This past week I had the opportunity to be an assistant counselor at a youth camp for 4 days. The camp was put on by the organization Action International and they have a partnership with IT Tender Ministries (that is the drop-in center that I help out at on Tuesdays and Thursdays) and that is how I got the chance to go.
There were about 50 campers who were ages 13-19 years old who are out of school (or don't go) and don't have jobs. Most of the youth have very difficult lives. Most of them have had many forms of abuse done to them and there were social workers there at the camp to talk with them. Although the terrible thing is that they only that 4 days to work with the youth. We hope and pray that they keep coming back to their organization that they came to the camp with to work through their issues.
The camp's theme was quite radical but very necessary. It was on purity and the title was 'True Loves Waits', no this is not the radical part just hold on. It was based on the scriptures of 1 Corinthians 6:18-20 and 1 Thessalonians 4:4-7, great passages by the way. The reason it was radical was because they were talking about sex, STDs (with pictures), and unexpected pregnancies and the bad stuff that can happen if you do drugs, drink and smoke while you are pregnant. It was awareness and advocacy in which none of these youth would have never had before. This school year (just started in June) is the first time ever they are teaching sex education in schools here in the Philippines. So these lessons/conversations that the youth were having at camp would have been thier first formal conversation ever to do with these issues. A big reason why they haven't been able to teach it in schools is the huge influence of the Catholic Church here, needless to say some people are really pissed off that these things are getting taught in school now. It is very much needed though because there are extreme amount of teenage pregancies in this country and most of them have no means of supporting their child. Also in many cases the man leaves and gives no support to the girl and she is left all alone to raise the child.
I feel the camp ran very well. For some of these kids it would be the high light of there lives becasue they get 3 square meals, a roof over their head and a bed to sleep in, councelors who care for them, and a relaxed atomsphere for them to be a kid. I could see and feel during the whorship time that they felt the Joy of the Lord. That the spirit of Jesus washed over them and all of their pain was gone. A very powerful and meaning experience for all of us there. Many of them cried when it was time to go home. They all wish they could stay there much, much longer. I hope you will continue in prayer with me for these youth for the Holy spirit to keep working in their lives.
May God Bless you all. Thanks so much for all the prayers and support.
Jared Peter
Monday, July 12, 2010
Friday, July 2, 2010
Some Filipino History
This past month I've gone on 2 field trips with my Tagalog school and went to the history museum when a friend was in town. Through all of it I have found a better understanding of the Philippines.
The Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan 'discovered' the Islands in 1521 and the Spanish oppressively ruled here until the Spanish-American war in 1898 (that same year The Philippines declared Independence) in where the Spanish navel was destroyed in 4 hours. The reason was the Spanish were still using their wooden ships and the U.S had steel ships and could shoot their canons about 3 kms further. So needless to say there were no American casualties. During the Spanish rule the Spanish separated themselves from the Filipinos and made themselves the higher class. They actually built a walled city in Manila that was only open the Spanish. Close to the end of the Spanish rule their was a man by the name of Jose Rizal, an incredible man,who was very educated and wrote a few books about the oppressiveness of the Spanish and Filipino pride. Jose became the figure head for the non-violent revolution against the Spanish. Rizal was executed by the Spanish but the revolution lived on, mostly through a group called the KKK who were not non-violent. The biggest impact that the Spanish left here is Catholicism. Although in some areas of the Philippines has turned it into some sort of idle worship with statues of Jesus and Mary, which is very very sad. I touched on it a little in my blog just after Easter. One thing I saw was when we visited a church was that it has a image of Jesus (in a very interested robe I might add) where people line up to touch and rub clothes on it to heal them or heal others or for good luck. So I feel that they are treating the most amazing gift of Jesus dying for our sins like a luck charm, it breaks my heart.
So after the Spanish were beaten by the Americans in the Spanish-American war the Philippines-American War began in 1899 and ended in 1902. After the war the the 2 countries had very good relations and nothing major happened until WWII. The Philippines got bombed by the Japanese the same day that Pearl Harbour did. The Americans and Filipinos didn't have much of a chance because they were using weapons from the WWI so the Japanese took control of the Philippines for 3 years during the war and terrorized the Filipinos people. The Philippines was recaptured by the Americans close to the end of WWII. Many lives were lost here in the Philippines on both sides but isn't talked about much outside the Philippines.
