Manuals and Family Ministries School 2008

Over the past few years as Mel & I have been leading Family Ministries here in the Philippines, multiplying Family Ministries into Asia and involving ourselves in training our staff etc. we have gathered a lot of experience and information that works well for us. Little by little we have put this information together in the form of manuals that are a combination of our experiences, and files from others. There is very little that we do without the help of others is there? Finally this month we were able to complete the fourth one.

Our hearts desire is to be able to help others pioneer Family Ministries and so we have made these manuals available to anyone who may be working in this area within YWAM Family Ministries. It would be quite easy for them to adapt these manuals to their situation just as we have adapted others information to ours.

Presently the Family Ministries Team is preparing for the next FMS that will commence this September 17. We have a great group of staff. Joining us at the end of this month are three new staff families from three different nations-(Singapore, Thailand & the Philippines) . Jun & Naty Sumcad will lead the school again this year with Heidi Evensen assisting in the leadership.

We will be teaching for a number of weeks in this school and would appreciate your prayers.

Mel also will be teaching in the Introduction to Biblical Counseling School in Antipolo this coming Sept 8-12.

Please pray for the following needs.

1. For the Lord to release to us more students and especially couples and families as presently we have only ten students. Two single Korean women, one single Indian man, A Vietnamese, family, a Filipino family a single Filipino male and two single girls from Thailand.
2. For school fees to be released as nearly every student has needs in this area.
3. For the adjustment phase to flow well for the new staff families.
4. For children ministry workers.
5. Pray for our Thai staff family and the two students they are bringing with them as their desire is to multiply Family Ministries into Thailand in the near future.

Thank you so much.

Summer Fun & Number Five!

This summer we were able to connect with friends..........

Joy Cole with Joanna at Faith Academy in Antipolo.

The Saethren Family (Our former staff and now FMS leaders in Norway)returned for a visit.

Time out from school to play....... Joanna at Burnham Park.

Eating out is always fun...the Hilarios with the Saethrens

Barbeques for old time sakes!

Simon & Anne Sofie Saethren with Joanna

Jun & Naty Sumcad (FMS Philippines Leaders)with Mel & I.

Terrilyn & Lisbeth Sumcad with Joanna and Simon .......haven't they all grown!

Number Five!

According to a nationwide survey Baguio City is the 5Th Best City in the Philippines to live in. This is hard to believe with all the pollution, traffic congestion, slums, overcrowding, and poor water supply. Even last year Baguio was taken off the list of the ‘Top Ten’ tourist spots in the Philippines. Well for us we believe that ‘The Best City to live in’ is the city that God has placed us in and called us to! That is where we will be most fulfilled and where we can accomplish our best for God. We trust you will also agree with us on that!

How are you all anyway? We haven’t heard from many of you in a long time and we are not saying this to make you feel guilty we are just making a comment so please relax! Since having our e-mail address stolen last April we seem to receive a lot less e-mail. Please check that you have changed our address in your contacts to melbrendahilario@yahoo.com Thanks. We look forward to hearing from you too!

Seminars In May Mel & I were privileged to do some more seminars here in Baguio City. One of the most exciting things for Mel has been the open doors from the Department of Social Welfare. DSWD Seminar They have been running regular seminars titled ‘The Empowerment & Re-affirmation of Paternal Abilities Training’. Here they gather all the Barangay (village) officials together and give them a three day seminar along with a free lunch. (This is always a good incentive to attend!) Mel’s Topic was “Accepting Your Role as a Father."
We thank God for the Christian Social Workers that make this possible as it is such a positive time of ministry towards the local officials. Tears often well up in the participants eyes as they are reminded of their own fathers and they way they were treated as children.

Korean Pastors Wives Seminar .Did you know there are thousands of Koreans living here in Baguio? Many of these Koreans are not Christians. They come here in droves to learn English and are often separated physically from their parents/fathers/husbands. On any day in Baguio you can see hundreds of Koreans out and about and often large groups of Korean children with their Filipino house parents at the shopping centre. At times you wonder which nation you are actually in! There are also many Korean churches. Brenda was invited to give a seminar during the Northern Luzon Korean Missionaries gathering. Her topic ‘The God given gift and calling of women and families in missions’ which she delivered to over 30 Pastors wives via an interpreter.

Brenda receiving a love gift from the Korean Pastor after the seminar was over.

Brenda has also taken on a responsibility of secretary for the Baguio City Expatriate Missionary Ladies Group which meets in each others homes monthly for fellowship encouragement and prayer.

Some of the Expatriate missionary Ladies of Baguio

(Brenda front row third from left)

Jonathan is counting down the days till the end of his contract on the cruise ship the Norwegian Jewel. He is presently in Europe and wakes up in a different nation each day! This cruise begins in England then moves on to Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Russia, Finland, and Sweden then back to England. He says that very few of the passengers (average age 65yrs) desire to work out in the fitness gym he manages!. Amazingly enough last week our Christian Doctor and her family from here in Loakan Baguio ended up on his ship for a cruise!

Jonathan with his friend Marika

Joanna is back in school now and is working really hard to finish her last year of high school. She leaves home at 7.20 and returns at 4.30pm each day. She enjoys teaching her classmates skits that they are able to perform in school chapel. Joanna has her heart set on attending Bethlehem Tertiary Institute in Tauranga New Zealand (NZ) and hopes to train to be an elementary school teacher.

Last month she helped her NZ friends who have a ministry here to the poor and needy. They were baptizing approximately 35 people and she played the guitar for all of these as they came up out of the water. She really enjoyed this! She continues to take electric guitar lessons too and enjoys our church Youth Transformation Group held bi-monthly.

Joanna leading worship during a prayer for healing time for street kids.

Anti Riot Police in from of our home!
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Imagine waking up to having anti riot police in front of your home early in the morning.......well just relax our President of the Philippines was arriving at the airport that morning.

Robyn & Marty Mckone from New Plymouth, New Zealand were here with us for three weeks in August...enjoying a holiday/ministry/visit.........Here they are packed and ready to leave for Manila........thanks for visiting!