendous blessing for us.  The company that installed the panels were so kind to the children and treated  them to ice cream.

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Thank you all so much for supporting POCM in spite of the Pandemic.

It is amazing to experience such love and care even in the face of adversity.

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Thank you all so much. God Bless you with an abundance of His grace, provision and protection! 

Love in Christ,          
- Chrissy, Dondie and your POCM Family