The ministries are going well and was pretty busy this week with randoms things going on. The 15th President of the Philippines, Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III was inaugurated on Wednesday so it was a national holiday. On Thursday it was Canada Day of course so John and I went out for dinner with 2 other Canadians we met at languages school and we had a great time. Although there is no hockey, Tim Hortons, back bacon, 24s, or beaver tails but we made the best of what we had.
This past Tuesday I was sharing the Bible story at the drop-in center for the youth. I shared the story of the prodigal son and it was a great refresher for me. Sometimes we forget how much our God loves us. It doesn't matter how much we mess up, our God will always take us back with open arms. He also always has a big party when we do.
May God Bless you all
Jared
The Spanish explorer Ferdinand Magellan 'discovered' the Islands in 1521 and the Spanish oppressively ruled here until the Spanish-American war in 1898 (that same year The Philippines declared Independence) in where the Spanish navel was destroyed in 4 hours. The reason was the Spanish were still using their wooden ships and the U.S had steel ships and could shoot their canons about 3 kms further. So needless to say there were no American casualties. During the Spanish rule the Spanish separated themselves from the Filipinos and made themselves the higher class. They actually built a walled city in Manila that was only open the Spanish. Close to the end of the Spanish rule their was a man by the name of Jose Rizal, an incredible man,who was very educated and wrote a few books about the oppressiveness of the Spanish and Filipino pride. Jose became the figure head for the non-violent revolution against the Spanish. Rizal was executed by the Spanish but the revolution lived on, mostly through a group called the KKK who were not non-violent. The biggest impact that the Spanish left here is Catholicism. Although in some areas of the Philippines has turned it into some sort of idle worship with statues of Jesus and Mary, which is very very sad. I touched on it a little in my blog just after Easter. One thing I saw was when we visited a church was that it has a image of Jesus (in a very interested robe I might add) where people line up to touch and rub clothes on it to heal them or heal others or for good luck. So I feel that they are treating the most amazing gift of Jesus dying for our sins like a luck charm, it breaks my heart.
So after the Spanish were beaten by the Americans in the Spanish-American war the Philippines-American War began in 1899 and ended in 1902. After the war the the 2 countries had very good relations and nothing major happened until WWII. The Philippines got bombed by the Japanese the same day that Pearl Harbour did. The Americans and Filipinos didn't have much of a chance because they were using weapons from the WWI so the Japanese took control of the Philippines for 3 years during the war and terrorized the Filipinos people. The Philippines was recaptured by the Americans close to the end of WWII. Many lives were lost here in the Philippines on both sides but isn't talked about much outside the Philippines.
The ministries are going well and was pretty busy this week with randoms things going on. The 15th President of the Philippines, Benigno 'Noynoy' Aquino III was inaugurated on Wednesday so it was a national holiday. On Thursday it was Canada Day of course so John and I went out for dinner with 2 other Canadians we met at languages school and we had a great time. Although there is no hockey, Tim Hortons, back bacon, 24s, or beaver tails but we made the best of what we had.
This past Tuesday I was sharing the Bible story at the drop-in center for the youth. I shared the story of the prodigal son and it was a great refresher for me. Sometimes we forget how much our God loves us. It doesn't matter how much we mess up, our God will always take us back with open arms. He also always has a big party when we do.
May God Bless you all
Jared
Monday, June 21, 2010
Back to School
Things have been a little slow lately because it was the end of the summer. Everyone was preparing to go back to school and this past week was the first week of school. Which meant the Day Care that John and Toph started is back in full swing. It runs in the mornings from Tuesday till Friday. The target was for 10 kids but 16 have showed up and now we are going to try and keep it under 20. We want a small group so we can really invest into them and their families and also to prepare them for school. To get them knowing their alphabet, numbers and other essential things. The kids are ages 3-6 and come from the squatter areas near by. On Tuesday we had the opening ceremonies with an emcee and everything. All the mothers of the kids came and some of the Church workers too. We got everyone excited about the day care and had enough food to feed about 100 people. So many people got take home some food for supper. I will be helping out with this ministry in some areas but it won't be my focus. I am still helping with the drop-in centre, feeding program, children's and youth ministry at our Church, and still attending 2 Tagalog lessons a week but this will be my last month of Tagalog.
Thank you once again for all of your prayers and support of all kinds. It is always appreciated. May God Bless you all.
Jared
Thank you once again for all of your prayers and support of all kinds. It is always appreciated. May God Bless you all.
