Blog. – Hope For The Island

March 2025 Update:

March 5, 2025

Our team at Hope for the Island (HOPE) are thankful for God’s sustaining grace and guidance in what has been a busy start to 2025. Thank you so much to all who faithfully uphold the ministry and our team in prayer and support! As believers in Christ, we are called through God’s word to be conformed into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29). To grow in Christlikeness is only possible when we abide in and heed His word. HOPE family Bible study each morning is a great way for our team to meditate on and encourage each other in truth. These daily studies keep us strengthened in faith and where we come to know Gods will for us in Christ. It is always a joy to share these times with visitors and missions teams who come in to serve with us. YWAM Maui DTS students spent Dec 2024 to Feb 2025 with us at HOPE. Great relationships were established and many ministry memories formed together. Each mission team serving with us has an opportunity to grow further in their knowledge of God’s word and to do so learning and applying it in a cross-cultural context alongside our local missionary team.

Hope for the Island December 2024

December 9, 2024

Good day friends and family, I haven’t had to write out an update with pen and paper under candlelight since our early days on the mission field. Our entire island is on day 7 without power and may still be weeks before the power is restored. The 40-yr old underwater submarine cable bringing power to our island was extensively damaged and the parts needed for repair are coming from other countries. We don’t mind the frequent one-day power outages. It’s a great way to slow things down like life used to be when we moved here. It forces a shift away from technologies we have become so attached to, allowing us to connect with others and focus on the simple. This lengthy power outage, however, is creating many challenges on the island. So many have been without water and work. We have had very limited access to water. With a generator on the way soon we will be able to have enough water again for our ministry needs and to share. A more significant test has come in the form of persecution we have faced for 7 months. This has given opportunity for our faith and witness for Christ to

Hope for the Island Summer Update

September 8, 2024

We are thankful for the many ministry opportunities God made way for through the summer. We prayed, prepared and in faith believed God to lead and use us for His glory and Kingdom purposes. With kids and youth out of school for their break we made every effort to connect frequently and intentionally with them. It was our goal to further encourage them in God’s word so their faith would be strengthened as young disciples. Camps are a great way to invite those actively involved and many others into a fun, faith-filled environment for consecutive days. The kid’s camps were highly anticipated thus the big turnout. The kids love it when we gather all the kids from surrounding towns for an event. They came eager to have fun, but also to learn more from God’s word. I am always encouraged by the child like faith displayed and a sincere love for God and His word. They diligently open the bible and memorize scripture. They are learning to apply God’s truth in the context of home and community. So thankful to see the impact their faithfulness has had on many despite their age and supposed lack of voice and influence. The

Hope May 2024 Update

May 27, 2024

Greetings in the Lord dear friends! We are thrilled to announce our HOPE family has grown! Jerbie and Irene have been blessed with a beautiful daughter Seraphim. She is dearly loved and already drawn to worship the Lord! By God’s grace we have made great strides forward with Kalinga house. Our presentation to local officials was well received and we are now well under way with construction! The posts and beams have been poured and preparation to pour concrete second floor slab is next!! We have an old contractor friend who came in to oversee the work. The ground breaking on April 29 was a beautiful time to give thanks to God together. God faithfully led and provided for us to respond to this need. We opened Gods word and prayed with all those involved including those who would be daily labouring to build in the heat of the summer sun. We thanked them for their part and reminded them to work heartily unto the Lord. Weekly we open scripture with the construction crew. They enjoy and anticipate that time together before the week starts. We currently have a young group of 7 aspiring missionaries serving with us from YWAM

March 2024 Update

March 18, 2024

Each team we receive at Hope For The Island is unique. The recent School of Biblical Foundations and Mission (SBFM) team we had for two months were an incredible blessing! They took initiative in every aspect of local life and ministry. They were fully engaged with those we serve and with our team. Thank you for making yourself available by working, volunteering wholeheartedly, as well as being culturally sensitive. One member of this sbfm team did not leave with the others at the end of February. Kale wanted to stay on to complete the welding work needing done for our team housing construction. We are on pace to finish in time for next arriving team. We are gearing up for our summer plans to spend more concentrated time ministering to the kids and youth. We are planning for fun activities / events for them with discipleship as our goal. We will be hosting another team arriving in April to assist us with our summer plans. April 3 we have a surfers for missions team (this was the type of team I first landed in Philippines with 🙂 They will be serving with us for 2 months. From that same base

January 2024

January 30, 2024

I apologize for the length of time it has taken to give testimony and praise to God for the things He has been doing both at Hope for the Island and with our family. God has been so faithful and so good, leading us by faith in His wisdom and His grace. I purposely set aside a number of things, including writing an update in December and January. God blessed Jenn and I with the incredible opportunity to be back in Canada for over a month to spend fruitful quality time with our kids, our parents, and our dear family in Christ. The hospitality we received could be likened to examples found in the early church and ways we experience outstanding Filipino hospitality. Hospitality is an incredible witness for Christ that connects people deeply. Jenn and I are so grateful for our dear church family at Living Hope in Kelowna. It is a gospel preaching church that is bearing fruit and growing in the grace and Spirit of God. I was humbled to be invited to be an elder of this church shortly before God led us back to Asia. God has uniquely orchestrated things for me to still function

