St Peter's and St Francis'

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Eric and Sandra's Newsletters in Full:

November 2023
April 2023
November 2022

THEIR NOVEMBER 2023 NEWSLETTER

Dear friends,

What are your dreams? So began Pastor Nady as the guest speaker for our overnight youth camp. He then went on to describe a boy he knew when he was young who had a dream to fly in an aeroplane. The dream drove him to persevere in school even when all his friends were dropping out (he was talking about himself but didn’t let on). He eventually achieved his dream. But one thing he believes helped him was finding a relationship with Jesus Christ and God’s promise in Jeremiah 29:11 “… for I know the plans I have for you... to give you hope and a future...”

Last week we asked the youth (including the children who attend) about their dream. “I want to be a… teacher, doctor, seaman, vet….” Some of the children answered “artista” – when we asked them what sort of artista, “love story”. They’ve been watching too many soap operas! As they are all still at school, they all know it means they need to study hard – particularly as going up a grade each year is not automatic here, you have to pass the year. One of the girls is frequently absent, so is 11 years old but only grade two. She has said she is going to work hard at school this year, so we’ve told her we’ll hold her to it.

Our two workers on the farm also have their dreams: Romel wants to work in environmental care and Rodel wants to be a welder. It is on us to help them meet their dreams. We told them a few weeks ago that we will start to be more purposeful in training them in the syntropic farming, with classroom sessions weekly. Rodel attended the welding course Dodo did here during Covid and Eric told him he would give him refresher training. We haven’t started either yet, which puts the onus on us. Next week! Well, that was 2 weeks ago..

Schools Programme

We have been considering starting a programme of school visits to give experience and interactive lessons to the children about nature and creation care, but have been putting it off until we have someone to help us run it. However, a few times recently we have read or heard that faith means trusting God when everything isn’t as we want it, so we have decided we need to make a start. We are planning to run some pilots in the first quarter of next year with our local elementary schools.

We want the children to appreciate nature – walking through tree-enclosed areas pointing out ferns and orchids, using magnifying glasses to look at the bark of trees and veins of leaves. And observing and counting all the different trees and plants in the syntropic area: bees among flowers and butterflies on bushes, lifting dead logs and mulch to see critters (as long as there are no snakes or scorpions!), tadpoles

in ponds. Through their observations we hope to bring up reflective discussions about how everything they observe has been made by God with a purpose, tracing how they are all interconnected in a symbiotic relationship, and how God entrusted to us to be the stewards of the whole creation.

We are excited about this. Although schools do teach about the environment, most children don’t get anything in that direction at home, so will take birds eggs from nests or drop litter without thinking it is wrong. We hope they will understand the importance of the natural environment, and their curiosity will provoke plenty of “why?”. We pray this will wake up in them an appreciation for the wonders in God’s creation and man’s central role in it and instil in them a lifelong understanding of caring for creation as part of their day to day life.

In due course we would like churches to bring their Sunday school class and have outdoor worship time. We would like for children to realise that as believers in God the Creator, to care for everything in our environment is a part of their faith.

There are some things we need to prepare now and others we would like to but don’t have the time or funds to do so at the moment. Please pray we will be able to get ready everything we need to. We have a recently retired teacher friend who is advising us.

If the schools pilot is a success, then to take it further and expand it, we will need someone to help us, please pray for a young dynamic volunteer with a strong faith and convictions on creation care, and good with children to help us run this programme!

We have had to replace a lot of the guava trees in the last year, which has hit our income. We have replaced them with a mix of guava, jackfruit, bananas and papayas to diversify income and provide more resilience. We are able to water during droughts as we have good water source from spring – without that we probably would not have risked doing so much planting this year. Please pray these trees will start to become productive next year and be able to fund our other work. We are also looking at possible diversifications.

Thank you for your continued support and prayers and many blessings to you all.

Eric and Sandra

THEIR APRIL 2023 NEWSLETTER

Dear friends,

When we started running Bible study for our workers and neighbours, and later a youth group, we thought of these as peripheral activities. Little did we know that God had other ideas. We don’t introduce ourselves as mission partners but as Christ-believing farmers and we made it clear that we are not starting a new church.

It is difficult to be holistic in our ministry if we don’t live in the day-to-day life of a local community. Sandra being a Filipino helps in our efforts to be accepted as “locals”.

