Philippine Children’s Ministries Network

2nd Quarter Network Meeting

Dear Network Members and Partners,

We had the 2nd Quarter Network Meeting in the afternoon of June 8 in Alay Pag-Asa multi-purpose building. There were 21 of us and we had a wonderful time spent in praying for children in the Philippines and across the world. The prayer was focused on the children in our midst who need families, suffer violence, with no educational opportunities, suffer through hunger and poverty. The prayer time took place at the beginning. We had 5 groups going around the ‘prayer stations’ taking turns praying. We also heard from two colleagues about what transpired in the prayer events that they participated during the weekend. We know that many others participated in the week of prayer for children at risk. Do take the time to share it to the Coordination Team so we could put together an account of how we as a network participated in the event. We are hoping that through our prayer working group, we will be able to engage more groups including churches in praying for children not only once a year but as an on-going commitment. We believe that our united prayers to the Lord in behalf of children will make a difference in their lives because God answers prayers.

In the second half of the meeting, we featured a presentation on “Financial Wellness” by Mr. Eric Barroquillo, Senior Manager of BPI Field Sales Department. It’s a practical and very useful presentation on creating our own budget and savings plan to achieve our life goals. The participants participated in an exercise to determine the state of their financial well-being. We rated ourselves based on the individual scores we came up with. Three have excellent state of finances, several are in the category of good state and the rest are either in need of improvement or need immediate help L. It was a simple but helpful exercise. He proceeded to explain what wealth ‘accumulation’ entails which is simply keeping more of the money we earn and making more with the money we keep. Practical suggestions were given including how to budget properly. All in all, the more than an hour session was well-appreciated. It was very practical but at the same time challenged us to look closely at how well we handle our personal finances which is part of our commitment to be faithful stewards of all that God has entrusted us.

No, he didn’t promote BPI and any of the bank’s products and services although some questions were raised about it towards the end of the presentation. How I wish that I knew more about it beforehand and have enjoined you to attend. If there’s interest to have another Financial Wellness session held, I could help arrange it with BPI. Maybe clusters of member-organizations in the same geographical area would like to have it so the opportunity is maximized. The time allocated is 2 hours minimum.

What’s ahead over the next six months? The first module of Quality Improvement System on “People Care’ will be run in July. So far, 13 PCMN member-organizations have signed up to join QIS which will be run for 2 & ½ years. Bearers of Hope Phase 2 which is an 18-month project on building capacities of FBOs notably local churches and NGOs serving in vulnerable communities to reduce the risk of disaster and in protecting children in disasters is going on. We have 30 partners from NCR, and the lakeshore towns of Rizal and Laguna. On July 1 & 2, we will facilitate the field testing of Tearfund’s new resource: “Disaster Management Guidelines for Church Leaders.” Fifteen partners of Bearers of Hope and 6 others will be joining this special exercise. The triennial PCMN Stakeholders’ Congress scheduled for August 17-19 in General Santos City will be postponed for this year. Instead, we are holding a Mindanao Children’s Stakeholders Congress. Interested Manila members are still welcome to attend the event. We also hope to hold our annual workers’ retreat sometime in September or October. If we have a significant number of members who would participate, the chances of the retreat taking place is high.

That briefly is what’s happening. Please keep in touch. You may want to contribute articles or stories to our website. The coordination team will be happy to get it posted. Thank you all and God’s blessings to you!

Yours in the Lord,

Pine