Hope October Update

October 18, 2023

Hope for the Island Youth Ministry – Transformed by the renewing of mind! (Rom 12:2) In this update I will only feature our youth ministry. What we are witnessing here, I pray will be experienced by churches that are praying for and serving this struggling generation. In the last few weeks we have seen the fruitful result of months of prayer and diligent effort to lovingly serve and preach to the youth over the summer. We had floods of youth coming through Hope for the Island attending our gatherings, summer camps, sports clinics and our growing tutorial program. The youth found a safe place at HOPE to process their internal struggles and find refuge from the barrage of tempting influences. In the name of the Lord we sincerely loved them in word and deed. We opened God’s word with them at every opportunity. We were expectant and believed God to fulfill His good purposes according to His word in their lives. Now into October we praise God because those seeds of truth found place in many hearts ready to receive it. The Spirit convicted youth of their sin. They repented and courageously responded in faith and obedience!! It was a

Hope for the Island August Update

August 25, 2023

Hi friends and family, thanks for prayer covering over the last month! Please keep us and the ministry in prayer. It has been incredibly fruitful yet very challenging. Below is our latest update… This is the season we have been anticipating when kids and youth have no classes. Lots of time and effort went into creatively planning camps and sports clinics. Our HOPE team has been going strong conducting these summer programs and at same time hosting a large team. All the while in a big staffing transition. Thank God for His strength and sufficient grace!!! First things first please meet Rodelyn. She is our newest members to HOPE family. Interestingly Rodelyn was discipled by a man my mission team shared the gospel to back in 1998. This man grew in faith, served the community and discipled Rodelyn and other children. Rodelyn now has years of experience in ministry and recently graduated with a community development degree. She has a long standing connection with Hope for the Island and was thrilled to be led by the Lord to come back to serve with us full time! God brought us a large team of Jesus loving Filipino students from a

Ministry Continues!!

June 2, 2023

From Derek: As most of you know, over the last month I have been just a wee bit excited about Jenn’s return ♥️ She arrived back in Asia on May 17 after a long but fruitful three months apart! It is taking some time for her to adjust and settle in as she arrived exhausted. Jenn took on a lot of work to better prepare us for the transition to living and serving again full time overseas. What didn’t get taken care of we will try to do from abroad or when we return for a visit some day. We are back to living by faith in a cross cultural ministry environment. We have always lived this way and it is more familiar and in line with our mission leading experience. Note from Hope the Island Canada. Living by faith means that Derek & Jenn do not receive a salary from Hope for the Island and live entirely dependant upon God’s provision through personal donations. Their income is dependant on donations specifically indicated for them personally through Youth with a Mission or Hope for the Island. Arriving with Jenn was our furry Canadian turned island girl Daisy 🙂 It was

Hope May Update

May 4, 2023

Coming back into the Philippines, I was grateful for the strength God quickly restored to me. With an intensely busy start and an overwhelming heat wave I have needed His strength. Within the same day of my arrival three American young adults arrived at Hope for the Island ready to learn and serve alongside our team. They applied to be part of our new Mission Equip Program. This is something we were looking forward to re-start because of the impact it had on the participant and for the ministry and staff. We usually house those coming to serve in our mission cottage, but that was obliterated by the typhoon. Jeffrey, Abbey and Allysa have taken over our house along with Makana. Jenn and I moved into the guest suite next door to give adequate space for them during their stay. A year and a half post typhoon, we are in a position where we have to replace housing that was destroyed. I have reached out to local and Chinese prefab companies for quotes on housing options. Update soon… A few days after arriving back at Hope, we had our first team meeting. Four of our long-term staff gave their notice.

Hope March Update

March 18, 2023

Hello! It has been a full and fruitful month since our last update. It started with a special birthday serenade for me 🙂 Derek The custom here is that those people close to the bday celebrant arrive at or under your bedroom window between 3 & 4am! I was awakened to songs and encouraging words with breakfast to follow. It is such a unique thing to experience and has brought many visitor unaccustomed to such a tradition, to tears. For those who don’t like early mornings it might bring on different kind of tears! We have purchased our desperately needed new outreach vehicle with a fabricated roof cover that was welded to it. The cover is vital for ministry outreaches we do and to transport recent visiting mission teams during the torrential rains. New truck We had three back to back teams serving with us through February! It was a lot to coordinate but the timing was again perfect. The teams helped out in each of HOPE’s ministries and did some much needed typhoon restoration work. This involved taking down shredded metal roofing, jackhammering concrete rubble and cleaning debris from the surroundings. Having teams in is also a blessing because

February 2023 Update

February 6, 2023

Jenn and I are so thankful for each of you. We are blessed by the commitment you have made to pray and support us in the ministry God has led us in. The last couple weeks have been full! Your prayer is appreciated, it is so needed, and it has availed much as you will read! As mentioned in our previous update we had a mountain of paperwork ahead of us as we set out to recover Hope For The Island documents that were destroyed in the typhoon. Some of that work involved fulfilling requirements unsettled due to 2 years of strict lockdowns. We are so thankful for favor granted within each of the agencies visited. It was a rough couple of weeks, but we are now 10 steps ahead of where we were before. With God’s continued help we will accomplish all that needs to be done by June. While in that region, I took the chance to make trips up the mountain to visit farmer friends I haven’t seen for a long time. Opportunities to share Gods word with each of them came with readied hearts to receive! They also put me to work harvesting and separating sweet

March 2025 Update:

Hope for the Island December 2024

Hope for the Island Summer Update

Hope May 2024 Update

March 2024 Update

January 2024

Hope October Update

Hope for the Island August Update

Ministry Continues!!

Hope May Update

Hope March Update

February 2023 Update

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March 2025 Update:

Hope for the Island December 2024

Hope for the Island Summer Update

Hope May 2024 Update