Manila - A full Father's House

Co-workers of the Father's House on a street outreach

From City Mission/Father's House, a HELP ministry for streetchildren on the Philippines.  In the past weeks we were able to take in some new children. One of them is Lisa *name changed (10 years), who like many other street children had never slept in a bed or eat at a table. Her whole family lived on the street. After her father was shot by the police, her mother went crazy. Lisa had no protection and never went to school. After she trusted us enough, because of many visits to the street, she decided to come with us to Father‘s house. Lisa is now a very happy girl who goes to school with great enthusiasm.
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Streetkids - Speechless in Manila

“Ate (big sister), our friend has died.” The little girls welcomed me with this bad news. They are sitting at a street corner where we regularly visit street kids. The girls are squatting on a piece of carton. “What happened?” I asked them being shocked myself. A group of street kids went for a swim in a river the day before. One boy, who was fairly new in this gang of children, boldly jumped from a higher cliff. However, he didn’t surface after diving into the water. His friends looked for him desperately, but could only secure his dead body. I am sitting there on this piece of carton with these little girls – shocked and speechless. The kids are huddling up against me, trying to be close after this traumatic event. Jenalyn (11 years old and already hooked on sniffing glue) says: “Maybe I can come and live with you one day?” That’s what the Father’s House is for: to take care of kids like her who have nobody caring for them. I say: ”Yes!” hoping that she won’t change her mind.

Manila - Mother gone lost between two storms

“We are right in the middle of some relief projects helping some families to get back on their feet after the flood. It’s harder on some people than on others.
We’ve just come back from visiting four teenagers who lost their mom between two storms.

Their hut and all their belongings were swept off as typhoon ‘Ketsana’ hit Manila. Their mother (52), who was suffering of severe TB, died last week. The coffin is laid out on a pile of mud under a provisional tent. Her children are living behind some planks, just a few meters beside it.

We’ve known and come along this family for many years and are grateful to be able to practically help thanks to the donations. We are going to rebuild the hut for the teenagers and will attend to their emotional and spiritual needs as far as we can. The two younger kids are still going to school and we are supporting them with their education. The four siblings are sticking together although they don’t have parents any more.”
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Manila - Reaching out to the street kids

While the authorities haven’t announced a storm all-clear, our City Mission team is again reaching out to the street kids. A participant reports: ”Tonight we are finally heading for that well known street corner again, where we usually meet with the street kids, drug addicts and prostitutes and spend time with them. First we’ve only met the smaller kids, the older ones kept away since a group of soldiers was within sight.

The kids missed us already and wanted to see the pictures that I took last time. I had to promise to hand out the pictures till Christmas. We had a really cool time with the kids. Rose, a Filipino staff, brought some picture books which we read to the kids. We also played together and I had to take more pictures of them.

One of the kids was very interested in the Father’s House and when we showed him some pictures of the Father’s House he said straight away: “Can you take me there, please!” A little while later, after the soldiers had left, the older boys and girls came, too. We had the opportunity to talk to some of them.

Unfortunately, I was very busy taking pictures, because every minute somebody new asked me to take a picture. Nevertheless, it was great to be involved and I can downright “sense” how much Jesus loves these kids. I’m convinced that he has other plans for them than living on the streets.”
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Tropical storms over the Philippines - Outreach

One of our HELP interns reports:
Today I have had the opportunity to visit Ketsana victims again. In the morning we stuffed around 70 bags with clothing we’ve received from a nearby church. And off we went in the afternoon to places well-known to us.
Many of them looked much better than the last time we visited.


What we didn’t like though was that they had just opened a new garbage dump right there in the slum area. The garbage trucks were all standing in line in front of it. What if the area gets hit by another flood? It would be littered all over with garbage again.
The people were all very busy and many are actually paid to help clean up. However, the way of clearing the area from the dirt was funny. The Filipinos use anything to carry a small pile of mud to another street corner: empty baskets, sliced water containers, the grid cover of a fan ... they attach it to a piece of string and trail it behind.

I am going to buy the Father’s House!

From HELP City Mission / Father's House, Manila.

As a little baby Jonathan was abandoned by his mom. He grew up knowing nothing about emotional attention for his first years in life. That’s why he was a very disturbed kid.

For several years now he has found a new home in the Father’s House and is flourishing. His grandma, who is working in Greece, just found out about this other grandson in May this year. When she was visiting the Philippines, she stopped by at the Father’s House to visit Jonathan. Both of them were so happy to finally get to know each other. Jonathan’s Grandma couldn’t stop crying for joy and thanked us again and again for taking good care of her grandson.

