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NEWS FROM HOSEA SCHOOLS, THE PHILIPPINES
OUR SCHOOLS IN MINDORO ISLAND
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Once again the school year has come to an end in our four Hosea Schools in the Philippines. Our third year students now move onto the state school to continue their studies. |
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10 best students |
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Mindoro teachers |
The celebration of our Mamburao and Aroma schools was held in the City Hall with 600 people crowding in. The main speaker was a high official from the Department of Education from Occidental Mindoro but there were also some other important officers from Mamburao town and the government of the island. Our pupils and their relatives make up such a large group of people that they are really noticed in a town like Mamburao. Also the excellent results our pupils have achieved in the state school have really impressed the education officials, and that is why they are so willing to come and honour our celebrations.
Three of our oldest pupils from the third class presented the prizes to the ten best pupils for their academic skills. To make sure nobody would feel left out, we gave each and every child a prize: for the tidiest, the happiest, the politest, the most helpful etc. The prize for faithfulness was given to those who have been through all three years in our Hosea school.
Even though summer has come and school has ended, we offer our students some summer courses starting 10th April. These courses are voluntary but still almost all want to participate.
Josephine, our teacher in San Jose school has also arranged a celebration for her students. It was held in the hall of the Foursquare Church. Josephine also prepared a Year Book containing lots of photos from the school year to those students who are now moving to the state school, to give them a memento of their year in Hosea school. Pastor Leo gave a speech and the boys from our school performed a play “Jesus is my Super Hero”. The girls’ performance was called “Everyone needs Jesus”. One of our three year old students melted the hearts of the audience by performing a poem “Melancholy” and then giving a speech. Even though he was not yet able to pronounce all the words properly, he brought his speech to end with dignity. The audience rewarded him with loud and encouraging applause.
Josephine wants to give her warmest thank you to all those who have been supporting this ministry and her work by prayers or by donating funds. Without you the schooling of slum children would not be possible.
OUR SCHOOL IN PALAWAN ISLAND
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The celebration of ending the school year was held on 28th March in our Palawan school.
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Student dance performance |
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School celebration |
For several weeks before the celebration a real drama enfolded, as local school officials suddenly and without warning decided to reject our school licence for the next year. We contacted them of course, wanting to hear their reasons for such a negative conclusion to our successful work in the slums, where so many children had got a new life and hope of the future and through which their whole families had changed.
Their reasoning sounded weird to say the least: “Your school is functioning on rented ground, and that is why you are not allowed to continue”, we were told. But there was no logic there, as all the other private schools were in the same situation, they had rented premises. But nothing helped, and our attempts to negotiate brought no change whatsoever. We prayed and we pondered. We knew that our school was the only one offering free education to the slum children. Other private schools in the city only accept children from rich families which are able to pay their high fees. There is no possibility for a slum child to get to those schools as they often have no money even for food.
I tried to encourage the head of our school: “When God starts something, there is no chance that the enemy can stop it”. Of course this stopping of our licence depressed and hurt us, as slum people had just started to trust in us and several of them had come to know Christ as their Saviour. Our hard labour had started to bring good fruit and then came this attack. But whatever happens, God has His solution to every problem. We decided to bypass the local authorities and bring our case to the headquarters of the Ministry of Education in Manila for their decision. I sent money to our leader in Palawan to enable him to travel to Manila and gave him some advice on how these things had been sorted out with our other schools. So he set out on his journey.
Soon afterwards I was delighted to get a positive email from Manila: the department for private schools in the Ministry of Education had given their approval to us and we now had all the needed licences. In fact the authorities in the department were so very interested in our model of running the school in Palawan that the inspector of schools, Roseville Moises, decided to pay a personal visit to our celebration of the school year. In addition to that he sent his personal congratulations to all the pupils who finished their studies in our school. That kind of honour has not ever earlier been given to any other private schools. At the same visit our leader found out that the whole issue of “rented premises not being acceptable” was invented by the local authorities and no such regulations were applied by the state.
Our God is powerful to change tragedies into victories and to lift us up out of the pit to the place of blessing. After this our school arranged a special celebration to honour God, inviting parents and carers or other relatives to come together with all those who had actively worked for this school.
Ps. 30:1 “I will exalt you, O Lord, for you lifted me out of the depths and did not let my enemies gloat over me.”
SAN JOSE SCHOOL
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San Jose students |
San Jose school photo |
Thanks again,
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