Year in Review part one

I know that most people do a year in review at the end of December so I am late with this post, but I am doing it know because it is three days shy of a year ago that we left on a jet plane to fly here.  Wow what a year it has been.  On January 19, 2015 we left Grand Rapids MI with a wonderful group of people at the airport to pray and send us off.  We landed in Manila Philippines two days later on the 21st.  We spent 2 days in Manila to rest, adjust time, and finish processing my visa papers.  We then flew on to Cebu where my nephew met us to assist us the rest of the way to Bohol.  We arrived home at about 3:30 or 4 in the morning.  We first woke up and surprised Jonah's sister and then went to serenade and surprise Jonah's dad for his birthday.  We started to settle into life in our new home but it had to be finished first.  We stayed with my sister-in-law and family for the first month while our house got finished.  We moved in and took another month and a half or so to get ourselves adjusted and used to our new life and schedule.  Getting used to a new life that was soon to change again.  We then started work on the orphanage and took about two months to complete.  We had some amazing people from the church working hard to finish the project.  Our first two orphans are cousins to the original three that lived in the first orphanage.  It was about a month after they moved in that we received there younger brother.  It was soon after that when Marvin moved in.  We had James with us from the beginning as well.  So within four or so months of living here I went from mom of two to mom of seven.  The beginning of January this year we received four more children a sibling group who was extremely malnourished and very ill.  They are 14, 5, 2 and 7months old.  We just recently where told by the mother that we could adopt the youngest if we wanted to so we are going to be starting that process soon as well.  So in a years time we went from parents of two to parents of 12 children.  It has been an adventure with ups and downs but God is always faithful.
     Our ministry here took on some new aspects as well that we did not expect but God has called us to start a youth fellowship ministry to reach the non Christian youth of our community.  With the help of the young adults we hold a monthly youth "camp"  Sometimes it is a one day event and other times we do an overnight.  Every event though we have worship, a message or two and fun games for everyone.  These events are so successful in reaching the unreached because we have implemented the bring one policy.  For every young person from our church that wants to come they have to bring a friend.  then we announce the next event and encourage everyone there to bring a friend.  Our largest youth fellowship was about 150 people.  Most of the time the event is just held at the church but sometimes we try to go to the beach or a resort of some sort that has a pool.  These events are at no cost to the people that attend and are sponsored completely by us and the local church.  The biggest cost is the food because they are fed meals and snacks for the whole time they are at the event.  A lot of you have been very generous in helping to support these events when we ask for special donations for these events and we can not thank you enough. 

    God bless and part two will be coming soon with some pictures.

American thanksgiving

 



Jonah thought it would be great this year if his family had a chance to know what American Thanksgiving is like for us.  So we bought a couple of turkeys and hams and we had thanksgiving with about twenty five people here in the Philippines.  All of the people here had never had turkey before and so it was fun to share this holiday with them.  Both turkeys where gone and most of the ham was gone as well.  We also set up our Christmas tree recently.  Another fun day that was.  The tree was set up and decorated by seven kids.  Jonah and I sat back and took pictures and watched the kids all have fun.  They have had a tree of their own let alone help decorate one before.  They all had a blast.  We are really enjoying this season with all of our kids.

 eight of the "kids" with our tree

 Thanksgiving feast ready to be devoured

 nephew Ken, sister in law Melina and niece Sharon

 Faith enjoying Thanksgiving dinner

A couple of our young people enjoying Thanksgiving

 

We are in full swing for Christmas season here and what a busy time of year it is.  The biggest event we have coming up is our last youth event for this year.  We are expecting about 200 plus young people this month.  The event is planned for December 12 and 13.  They arrive early Saturday and have lectures, worship and games planned for all day Saturday and will attend a Sunday worship service the next day.  Please keep this event in your prays.

 

     We are all doing pretty well.  A cold has made its way through our family and had us all laid out for a day or two but we are all back to health and ready to stay healthy for the rest of this amazing Christmas season to celebrate our saviors birth.  We Pray you and your families will have a very blessed Christmas and a wonderful new year.

A picture is worth a thousand words part I

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I am going to try an experiment with the blog today and you can come along for the ride.  If you get a chance leave me note and let me know what you think.  I will put a small caption under each picture to tell you who and when it was taken.

 

 Juagdan ECCU congregation at the church thanksgiving end of April 2015

 Faith on the steps at our house, Sept. 2015

 James and Inday, about July 2015

 Kuya Ken, Precious, Faith and Kuya Fredo.  In Negros March 2015

 The gang that went to Negros with us March 2015

 Ate Amy, Precious, Faith, Ate Jane, and Jolene Negros March 2015

 Lolo Kuya Ken, Kuya Fredo and Jonah Negros MArch 2015

 Kuya Fredo, Kuya Ken, Precious, Faith and Kuya Chloe, Negros March 2015

Kuya Fredo, Kuya Chloe, Faith, Precious and Kuya Ken, Negros March 2015.

