Fruit bearing after sowing the seeds of hope years ago

Back in 1990-91 Ron Homenuke and I roamed around the commercial district of Cubao, Quezon City and fed hard-core street kids sandwiches, bananas and juice, treated their minor scrapes and cuts and had simple Bible studies with several of them while we met on street corners or vacant lots. Then in '91-92 our small team did a major survey among 100 kids in Cubao and the Monumento area of Caloocan City another area where we were ministering to hard-core street kids because we wanted to know what the kids were thinking, feeling and experiencing. Then we wrote up a profile of their situation to share with churches in the respective areas. One of the sections of the survey asked the kids if they'd like to study again and what their dreams were. As I recall *all* the kids desired to go to school again and some of their aspirations were to become doctors, teachers, pilots, chefs, policemen, soldiers and all wanted to have a family. In other words even though they were barely surviving on the streets they were dreaming of getting off and becoming responsible productive people someday. *Even street kids dream and have hope -- which keeps them alive!*

In 1993 we turned the ministry in Cubao over to the Camp Aguinaldo Evangelical Church (CAEC) after we trained their team lead by Dave and Becky Majam in working with street kids. Since then CAEC has continued the work with several kids and families off the streets. Today many kids are in school sponsored by CAEC and their parents providing for their families even though they're still very poor living in a squatter area along a polluted river in San Juan called Calvary Hills. Several have trusted Christ as Savior and are regularly attending Bible studies and worship services in nearby churches.

Today we had the formal launching of our city-wide ministry called the Accelerated Learning System (ALS) which is a method of non-formal education developed by the Department of Education for people who want to earn elementary and/or high school diplomas but don't fit the formal classroom style of learning. The diplomas are recognized by the Dept of Ed so if a high school graduate wants to go on for more schooling they are eligible. We had 44 street kids who are now residing in our other city-wide ministries called the Papa John Center, Restorers of the Walls and Children's Garden, several mothers and their kids from Calvary Hills along with several church workers and pastors who were trained to use ALS materials and facilitate the learning process in this 10 month course in attendance. We had representatives from ACTION, Greenhills Christian Fellowship (our church) which is raising several thousand pesos to support our students and reps from other organizations and churches. It was a wonderful meeting with singing, testimonies and of course good food and fellowship. I gave the message from Psalm 37:3-5 challenging us to "trust in the Lord", "delight in the Lord" and "comment our way to the Lord" then "He will do it" which is God's promise for those who trust and obey Him.

I had tears in my eyes as I remembered back to the long hot sweaty nights and Saturday afternoons when Ron and I trudged around Cubao and Caloocan wondering if anything good would happen as a result of our labor. Now I see fruit being produced from our sowing the seeds of hope years ago. This is the blessing of persevering by God's grace for His glory through the years.

For God's glory, the spreading of the gospel and the good of the multitudes,

Jeff