Nationwide, families are constantly plagued with poverty. More than 50 million youth are locked in their homes – normally in a hundred square meter makeshift home of metal sheets with no plumbing, running water, barely any electricity, and no internet access.

While single mothers are pumping water for their kids, unpaid utility bills leave homes pitch dark because of the lack of jobs. Ever since the COVID-19 lockdown started the nation is searching for wisdom from anywhere. The Philippines is looking towards Russia and China for a vaccine that will hopefully jump start the country. Even before the lockdown, some families could barely survive with $100 a month. Just imagine their situation at the moment. Jesus is truly the only solution.

Spirit of Gratitude

In view of these dire situation, a great need surrounds us. And it’s not just our country but globally. The fate of millions, if not billions of people have been altered negatively by this pandemic. But one thing our family has been able to step into is a spirit of gratitude because God has miraculously given us a safe haven on our campus and local region.

Ever since the Lord gave us a heart and ability to do relief work, the momentum has never ceased. We are developing the national movement of 1 million Filipinos to the persecuted nations. Our children can play on 29 acres of land without any soldiers, tanks, or militarily enforced policies, while millions of people elsewhere can’t even go on their sidewalk. Our team is thriving amid a collapsing world.

When we gave out 60,000 meals, some of the locals said their survival in the first three months of the lockdown was from the Relief Packages we distributed earlier. And that, they were just eating leaves and rice if they had any. All of these blessings from the Lord gave us perspective on how great and good our God is.

However, it is an alarming fact that there are millions of people in the Philippines and billions of people in the world that are still starving with little chances of getting out of abject poverty unless the church and the disciples of Jesus do something.

Compassion, justice, and discipleship have become a great focus in the midst of what has been happening in the nation. There is even greater opportunity for the gospel now more than ever before.

Praying To Help More Families

It hurts to see abandoned mothers with multiple children living on barely anything every day. Many of them are still pumping or fetching water manually from the ground after their full-day work, provided they still have a job during the national lockdown.

It’s a shocking reminder that there are so many people out there in need of God’s blessings. God has made us his disciples to be that blessing to other people and to help them. It is said in the Bible that you will always have people in poverty, it doesn’t mean they’re going to stay in poverty, but it’s something that confirms the fallen nature of man. Part of our responsibility as disciples of Jesus is to help them develop a life where you know they could fully walk into what God has in store for them

Everything begins and continues with a relationship with God and a consistent ‘yes’ to God.

Thank you for everything you’ve done for our family and us and everything we’re doing in the nations. We’re going to continue praying and working towards what God has given us to steward and share the love of Jesus so that we may rejoice in eternity with them.

We implore you to continue to pray for the discipleship movement to spread into all the 80,000 churches of the Philippines, even amid this heartbreaking global crisis. We are convinced that Jesus is still the solution and will always be.