Jared
Monday, May 31, 2010
Rainy Season
Well there have been a few rains in the last week and people are saying that the rainy season is here in which I'm pretty pumped because that means it should cools down. Also we can start quoting Forrest Gump now, "One day it started raining, and it didn't quit for four months. We been through every kind of rain there is. Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flew in sideways. And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath. Shoot, it even rained at night...". But it does have it's downfalls, as in sometimes the ministries shut down because it is raining too much. Also it can turn into Typhoons which can bring major flooding and do a lot of property damaging. So it will be a lot different for me because I come from Ontario where natural disasters happen next to never.
The youth has been going really well. I have really stepped back and let the older youth of the Church take charge and they are doing a great job. The first Saturday I was back from my trip there was 20 youth that showed up to the event and some that I had not seen before. The event was held at our Church and it was organized really well. Very encouraging. This past Saturday we had a movie viewing at our Church and there was a good turn out again. We watched Blindside, which is a great movie.
Our children's feeding (ministry) is going really awesome as well. We had 75 kids come out on Saturday which is a all time high. It gets a little crazy but it's really sweet to see so many kids come. Then on Sunday we had almost 30 kids in our Sunday School class. Also with this I want to give a shout out to Stratford, Ontario for their one and only Justin Bieber because all of the kids here love singing his songs. Justin's songs are downloaded on everyone's cell phones and every is jamming to him right now. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
Back on the 17th we took a group of 15 kids to Tagaytay which is a beautiful area about an hour outside the city. Its great to get the kids outside the city for a break from the streets. It was a park like area with a beautiful view of a volcano. It also had horses in which we rented and let the kids ride them. They had a great time.
On Sunday we held a dinner for a cause at our Church that was a great success. There were about 50 people who came out to support. The fundraiser was for Youth Mobalization in which are planning 2 different missions trips. One is to help out a Church that is about 3 hours away in which we have a partnership with. I am planning on going with this one. It is happening at the end of July. The other one is at the end of October and they are planning on going to Cambodia.
Thanks for all your prayers. May God Bless you all.
Jared
The youth has been going really well. I have really stepped back and let the older youth of the Church take charge and they are doing a great job. The first Saturday I was back from my trip there was 20 youth that showed up to the event and some that I had not seen before. The event was held at our Church and it was organized really well. Very encouraging. This past Saturday we had a movie viewing at our Church and there was a good turn out again. We watched Blindside, which is a great movie.
Our children's feeding (ministry) is going really awesome as well. We had 75 kids come out on Saturday which is a all time high. It gets a little crazy but it's really sweet to see so many kids come. Then on Sunday we had almost 30 kids in our Sunday School class. Also with this I want to give a shout out to Stratford, Ontario for their one and only Justin Bieber because all of the kids here love singing his songs. Justin's songs are downloaded on everyone's cell phones and every is jamming to him right now. Pretty ridiculous if you ask me.
Back on the 17th we took a group of 15 kids to Tagaytay which is a beautiful area about an hour outside the city. Its great to get the kids outside the city for a break from the streets. It was a park like area with a beautiful view of a volcano. It also had horses in which we rented and let the kids ride them. They had a great time.
On Sunday we held a dinner for a cause at our Church that was a great success. There were about 50 people who came out to support. The fundraiser was for Youth Mobalization in which are planning 2 different missions trips. One is to help out a Church that is about 3 hours away in which we have a partnership with. I am planning on going with this one. It is happening at the end of July. The other one is at the end of October and they are planning on going to Cambodia.
Thanks for all your prayers. May God Bless you all.
Jared
Friday, May 14, 2010
A little Travel
A couple (Josh and Randi Dookhie) that I went to CMU with just finished teaching English in Bangkok, Thailand and wanted to travel before they go home to Winnipeg. So I joined them from April 27-May 13 and also my roommate (Chris Vines) from CMU and Josh's cousin Caleb flew in from Canada for this adventure.
So we stayed in Bangkok for a few days for Caleb and Chris to beat their Jet lag and for the Dookhie's to show us around a little. Bangkok is a lot like Manila where it is a clash of new and old culture. The new being mega malls and everything western and the old being the street markets and street vendors selling traditional dishes. After our Bangkok experience we took the over night train to Chang Mai. In Chang Mai we went to an Elephant sanctuary where you could pet, feed, and ride the elephants which was real awesome. Elephants are such an amazing creator. After that we went to a snake show which was ridiculous. They had, rat snakes, pythons, jumping snakes, cobras and king cobras. The king cobra was one of the scariest things I have ever seen. I love snakes but the things guys were doing with them was insane. Cobras are very poisonous and the trainers (I use that term loosely) would put their finger on the cobra's nose and then they upped the ante and kissed them on the face. We were sitting so close to them that I would say we were in some sort of danger. There are no safety regulations over here but I think I like it Better that way. Also for all those Rambo fans this snake place is where Rambo 4 was filmed. I feel that much closer to Stallone now and it feels pretty good.