 

 

The pictures from Negros is when we went to the local churches national conference in March.  I am so thankful for the three young men that where with us.  Ken Chloe and Fredo.  My girls love them and they love my girls and where great because they helped to watch after the kids.  Most of the pictures are at a park that we stopped at the last day before we left for home.  The girls wanted to get a lot of pictures with there "boys".  Hope you enjoy a small glimpse into our world here.  There will be a part two coming soon and maybe more when I find the other memory card.  God Bless.

Family day away and other news

 

 



On Friday a couple of weeks ago we took a day away to spend with Jonah's sister and her family.  The 5 of  them and 4 of us went to a resort about an hour or so from home to spend the day relaxing and swimming.  It was a good day to get away from the craziness of life here and to relax before the start of the Bible training here in Juagdan.  The girls and I spent most of the day in the pool.  They had a nice pool for kids that was not more than three feet deep and had a nice slide system set up with five or six different slides.  The girls loved having the chance to spend the day with there cousins and with mom and dad.  Three of the cousins live here with there mom and dad but are gone most of the week at work and school but the girls love them and they love the girls so it was nice for them to have a day to play together and just relax from the hectic life we sometimes lead.  

 

 Precious

 Chloe, Faith, Precious and Klent

 

Faith enjoying the water

 

 

In other news the girls are doing well in school and are learning a lot.  Precious is getting pretty fluent in Cebuano the local language here.  Faith is learning it as well and can speak in short sentences.  Faith has learned to spell and write her name.  She knows the alphabet and can write most of the letters free hand.  She counts to forty in English and to 25 in Cebuano.  We have started renovating a building near our house to start the water refilling business.  We have also started raising baby pigs to sell when they are older.  There is a big market for pigs and pork so we are trying it out.  We know that we can save some on our food budget by buying a baby and raising it to butcher when big enough.  The orphans are growing and learning a lot as well.  Marvin and John have almost mastered the alphabet which is a huge accomplishment from where they were just a few months ago.  I keep some busy on the weekends baking and making snacks for the mens basketball games on Sunday afternoon.  I enjoy baking and the guys love to eat the goodies so it is a win win.  I burn the calories mixing everything by hand and the guys eat all the yummies.  The kids all enjoy helping out in the kitchen when I bake also so sometimes it becomes a family affair.  It takes longer that way but is a lot more fun because there is a lot more laughter. 

 

This note may be a little early but better early.  We would ask that you prayerfully share our ministry with your friends and family.  At the same time we would ask that you prayerfully consider or work and ministry here for your year end giving.  May God bless you and yours.  Blessings

 

Cajigas family

new members

Wow it is has been a long time since I updated and for that we are sorry.  I just want to take this time to introduce you to a couple of new members of our family.  The first is Marvin.  He is a 13 year old boy that was living with his lolo (grandpa).  He is in the 3rd grade.  He is similar to our other three orphans in that he is very behind in school because no one has made him attend.  We are wondering how he even got to the 3rd grade.  He can not read and is not able to recognize all the letters by sight.  If done in order he has memorized the alphabet.  He is also very behind in math.  He can speak well.  He is a hard worker and has a lot of energy.  I am understanding know how a boy of that age can eat a person out of house and home.  He has a sad story.  His mom was raped by her dad and got pregnant.  Marvin is the result of that crime.  His mom ran away soon after he was born and Marvin has been raised by his dad/grandpa till know.  He was here with us for a week or so and then grandpa wanted him to come home.  He cried for a couple of days because he wanted to live here with us.  Grandpa finally let him go and he has officially moved into the orphanage.  We are excited to provide him with the love and support he needs to succeed in life.  We are tutoring him after school and on weekends in the hopes to get him caught up to where he should be in school. 

 

 

Marvin our happy one.

 

The next new member is Lexi.  That is what the girls have named our puppy.  We have had her for about five months know but are just getting pictures up.  She is a German shepherd Chocolate Lab mix.  She is already a tall puppy so we are sure she is going to be a big dog.  She is very well behaved and we are trying to teach her tricks.  The girls love her.  

 

Lexi our puppy

 

 

The last person we would like to introduce you to is DinDin.  I do not have a picture of her yet so will post later.  She is a new ministry partner.  She came to us in June.  She loves kids and has a huge servants heart.  She has taken over most of the care at the orphanage and helps us out around our home as well.  She is also working with the children at the church to start some more children's ministries.  She is also teaching our youngest orphan John and Faith in school.  We pulled John from the local school and decided to teach him at home because he was not learning at school and was to distracting to the other kids.  He has been doing much better here and Faith is enjoying as well.  They are excited to be classmates and cannot wait to share with Jonah and I all that they learned that day.  She has been a huge blessing to have and we are excited to welcome her to our family as well.

       In other news, we have a new ministry starting here soon.  In mid September we are starting a short term bible training program.  We have at least eight students for the first session and are excited for this new opportunity.  It is a three month program with a focus on leadership and evangelism/outreach.  We have six courses that are going to be taught with them working in the field to apply what they are learning at the same time.  I have been given the wonderful opportunity to head up this program with the help of the church board.  As we get started I will update you more about the ministry and let you know how it is going.