The Bible study and youth group are now established and we are amazed at how the young people’s relationship with God is maturing. We are certainly not the best of teachers but the Holy Spirit is making God’s Word relevant to their lives. The one-sentence prayers we encourage each to say now includes their concerns. At the end of the evening, people stay on to chat while children run around playing. Many people join by invitation of existing members. Our lead worker Jojo now runs a Bible study group in his own home. Our caretaker Romel and his wife have started an online Bible study chat group. Please pray that these groups will continue and will grow in their relationship with God.

Most of the youth attending Bible study come back for youth fellowship. Oddie, who we  have known since he was a small boy, is one of them. Living next door, he was always a frequent visitor and joined in any organised activities for children or helping Eric in the shed. A couple of years ago, he reached his mid-teens and started drinking – sadly all too common among the youth. He continued to attend the Bible study and he recently started to attend a “born again” church in the next village. His parents (who are Catholic) were not very happy about his move but when Oddie asked whether they would prefer him like he is now or to revert to how he was before, they accepted his choice.

Oddie is always encouraging his friends. Ben is a high schooler, and when he was much younger he joined our summer programme. A few months ago Ben started coming to both the Bible study and the youth group, bringing along his friends. They have all been regular attendees since then. When we asked Ben what made him want to come, he replied that he wants to be helped to magae his temper. Pray these youths will continue to seek God and find him relevant in their busy lives.

Our farm is called Barakah (Blessing) and we hope the farm will be a blessing to our community. Please pray this verse for us and for yourselves: Philippians 2:13: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act for his good purpose.”

With love and blessings, Eric and Sandra

THEIR OCTOBER 2021 NEWSLETTER 

Dear friends.

As planned, we opened our cafe in mid-May – for one day! That afternoon, they unexpectedly announced cl lockdown for the three baranqays in our valley, starting the next day. Eventually in July we were able to re-open, and aqain, on the day we opened,
they announced a lockdown starting the next day - this time in Caqayan, but as that is where our customers mostly come from it was useless to stay open, so we dosed again. All very frustrating. We're still closed now as leisure visits are still not allowed.

We have the Delta variant here too and despite the government's best efforts, daily cases are slowly creeping up, although still only just over half the UK level, but with very low vaccination coverage. Sandra has completed her vaccinations and Eric has had his first dose - both of us the Chinese Sinovac – hopefully better than nothing! Very sadly our good friend here in Kinawe, Pastor Boy, who has been a great help to us over the years, died a couple of weeks ago from (Covid after 10 days in intensive care.

We are thankful that we have been able to continue with the Bible study group uninterrupted. We also started a weekly youth group a few weeks ago, which is a mixture of fun - including some Zumba dancing, games and snacks - and discussing issues which are of concern to them and a short reflection. Unlike before with the younger children, we've both Found we enjoy doing this and look forward to our weekly gatherings. The young people are very open and eager to do things and to talk, even about their problems and difficulties. We just had a session on how Covid invades the body, which they found very interesting and helpful in terms of the whys of the protective measures (and that they are not just ordinances of authority). We hope it will also help the adults make an informed decision on vaccination. There is poor uptake by the rural people here for vaccination because of Fears, including that vaccines can turn you into a zombie in the future! Please pray, as the cases are going up and all the hospitals and clinics are now full. in Cagayan. The Delta variant is well established here. Pray that our zone will not be affected. If it is, we will have to suspend the Bible study and youth groups.

As we continue to make the farm a picture of creation care, we get to see pleasant surprises: new species of birds, including small green parrots. many of them now nesting around the farm, as well as colourful dragonflies and butterflies and other insects. Unfortunately. we also get more caterpillars eating leaves and most neighbourhood chickens come to feast on our abundance of insects and worms and – much to Eric's annoyance – to scatter at! the mulching! An electric fence a few inches off the ground has reduced this problem. We even had two colonies of wild honeybees. Sandra has been bottling citronella oil and virgin coconut oil and pickling fruits from our produce in the hope that when we open the cafe we can also sell these and show people how to make them.

