Puntod Fire Update - Pictures

With the initial amount of money that we sent 80 plywood sheets have been bought to build small shanty huts for 10 of the families made homeless by last weeks fire in Puntod Barangay.

Following receipt of a number of generous donations God has enabled us to send in excess of £1500 to bless those in need, which means that many more homes, and lives, can be rebuilt.

Here are a few lines from an e-mail we received from our partner in this endeavour.

You never know how great is the impact you had made to the lives of our brethren here.
Such a great legacy that will never ever forgotten. One of the fire victims, an elderly widow of 72 years old who had lost her shanty, is now grateful for the help she received through us. Without any pension, government benefits or assistance to her needs, she is comforted by our love that we had shown to her.

How I wish to personally thank you for your kindness towards the poor brethren over
here. The overwhelming joy is evident over their faces and hearts as they keep thanking God for such a wonderful expression of your help to them. We had extended them some help towards their basic needs as they had to start their lives all over again after this tragic fire.

Slum Community Devastated By Fire

Smoke still hangs over the devastated Puntod Community - these used to be houses

A few days ago we received an e-mail from a Pastor who is one of our Mission Partners in the Philippines. He told us about a devastating fire in a slum community in the Puntod district of Cagayan De Oro City where around 100 shanty houses had been completely destroyed.

In such communities houses are often built very close together using simple materials like wood, and even sometimes cardboard, under a corrugated metal roof. Consequently any fire spreads quickly from one building to the next.

salvaging metal roof sheets

This is the rainy season and with torrential downpours every day these people urgently need somewhere to shelter. Some have found temporary lodging with family nearby while others are struggling to survive under makeshift tents and tarpaulins.

We are only a small charity and our resources are insufficient to meet such a large need but we have been able to send enough money to buy materials to rebuild about 10 houses using metal sheets that have been salvaged from the fire for roofing.

We would like to be able to do more to help but we simply don't have enough money unless some more comes in. Just £30 will rebuild a house - would you like to make a donation? If so please click on the Paypal button on this site.

A Puntod resident looks on in shock

Tarpaulin shelter

The Face of Poverty - Does Anybody Care?

I don't know the lady in this picture but she is one of the ones referred to in an e-mail I received this week from one of our mission partners, a pastor of a church in Cagayan De Oro City, Mindanao.

Here is part of what he wrote: -

Greetings from the Philippines!

When we went to the the tribal village of Iba, preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom,
our team visited a house we found three elderly women there living in a day to day survival.
In the course of the conversation, they confided how hard their lives are when no one cares for them. One of them wept bitterly as we had shown concern for them even just by being a person who has listening ears to listen to the cries of their hearts.

Here in the Philippines, there are no government programs to sustain them with their basic needs of food and medicines. We have about 40 elderly women in our bible fellowship attending
our prayer, bible study and worship. Every week we are giving them fares for transportation so that they can attend the fellowship gathering. Every week we are giving free food and rice......

We are in the process of putting together a package of tools and medical equipment for this church to enable them to provide some medical care and also set up some community programs in tribal areas so that people like this can be given ways to earn a living, perhaps by making some simple craft goods or by growing a few crops to provide food for themselves and to sell in the market place.

We can easily obtain the tools and medical supplies but shipping is quite costly and the amount of equipment that we are able to give is constrained by our limited budget. We know that no matter how much aid we send there will always be a need for more but that shouldn't stop us doing what we can.

As I look into the eyes of this lady I find myself moved by her serenity and dignity but in truth this is the face of poverty in 2009. This is not countless hordes of people on the brink of starvation in some African food crisis. This is one elderly lady, amongst a group of others just like her, struggling to survive from one day to the next. This lady has a name, she has a story to tell.

If this were in England, or another affluent country, she would be entitled to welfare support, state benefits, to provide for her needs. But this is the Philippines - a country where almost half of the 80+ million population live in serious poverty (surviving on less than £0.50 / US$1 per day) and where there are not the resources for the government to be able to change the situation, even if there were the political will to do so.

We can't help them all but we could make a difference for this lady and her two friends who live with her. Does anybody care?

In The Meantime - Please Be A Friend

Will you be a friend?

Work is now under way to build the House of Joshua Childen's Home. However the construction project is likely to take around 8 to 9 months to complete (partly depending on how quickly the money comes in and partly on how long the rainy season lasts).

