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Nehemiah Center (Christ For Asia) ESTABLISHMENT
& VISION Founded
in 1992, CFA was legally organized to help
and serve Cebu City's street children, and had later expanded its services to
the other depressed people groups in the City. God is love... and as a proof He
gave us His Son Jesus. This love must be experienced and must be demonstrated as
well. This truth had directed CFA to join together gospel with
mercy ministries in order to reach the outcasted and
the poorest of the poor in the City. CFA's
main concern is to lead them to the Lord and to practically help them to become
a useful person in the society. FIELDS
OF ACTIVITY I – STREET CHILDREN
·
Center-based - Nehemiah Center, a home for former street boys and street
girls.
Here the children are well accommodated, nourished with food, clothed, taught
with practical works and special skills, and are sent to school leading to
professional life.
·
Community-based - street children and children from the slum
areas receive food thru feeding programs and inspired with spiritual
truth thru evangelism programs, and offered with
wound dressing. A monthly service is held and
attended by approximately 250-300 street children and children from the slum
areas. II -DUMPSITE -
The ministry at the dumpsite has
expanded from a weekly feeding program emerged the following:
·
Bible study conducted within the community
·
Nursery - in which undernourished pre-school- age children are taken cared of
during the day until such time the normal weight is achieved.
·
Mothers’ class - emerged because of the Day Care Center. Mothers are
instructed to perform practical tasks (cooking, hygiene & washing) once a
week in favor of the children at the Center.
·
CO-OP - this was organized and created a self-generating fund by manufacturing
and selling ice cream within the community. Soon to start is the plan of sewing
outfits for market distribution. III- BIBLE STUDIES
·
Prison/Jail
·
Squatter areas
·
Market place IV - DISCIPLESHIP TRAINING COURSES V - BIBLE DISTRIBUTION Introducing our work: The Street Project Nehemiah - a new hope for
street children If
Jojo thinks about his parents, then he remembers
of the debates, which oftentimes prevented him to fall asleep in the evening, as
well as the blows he got from his father. Often, he cowered fearfully in a
corner, in order not to be entangled in the violence of his alcoholic father.
Jojo never dared to think as he woke up one morning at their poor cottage
of the hard reality. His mother had left
him and his family. The last what he had heard
from her, that she is living somewhere
in Manila, a city with more than one
million inhabitants. His life became harder and his future darker. His
father, who worked as a sidebike driver, a bicycle with sidecar to transport
passengers, never thought of his family and spent
his meager income with buddies
for liquor. Jojo, who was only 5 years old at this time, did the daily work and
care for his grandmother. While other children played or went to
school, Jojo
was busy to wash the plates, to get water or to tramp the rice for the next
meal. On time for the mass, he brought his grandmother to the
local church where they begged for some pesos. The load of responsibility and
the fear of the
future made the life of this boy nearly intolerable. Young as he was, emerged in
the heart of this boy the plan to manage
his own life. In the harbor of
Baybay,
a seaport in the southern part of
Leyte, he smuggled himself on a freighter
for Cebu. Some time later, hungry and weary, he was looking around
for useful objects in the port of
Cebu when he suddenly heard singing. Wasn't that children
singing over there? Out of curiosity, Jojo decided to go and to find what's it
all about. As he arrived at the place,
he saw about 50 children gathered and
altogether singing and later, a lady told
a bible story. After that a warm meal was served. Jojo
approached one staff of the feeding team from Christ
For Asia
and said: „I am hungry... I run away from home, and I have no place to go here
in Cebu. Can you please help me?" That evening, Jojo didn't
need to sleep
in the street anymore, because the feeding team at Project Nehemiah brought him
along, where Jojo found a new home. Jojo lives at Project Nehemiah for four
years now, and like other 34 former street
boys, he goes to school and hopes to
become a doctor someday. To
meet the need of street girls, "Christ for
Asia" opened a girl’s home in November 1996. Eleven
former street girls
found a new home and experience now care and
acceptance. The girls are
undergoing a progressive transformation of their personality, though not yet
fully recovered, but many wounds of the past are healed, and gradually they
are restored by the power of God's love. Beside fundamental
things like clothes, food and a home,
Nehemiah's primary concern and emphasis is on the spiritual
upliftment of the children to help them
work up their past. The regular church
attendance, the daily devotional time, a weekly prayer meeting as well as the
counseling sessions helps them to organize their life, and to get a
transformation of their bad past into a new lifestyle in the presence of our
Lord. Many
street children never had the chance to go to
school, and so it is not a surprise if a 12 year old
street boy cannot read and
write. The minds being conditioned with their
associated area on the streets make some to
have trouble and find difficulties in following instructions set
by the school. The education in public
or private schools is both important to the children at Project Nehemiah. To have a better change in school, some Nehemiah
kids receive tutorial at Project Nehemiah. Reading,
writing, and mathematics are
simplified by the tutor to become more easy and understandable. Through
different workshops the former street children
discover artistic talents as well
as practical talents. A small vegetable garden, an afternoon handicraft, the
learning of different musical instruments, sports as well as the gain of
knowledge of computers make the life at Nehemiah varied and interesting. In a
familiar atmosphere, former street children experience care, acceptance and
security, friendship and confidence will be established. In
common conversation
they share their past and needs, then bring them to the cross of Jesus and
overcome them with Jesus.
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