Oct 08_living Letter

Living Letters “You are a letter from Christ, the result of our ministry, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” 2 Cor 3:3

Feature

Note from our Director

Oct 2008/Issue 3

Dear Friends, Mabuhay! Greetings from the Philippines! As October is the month when we remember World Missions, we would like to ponder on the words of Pope Benedict XVI in his Message for World Mission Day 2008. The Pope is inviting us in his message ‘to reflect on the continuing urgency to proclaim the Gospel also in our times’ as he sees that ‘humanity is in need of liberation’. The liberation and redemption needs to come to the different nations, realities, cultures and levels of society. In the Philippines, one of the needs of liberation is the liberation from poverty bringing hope to the hopeless and empowerment of the voiceless.

Jitka Svozilova Director, ICPE Philippines

In this issue of Living Letters, we would like to share the reality of poverty and its consequences as we encounter them in our ministries. Thank you for your prayers and support, On behalf of ICPE Mission Philippines,

Empowering the poor... FROM POVERTY..... According to the recently released statistics from the National Statistical Coordination Board of the Philippines, in the year 2006, 32% of the population in the Philippines had less than the minimum income required for basic food and necessities.This means that in that year, approximately one out of every three Filipino was considered extremely poor. It was little surprise then, that when we began reaching out to poor families in Montalban, we confronted the devastating effects of poverty, ranging from poor health care, high mortality rate, poor education to high rates of unemployment. What Facts and figures for 2006 was less immediately apparent were the psychological effects and resulting mindsets generated by poverty. In our ministries, we saw that the children and youth had no Total population: 84 million ambitions other than to earn money to support their families. We met adults who *Income poor: 32% of population suffered from depression and low self esteem-most of them were unable to think beyond Poor families: 26.9 % of families their immediate needs or to articulate their desires and dreams. *Those earning less than P1292 or US$30 We realized that the challenge of empowering the poor required helping them find a voice- to express their ideas, needs and self; to discover their dignity of being and to per month, the estimated threshold income live and reach for their full potential. Our prayer is that with God’s compassionate for basic survival in Philippines for 2006. love, we would continue to journey with them towards a life of possibilities… continued on page 2...

(Taken from the National Statistical Coordination Board of the Philippines for the year 2006)

TO POSSIBILITIES .... Balikatan Ministry’s Livelihood Project: Candle Making The Balikatan ministry began in 2006 with the aim of forming adults in the Christian faith and empowering them to take responsibility for their lives. Although spiritual formation was the primary thrust of the ministry thus far, the long term plan was to assist families through an income generating project. This finally came to fruition with the start of the candle making project. Through the sponsorship of SINGA Ship Management Philippines, twenty-four Balikatan members attended a skills training session on 9 September. Following the training, members decided to embark on producing candles for the approaching All Saints and All Souls’ Day and decorative candles for the Christmas season.Thus, on 25-26 September, eighteen Balikatan members gathered and produced 1,844 candles for sale. Coming together in a rented cramped space of a nearby tutorial centre, members pooled together resources like tables and equipment to make the candles. It was a learning experience for the members to work together and share resources as a community. After that, one member shared that he learned patience as he waited for the candles to be formed and for his turn to dip the candles in the wax. In mid October, Balikatan members will again gather to produce decorative candles for sale during Christmas. Through the project, we hope to provide on going formation for members in living out the Gospel values of communal sharing and working with integrity.

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The words of a Balikatan member, an unemployed single parent of 3 children, after the candle making session sum up the value of the project to them- “It is good to work. Please have more sessions.”

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Step 4 : See the candles grow bigger!

Step 3 : Dipping candles Step 2 : Tying the Wicks to the holders

Step 1 : Melting the Wax

Making a Candle ○

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And... finally! pretty candles in a row

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Step 6 : Cutting the ends Step 5 : Hanging the candles to dry

We believe that with our God of all possibilities, we are one step closer to seeing bigger plans unravel for the dignity of His people.

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Our Christmas Candles!

If you would like to find out more and purchase some of our Christmas candles, please contact Joan Foo at +63-2-6374998 or email us at [email protected]

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OUR VISION: empowering the poor through God’s compassionate love in the heart of Asia

Our Ministries

Balikatan Ministry (‘Balikatan’ which means ‘shoulder to shoulder’ in Filipino, supports adults to grow in Christian faith and empowers them to take responsibility for their lives and families)

On 25 July, Balikatan ministry, together with ICPE Philippines, organized our second evangelistic outreach in Montalban. It was such a joy to see Balikatan members overcome their stage fright to dance, sing, perform mimes and proclaim Jesus as Lord to their neighbours. Around 70 adults participated in the programme and a few have since started attending our regular Saturday meetings. From 23-24 August, a follow up retreat called Knowing God Better, was held for 17 Balikatan members who had completed the Life in the Spirit Seminar. Through teachings, prayer activities and group sharings, God continued to grow His people. Many were led to new found freedom in forgiveness and a new thirst for the Scriptures. “For the first time in 40 years, I was able to release forgiveness to this person who hurt me. I feel so happy and light! “ Sonia Our dream of starting a livelihood project finally materialized with the start of the candle making project. 20 members attended a training session on 9 September and have begun producing candles for sale for All Saints, All Souls Day and the Christmas season.

