July-August 2012

Dear Friends and Ministry Partners, Warmest greetings!

Ministry to MArrieD Men. Praise God with me for the recent burgeoning of CCTs ministry among men. It has always been the desire of CCT to reach out not just to women and children but to men as well. If youve been following the work off CCT over the years you probably know that the huge majority of partners we have in our micro finance program is composed of women, and the beneficiaries of the Visions of Hope Foundation are mainly children and teen-agers. Early last year we were given the opportunity to minister directly to married men through SIPAG, a project that provided for training and certification in such construction industry skills as carpentry, masonry, plumbing, and electrical installation. The SIPAG project ended in the first quarter of 2012, but we have gone a step further by helping the men find employment. Some 137 of them are assured of a job for the next two years with their signing of a contract to help construct an eight-story building in Quezon City. Of these workers, 14 are former street dwellers reached by the Kaibigan Ministry, while 123 are husbands of micro finance partners from Quezon City and Manila. All of them attend a Wednesday Bible study on-site. Those who stay in the barracks over the weekend attend a Sunday morning worship service, while those who go home attend an afternoon worship service at the CCT Community Church in Batasan, Quezon City. reAching out to young Men. Thirty-one young men, mostly in their 20s and from the Visayas and Mindanao, compose the new set of students at the Training and Development Institute in Magdalena, Laguna. They are the third set of students for the current TDI school year which began in January. (TDI does not follow the regular Philippine school year which begins in June.) Most of the students are sons of community partners in the micro finance program and a few are brothers of CCT staff. They took exams, and underwent interviews and screening before qualifying to study at TDI as scholars of the Visions of Hope Foundation.

edwin catana helping build the visions of hope christian school in laguna.

eDWin cAtAnAs story

covereD With tAttoos. Getting these was extremely painful, Edwin Catana says, pulling up his sleeves to reveal arms fully covered with tattooed-on symbols. But there was almost nothing else left to do in prison, he explains with a shrug. In fact about 75% percent of his body is covered with images ranging from the romantic to the religious to the grotesquepermanent reminders of a turbulent past. Edwins past could have been vastly different though. He could have left for the United States to live with an adoptive family when he was 13. He had been a ward at a Christian orphanage in Quezon City and his adoption papers were nearing completion. Thats when he confessed to the orphanage management that he was not actually an orphan as he claimed a few years earlier. The truth was that he had run away from home to escape being abused by an alcoholic father. A visit to Edwins home dashed all hopes of his ever being given up for adoption. Kaya kong palamunin ang sarili kong anak! (Im capable of feeding my own son!) his father bellowed. Since the man was just as abusive as ever, and because Edwin would just be an added burden to his mother, a laundrywoman, he chose to drift from one boys home to another, until he became too old to be accepted at these institutions. After that he became involved with drugs, women, and crime. iMPrisonMent. He was caught carrying a gun on the way

FlAsh rePort:
A natural disaster hit the island of Luzon just as our communications staff were getting ready to send out this newsletter. A southwest monsoon began pouring an unusually large amount of rain over Metro Manila and surrounding provinces in the evening of August 6, Monday. By Tuesday evening, evacuation centers began filling up as waters rose, flowing over bridges, flooding entire communities, and carrying away houses on the banks of streams and rivers. As of August 10, reports showed that 2.4 million individuals were affected and 62 were dead, mostly by

5F Joshua Center, 1428 Taft Avenue, Ermita, 1000 Manila, Philippines Telephone:(632) 524-1835, (632) 524-1819 Telefax:(632) 524-1810 loc. 11 www.cct.org.ph ho@cct.org.ph

. . . . Flash RepoRt drowning and also by landslide and electrocution. Four provinces and several towns and cities have been declared under a state of calamity. Even before the worst of the flood was over branch staff began checking for affected community partners and purchasing and packing relief items. As of this writing, 4585 individuals had been given food items, 734 had received drinking water, and 246 had received clothing and blankets. Frankie Libre, a former street dweller who is now among the staff of the Kaibigan Ministry, above and beyond the call of duty walked through floodwaters to bring homeless families to the Kaibigan Community Center where they were provided with dry clothes, meals and temporary shelter. As we write this, the sun is out again and clean-up has begun, but the rainy season is far from over. Psalm 29:10 says, The Lord sits enthroned over the flood. Please pray and cry out to the Lord with us that He will deliver the Philippines from any further devastation that can be brought about by rain and storms. n

. . . edwin Catanas stoRy to a planned hold-up one day, and was thrown into prison for illegal possession of a firearm. Released on parole four years later, he joined a community of homeless people living on an abandoned piece of land called Sarimanok near the Manila Bay waterfront development area. These homeless people were being ministered to by the Kaibigan Ministry through feeding and Bible study sessions. During one of those Bible studies, Edwin renewed his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ whom he had first encountered back at the Christian orphanage that was his refuge as an abused child. A few months later, along with several other men from Sarimanok, Edwin was recruited to do construction work at the Tagaytay Retreat and Training Center, also managed by CCT. The spiritual development program observed at the Tagaytay construction site including morning and evening devotions, Saturday corporate worship along with the retreat center staff, and Sunday worship services helped him grow in his relationship with God. He learned construction skills onthe-job as well, and recently earned certification of competence as a mason from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority. resPonsible FAther. Today, Edwin still reports regularly to his parole officer who has noted the definite change in his behaviour. Back in his wild days, Edwin fathered three children who are now in their teens. He had no role whatsoever in their upbringing. In a mass wedding of former street dwellers organized by the Kaibigan Ministry in November 2011, he married the mother of his youngest child, a two-year old girl. He prays he will be a good husband, father, and provider, and hopes his daughter will never have reason to run away from home and follow his once-errant footsteps. n

learning to work with their hands: plumbing students draw equipment in the classroom, an electrical maintenance student completes a wiring project, carpentry students start a simulation activity outdoors, and future masons build the foundation of an actual grocery store at tDi in Magdalena, laguna.

One of these young men is Rey Mark Pangilan, 20, the fifth child of a farmer who plants corn, and only the second person in his family to study beyond high school. Simply finishing high school, in fact, was a challenge for Rey Mark. He had to walk one hour from his home to get to the nearest school and, being a Blaan, he had to endure a certain amount of discrimination from non-tribal folks. Like most of his classmates, he says, Id like to help my family move out of poverty, when asked about what motivates him. With the courses we offer at TDI we hope to change the notion that working with ones hands is inferior to a job where one sits behind a desk. Not only is construction work respectable, but according to a recent labor market study by the Department of Labor and Employment, jobs as masons and carpenters are hard-to-fill occupations in the Philippines, while positions as plumbers are in demand abroad. We have several good reports about alumninot just about how they have found jobs and are now able to help their families, but about how their lives and attitudes have been transformed. I thank God for all these chances to disciple men, to help them develop godly character and equip them to influence their families and communities for the Lord. Ive included in this newsletter the story of Edwin Catana, a man who used to live on the streets, was into crime, but has now been transformed by God. He is just one of many you have helped by your support and prayers for the ministry of CCT. Blessings!

ruth s. callanta

PresiDent, cct grouP oF Ministries

5F Joshua Center, 1428 Taft Avenue, Ermita, 1000 Manila, Philippines Telephone:(632) 524-1835, (632) 524-1819 Telefax:(632) 524-1810 loc. 11 www.cct.org.ph ho@cct.org.ph