The Next Phase
By John Coffey
By John Coffey
Be careful what you pray for. Perhaps the most
dangerous prayer is to ask God to place you where you can give the most of
yourself to bless others. When I first came to Manila in 2006, I was wrecked by
the selfless love of Filipinos like Pastor John and Ate Gela Basiwa who gave
everything they had to serve the poor. After leading IT Tender for 13 years, it
is now time for Pastor John to pass on this incredible responsibility. Through
much prayer and discernment, I became the next most likely candidate.
At first I was conflicted, believing that it should
be a Filipino who takes on the role of Director of IT Tender. However, my
teammates quickly showed me that I have the heart of a Filipino; I can speak
Tagalog, joke like a local, and even successfully court a Filipina – not
without God’s help of course. Nevertheless, I decided that I would only take on
the role if Pastor John remained as my mentor and advisor. I also feel a sense
of peace being under the Filipino leadership and guidance of the director and
board of IT Philippines.
Ultimately, having a heart with “dual-citizenship”
is a strength. My diverse background and my degree in elementary education
equip me to further empower the poor at IT Tender as we offer access to
education, relevant skills training, and discipleship.Thank you for supporting
me and continuing to share in IT Tender’s vision to care for and educate street
children.
Food
For Life
By Karin Jose
Over
the past few weeks I have slowly been stepping into my role as the Food For
Life feeding program facilitator. Although
still in the early stages of re-introducing this program at IT Tender Ministry,
we have officially launched the first program partnering with Batang Matinik in
the province of Tiaong.
On
June 10, I was able to attend the first of their feeding sessions being held
for the grade 1 class at Tagbakin Elementary School. The day started with the
Batang Matinik team introducing themselves to the mothers of the beneficiaries,
who were all very excited that their children were able to be a part of the Food
For Life Program. We then went to
introduce ourselves to the class and give outthe bowls of nutritious soup and a
multivitamin to each of the 50 children on the program. The soup was very
popular and one of the children told us the orange flavour multi-vitamin syrup
was like having desert!
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Members of the Batang Mitinik
childrens team,
Principal Bawal and Karin Jose from IT Tender
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I
was so impressed with the dedication of the team members who have committed to
assisting and cooking for the program which runs 3 times for 6 months. Despite
the early start and long walk with the food to the school there is simply joy
on their faces and in their hearts – these people are real life heroes!
I
am very honoured that the IT Tender team has entrusted me with this role, and I
am excited to see what God has in store for us! I am looking forward to working
alongside our partner churches to make a real impact on the lives of these
malnourished childrenand their families and communities.
The
Wordless Book
By Gabi Malquisto
By Gabi Malquisto
This
month of June, I.T. Tender Ministry once again participated at the 2013 ‘Action
Evangelistic Camp’ run in partnership with Action International, reaching out
to street children from different areas in Manila and Quezon City. Altogether
there were nineteen street children aged 7 – 14 years old, and three of them
are from the I.T. Tender Ministry.
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Children praying a prayer of
acceptance to Jesus Christ
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Together
with Child Evangelism Fellowship (CEF), there was teaching about Jesus and His
gift of salvation. It was really great to see the children having fun and
learning about Jesus through the ‘Wordless Book’ lesson from CEF and responding
to the prayer of accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior. We were blessed to
see children at their young age come to know Christ and start life with Him.
We
are thankful to the Lord for this event that became a tool for sharing His love
to children at risk, and now we continue praying for these children. We are also praying that more street children
will be reached through partnerships and working together with other organizations,
for our mission; to seek for the lost.
Blessings:
- · Opportunity to conduct Sunday School Training including the ‘UN Convention on Children's Rights’ to our partner church Jesus Our Hope
- · Successful turn over of leadership of IT Tender ministry to John Coffey, June 12
- · For the provision, travelling mercy and wisdom as Jizza Magallanes took part in the ‘Child Sexual Abuse Program’ at Stairway Foundation, Puerto Galera
- · For the opportunity to join the ‘Child Evangelization’ seminar lead by Extreme Response
- · For all your prayers and support as we continue to serve God through the street children and children from poor communities. For God's blessings and provision for our ministry and personal needs, wisdom and protection
Prayers:
- · The need for more child sponsor donors as we are sending children from poor communities to formal school. It only takes $20 USD a month to give these children an education
·
For
regular monthly donors who will support IT Tender Ministry in any amount –
helping with our operational costs, as we our currently praying fervently to be
able to continue paying the rent for our drop-in center which is the heart of
our operations
- · Provision and guidance as the ministry is about to launch the SMART Kids program for children ages 1 to 3
- · Provision and guidance for Karin Jose as the new Food For Life facilitator who will take lead working with our partner churches in the area of the feeding ministry
- · For our God to continue showering the ministry with guidance, blessing of safety and good health and provision for its needs as it reaches out to the street children and children from poor communities
