A Philippine Beverly Hills Christmas

Every Christmas Day we participate in a Christmas custom as old as the colonial Spanish times here. It's called simply, "Merry Christmas". The poor go house-to-house asking for a "Merry Christmas"; hoping for a small something to make their Christmas happy. The missionary community who live in Beverly Hills Subdivision have joined with us for the past 20 years, combining our efforts to give those who will surely come a merrier Christmas than we could provide individually.

The event has grown to massive proportions. This year we anticipate at least 500 children and 500 adults. Toys for the children and a food gift for the adults. Our food bags this year will be rice, sardines, and milk powder. The children will receive coloring books and crayons (donated by a local
international women's group) and balloons. There must be balloons. The pictures on this post are all from last year. It's a wild and woolly event. Our garage is where the children gather, and our neighbor has constructed a very clever bamboo runway in front of our house for the adults.

Missionary families come to our house on the 23rd to pack up the food bags and prepare the toys. By 7 am on Christmas morning, the crowds are gathering and we begin to give out our "Merry Christmas". Hours and hours of preparation are gone in a flash.

But, you know what....it has made our Christmas Merrier as well!

Merry, Merry Christmas to all!

A Letter From Deborah: HELPing Christmas to Come to Our Staff

HELP INTERNATIONAL

Staff Christmas Party

Time again for our Help International 

Christmas party; a wonderful time
of riotous games, Christmas songs
and yummy food. 

Celebrating together is an important
way to bond your hearts to one
another. Everyone looks forward
to this special time to gather
together. 

The cost of the food and games prizes comes to $250.

Christmas Eve is a very important time in 

Filipino homes. It is very difficult for our
staff to save much for their Christmas
meal, so every year we
try to give them an extra
blessing of a food basket.
This year we would like to
be able to share with each of our
staff’s family a Christmas food
basket each worth $22 (P1,000).
Your family can share some
Christmas Eve spirit with
a HELP staff family by sponsoring a basket.
We will need forty baskets this year.

The main items that we need for the forty baskets

are:P12,000($266) for hams, P7,152 ($158) for cheese

balls, P6,000 ($133) for the 40 bags to put items in.

My hope for this year is to also purchase a bag of rice

for each worker as a way to help our staff this 

Christmas. The cost of a bag of rice is $35. 

A special treat I would like to surprise our workers

with at our Christmas party is a small 20 inch Christmas

tree per worker. None of our staff have a Christmas

tree in their home. The cost per tree is  P300($7). I have

someone who is willing to sponsor ten trees so I am in 

need of 26 more trees which will cost P7,800 ($181). 

The way we are going to decorate them is Sunday School

children in Australia will be preparing the ornaments 

per tree and mailing them to Manila.

Christmas bonuses are important tradition in the

Philippines. At Christmas and New Year often 

relatives in the provinces will visit their family in the

city of Manila. All of the food expenses and sometimes

even the travel money for the relatives to return to their

homes fall on the host in Manila. That Manila host is

often one of our workers. It is common to perceive the

city people as having lots of money. The Christmas bonus

helps our staff not to go in debt when sharing hospitality

with their families.

Part 2 A Letter from Deborah: HELPing Christmas to Come to Our Staff

Staff Children’s Christmas
Party: Partnering with
U.S. Embassy Club

(all pictures that follow are from
Christmas last year)

Every year we give gifts to our
staff's children as a way to
bring joy to their families
at a time when we remember Christ's birth. Our workers
are fortunate to receive a regular salary of min-
imum wage, but they have a lot of pressing needs.
Every year it is a challenge for them to enroll their
children in school, to pay for unexpected medical
expenses and, sometimes, even to put food on the
table. We help out as much as we can, but people
who know poverty know what it is to live under
constant stress. Christmas is a big celebration here,
and a lot of people give presents to the children
in the home. It can be very hard for our workers
to see everything that is given to the children in
their care, who they know will each go to a wonderful
“forever family” somewhere in the world,  when they
are looking at a bleak Christmas at home. What we
want to do is to inject some joy (and relieve
some of the pressure) into this time of year.


What we are asking of you
is to join us this year by
sponsoring a child for $10
(P500). We have 100 children
to buy presents for. The parents
will give us their wish lists
and then a volunteer shops for
each child personally.
The presents are then
wrapped and given to the children
by Santa Claus at a Christmas
party held a Shiphrah Bahay Paanakan.

It is a most joyous event. 

This year we only have 6 children who still need a sponsor.

Thank you for your interest in our HELP Christmas
giving program.You will touch the hearts of many
children with the knowledge that Christ cares 
for their needs. As a parent you can understand the
joy you will bring to our staff member’s hearts as
they see their children receive a beautiful Christmas
package.


A special Thank You to the U.S. Embassy Club and another
anonymous donor, without whose help we could not even
attempt this. 

Please make your checks payable to:

Trinity United Methodist Church
220 W. Martin St.Martinsburg,WV 25401
U.S.A. 

On the memo write: Missions Fund-Philippines 

Please make a note with the check that the money is
for Help Christmas Gifts. You will receive a receipt..

 love,deborah gustafson

Midwife and Executive Director of the little children's home   

Sheila Mae - a letter from Deborah

Dear Friends,

This Monday morning, Nov 12, 2007 a miracle happened.
Sheila Mae met her mom and dad for the first time.
A family was born. For the Gustafson family there was an
added part of the miracle. This is the first time that such
a miracle has happened in our own home.

Sheila Mae was in foster care for the last 3 months due
to a security reason.These last three weeks she was with
our family. Aubrey our six yr old was so happy because now
we had another girl in the family. He told me that now we
just need one more girl to make it even 3 boys 3 girls. He
did understand that Sheila Mae was not to stay with us but
it still was an exciting time. So Monday morning Sheila Mae
took her last nap in our home and woke to see her mom and
dad on the bed gazing at their beautiful daughter the best
gift life can ever give.

Please keep them in your prayers as they are getting to know
one another.

love,
deborah