She is now back in Greece, working, but she regularly calls Jonathan to talk to him at the phone. Last week she forwarded 30 Euro so that Jonathan can buy something nice for himself. Never in his life had Jonathan seen so much money at one go; he grinned like a Cheshire cat and said: “Now I am going to buy the Father’s House for us!” (We will certainly save this money for Jonathan and help him to spend it on something nice for himself.)
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Manila - New Kids

From the latest newsletter of HELP Father's House / City Mission, Philippines.
"A___ was heavily abused and urgently needed a safe refuge. She came to us in June at the age of thirteen. She did not have the opportunity to go to school regularly so she has to start again in the first grade.

It does not bother her at all that she is the biggest girl in class. She’s just so grateful to be in a safe place, to live a normal life and to be able to go to school. She’s a fast learner and may be able to catch up in the next years.

The next ‘new’ boy is M___ whose family we know for a long time through our street outreaches. He literally grew up in the streets and at eleven, has not completed first grade. His father who died recently was an abusive alcoholic and his mother never cared for the children. He looks forward to an orderly life. We hope, that he will be able to adjust to community life after so many years of independence on the road."
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Philippines - Amazing Devotions

HELP City Mission/Father’s House, Manila
“During summer break we had daily devotions for the children of the Father’s House. We talked about Jesus being the good shepherd who cares about us, that God adopted us into his family and such things.

One time the kids wrote letters to a Chinese family whose father is serving time in prison because he “sells Bibles”. They were really shocked about the fact that one could end up in prison on account of his faith.

Another time we told them that it is not right to hide sin in your heart. During the time of prayer that followed one boy asked for forgiveness because he was lying very often, was always hiding toys (which drives the other boys crazy) and had smashed the cup of one of the staff and tried to conceal it.
Those moments are of cause very precious to us and the kids will surely treasure one or the other devotion for a long time.”
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Philippines - Filthy and stoned

HELP City Mission/Father's House Manila
During one of our outreaches we met MariVic. She staggered towards us completely filthy and stoned, the glue still sticking to her nose. When she came closer I finally realized that she was a little girl. A bunch of older guys stumbled after her, mocking her. We started to talk and invited the whole group of fifteen kids, all full of lice and very filthy, to dinner at McDonalds.



After talking to the manager, we were finally allowed to take the whole group inside to sit at a table in a remote corner. They were as pleased as Punch, since they haven’t had anything to eat yet. It didn’t take long to discover that MariVic was an orphan trying to eke out a living on the streets. I invited her to come and stay with us in the Father’s House. She came with us without thinking twice. Since she didn’t know what to expect, she looked about scared.

The only thing she knew was a life on the streets, so she preferred to sleep in a corner on the floor for the first night. The bed with fresh linen in the girl’s room was just too odd:-). Meanwhile she feels at ease and we are happy to have her as a new member in our Father’s House family. Right now we have space for 24 kids and youngsters and have only little room left.
Petra Erkens

Philippines - Mobile Kids Church

Every week. the team of the "City Mission" of HELP International Philippines helds services in the street. They report: "The joy of the children is always big when we arrive monday afternoon in Tumana (a district of Manila). As soon as they see us, they come running and welcome us exitedly. In this slum, hundreds of familys live in minimal space in very simple huts. Accordingly, many children come together.

Because the most of them cannot afford a trip to another part of the town, we go there with our Mobile Kids Church. They love to sing songs or to listen to a story. Later, when we have to leave, they accompany us to the road and wave to us for a long while.
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Philippines - Sponsored Sprint

The team from the HELP City Mission / Father's House in Manila gives shelter to 25 children and young people at the age of 5 to 25 who have no family which can take care of them. Right now, they have the possibility to buy the property where they live on. To help to finance the whole project, they organized a sponsored sprint.

They tell: "The kids prepared themselves for weeks. They practiced as often as possible, tried out if they can do more rounds by scooter or roller skates.
They prayed like world champions for lots of sponsors. Time and again the same question was asked: ”How many sponsors do I have by now???”

The sponsored sprint was the number one topic for weeks and it was exciting to see the kids highly motivated. It really showed how much the Father’s House means to them and that they have found a new home.
October 12th finally arrived – the kids raced their laps in small groups, while we as staff cheered them on, counted the laps, accompanied them for a lap with water and dextrose at hand.

It was a happy and successful event. Some of our friends from Manila came to just cheer for the kids.
The kids gave their best and most of them surpassed themselves.
Everybody knew: “This is my chance to contribute to the house purchase.”

Jemmy, 10 years old, was the fastest. He drove 24 laps (more than 7 kilometers) with his scooter in half an hour!
The weather was perfect, even though the weather forecast said it would rain and it did in some areas close by.
As acknowledgement every child received a certificate and a little present in the end.
Pictures from the race >>
Pictures from the Father's House >>
Morte about the City Mission / Fathers House ministry >>