A new school year begins

The last time we left you was in the middle of our summer break from school. Well here we are about a month later and have finished up our summer activities and have started a new school year. to finish off the summer though we did celebrate Faith's birthday just the way she had planned and she declared it one of her best birthdays yet. It was opposite day though. Instead of us suprising her she suprised her siblings for her birthday. It was a birthday celebration and family vacation in one. We went to the local town and had a great time swimming in the pool, eating dinner out and more swimming. Faith with help from dad chose the place and the activities. The kids watched and movie together and had snacks in the evening while mom caught up on some much needed rest. We did start our new ministry the beginning of July. A Bible/leadership training progarm. We have 15 people from Our local church and from two other churches on a neighboring island. several of our students and high school and college students so it has been interesting to come up with a schedule that works for everyone. I think we managed to do it though. The adults have outside work and study time during the day and we have class from 6-9 every evening and for three hours on Saturday. It makes for some long days but God provides what we need and the kids are mostly supportive of the ministry. It is hard sometimes for our family though as it takes dad out for all classes and mom for an hour every evening. Jonah is a student for this first three month session and helps me (Jessica) teach when needed. I have worked it out that I teach right around bed time so I can still have supper with the kids, do Bible study and pray with them before bed. Precious is a big help as she is the one to actually make sure they are in bed on time and tucks them in Mondfay to Friday. It has been great teaching and amazing to see the fruit of some of the learning already being put into action. I am so looking forward to seeing how God is going to grow his church through the students. July 29 saw the first day of school for our kids. Precious is in 11th grade. The high schools here have different tracks to study that help to prepare you for college. If you choose the right track then all is good if you choose one that does not line up with what you study in college you have to take what becomes equivelant to an extra semester of college classes. Precious is on the HUMMS track (HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES STRAND). This is the correct path for her as she wants to study to become a special education teacher. She has had a god start so far aside from the frustration of figuring out her schedule as there are some changes to the program this year due to class sizes. She is also trying her best to help support her sister Faith throuh the transition. That brings us to Faith. She is starting the 7th grade. This has been a hard week for her. She has never been very good with change and also gets overwhelmed with large groups of people she does not know so to say the least this is a very difficult transition for her. Please help us pray for her as she has had several panic attacks already and this is only the start of the third day. Pray for Jonah and I also as we are trying to be patient and understanding through this process. I will admit I have failed at that and have lost my cool. I have owned up to it and have had to apologize to all of my kids at some point this week so far. Andrew started the 5th grade and is off to a great start. He enjoys his friends and learning so looking forward to a great year for him. Marah has started 4th grade and is also have to a pretty good start. We are working on learning to pay attention to teacher all the time so we do not miss instructions for homework and other important details but other than that also looking forward to a good year. Mark is also starting the 4th grade. He has also had a rough start to his year. Once he gets settled he actually enjoys school but getting into it is hard. This week is especially diffucult for him as his asthma, which is most of the time under control has decided to act up this week. It is made worse when he gets worked up though which he has a couple of times this week. He had a the hardest time yesterday but the teachers are understanding and help to work with him to calm him down. He went to school this morning with no problem so hoping for a good year with him also. A quick note also for our youth group. The young lady that was handling our Church youth group is moving to Manila for work so a couple of our older high school students are taking over. these two young ladies are looking forward to growing there fellow young people so please pray for them as they have a lot going on in the months to come. They are Precious Cajigas and Stephanie Quilanton. thank you for supporting them with your prayers. As a youth group they are working through the psalms to see what they can learn about God and who He is to them. On the start of school front also want to update you on some of our college students. So through the blessings of you our friends and family we are able to pay tution for two college students. We also are provide tution, boarding house and allowance to one student. We also have three students that have free tutition from the government school but we are helping them with boarding house and allowance. We have at least four more students that have tution covered but could use assistance with boarding house and allowance. If you would like to help us invest in the lives of these young people and their future let me know. I know the year has just started but when you are in full time ministry you are always looking and planning ahead, so a couple of things to look forward to and pray with us for are our fall plans. So over the semester break which will be the end of October or November we will be doing a week long trip to Negros which is two boat rides and several hours of driving. While in Negros we are planning for two different things. The beginning of the week we will be doing a Childrens ministry training workshop. We are excited to share the things we have learned from Val Boado and also from our own trail and error and hopefully help other churches to develope and grow their own childrens ministry progams. This will be an intensive two to three day seminar. The second half of the week we are planning to reproduce our most recent youth camp for all the denominations churches in Negros. We will go with the same idea of each one bring one so we can help our church youth to grow but also have an outreach to the youth that do not already know Jesus as saviour. This will be a big trip with are bigger budget because of travel cost and we have to bring our volunteer team with us. The ending of Bible training classes will be the end of September then they will have three months of on the Job trianing in the local churches. We will most likely not start another round of classes till the start of the year as we do not want to have interference with the holidays because that is a busy enough time. We also have a kids camp coming up in a couple of weeks. The camp planning is coming along and camp is scheduled for Aug 17, 2024. this camp will be in a neighboring Barangay (Village). This camp is also part of our training for the Bible students. Will share more after camp. Another exciting thing from our childrens ministry front is that our staff has started meeting weekly to pray for their students, discuss Sunday school classes and work through a discipleship program together. God is really working in the lives of the staff and that is exciting to see how it affects our kids. We are also hoping to do one more camp later this year but will have to see what God has planned for us. Thank you for your Love, prayers and support as the ministry is not possible without those things. What is needed coming kids camp- $200 Upcoming Negros trip- $3,000 includes travel cost, we do our best to not charge a registration fee so more accessable to all young people. one time school supplies to get the year started right for all elemantery students- $400 Boarding house and allowance for four students- $1,000 for the year. We can always us monthly committed givers also these funds cover our daily needs for the regular ministry, including our Sunday school and youth meetings. We print all of our own material and purchase supplies for coloring and crafts for our students weekly they also get a snack every week. If you are interested in helping us with any of these needs please message me to let me know where which ministry you would like the funds to go toward. We do our best to make sure your funds are being used for there intended purpose. Donations can be made to CTEN, this can be done by check or online. Checks can be sent to Mail-in/Phone Your Donation Commission To Every Nation P.O. Box 291307 Kerrville, TX 78029-1307 1 (800) 872-5404 (Mon-Fri, 8am-5pm CST) You can also donate online at https://cten.denarionline.com/missionary God bless and thank you for taking the time to read about what is happening here in the Philippines and with our family. P.S. Precious will update later with pictures