Day 19, Tuesday 20th June

Well Tuesday was another interesting day as we were introduced to the Livelihood projects that the church runs. As well as caring for children, they also try to help the parents towards a better living. One part of the project is the giving of low interest loans to people to start up small businesses and the other part is skills training and actually employing people to do certain things. The skills training takes place at certain times of the year in things like cooking, sewing, welding, computers and card making. Then for two days a week the church employs 10 people to come and make professional cards which they will then sell to make some sort of a living. The cards are absolutely amazing. Sadly they cannot sell in the Philippines due to prices being so low. So the church is hoping that they will be sold in England and the US, through the churches, where their price will be significantly lower in comparison to the shops. They make them for all occasions, particularly Christmas.

The problem is that they can only employ 10 people over 2 days when they would like to employ more. The problem is that the people are becoming faster and more experienced in making them and more cards are being produced than can be sold at the moment. So they have had to limit how many are made, until the project is suffciently advertised. What they really want is people to buy the cards not out of pity for the people but because they are good cards. Ideally they want some stability for the people and therefore are looking for around 30-40 churches (or groups/individuals) to make regular commitments to purchase cards. Thus the project will not collapse after a few years. Becci & I are bringing a sizeable amount of cards back to the UK to sell so please ask us when we get back about them. They are going to cost 75p for 2 cards. If you like them, more can be ordered.

So Matthew, an english missionary here who works alongside CRBC with street people, took us to see the project and asked us to give any suggestions about designs. He then showed us the rag making project which is a product that can be sold in the Philippines. However it is at a very low cost. Members of the church supervise all these people and get alongside them to build relationships and ultimately share the gospel with them. As a result there are over 10 Bible Studies going on and some of the people come to church. The church seems to have got a healthy balance between their social work and their spiritual work.

After viewing the projects we headed back to Matthew's for pizza and fellowship. Matthew has been working out here in the Philippines for 3 years. Before that he did several short term trips out here. The church that sent him was Trinity Baptist Church in Gloucester. It was Matthew who had the vision for the drop in centre and set it up. He has a real love for the people here which is very moving and it was really interesting to hear about his work. He is coming to the UK for 2 months in October so perhaps some people in UK might be able to meet him.

Then we were taken to a Mega Mall to do a bit of souvenir shopping. After that we had lunch at Hope House and then came back to join in a devotion that the housemothers were leading in Emmaus. Again a very inspiring and moving day.

Luv Sarah