Easter and a growing mission

Dear friends, on behalf of acts29 I would like to wish you a joyous Easter!

It's been awhile since our last post. No, we've not been idle. In fact we've been busier than ever.

This December we welcomed the following people on board our acts29 mission team!

1. Eugene Basquinaz joined us as a missioner and full-time supervisor.

2. Teresa San Miguel, our full-time house mother.

3. And we're happy to welcome back on our team once again, Maylene Grace Batol as our Philippines advisor.

2010 was a tough year. Our mission goals were put to the test and there were heartbreaks along the way.

Nicassio our 12 year old resident decided to leave our community house and headed back to Payatas. On the brigther side of things, Joannie our 20 year old resident, came back from Payatas to live with us again. And she is looking forward to resume her studies this June. This Lent we also welcome a brood of siblings from Payatas into our home.

Jerlyn Dolloso, 16. Gelenito Dolloso 12. Jimboy, 10 and little Julian 7 years old.

Thanks to the support of well-wishers and like-minded missioners, we were also able to purchase a unit in Erap City and will be building our Volunteer Centre there. However, rebuilding the unit to a double storey hospitality centre is really going to cost! But at the same time, we want to offer our visiting missioners and volunteers a conducive environment of rest and prayer during their very busy and hectic time with us.

We are also now starting a funraising project to buy another plot of land to build up our centre there. The centre will be a 3 storey building, equipped with a library (to encourage reading in the community, medical clinic (for medical missions and visiting doctors/nurses ) and most importantly a prayer room. The centre will also be our community home and we will be conducting prayers from Taize on a regular basis for the larger ecumenical community.

It's not been easy seeing to all the needs of the kids and youths, but Eugene has come up with a great programme. Most importantly the faith of our kids and youths come first. Some day, they will leave our home, when they want to and when they are ready to... so what do we hope they take with them? That in time with acts29 they have come to know God, love God and serve God.

We also wrapped up the school year in the 1st week of April and all the scholars managed to meet the target to hold on to their scholarship. Special mention goes to Clover for overall excellent academic achievement!

Tomorrow, our scholars will start on their summer swimming program. We wish them all the best!

We are also very grateful to the support for parishioners from Our Lady of Perpetual Succour. Through their advent fundraiser (to buy nativity story books for the kids in Payatas and Erap), we discovered there weren't such books written in Filipino for kids. Perhaps because such words would be too deep for kids to understand. May has put together a simple version of the Nativity Story. We are now waiting for June to come. So the kids can hear the story told to them and illustrate their favourite parts of the story. Then, the printing will take place and this December 350 kids will receive the Nativity Story with their very own illustrations.

This June we will also be conducting a medical mission for all kids from Paaralang Pantao (Payatas and Erap). Mainly, there will be deworming, TB testing, and overall health check.

How to Help

1. Long term - Volunteers/Missioners with an attitude for mission for 6 months to 1 year to provide faith formation

2. Short term - Volunteers/Missioners with an attitude for mission to conduct children's rights sessions

3. Donations - $100, 000 for building of acts29 centre and volunteer centre, $500 - medical mission, daily lunch program for Paaralang Pantao

4. Sponsor our scholarship program - $300 a year for elementary and $400 a year for high school. There are bright kids with a desire to learn in need of sponsorship for formal education

5. Sponsor our birth certificate project - a handful of our kids still have no birth certs and wont be able to start school this June.

T0 contact us directly, you can email enquiries@acts29mission.org or sherlyn@acts29mission.org

God's peace be with you!

Sherlyn