Bridging Cultures and Meeting Minds in Vietnam

by John Coffey

Earlier this month Jamielyn and I were honoured to represent IT Tender at the 6th IT East Asia Conference in Saigon, Vietnam. Hundreds of missionaries serving across East Asia travelled to the conference to encourage and teach one another. As one of the speakers, I had the opportunity to share what God has been doing through our programs in Manila. I taught a session on community transformation, summarizing much of what I've learned over the past few years regarding long-term empowerment through education and skills training. Thanks to the mentoring of much wiser and more experienced leaders than myself (such as Pastor Joshua & Anne Benavidez, Pastor John & Gela Basiwa, and Hart & Ginny Wiens), I can't overstate the importance of passing on our experiences and effective practices to others.

I'll keep this post brief so you can catch a glimpse of the inspiration and encouragement we experienced at the conference from this video:

Highlights from the 6th International Teams East Asia Conference

In other news, please pray for the following upcoming events:

-April 28 - May 1, "Leader Mundial Summit" in Atlanta, Georgia; I will attend a training for global leaders from various organizations

-May 1, "Family Day"; IT Tender will host a family outing at a swimming resort for over 250 people (children and families from each of our education and nutrition programs)

-May 24, "Museum Field Trip"; IT Tender will bring children from our sponsorship and nutrition programs to a world class science museum in Manila

Stay tuned for updates and stories from those events.

Take care!

School is Out and Summer is In for Filipinos!

by John Coffey

It's hotter than ever right now in Manila and thus the best time to give our students a break. Congratulations to all of our students for their hard work in the 2013-2014 school year. Special congrats are in order for each of the graduates of our preschool program, our elementary/secondary sponsorship program, and our ALS high school equivalency program. We enjoyed a memorable ceremony and dinner for these graduates on Saturday, March 29th. I was moved by the tears of many proud parents witnessing their children receive certificates and various medals for their successes in completing their preschool or high school education.

We were also honoured to have some guests from the city's Department of Education. After the ceremony, they had a private chat with the five passers of our high school equivalency exam where they offered opportunities and scholarships to technical schools and colleges for those motivated to pursue higher education. Gabby and I continue to encourage our graduates to pursue such dreams and not to give up hope in the face of the adversity they've experienced most of their lives. The fact that they've made it this far is a testament to their perseverance and of God's faithfulness.

The five latest passers of the high school equivalency exam (front row)

Our preschool graduates came "dressed to impress"

Our vision at IT Tender is to empower children to become educated and responsible leaders in their community. Encouraging children and youth to join our educational programs begins with going into the community and building relationships with those on the street. Our Night Life program does just that, reaching out to children and youth accustomed to living and working in the street. Some of these youth have yet to discover the hope and inspiration needed to pursue their education. Nevertheless, we are amazed by the resiliency and perseverance of our clients who earn a living sorting through junk and selling what they can. Please pray that we can deepen relationships to inspire these youth to go back to school, to attain more sustainable work, and to believe that God can use them to become leaders.

Our Night Life clients in Putatan sifting through garbage piles 

Gabby mentors these youth through a weekly bible study on Mondays

Besides the graduation ceremony and our regular weekly programs, the last month has been packed with special activities and events. I'll leave you now with a brief summary of these...

We brought each of our Night Life Putatan clients to the drop-in center where Gabby interviewed them to attain more information on their education, family situation, dreams and struggles. Janne - our social work intern from Denmark - carefully crafted the comprehensive survey and will also report the findings to her university.

The children from our Food for Life program took the initiative to create their own rules of conduct for the nutrition sessions

Health workers from the local government came to our drop-in center and led a Hygiene and Nutrition Seminar for the parents of our clients

The Hygiene and Nutrition Seminar was a great success and we're already looking forward to our upcoming Family Planning Seminar

I brought a handful of our workers to assist the Hygiene Day of our partner ministry "Batang Matinik" in rural Tiaong, Quezon Province

Martin and Gabby (in the mirror) joined me in reminding the boys at the Hygiene Day to brush their teeth and bathe every day

The vice mayor of the city invited our team to his home for food and fellowship!

Teaming up with our partners at Jesus Our Hope Church in Sucat, I helped organize a seminar about "Working and Earning" led by entrepreneur and pastor Dino Yupo and social worker Gela Basiwa 

As you can see, there's a lot of exciting things going on at IT Tender! By God's grace, we are privileged to experience every trial and success along the way in transforming communities in Manila. As the team leader, I'm constantly seeking ways to improve our programs and also myself as a leader. I'm thus thankful for two exciting opportunities that are coming up in the next month. Firstly, on April 10-12 Jamielyn and I will be in Vietnam representing IT Tender at the 6th East Asia Regional Conference of International Teams. We will learn from other IT missionaries and also share what we've learned serving the poor in Manila. Then, from April 28 to May 1 I will attend a forum for global leaders in Atlanta, Georgia. This leadership summit is called Leader Mundial and is run by one of our partner NGO's at Extreme Response. The purpose of the summit is to help leaders become more effective in leading and developing their organizations' vision, objectives and impact.

