June 16th Update

Hi Everyone!
Once again it’s taken me way to long to get out an update…. :-/

I know that everyone has been waiting for news on our big concert on May 16th! It went quite well, in my opinion, for being Shepherd of the Hill’s very first big event- Thanks so much for your prayers! Unfortunately, there were a lot of glitches the night of the concert- the program went overtime and people started to leave before the concert was over, we had some technical difficulties and weren’t able to show the video presentation about SOTH that Kuya Nathan worked really hard on, etc. The SOTH staff were pretty discouraged after the event, especially since we raised very little money. I think, though, that the experience that we gained through doing the event was priceless and next time we’ll have greater success! I learned a lot through the process of preparing for the concert, too, and all of my assignments for the event turned out pretty well- I was able to get a few good sponsors to cover the costs of putting on the event, and we had quite a few VIP guests in attendance (Thanks Lord!). I also spent a lot of time working on putting together a kid’s artwork/photo gallery, and creating VIP packages for all our important guests as well as thank-you packages for all the artists and entertainers who participated. We had 12 different Filipino artist/celebrities perform/appear at the event, all Christians and some quite well known, so that was exciting! It’ll be valuable to be able to have those contacts now- and most of them were so moved by the kids of SOTH that they want to help us out in the future too!

The weeks from the concert until now have been the hardest of my time here in the Philippines. I’ve been dealing with a lot of tension between the leadership here and myself. I could use a lot of prayer, though things are beginning to get A LOT better. 

Ok, on to a more recent update (today  )- I’m wearing long sleeves! Yeah! I’m high up in the beautiful (cold and rainy!) mountains of Bagiou city, an 8-hour bus trip from Manila. I’ll be here for two weeks to a month helping Teacher Leah, the full time SOTH staff member here. I’m being assigned to teach English (over two hour long sessions every day- whew!) as well as various other random tasks. I am really enjoying the cool weather, as I haven’t been feeling very well and it’s hard to deal with the heat, and I’m also enjoying the more peaceful and relaxed atmosphere. Life at SOTH Baguio is much less stressful and hectic than it is in San Antonio or Manila.

We have just 14 kids here in Bagiou- Anna, Joan, Irma, Marycon, Kristine, Henry, Erwin, Bernard, Larry, Richard, Jeremy, Rustom, Teddy, and Gelyn. Jeremy is the youngest at age 12 and Gelyn is the oldest at 21 (she’s a junior staffer now). There are two staff members here- Teacher Leah, who takes care of all the kid’s schooling and is basically the “house mother”, and Ate Analyn, our social worker who also does a lot of administrative work. We also have a young college grad here now, Ate Edna ( a relative of one of our local supporters), who is staying with us. She is pregnant (was drugged and raped at a party) and she is staying with us until she has the baby because she can’t go back home to her family.
I have to run for now, much to accomplish today!