Building a Difference has begun production in Iloilo City, Philippines featuring the Go To Nations team currently serving there.
Today, an estimated 1.5 million children live on the streets in the Philippines. They are born into poverty and squalor. Many are abused. All are hungry, and all deal with pervasive feelings of rejection and hopelessness. The Iloilo City team is headed up by GTN missionaries Nate and Abigail Shuck and are involved in several projects to help with offering help to those in need.
Camp Sonshine Center was founded in 1999 by Go To Nations missionaries Jesse and Kay Landis to meet the spiritual, physical and emotional needs of those children. Approximately 80 children are fed and ministered to five days a week (550 meals are distributed weekly), young “scholars” are further educated, and mothers are engaged with the Gospel. Each summer, the Sonshine Center hosts children’s camps which minister to seven “depressed areas” of Iloilo City.
Nearly 2,500 families live in the San Isidro Relocation Site, having been placed there because of natural disasters and government programs. Issues with alcoholism, gambling, drugs, prostitution, teen pregnancy, malnutrition, education and unemployment abound. The area is also prone to flooding, which leads to poor sanitary conditions and diseases carried by mosquitos. The team is involved in livelihood projects, children and youth programs, clean water projects, and aquaponics to provide affordable, healthy food.
The Calajunan Community Development Project is a one of our community development and transformation sites in Iloilo City. It works in partnership with the local church to reach the Calajunan community living in and near the Iloilo City trash dump. Working alongside a local church it is helping to develop a dynamic children’s program to reach the hundreds of children living in and near the Calajunan Dumpsite and one of the cities relocation sites. Impoverished, with little education these children little chance of survival with out the Love of Jesus Christ.
“We are blessed to have the opportunity to discover and share some of these stories,” says Mick Richards, Exec. Pro/Director. “Are prayers are to capture some of the amazing work of God through His people in the Philippines in hopes to inspire and encourage others to do the same.”