After Chang Mai we trained back to Bangkok and took a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. From there we went to see Angkor Wat, at sunrise non-the-less. Angkor Wat are ruins/temples of a lost empire. They were built in the 12th century if I remember correctly. They are the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. I just can't understand how they built them with such little technology. After that we bussed down to Sounooke Ville, which is a small beach town down in the south. We stayed there 2 night there and then crossed the boarder again back into Thailand and went to the island of Koh Chang where we stayed for 3 nights. Then we bussed back to Bangkok where I flew back to Manila and the other 4 made there way down to Malaysia.
All in all it was an awesome trip. One of great refreshment and re-connection with old friends. Thanks for the prayers while I was gone. May God Bless you all.
Jared
So we stayed in Bangkok for a few days for Caleb and Chris to beat their Jet lag and for the Dookhie's to show us around a little. Bangkok is a lot like Manila where it is a clash of new and old culture. The new being mega malls and everything western and the old being the street markets and street vendors selling traditional dishes. After our Bangkok experience we took the over night train to Chang Mai. In Chang Mai we went to an Elephant sanctuary where you could pet, feed, and ride the elephants which was real awesome. Elephants are such an amazing creator. After that we went to a snake show which was ridiculous. They had, rat snakes, pythons, jumping snakes, cobras and king cobras. The king cobra was one of the scariest things I have ever seen. I love snakes but the things guys were doing with them was insane. Cobras are very poisonous and the trainers (I use that term loosely) would put their finger on the cobra's nose and then they upped the ante and kissed them on the face. We were sitting so close to them that I would say we were in some sort of danger. There are no safety regulations over here but I think I like it Better that way. Also for all those Rambo fans this snake place is where Rambo 4 was filmed. I feel that much closer to Stallone now and it feels pretty good.
After Chang Mai we trained back to Bangkok and took a bus to Siem Reap, Cambodia. From there we went to see Angkor Wat, at sunrise non-the-less. Angkor Wat are ruins/temples of a lost empire. They were built in the 12th century if I remember correctly. They are the most spectacular thing I have ever seen. I just can't understand how they built them with such little technology. After that we bussed down to Sounooke Ville, which is a small beach town down in the south. We stayed there 2 night there and then crossed the boarder again back into Thailand and went to the island of Koh Chang where we stayed for 3 nights. Then we bussed back to Bangkok where I flew back to Manila and the other 4 made there way down to Malaysia.
All in all it was an awesome trip. One of great refreshment and re-connection with old friends. Thanks for the prayers while I was gone. May God Bless you all.
Jared
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Summer Continued
Our Church just held it's first DVBS ever and I feel it went really well. It was the same as the one we ran up in Kanawan, so it ran a little smoother this time. We did it in 3 days again by having it in the afternoon as well. We had about 35 kids and I was helping with the older group again, 10-13 year olds. Also another thing that is real encouraging about our Church is that last Friday we had 9 people that got baptized. Give God all the Glory. We also had a movie youth night last Saturday in which we watched Stardust which about 20 youth came out which is really good to see.
Night life's attendance has has been down for the last few weeks but this past Tuesday there were about 25 people and they were mostly young youth which was so good to see. Not that there are a lot of people in need but that these are the ages they are wanting to reach out to and that they feel comfortable coming to the drop-in center. I really love spending time with those kids.
Tomorrow I am visiting some Friends in Thailand for over 2 weeks so I ask for your prayers for safety. Once again thank you all for all the prayers, encouragement, and support. Take care and God Bless.
Jared Peter
Night life's attendance has has been down for the last few weeks but this past Tuesday there were about 25 people and they were mostly young youth which was so good to see. Not that there are a lot of people in need but that these are the ages they are wanting to reach out to and that they feel comfortable coming to the drop-in center. I really love spending time with those kids.
Tomorrow I am visiting some Friends in Thailand for over 2 weeks so I ask for your prayers for safety. Once again thank you all for all the prayers, encouragement, and support. Take care and God Bless.
Jared Peter
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Summer
The summer vacation for school here is April and May and is also the hottest time of the year. So needless to say it is nasty hot now.