It is very easy to get discouraged and lost in our seemingly day-to-day activities that may not lead to any "successful ministry". As we shared our frustrations with our good friend Pastor Nady, he said something that helps us to face each day with a purpose:

"To do anything that is good for other people, or actions that will help animals and plants and the land - all these are a pleasing aroma unto the Lord,"

This is what counts, This has liberated us to face each day with a purpose, free to be a "minister" for the Lord for whatever and whoever and wherever and however! Eventually he will make things Fall in the right places. What matters is that at the end he will see what we do and declare, "It is good". Do please pray that the Lord will continue to show us the "mission for the day" and for us to accomplish it with energy and joy.

Having not been able to come on leave this year, we were planning to come next year. But having also not seen Atiyyah for almost two years, we have decided we will come on leave this winter - not the ideal time, but it will make a change. We sold our house in Devon last year and bought one in Shropshire. It's currently having some repairs done which should be finished by November. Our plan is to come in November (10 days' government quarantine, we're still on the red list - unless the rules change) and stay until early spring. We will be in touch shortly regarding visiting our churches. Please pray for these plans as nothing is definite these days and we see they are now expecting things to get worse again this winter!

We do thank you for your continued support and prayers and we look forward to
hopefully seeing many of you soon.

With every blessing
Eric & Sandra 


Donate Here

CMS is a Christian society that works around the world to promote Christian values and transform communities through leadership and example. Frimley Parish supports the work of the Reads in the Philippines whose mission in the rural communities of Mindanao is to provide Christian ministry and encourage farming techniques through their school and farm. They are continuing to provide safe ministry through the lockdown.  



CMS elsewhere

CMS is active with leadership in this way around the world and their work is transforming societies in deprived and war-affected regions. A recent example is The Good Shepherd Christian School for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon run by CMS partners Emil and Reem Bourizk and Phil and Silvie Good, who opened a teaching facility before Christmas with space to serve its 140 students from struggling mostly Syrian refugee families. CMS can provide support and engage help from retired teachers in UK to support their work.

A message from the Reads, Christmas 2020


Dear all,

We want to wish you all the very best for Christmas, even though we know many of you (including us, Atiyyah is in Devon) will not be able to see parents, children, grandparents, grandchildren... We do pray for you all as you go through a very difficult winter. We praise God too that the vaccines are starting to come through and we pray that 2021 will be a better year.
We thank God too that case numbers are falling here in The Philippines and in our area, with restrictions being eased.
We are planning to come on leave next summer, even if it means us going through quarantine etc.  We hope and pray it will be possible to visit many of you then.
With our love, prayers and wishing you many blessings for Christmas and for next year,

Eric, Sandra, Peter and Atiyyah 


Reports


10th October: Update from Eric and Sandra

Face mask, face shield, thermometer, barangay pass, community tax certificate, alcohol wash. OK, we’re ready to go now. It’s a job to keep up with all the requirements! In every place you go it is routine to flash your barangay quarantine pass (some people hang it around their neck like ID), go through a foot bath, alcohol hand wash, temperature check, then fill in a form for contact tracing – all a must. These are government requirements which establishments have to carry out. It must be working as there is relatively freer movement and yet few cases. And at least we are able to sing in church and have communion – individual cups and each bread in a plastic sachet; trying to open it without dropping it on the floor is the challenge!

We are pretty free to move around within our region of Northern Mindanao, but if Sandra were to visit her mum in another region she would have quarantine for two weeks in a government facility, then another 2 weeks here on her return. And you cannot escape it because of checkpoints, manned by the police or the army! Needless to say, travel is limited. Walking around most people wear masks and increasingly face shields too – or face a fine of 1500 pesos (£23). For positive cases quarantine is imposed in the immediate home area only, so there is the neighbourly pressure to make sure you don't get it.

On the other hand, there are positive things too. We have noticed a table-top economy sprouting in local communities, selling fruit and vegetables, fresh fish, pots and pans with cooked food, and trays of eggs among sacks of rice. Though organised social activities have been stopped the local communities seem to have come alive with neighbours chatting and children playing. Impossible to follow through social distancing in this culture of community living! Every house, it seems, has a display of potted plants and many have planted vegetables too, assisted with seeds distributed by the Department of Agriculture.

The downside of this for the farmers is that vegetable prices are really low, not helped by the lockdowns in other cities preventing buyers from coming. However, the good news for us is that fruit prices, particularly bananas, are very high at the moment.