Thanks again for reading my updates, and I look forward to sharing more pictures and news soon.

Side-by-Side to Empower the Poor

by John Coffey

"Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labour. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up." (Ecclesiastes 4:9-10)

It's hard to imagine running our programs and leading our team without the support and encouragement of Jam. For months she was assisting at our preschool and Night Life once a week. However, I'm excited to share that as of last Monday she has started working full-time at IT Tender. The entire team is thankful for her passions in teaching children, her creativity in the arts (especially with singing and dancing), and her skills with administration. Jam is currently Cecille's assistant teacher in our preschool, she serves in our Food for Life nutrition program twice a week, she helps with our Night Life program, and she also assists with administration in the office.

Our clients immediately fell in love with "Ate Jam" (big sister Jam).

Jam is passionate about providing healthy meals for the children.

The SLC Preschool students call her "Teacher Jam".

Serving and worshipping together is an opportunity for us to grow, mature, and understand each other better.

Building relationships in the community takes patience, understanding, and dedication. We are already starting to witness the first fruits of our labour in a new community called Putatan. A few months ago we started a one-year nutrition program in the Putatan community. Both Ate Lorna and Karin live in this area and have a deep love for the families and street children there. Three times a week we provide food, multivitamins, and activities for 50 underweight children. This Monday their parents will be attending our Nutrition and Hygiene Seminar at the IT Tender drop-in center.

Ate Lorna and Karin also run a weekly Night Life program in Putatan for youth who mostly live on the street and rely on scavenging through garbage to make a living. Because of our workers strong relationship with these youth, some of the youth have asked us to lead a bible study. Our teammate Gabby has experience in mentoring and discipling street youth, so last week he started leading a youth bible study in Putatan on Monday afternoons.

Ate Lorna is the hardest working woman I know. She cooks and assists in our Night Life and Food for Life programs.

Youth in Putatan scavenge through this refuse pile for plastics, cardboard, newspaper, and glass. They can earn up to a few dollars a day if they sell enough recyclable items.

Ate Lorna cooks over 200 servings of nutritious food each week for our various programs - including Night Life in Putatan.

Many of the kids in Night Life are not in school and very underweight. We hope to change that.

Martin and Janne from Denmark also assist with Gabby's new youth bible study.

Gabby gladly disciples these youth who have asked for a regular bible study.

Please continue to pray for the needs of our team. Some of my teammates are studying part-time (e.g., Jizza in Social Work, Cecille in Education, Karin in Tagalog Language School) and others are praying to go to college (e.g., Gabby can become a licensed Moderator of our tutoring program for out-of-school youth if he completes any 2 to 4 year college course; he is now praying for his tuition costs). Jizza and I are also busily writing a new manual of policies and procedures for IT Tender. While we have a license to run our programs as an NGO with International Teams, we are also praying to acquire a license specifically for our drop-in center which would raise our status and gives us more privileges with the local government. One of the requirements is the submission of our policies and procedures in what's called a Manual of Operations. The Manual of Operations also includes details on our vision, clients, personnel, budget, and documentation. Despite the many hours I will spend on this over the next 3 to 6 months, I'm still thankful to have time to volunteer once a week at the Night Life and Food for Life programs. Please pray that God will give me strength, energy, and even rest so that I can do my job well.

I love leading songs and activities at Food for Life in Putatan.

We pray during our programs because we seek to create lasting transformations in the physical, emotional, intellectual, AND spiritual aspects of each child.

Even Teacher Cecille has set aside time from her busy schedule teaching preschool to serve once a week at Food for Life Putatan.

Thank you for all your encouragement and support! God bless and take care.

From One Home to Another

by John Coffey

In the Filipino language, "balikbayan" translates as "return to nation" and refers to a person who is returning to his or her homeland. In many ways I felt like a balikbayan upon returning to the Philippines, just as I was a balikbayan when visiting Canada. Truly I'm blessed to have two homes.

What makes a place home? Well, for me, this is what defines a home...

     1. Your loved ones are there.

We're not related by blood but I love the street children as if we are.

     2.  You feel a sense of belonging and connectedness.

My faith, my family, and my friends all come together at IT Tender.

     3.  You can be yourself. Silly, inspired, irritable, elated, and everything in between.

Who says you need a house with four walls to be comfortable with who you are? The street children have showed me that a home can have little to do with your physical surroundings.

