Back To School Event - 2012

Big smiles crossed our faces as we read that Activated Ministries had once again granted our request for sponsored educational materials to be donated to thousands of young children in poor areas of the Phillipines. As we called the missionary in Mindoro who is responsible for feeding over 100 poor children 4 times a week she was in tears at the generosity of the gift of materials we would be able to give her and her volunteer teachers. When we first met her she told us that each week she photocopied pages from the Steps curriculums from a church down the road in her town which had been given a set of these several years ago. She had been praying that the Lord would supply the needed books for the children she was trying to teach, so meeting us, and then having Activated ministries grant our request for several hundred sets of these student books was a huge answer to prayer.

We traveled down to a town in Mindoro called Pinamalayan, where we were able to visit several of the sites where these missionaries work, we showed the children the materials, the children sang songs and quoted scriptures for us which they had already memorized and then we sang songs for them. We spent time with several of the teachers going over each item which we were donating, making sure they understood how to use them, as well as introducing them to the parent and teacher manuals for further instructions. This town is literally in the middle of nowhere, and when we first arrived in the evening it was amazing how silent everything was, but come early morning there is no lack of sound as on all the surrounding farms the roosters start crowing and the farmers get an early start in their work. The people here are very sweet, sincere, and thankful for any and all help. It was a blessing to be able to donate so many books, and we feel sure that they will be put to the best of use.

In our other project which Activated Ministries helped to sponsor we were able to give free school supplies to all of the children enrolled in Day care centers in West Bicutan, Taguig. There are 1068 children, so we made sure we had enough for each child to receive 5 notebooks, 4 pencils, sets of crayons, pencil cases, erasers, rulers, glue, sharpeners. Then because Dental hygiene is often lacking amongst the poor here, we were able to buy or find donations of toothpaste and brushes for each of the children. We also had thousands of pieces of clothing which had generously been donated by local garment manufacturers, and since no activity is complete in the Philippines without food, we had snacks and drinks for all the children. At the last minute Krispy Kreme donuts also gave over five hundred donuts which made a special treat for the afternoon group.

We love being able to help so many kids with their school and educational needs, but this would only be a short term drop in the bucket if it weren’t for the generous support of Activated Ministries in sponsoring full sets of educational curriculums and books for each Day Care teacher to have their own copy for their class. These materials will be able to be used over and over not just with this year’s students but for years to come.

Grace and Maria gave a 1 hour seminar on site to over 25 teachers and assistant teachers, in order to ensure that all of the donated materials will be put to good use.

I also visited several of the schools which we gave sets of our curriculums to last  December and was pleased to see that the teachers were including our materials in their lesson plans, and several of them thanked me once again for the high quality materials we were able to share with them thanks to Activated Philippines.