Medical Outreach Tacloban

Kids International Ministries has a very blessed relationship with Orphan Grain Train (OGT). Orphan Grain Train sends us 40 foot containers about every two months full of many supplies that allow us to reach thousands of Filipino people in many different areas of the Philippines! We are able to partner and ‘share the love’ with many more ministries in the country other than just ours. From close to our ministry in Cainta, Manila to the province in Real, Quezon, to the typhoon hit areas of Tacloban, and all the way down to the Southern island of Mindanao. In all these areas, not just food and supplies are shared, but the love of Jesus Christ is shared and shown to each receiving goods from OGT.  Next door to our main ministry center, rice packs are being prepared for the students of Cuatro Christian School (CCS). CCS is funded by Kids International Ministries; it serves over 500 impoverished students from the surrounding areas. Many of these students come from very impoverished backgrounds and food is not always a guarantee. Hunger and the lack of nutrition can greatly affect a child’s academics. The rice packs sent by OGT help us provide a nutritious meal for our students so that they can focus on learning and not focus on their hungry bellies. The school supplies that are often sent on OGT containers also help keep CCS running. From the notebooks and pencils to the teacher’s supplies and books, we are able to provide a high quality Christian education for our students without the worry of not having supplies to teach them. Another ministry that Kids International Ministries does that practically runs on rice packs is our feeding program. We go out twice a day, Monday-Friday, and serve ‘lugaw’ or soup made from the rice packs. For many of the children in these communities, this is some of the only food they will receive that day. We serve over 100 children on every feeding. Feedings are not only about the food though. Because of the growing relationships with the families in these communities, our local pastor is given the opportunity to conduct various Bible studies with the adults in the community while the children are eating. It is such a blessing to see something as simple as a cup of soup being served that develops relationships with people that our pastor is able to mentor every week. We love sharing the Gospel and planting that first ’seed’ but being able to help that ’seed’ grow and blossom is beautiful to see. It is amazing the work God is doing in such a simple way. Kids international Ministries also has a ministry center in Tacloban. In 2013, when one of the largest ever recoded typhoons made landfall in the Philippines, we knew we needed to help in the relief process. One week after typhoon Yolanda, we sent our first relief team down and have been there ever since. OGT’s containers have been such a huge blessing in the relief efforts. Because of the rice packs, we were able to serve hot meals just days after the typhoon and still serve them today! Now, we have had the blessing of being able to do a feeding program in a few of the public schools close to our ministry center. Our Filipino leaders and short term teams are able to go into these schools and serve a nutritious meal to the students and also develop relationships with them and teachers. We are so thankful that the public school system in the Philippines is usually so open to have the Gospel shared. We are excited to see how these relationships continue and deepen and are know that God has BIG plans for these young people to be lights to their peers and families.  Another partnership that we have had over the past years is with a pastor and church in Tondo who serves the people in a dumpsite community. Pastor Ramil used his life to share Jesus' love with these people and when he passed from cancer last year, his son took over and has continued the ministry. We send rice packs, and other donations from OGT shipments that help this church serve the impoverished people in this community whose livelihood is primarily sorting through the dump to gather recyclable goods to sell.  A more recent partnership that we have made is with the Dumagat Community Children in Real, Quezon. We have been able to assist in starting a feeding program through the local church for the children an dtribal people in and around the community. Feedings have started every Saturday through the church and it has opened many doors to share God’s Word. In Tagaytay, we partner with the organization Christ Heart Fellowship. They have a passion to serve the vulnerable children and elderly in Tagaytay. They have a feeding ministry where they use the rice packs and beans sent by Orphan Grain Train to feed the elderly in the community every Wednesday and the students at a local public school every school day. Blankets were also sent down and were a huge blessing to the elderly in the community since it gets cold in the province. Through these ministries, Christ Heart Fellowship is able to share the Gospel with all they serve in Tagaytay.  We have recently been able to parter with another ministry in Tarlac. Pastor Mario Abrazado’s focus is to minster and feed the indigenous people of Tarlac. We have already sent three vans full of rice packs down to him and are hopeful to continue to partner with Pastor Mario and his passion to serve and share God’s love with the indigenous people of Tarlac. Blessings from Orphan Grain Train containers have also opened up a partnership between us and a ministry in Mindoro. Ezra School of Naujan is a school that serves the indigenous mountain people of Mangyan. These students travel five hours from their home to study and live at Ezra School. The school offers a free education and boarding for its students so they can receive a solid Christian education. Manna Packs, beans, diapers, bunk beds, fabric and sewing materials, and hygiene kits have all been sent and are being used for the Ezra School and other outreach ministries they do in the surrounding communities. A fun thing they will use the sewing materials for is to make outlines of teddy bears and at a VBS program this summer, they will have the children design and stuff their own teddy bears to teach them how God has created each one of them perfectly! What a fun way to use simple supplies like fabric to spread the love of God to these children!  We have also been able to send rice packs all over the country when the need arises to the Ate tribe people in Boracay, indigenous tribal people in the mountains of Mindanao, to evacuees of volcano eruptions, to right out the door step of our ministry when families have nothing left. The opportunities are endless to not just help physically, but where every rice pack is given or every bowl of soup served, we are able to spread Jesus’s love and the Good News to thousands of people all throughout the Philippines.  In the Philippines, relationships are everything. We are so incredibly thankful for all the supplies sent on containers by Orphan Grain Train that allow us to partner with many different ministries and organizations and further develop relationships with them. Thank you, OGT! 

Each week in the surrounding areas of Tacloban, 11 feedings take place. Monday-Friday at 9 am and 2 pm, a team of staff and volunteers goes out to various public schools in the surrounding areas and not only serves a nutritious meal to the students but develops relationships.  As relationships are built with the students, teachers and administration, opportunities arise to share Jesus’ Word through Bible stories, games, and discussions. Two feedings take place on Saturday, one in the morning in a community since all the kids are home from school and one in the afternoon during the AWANA Program at the Lighthouse.

At KIDS Tacloban, teams have the opportunity to serve in many different areas of ministry in the Tacloban area. Teams participate in our Feeding Program where they help serve food at public school and in different communities. At these feedings, teams often get the chance to not only share Jesus’ love through food but they also spend time sharing Bible stories and their life stories with the children being served. Teams also join in on evangelism outreaches and home visits where they are able to share the Gospel with all different types of people and families in need through translators.  Teams also get to have a lot of fun playing with kids! At the Lighthouse, basketball and volleyball games are a common sight as well as all ages of children and adults playing on the playground out front. Teams also assist with the AWANA Program every Saturday afternoon where they get to help teach kids about Jesus’ love for them and have a lot of fun playing games and feeding the kids.