A milestone was reached recently.   Since our donations are down by about 75% since the COVID-19 started, Inday has explored various ways to earn a little money to help offset the expenses.  She has opened a small store for people who have a hard time getting their basic needs.   She also purchased a sow that was due to have a litter of piglets in a short time.

She had 8 piglets and now they are weaned and the first 4 were sold a few days ago and she will be selling the others soon.   Ideally, it would be better to raise them to full-grown, but right now with donations down, it’s less expensive because of the feed expenses to sell them smaller.

The other thing that she is doing is selling BBQ.   It is a way to earn money while selling affordable items that fits the budget of the people in the village.

I’m going to share an urgent matter.

There is a 5-year-old boy at the children’s home named Frederick that I mentioned a few days ago that was having urinary infection with bleeding and the doctor found an enlarged kidney in testing.

A couple days ago when I inquired about him they told me that he was turning yellow. My medical knowledge is limited to basic first aid and research about my problems, but the Mayo Clinic has a great online resource, so I started asking the questions listed, and based on what information I got, I told them to get him to the doctor immediately. The doctor briefly examined him and told them that my belief was accurate and that they had to get him to the hospital in Dipolog which is a couple of hours away.

I posted a few days ago, asking that you remember Laling in prayer because she was bleeding from the mouth and nose.

They have an extremely strict lockdown there in that area and they did not know what they were going to do.   Since they could not take her to the doctor, the doctor made a house call.  The symptoms were very much like the Dengue Fever symptoms; however, this is not the time of year that the fever is most common.

He examined her and took blood samples.   These were usually sent by motorcycle to Dipolog for testing.   For some reason, they were not able to get proper results from the testing.  It seems that the length of time between the blood draw and the arrival at the lab was too long.

The doctor had also recommended that she be given a vitamin while they were waiting on the results.  When they did not get the results and she could not be taken to Dipolog to the hospital, the doctor said he did not know what else to do.

She began to improve and is now almost completely better.   I believe that prayer changes things.   I would like to thank each of you for your prayers.

I have included a picture above of her bringing a fish for my supper from her father’s catch.   She would pick out what she thought was the best one and bring it to me.   Fish that is on my plate only an hour or two after swimming around in the ocean has a wonderful taste.

Inday has wanted to do something to supplement her income and has decided to start doing barbeque to sell.   Due to the limited income of the surrounding homes, she started selling very inexpensive pieces of meat.   This allows people to purchase something to eat for just a few pesos.

It started off quite well, but as I have posted elsewhere, she was in an accident on the motorcycle and hurt her foot, arm, and hand bad enough that she wasn’t able to do it for about a week.    Thankfully, Princess and a couple of the children, as well as Inday’s brother and sister, stepped in to help out.  You can see Inday’s brother behind them on the left side.

A second thing that slowed down sales, was some of the other neighbors saw that she had a nice little business and decided to get in on the market, so they started selling also.   I told her to just keep at it and sell things that maybe she would make that they are not able to make.

I have, along with a friend, been making longanisa.   It is a sweet Philippine sausage that can also be spicy if you like spicy.   I sent her the recipe I was using since it has been very well received and she is going to try making it when she is able to get all the ingredients.  I had sent a hand grinder in one of the Balak-bayan boxes a few months ago and she is finding useful to be able to grind it instead of mincing it with a knife.

What is on the menu?   The chicken menu includes feet, necks, heads, and if you wish to spend a little more money you can get legs.   She is selling ground pork as well.   She is also making a sweet dish out of jello and fruit and selling the juice from young coconut called buko juice.

She is also raising pigs to butcher and sell when they get large enough.   I wish them the best and applaud their efforts to better themselves.   It is also the first step in working towards the meat processing classes for the voc/tech school as it develops.

You can keep up with the happenings at the children’s home in your Facebook feed by liking and following us on Facebook at  https://www.facebook.com/childrens.hope.90

Also, if you share the Facebook postings when you find them interesting, it will help spread the word about our children.

If you are interested, I have a presentation about the children’s home that I would love to share with your church, small group, or other gatherings.  We have a newsletter that we would be very happy to share with you if you contact us with your address.