After a couple of months of total inactivity due to strict lockdown, we had to rethink about ways to minister. We expanded the meeting area for easier socially distanced seating, bought a contactless thermometer and asked permission from our barangay to restart our Bible study group. To our surprise, the group has increased in number!

Secondary and elementary schools will go on home learning with modules collected once a week by the parents where the internet is not very good (that's our area) – modular methods but nothing seems to be definite. Their opening now is not until October. We decided to start gardening with the local children twice a week. They enthusiastically started with Eric to fence and weed and the father of one came with his cow and ploughed the area. Then they each planted their own plots. It has been interesting and sometimes surprising to observe who is more diligent in watering and weeding, not always who we expected. Sandra introduced them to sprouting beans and they faithfully washed/watered their jars of beans for 3 days. Then they tried eating the raw sprouts – and the feedback was “Yuck” with a crumpled face. But then we fried it with batter to a crisp and yuck changed to “Lami man diay!” (“Surprisingly yummy!”) and they took home some for their mums to try.

Peter finally resumed classes – all online – at the beginning of September. Atiyyah managed to get through the A level grading fiasco and is off to Reading to study law. They don’t just have an arrival day this year, but a 20-minute time slot and only one person can assist them with moving their stuff in for a maximum of 30 minutes! Then they are restricted to associating with their accommodation group only for the first two weeks – a sort of quarantine we suppose. Atiyyah is looking forward to going, but making the most of the remaining time to spend with her friends from school. This will be the first time Atiyyah is not going to be the only new one, so a bit of a novelty! We wanted to come over to see her off to uni, but sadly with COVID-19 that became a non-starter due to the six weeks quarantine required: 2 weeks in the UK, 2 returning to Manila and 2 more returning to Cagayan! It is looking like it will be next year when we come on leave (hopefully!) before we see each other again. Even visiting Sandra's mother on the same island is impossible still.

in all the uncertainties we can only go on with confidence knowing that we have an almighty and gracious God who has the whole world in his hands (as the song goes) and is in control.

With love and prayers, Eric and Sandra

14th August: Eric and Sandra Update

Dear Matthew,

We hope you are all bearing up well under the Covid and managing to avoid it.  We have been blessed that the number of cases in our region has been very low - unlike Manila and some other places.  Church services resumed with us at the beginning of June - with singing too. 

We have been able to restart our bible study group and have two or three new members who have joined which is encouraging.  We have extended the extension we put on  to the centre last year to the full width now, both to accommodate the bible study and also the adult learning, which has also resumed.  We have also started a garden with some of the local children and a twice weekly session to help them with their schooling and teach the younger ones basic computer use. 

Classes resume on the 24th, but all learning at home, either online or with printed sheets. Due to travel and gathering restrictions doing anything with churches is pretty is not feasible at present.

Masks have been mandatory since March and from this Saturday face shields are required too!  For all gatherings social distancing is required, alcohol, temperature check and a record kept of who attended (including at church), so they can track and trace if necessary.

We are getting plenty of rain at last this year, so everything is growing well.  We are planting alot of trees as we move to an agroforestry system.

Atiyyah has just got her A level results - three Bs which she is happy with, especially as just before she got them Reading Emailed her to say their offer is now unconditional.  Peter resumes online on the 24th.

Blessings to you all

Eric & Sandra

Message from Eric and Sandra


April 2020: Eric and Sandra in Lockdown


November 2019: Eric and Sandra Newsletter


June 2019: Eric & Sandra Newsletter


April 2018: Eric and Sandra Newsletter


November 2017: Eric and Sandra Newsletter
 

June 2017:  Eric and Sandra Newsletter

 

November 2016: Eric and Sandra Newsletter


Update (March 2016) click here.

This is a Question and Answer on the Frimley link with the Reads.

Q. When did the connection to the Reads work in the Philippines begin?
A. In 2012. Before then we were partnered with the Reads in Zaire.

Q.  Where is the project?
A. On Mindanao Island (see map) 
Overview map of the Philippines

 

Q.  Where on Mindanao?
A. Cagayan do Oro (see map)
map of Cagayan area

Q.  What is there nearby?
A. Cagayan River (below))
Cagayan River