Disclaimer: In many of the photos the children & adults are not wearing facemasks, this is because we are visiting them in their homes. Be reassured all the volunteers are wearing facemasks and adhering to the locally prescribed hygiene standards.

Reeve's Supporters Newsletter April 2021
Some Like it Hot! James Not So!

It is now summer season here in Coron and it is HOT, HOT, HOT! The whole team are noticing how tiring the heat and humidity is currently and so we are adapting to doing most of the work in a morning, late afternoon, or evening when it is slightly cooler in temperature. Having learnt from last year’s summer, we are reserving water where we can, to ensure we do not run out as water supplies are often short during this time. On the flipside, it does means that our work is unlikely to be disrupted by rainy or windy weather which made it perfect for the celebrations that happened over the past month.

Community Outreaches – Family Film Nights

We were blessed to have the opportunity to hold family film evenings in three different compounds over the Easter week. A Christian film “Heaven is for real” was shown along with a Tagalog commentary. We praise God that many adults and children attended. It was a wonderful opportunity to reach out to parents who are not always around when we hold the children’s clubs. We hope to hold more in the future and are racking our brains to how we could hold them in areas where electricity is more of a challenge!

Children’s Ministry

Children’s clubs continue to be well attended, the children are often waiting for us when we arrive in the van, they are always ready to help by carrying the chairs and materials, they also help set up and clear up at the end which is wonderful.

We have a girl in one of the children’s clubs, that is new to Coron and only speaks a little Tagalog and also has ADHD, it’s a joy to spend time with her telling the Bible story in English.

All the children particularly loved making the streamer craft for the Palm Sunday week and especially enjoyed using these while dancing and singing. We were amazed to see some even survived to be used again the following week!

For Easter week the children really enjoyed the games and making a mini- Easter story book. It was wonderful to see many responding to the message of Easter through the story and the illustrations shared with them.

Easter Food Packs

We were so thankful that due to the support of the Elim Missions ERA appeal, we were able to also bless 150 families with food packs for Easter, which they were surprised and incredibly grateful to receive.

Church – Easter Celebration

The small groups with adults continue in several of the areas where we hold children’s clubs, Easter Sunday they came together to celebrate Easter as a whole church, it was the first time these small groups joined together at the City Gates Church building along with our regular church members.

All Covid safety protocols were in place and it was exciting for everyone to meet each other and be part of a larger celebration for Easter.

We thank God for the youth that are helping in the church activities and the outreaches in the communities, please pray for Pastora Riza as she and the team continues to disciple them.

Exciting Delivery!

We were so excited and blessed to receive boxes from family and friends who had collected items to send for the children and adults here on Coron. We Church – Easter Celebration are planning to give out the items during the summer school children’s clubs in April/May so that we can ensure all the children receive something and to make the summer school extra special for them. We look forward to sharing the photos of these being given out in our next newsletter.

Covid-19 Update

We thank God that here on Coron we remain safe from the virus. There continues to be minimal health standard protocols in place and although there are the occasional positive cases reported, the authorities are managing these well and people have been isolated quickly to avoid further transmission. It is also amazing that frontliners have begun getting their vaccines on Coron via the Covax scheme.

However elsewhere in The Philippines there are rising cases, increasing death rates and new variants detected. The hospitals are reported to be struggling and there is a lot of fear. The capital regions went into a strict lockdown over Easter, and it is unclear how long this will continue.

The vaccination programme is likely to be a long process, and many are fearful or say they are not willing to take the vaccine. Please pray for those who are affected by the virus and the financial impact of the restrictions on families.

We had hoped to be able to visit the UK for furlough this summer however recent developments suggest this may now be unsafe and therefore is unlikely. The Philippines has now been placed on the UK red list and anyone with our type of visas would not be allowed re-entry to The Philippines at the present time. This means we would not only have to quarantine on arrival, but we would not have any certainty about being able to return to Coron. We would dearly love to visit to see family and friends, but we continue to pray for God’s guidance and for His timing for this.

Praise and Prayer

Thank you for your prayers.

• Praise God for the success of the Easter celebrations and outreaches and for His ongoing provisions and protection.
• Praise and continued prayers for ongoing discipleship and growth in the youth and adult small groups.
• Pray for the upcoming summer school children’s clubs planned for April and May.
• We praise God that Coron remains low risk in relation to Covid -19 however please pray for those in The Philippines who are affected by the virus.
• Pray for us to know God’s peace as we miss family and friends and are uncertain when we will be able to come back for a visit.

Thank you for taking the time to read our newsletter, we are so thankful for all your support and could not be doing any of this work without you.
Many Blessings
Love from Andrea and James

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