LACK OF COOKING SKILLS FOR SOME WOMEN

Food and eating together is a huge part of the Filipino culture and it’s no surprise that preparing dishes played a big role in our community’s fellowship meetings. Those who are regulars at our weekly gatherings take turns in preparing the meals that we eat together.
When it was my turn to do the cooking, some of the women expressed their desire to gain more culinary skills. They wanted to be more creative in the kitchen and learn more recipes so that they can prepare better dishes for their respective families—especially during special events. So we came up with a plan to hold occasional cooking demos and invite resource persons in the area of culinary arts. As a start, we tried a few recipes with sayote and made kimchi. The women were delighted and many of them tried the recipes on their own right away.

CHILDREN’S SUMMER TUTORIALS AND SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

The community in Barangay Holy Ghost, we conducted tutorial classes among children from 4 – 14 years old. With the help of the Friends of Jesus Ministry we were able to obtain instructional materials and school supplies to teach children about the basics—reading, writing, numbers, shapes, and color. Moreover, from the same instructional materials, we also taught the children lessons from the Bible.
We had two volunteers named Crisanta and Mary May who had been faithful in teaching the children. We ended the tutorial program with the talk entitled ‘How to Get Better Grades’ led by Dr. Tess and me.
We also had submitted to The Child of Jesus Ministry Philippines application for scholarships of 26 students from the four communities: 11 elementary, 11 high school and 4 college students. I have been informed through a call that our application is being considered for approval

NLTP PARTICIPANTS WENT TO GOLD RIVER COMMUNITY

Some staff of the Philippine Navigators and 40 participants of the National Leadership Training from universities all over the Philippines came to serve the people in Sitio Gold River, Itogon. Together with the community volunteers from Ongpin Farm, they worked in clearing the grass and in cleaning the barangay road.

A group of men hauled stones and gravels to patch up some holes along the road. Some students were assigned to help prepare the meals along with some of the community people, while others swept the road.

After the work, we gathered for a short fellowship that included having meals, testimonies, and observing how to make liquid dishwashing soap. Some students were very happy to have a firsthand knowledge on how to do it. The students also toured around to see the unique beauty of the place. We all enjoyed our time together. One of the staff told me that their group will come again and help with the cleaning. What a promise, Thank God!!!

Livelihood Projects in FOUR COMMUNITIES

Four of the communities that I’m currently involved with are identified as belonging to the low-income bracket. Most of the adult members of the four communities were scavengers, carpenters, laundry women, farmers, vegetable vendors and full-time housewives. Thus, we devised programs and livelihood projects to address their financial issues. Some of the activities were:
1) Savings Program to save up for the production and/or distribution of:
2) Dishwashing Liquid,
3) Clorox,
4) Powdered Soap, and
5)Kimchi.
This far, we have collected Php2,900 from each community as start-up capital with these projects.
We have submitted a feasibility study report and a livelihood project proposal on micro-finance to CHAI that can be used as part of the capital to give a boost to their current livelihood activities such as selling vegetables, dishwashing liquids, Clorox, powder soap, barbecue, fish-ball, kimchi and the like. This capital outlay to bolster small businesses will benefit at least 50 families from four communities.
We have also tendered a feasibility study for the expansion of our mushroom production which was pioneered by a very active family in Itogon. This project will serve as a showcase to the community and the neighboring villages. They have started with 2000 fruiting bags and we have seen the potential of this project as a source of additional income for most families who will engage in mushroom production later on. There’s huge demand of mushroom in the market, but the supply is lacking. It sells at P160.00/kilo. With 2,000 fruiting bags alone the families in the communities have harvested at least 15 kilos and it is sold at at least P100/kilo. For at least 3 – 4 months they were able to earn at least P1, 500 per day.
With this potential revenue, we have decided to expand this project. They not only earn by selling fresh mushrooms but also by distributing of fruiting bags at P30-35 per bag to the people in the community and neighboring villages. The project also has a potential for generating short-term employment later for the people who would take charge of the bagging. Moreover, people in the communities have already helped their neighbors with the services they have extended to this project possible. We are hoping that through the partnership with CHAI or other lending institutions, we can get a larger portion of the capital for the expansion of the project.

BIBLE DISTRIBUTION

I mentioned our communities’ need for Bibles to a friend who is working with World Vision. She then introduced me to her friend who used to work with Friends of Jesus Ministry. They responded to my request an now, almost every member of the Baguio Youth Group have Bibles in translations suited to the area’s linguistic characteristics. We have distributed at least 50 Bibles with different versions so that these days everyone is able to participate in our community Bible discussions.

DENTAL MISSIONS

Jackie and her team spearheaded a dental mission hosted by the Gold River community. Many people from neighboring Sitio Bacong came and were very grateful for the service extended to them. The team came not only to provide dental services but also to share food for all of us to share. A parent named Rosa from Sitio Bacong, who is a friend of Manang Sabina—an active member of the Gold River community, has invited me to start a small community in Sitio Bacong. We are thankful to God for the opportunity to serve not only people in the communities we belong to but also people in the neighboring areas.

GENDER CONFUSION SEMINARS

I felt the burden to reach out to students in Baguio City who display a kind of behavioral confusion. Last February, I was able to convince the PTA President of Baguio City National High School (BCNHS), Dr. Placido Abuan to organize a seminar on Gender Confusion among the students, parents and school guidance counselors of the high school. In coordination with His Servants Ministry, we conducted similar seminars on gender confusion at BCNHS, Barangay Honeymoon, Barangay Holy Ghost, Baguio Youth Group, and Tania’s group in La Trinidad. The seminar was given to address the needs of families with gender-confused members or potentially gender-confused children and to prevent further cases of gender-confusion and homosexuality.
In BCNHS, many selected students and student leaders attended the seminar. The students were very thankful that through the seminar, they became aware that homosexual behavior begins at home and that calling their classmates names such as “bakla” or “bading” will not help. Several students showed much interest of the topic and asked many questions. Some of the students were identified to have gender behavioral problems but were still in denial and even made jokes about gender confusion problems. A special session was also held for the Student Council and school guidance counselors from the school’s various annexes. The school provided us with meals and snacks, and later, through the PTA President, also gave us a financial gift.
We organized the same seminar in Barangay Honeymoon attended by barangay council members and some families. One of the Councilman, Rolando, who resides near the house I rented, showed much concern for his son who has been exhibiting some gender-confused behavior. Rolando is trying to find out how to help his son.
In Barangay Holy Ghost, the same seminar was attended by many members of our community who are parents as well as their children. The teachers, counselors and parents who have attended the seminars told me that they want another follow-up sessions on gender-confusion so that they will be better equip them to handle students with related problems and to educate the parents. Moreover, children in the community who used to be called names now feel safer because their friends who attended the seminars will no longer subject them to name-calling anymore.

EVANGELISTIC MEETINGS FOR BAGUIO YOUTHS CONTINUED

During summer, we usually conduct youth camps. But this time, due to abnormal summer weather, we opted to have evangelistic meeting for Baguio Youths. Jason, who was the eldest son of Johnson, gathered his barkadas and invited them to come to the house for our meeting with another Navigators staff, Ike Enriquez. As a result, they all prayed to accept Christ and all of them were present also during the Bible distribution.