So whether I'm with my friends and family in Canada or with my team and the children in Manila I feel very at home. My homecoming this January in the Philippines was wonderful. The greatest joys were seeing my fiance Jam and also seeing the smiles of the children in our programs. In reality, it's not easy serving the poor in Manila. I'm far from my Canadian family, far from the comforts and lifestyle I grew up in, and each day facing the task of turning seemingly hopeless situations into opportunities for transformation and empowerment. But when I arrived at our drop-in center for our Friday night program, the excitement of the children refilled my soul with hope, faith, and determined purpose in serving in Manila.

Enjoying dinner with the kids from our Night Life program

Proudly displaying their art activity

Each street child and their own unique story is another reason to care and to serve. A beautiful young girl named Lenly has been attending both our Night Life program and our Food for Life program for malnourished children. She struggles with a speech problem, but she is never shy with her friends and loves to give them big hugs. If you met Lenly she would likely greet you with a warm smile and show you her newest doll that she found from scavenging in a garbage pile. My British teammate Karin told me that children like Lenly give her a reason to serve in the Philippines - to have the chance to improve her situation and see her eventually complete her schooling. In fact, we have been praying for more missionaries like Karin who are willing to come to Manila to serve these children at IT Tender.

Lenly and the doll she found in a garbage pile

In 2014 our prayer for many more short- and long-term missionaries is already starting to be answered. At the beginning of January David Shields arrived from Northern Ireland. He has been an incredible example of humility, compassion, and faith for our community. Today was the last day of his short-term mission, and already he is excited to return to visit our children and the team at IT Tender.

David and some of his young new friends

Last week we also welcomed a young Danish couple to our team - Martin & Janne. After just a week they have found a place in our IT Tender family and we're excited for their 6 month adventure serving alongside us in Manila. Besides these volunteers, we also have some missionaries serving part-time from our partner organization Extreme Response. Amanda Moxley and Louise Carver serve at our drop-in center every Friday.

Martin tries out some popular Filipino games on his first community visit

Janne's mission is an internship as part of her degree in Social Work from Denmark

Amanda and preschool student John Rey share a "selfie"

Louise is a natural with the kids and has already served in Ecuador with Extreme Response

Please contact me at johndlcoffey@gmail.com if you are interested in missions or in helping with our programs in Manila. I will leave you with some photos from David's last night at our drop-in center. We had an epic "thumb wrestling" tournament with the children from Night Life. Enjoy...

Humid Holidays In Manila

Dear friends and family,

I braced for a cold Christmas on furlough while my prayers remained centered on Manila. While the ice and snow in Canada have been especially dangerous, how do we comprehend the death toll and destruction from the typhoon in the Philippines? Many organizations, including International Teams, have rallied support to answer the prayer for relief in the wake of this disaster. However, as families across the Philippines who've lost everything move to an already overpopulated Manila, higher rates of out-of-school children will have a long-term effect that cannot be addressed only by short-term relief. Our team at IT Tender engages in long-term community development and education.

In spite of the recent tragedy, God blessed hundreds of children and families through our annual Christmas parties. My team experienced the joy of giving groceries to families and gifts to children at our parties. 

Food and games at Jollibee - the favoured Filipino restaurant of our kids 

At IT Tender we strive to empower the most impoverished communities in Metro Manila. Recently, the local government asked for our help in a new area of Sucat near a squatter community we've invested in for over 10 years. The new area consists of simple shanties built on bamboo stilts over a bay. We are currently surveying the needs of the community and excited to implement income-generating and educational programs that correspond to their assets and needs.

A warm welcome during my first visit to the community

These shanties stand above several feet of water.

Jizza, our intern social worker, gains a broader picture of the community from one of its leaders. 

As requested by the locals, our first priority is to aid them in sanitation and waste removal.

Please pray for this new community and also for the many communities outside of Manila affected by the latest Typhoon. My fiance Jam has many relatives living in the province of Leyte who were directly hit by the storm. I was honoured to meet them months before the storm when we visited for a week. Now we're shocked to see news broadcasts of Leyte in utter desolation and to hear word from her relatives that they were without food and water for weeks.

These young relatives of Jam have lost their homes and are starting over again after the storm.

The very sweet grandmother of Jam with her two brothers

Moving forward and staying strong, Jam's relatives are thankful that they all survived the storm.

There is much work to be done in the Philippines, and I'm ready to return on January 8. I will deeply miss my family and friends in Canada, but I'm grateful for your support and encouragement that allow me to serve Filipinos full-time. God bless you!

John Coffey
Director of IT Tender
johndlcoffey@gmail.com

Caring for street children ~ Isaiah 58:10