In the meantime our partners in this project, the Lifenet Children's Foundation Inc. want to move forward as soon as possible with providing a home for needy children at risk. To do this they are looking for a house to rent that will be large enough to accomodate about 10 to 12 children plus house parents.

The cost of getting this temporary home up and running is estimated at about £800 (60,000 Philippine pesos) per month, including food, utilities and rent; as well as employing a professional social worker, which is a legal requirement.

We are looking for 80 people to sponsor this at a minimum of £10 per month - to become a 'Friend of the Lifenet Foundation'.

We have set up a separate bank account to receive regular payments. If you have a UK Bank account you can do this by monthly Standing Order. Please visit the House of Joshua page on our website to download the standing order mandate form.

Ain't No Stopping Us Now

I've never been a fan of that particular musical genre but I've heard this song, which was a hit for McFadden and Whitehead, on the radio two or three times over the last week and the first few lines have sort of got stuck in my head, "Ain't no stopping us now, we're on the move. Ain't no stopping us now, we're got the groove."

It seems like a great anthem for us this week as we have just heard that building work has now started on the House of Joshua site and we believe that there really is going to be no stopping us now.

The song lyrics go on, "There've been so many things that have held us down. But now it looks like things are coming round, yeah......

This project has been a couple of years in the hatching and there have been frustrations and set backs along the way but now things are most definitely coming around. Listen to the rest of the song here on YouTube.



For the latest information on the building progress check out the new Lifenet Children's Foundation Blog

A New Set Of Wheels

Back in April we reported on the delivery of a shipment of clothes and a couple of wheelchairs, one of which was for a young boy affected by polio (see the stories On The Recieving End and High Speed Wheelchairs in our blog archive).

Unfortunately we have been unable to trace the boy again in order to give him the chair. We made enquiries without success - one person who was asked about him even thought that the boy had possibly died.

Then last week we were made aware of another boy, aged 17, who had been crippled by polio and was in need of some help so the wheelchair was given to him. He seems to be quite pleased with his new set of wheels!

A Little Here A little There

There are times when I wonder if we have bitten off more than we can chew; when I look at the size of the task before us and wonder if it really is possible.

Last week began that way with me thinking that 5 million Philippine pesos is an awful lot of money (about £70,000 last time we calculated it) - just how are we going to achieve that?

But over the week there have been a number of little things that have brought us just a bit closer to our target.

Firstly there was a donation of £10 from a supporter via Paypal. The following day a 'chance' conversation with one of my customers while I was working in their house resulted in them giving me a tip of £6.50, "for your charity" they said.

Then a couple of young friends, who are getting married shortly, called around to see us and asked if there we could set up the option of a donation to the charity on their wedding gift list.

This was followed a day later by a phone call about three people who each wanted to sponsor the House of Joshua project by giving a regular £10 a month. (see * below)

And then, at the beginning of this week, a church 'house group' told us that they have a tin that all their members put a few coins in each week for a good cause and they too had decided to support the House of Joshua.

None of these things has been massive, none of them has made a really significant change but each one has added a little bit here and a little bit there. Individually some of these things are not much more than a 'drop in the ocean' but that is not to demean them in any way, we appreciate every single penny that is given no matter where it comes from.

More importantly each one has encouraged me to believe that it really is possible to do this - after all, the ocean is simply made up of drops. The more drops we get the closer we are to having our own little ocean!

Then today, as I sat down to write this, I thought I would just check the exchange rate for British Pounds to Philippine Pesos. Last time I checked it was at around 71 pesos to the pound but now it's improved to just under 77 pesos. Suddenly the amount we need to raise has reduced by almost £6,000. Now that IS significant because it means that every single one of those little drops that we have accumulated is suddenly 7% bigger than it was two months ago - which means we are even closer to achieving our target!

* Following the enquiry about regular monthly donations we have set up a separate bank account to receive payments by Standing Order (applies to UK Banks only). You can obtain a standing order mandate form by visiting the House of Joshua page on our website and clicking on the 'Standing Order Form' Button.
PLEASE NOTE donations received through this route will be used to fund the operating costs of the House of Joshua rather than the building project. Please see the post entitled "In the Meantime" dated 7th July 2009 for more information.