Youth: 2 weeks ago we rented out the basketball court again and about 25 youth came. Mostly boys because we played basketball, but I feel it was a good turnout and fun was had. Then last week we didn't have an event because of Holy Week (ministries shut down during Holy Week, an oxymoron, I think so but more on that later). Then his past Saturday we took the youth to a water park, a small one but non-the-less a water park. It had a couple of slides and a wave pool. About 25 youth came out again and everyone had an awesome time.
This past week our YM team were up in a rural mountain village doing a DVBS. About 100 kids were in attendance ranging from 5-14 years old. The theme was on taking care of God Creation and I feel it went really well. We all had so much fun with the kids. Every evening we went swimming in the stream with them which was great fun.
Holy Week: Since everything was quite in the city (and it truly was, almost like a ghost town on Friday, this is because every leaves the city to go visit family) John and I went to the beach with a couple of our friends that were visiting. Needless to say we had an amazing time which seeing old friends and having a short vacation.
So Holy Week here can get really crazy. The Philippines is considered a Catholic nation because they were colonized by the Spanish back in the 1500s. I think it is from Catholic influence that they really identify with the suffering of Jesus and spend all their focus on the Friday instead of the Sunday (although I have heard it could be from some of the cult like practices as well). Anyway on the Good Friday they have big parades and plays that go on all over the country that deal with stations of the cross but still seem to miss the real point of Jesus' death. Also in some areas (mostly rural) people take it up a notch and do self-flagellation (flog themselves with bamboo whips) and some even get nailed to the cross (but not until death). They feel if they suffer like Jesus did they will be rewarded more, that they can identify with Him more. Or that they can pay for there own sins and buy their way into Heaven. In which is totally reading the scripture all wrong because Jesus died for us and paid the price so we never have to. It was a gift and all we need to do is accept it. It was out of his never ending love that he did it not out of ritualism as I feel a lot of these people do it for.
Also one thing I noticed was on the other side of the Easter, the Sunday, when Christ has risen isn't that big of a day. I feel they put all their time and effort on Good Friday that Easter Sunday is just like any other Sunday. Where I feel more of our attention should be on Him Rising. Yes Jesus had to die to take our sin away but Him rising from the dead made all the difference. He defeated death and lives in us and this is a reason for celebration.
Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. You are all so great. Take care and God Bless.
Jared Peter
Youth: 2 weeks ago we rented out the basketball court again and about 25 youth came. Mostly boys because we played basketball, but I feel it was a good turnout and fun was had. Then last week we didn't have an event because of Holy Week (ministries shut down during Holy Week, an oxymoron, I think so but more on that later). Then his past Saturday we took the youth to a water park, a small one but non-the-less a water park. It had a couple of slides and a wave pool. About 25 youth came out again and everyone had an awesome time.
This past week our YM team were up in a rural mountain village doing a DVBS. About 100 kids were in attendance ranging from 5-14 years old. The theme was on taking care of God Creation and I feel it went really well. We all had so much fun with the kids. Every evening we went swimming in the stream with them which was great fun.
Holy Week: Since everything was quite in the city (and it truly was, almost like a ghost town on Friday, this is because every leaves the city to go visit family) John and I went to the beach with a couple of our friends that were visiting. Needless to say we had an amazing time which seeing old friends and having a short vacation.
So Holy Week here can get really crazy. The Philippines is considered a Catholic nation because they were colonized by the Spanish back in the 1500s. I think it is from Catholic influence that they really identify with the suffering of Jesus and spend all their focus on the Friday instead of the Sunday (although I have heard it could be from some of the cult like practices as well). Anyway on the Good Friday they have big parades and plays that go on all over the country that deal with stations of the cross but still seem to miss the real point of Jesus' death. Also in some areas (mostly rural) people take it up a notch and do self-flagellation (flog themselves with bamboo whips) and some even get nailed to the cross (but not until death). They feel if they suffer like Jesus did they will be rewarded more, that they can identify with Him more. Or that they can pay for there own sins and buy their way into Heaven. In which is totally reading the scripture all wrong because Jesus died for us and paid the price so we never have to. It was a gift and all we need to do is accept it. It was out of his never ending love that he did it not out of ritualism as I feel a lot of these people do it for.
Also one thing I noticed was on the other side of the Easter, the Sunday, when Christ has risen isn't that big of a day. I feel they put all their time and effort on Good Friday that Easter Sunday is just like any other Sunday. Where I feel more of our attention should be on Him Rising. Yes Jesus had to die to take our sin away but Him rising from the dead made all the difference. He defeated death and lives in us and this is a reason for celebration.
Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. You are all so great. Take care and God Bless.
Jared Peter
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