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

Normally the wait is 9 months. But an adoptive family often waits for years. And that without knowing what the outcome will be.

Christian has been matched to a family in Australia. His family is friends with the family who adopted Mary from us earlier this year. They found out about Christian a couple of weeks ago, and are just waiting for the phone call saying they can come get him.

Today we received a package from them containing a photo album of Christian's new family and their home. This footage is literally Christian's first encounter with his new Mummy and Daddy, sister and other relatives.

Each birth is special

What a joy it is to assist a couple in the birth of their child. This morning two midwives, Grace and Lornie, were with Alice and Romeo as their fourth child was born.

Jade Hansen is a little guy at 6#4 oz but a cute, healthy baby. Alice's labor and birth was very quick, going from 4cm to birth in 45 minutes--making both mom and midwives very happy. Shiphrah Bahay Paanakan is glad to say that we have been there for Alice and Romeo as all four of their children were born. We thank the Lord for blessing the midwives yet again.

We've known Norma for years. She's a well-known seamstress in the area and has sewn things for us on all sorts of occasions. Sara's dress for Joel and Jena's wedding. But now we have her and her husband (and his brother) making bags for the little children's home.

This blog is long over-due. But little Amber's new family is from right here in the Philippines. Many of you will have heard us talk about Amber. She came into the home two months premature, six months ago. She was extremely vulnerable and spent her first two months with us in isolation. (Do a search in this blog for other stories on Amber.)

Mike and Winnie live in Cavite, just a bit south of Manila. We had them over for lunch and hope that we will get to see them again as they don't live as far away as most of you do.

An adoptive family is a big family. We feel, when a family comes here to take one of our children to their home, as if they are joining the team at the little children's home. Here are Marisa and Merlinda, Mamarlyn and Antonia, four of the caregivers who have been there for Amber since she was newborn. They are flanking Mike and Winnie who hold Amber now. (On the far right is Tara, the social worker with the Department of Social Welfare and Development who facilitated the match.) Welcome to the tlc family.

Kholberg's term for it is 'genera-tivity.' When I met with Edith today to discuss her plans for retirement she said, "If it comes time for me to leave the little children's home, you don't need to have a party for me. Instead, let's help those who really need it." And she told me about the dire situation of one of our workers' sister. Edna is Marivic's sister. Her husband died some years ago from an accident doing dynamite fishing off the shore of Cavite. This is hardly an honorific way to die, but Edith's concern was all for Edna and the children she is trying to support without a regular income. "She works very hard and has a good attitude," she said; "If you need to hire another employee, you should hire her."

When Edith was a young woman, she attended Bible School out of obedience to her eldest brother. "For Filipinos, the kuya is like a second father; I didn't want to disobey him." Gradually, she began to learn the Bible and to discern God's call on her life.

She spent nine years working in the remote, mountainous regions of Camarines Norte, pioneering house churches where there were only very few established churches, far apart.

Then she describes a transitional experience in her life. She took care of a young girl who had an ovarian cyst and then died of cancer two years later. She is trained as a pastor and was closest to the girl who died, so the pastor in charge asked her to preach at the funeral. But she said, "I felt as if someone was choking me; I could not preach because I love her."

After going through a number of employment and ministry situations, she came to work with us in January of 1994 as a careworker. She will be obligated to retire in January this next year, after 13 years of service, because she is turning 65. I asked her what she feels God is calling her to now and she said, "God is not finished with me yet." She hopes to work again in church support. Many of her former students and associates are working in church leadership.

She described a dream she had while she was pioneering house churches in the Bicol mountains. It was kaingin, when people chop down the tall grass in preparation for planting crops. This has been the image of her life, preparing the soil for the work that God will do in the lives of others. How many children have first-experienced God's love for them in Edith's arms?