Children’s Ministry (Planting seeds of faith and hope in young lives, this ministry aims to love and affirm the giftedness of every child as a son and daughter of God.) In the months of July and August, we completed teachings on discipleship, evangelization and being a witness. One of the highlights was the experience of street evangelization. For that session, the children went around their neighbourhood distributing hand-made bookmarks with scripture verses. It was delightful to see the children telling people “God loves you” and sharing God’s love in concrete action. In these months, we also provided milk and vitamins to supplement their dietary and health needs. By God’s gracious providence, we raised sufficient funds for this initiative through different partners of the ministry. On 27 September, we also gave out one set of donated clothes to each of the 100 children in our ministry.

Children Educational Sponsorship (financial sponsorship to empower children and youth through education)

With the first semester drawing to a close in mid October, we have received the results of our sponsored children’s mid semester examinations. Most of our pupils scored average grades with a few excelling in various subjects. We congratulate them for their hard work! (In the Philippines, there are two semesters per academic year with two examinations per semester.)

Youth Ministry (Nurturing youth to be leaders, and men and women of faith and integrity)

The on-going Youth Leaders’ Formation saw positive changes in the youths after the recent Life in the Spirit Seminar. This month, they were given a teaching on the topic of encouraging one another-to be each other’s ‘cheer leader’ on the journey. We also shared on the lifestyle of a true worshipper. As all our Youth Ministry team members are also musicians, we are currently gearing up for the start of Youth Worship Nights-weekly worship sessions where young people can gather to worship God. Our goal is to raise up a new generation of young people who will worship God in spirit and in truth.

Baguio Ministry In August, we sadly bade farewell to Winnie Ng, who had been coordinating the ICPE youth ministry in Baguio and the Lighthouse Community (ICPE youth community) for the past several years. Winnie has decided to start her own community. Consequently, the youth members of the Lighthouse Community have joined Winnie. Due to our limited personnel at this stage, we will not continue a permanent ministry in Baguio but we remain committed to serve the Baguio diocese where needed. We take this opportunity to thank Winnie for her years of dedicated service in the ICPE Mission and wish her and the youths God’s blessings in their new beginnings

Empowered and Inspired... Fondacio Life in the Spirit Seminar On 7 and 8 August, we conducted a two-day Life in the Spirit Seminar for 21 young people undergoing formation at Fondacio. Fondacio is an international Christian community involved in works of evangelization, formation and development. These young people had come from China, Malaysia, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos and the Philippines for a one year training programme so as to be more equiped to serve the Church in their home countries

Experiencing God’s Love and the power of the Holy Spirit .... As part of their formation programme, Fondacio invited us to conduct the Seminar to introduce the students to an understanding of the working and gifts of the Holy Spirit and to experience personally the power of the Spirit in their lives. Over the two days, we presented the kerygma through teachings and the sharing of personal testimonies of how we experienced the truth and power of the kerygma in our lives. There were also times of worship and ministry. At the end of the Seminar many shared that they were touched by God’s love and the power of the Holy Spirit in a very personal way. One girl experienced being raised to new life, another received courage to witness to God’s work, another God’s mercy and forgiveness, yet another was able to deepen his trust in God. Several also rejoiced in experiencing the worship of God in a way that was free and spontaneous.

...Followed by a deeper understanding about the charisms of the Holy Spirit Three weeks later, we had a follow-up session with the students during which we shared more in depth about some of the charisms of the Holy Spirit and also emphasised the importance of the charisms for building up community. This was followed by a time of praying for one another and we were encouraged to see their openness to the Holy Spirit as they listened and allowed God to speak through them to each other. We thank God for this opportunity to reach out to these young people and for having received in turn much encouragement for our own faith and missionary journey.

Prayer Intentions In these coming weeks, please pray with us for the following: - That we will receive funds for a new van for our mission centre and ministries. - Balikatan candle making livelihood project- that members will generate income from the sale of candles and grow in their sense of dignity of self as they work on this project. - Youth Worship Nights-that we will attract young people to encounter God in worship and inspire them to lead a radical life of worship in spirit and truth.

Thanksgiving... Thank you for praying for us! Our 2-day seminar to the students at Fondacio was truly a Spirit-filled one. Also, many Balikatan members could come away for a faith-deepening weekend retreat held at our centre. You can read reports on these events in this edition of Living Letters. We thank God for connecting us to generous people who are helping Balikatan members undertake a livelihood project through candle-making.

INSTITUTE FOR WORLD EVANGELISATION - ICPE MISSION

No. 5 General Lim Street, San Antonio Village, Pasig City 1603, Metro Manila, Philippines Tel:+63 2 6374998; Fax: +63 2 6873233; Email: [email protected]; Website: www.icpe.org; Our Blog : http:// icpephilippines.blogspot.com