Hope For The Island

Category: Kid’s Ministry

  • Hope for the Island August Update

    Hope for the Island August Update

    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 up in Manila called Youth Lab. YL is a Ministry under Kids international Ministries (KIM). Mutual friends connected us with KIM last year and a great long term ministry partnership is emerging. 

    YL Team at the Mayor’s Office

    YOUTH CAMP – It has been great to keep momentum going over the summer by creating opportunities to pour into the youth that regularly come to HOPE. 

    The YL Team addressed the real struggles and needs resulting from many radical changes the island faced with extreme lockdowns, a super typhoon and the islands rapid increase In tourism. With that a massive culture shift has taken place and new ungodly influences. The 70 youth attending the camp were encouraged to return to the word of God where life is found in the true vine. Hope is found in no other than Jesus and He calls each one to repent for the remission of sins and to believe on Him. We are thankful for the impact the gospel is starting to have on our local young people. Through Christ freedom will come and with Him the power to overcome!  The theme of the camp was Run with purpose. Much of teaching times focused on 1 Cor 9:24-27. They were all challenged to ready themselves in faith and through obedience run well and for the right purpose. As we overcome victorious in faith endeavors we have His promise of reward – imperishable crowns for the faithful! 

    KIDS CAMP – was a hit as well! Although only catering to children that surround our ministry center we had 150 plus kids register!They came full of energy and so thrilled to be attending a camp all together. Each received a very nice practical educational gift to help as they get ready to go back to school. During the teaching sessions the kids were incredibly attentive. Faith is rising strong in many of these young hearts and minds as they learn and apply truth from God. 

    SPORTS CAMP – we had a Christin professional basketball player from Taiwan contact us wanting to serve and teach locals while visiting the island. Stevo came in with his wife and brother and had a great day teaching the kids and youth new techniques and most of all encouraging them to seek God and trust Him alone in the high and low times. Thankful for the many godly influences this summer break! 

    Jenn and I are officially empty nesters as the saying goes. We went up to Manila last week to say goodbye to our daughter Makana. She has scholarships needing used and within a months time enrolled and packed up to go to Trinity Western University in BC. Praying for both our kids as they learn and grow outside of our home. 

    Please especially lift Brison up in prayer. He had a significant brain injury a month ago that slowed life down considerably. He is recovering slowly but still struggles. Not being able to work and accomplish final schooling tasks is cause for some strain and discouragement. We are asking the Lord to work His good purposes through these circumstances! 

    While in Manila we got to see Jing and Randy. After leaving HOPE from almost 20 years serving, they hit the ground running in Manila. They stepped in to help a church recover through many unsettled trials. It was great to see them full of faith despite the hardships and new tests being faced. 

    We also reconnected with the family that first received us in Manila 20 plus years ago. We had great times of sharing Gods word and in prayer together. One sister is a Supreme Court judge. Her and her sisters do prison ministry as a way to prevent further offenses / relapse. Many lives have been set on right path and in faith. Jenn will be helping judge formulate the first of its kind recovery program. It is based on principals that were successful for those in recovery that we worked with 2017-2021 while in Canada. Makana, Jenn and I went into the women’s dormitory section at the Manila City jail. We went in with Judge, Jing and Randy. We were warmly received by all the guards and given freedom to preach boldly the gospel and minister openly with the women incarcerated. It was evident that ongoing ministry is happening inside those walls because of their clear hunger for truth and witnessed fruit. 

    Our last report shared the  struggle many widows have with their strength really fading. These last weeks we have celebrated birthdays with and even danced together with some of our widows. It is a blessing to see some renewed strength and joy resurface in their eyes and smiling faces. 

    We are thankful for your continued prayer for us and each person being ministered to through HOPE. We rely on Holy Spirit to enable us and trust God for provision each week for ministry needs to serve our communities. God truly is faithful!!

  • February 2023 Update

    February 2023 Update

    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 peppers 🙂

    – Eating with farmers 

    -Video- Muslim call to prayer for prayer regularly filled the air. Throughout each day we heard these Muslim calls over loud speaker. Although disturbing it reminded us of the need to pray for them and to be a good witness that day for Christ.

    Jenn at an office 

    Hope for the Island team along with each of our ministries were not spared from the tests the globe faced due to covid related challenges. Lockdowns really did a number on the islanders. To add challenge upon challenge, super typhoon Oddette ravaged the island, turning every life upside down.

    With each trial we know full well God is faithful, fulfilling His purposes for His name’s sake. I was incredibly impressed with the resolve, maturity, and joy in the Lord that I have seen our Philippines team display since we arrived. I love seeing when scripture is fleshed out by God’s children. Our team revealed that trials faced in joy and faith does indeed develop perseverance. Obediently enduring in the face of trials brought our team into a place of deeper communion with God and with it a maturing of character. Many in Siargao island have not fared as good through these tests. These past 2 years have caused far too many to unravel, falling deeper into hopelessness, despair, and sin. The need to share the good news and shine the light of Christ is even more critical!

    With our existing team and a retuning couple in leadership, we are preparing to embark on some new and exciting ministries. We met with the Mayor of Burgos the other day. She is excited that we were finally able to return and assured us we have full support from her and the local government with anything we plan. The fruit from 20 plus years of ministry has built trust and provided open doors to serve in new areas of community need. 

    -Jerbie and Irene are returning to serve with Hope for the island! 

    Hope for the Island also has a long-standing working relationship with Department of Education. For years we ran an Early Childhood Education Center. We also conducted agriculture trainings at our organic farm for many students. Department of Education is now allowing us to go into the elementary and high school each week to promote spiritual development of their students. This is a blessing as you can imagine and one that we have been praying and preparing for. The faculty are aware that discipleship is our focus. Beyond teaching in the school, students will be invited to our nearby Ministry Center for after school sports clubs that will further help meet the school’s goal for physical development. It will allow for us to further disciple those students God draws to faith in Him. Thank you, Lord! 

    Hope for the island Kids Ministries 

    Another pressing need was brought to our attention not long after returning and with it the request for help. Interestingly this too is something we have been praying, asking God to prepare us for since 2000. We are currently working towards establishing Kalinga House. Kalinga is an old Filipino word that means to care for and protect. This house will receive and minister to abandoned, neglected, and abused children throughout the island. Sadly, a big increase of sexual and physical abuse incidents are surfacing. This too it seems in part a result of long lockdowns. Currently there is no organization equipped to intervene nor is there a home to place kids if they were pulled out of harmful situations. Violators are not being held accountable. They continue in their wicked way and reoffend without concern. Cristina is a woman that we initially took in as a child at Hope for the Island who have served with us ever since. She currently sits on our board. We paid for her education, and she recently graduated. She is now employed with the local government as a social worker. We are equipped and ready to respond to this need! Part of this program will involve visiting and providing counsel to the families and perpetrators involved. There are several scriptures that give us direction from God on how to respond in these circumstances. Two of those being…

    Ps 82:3-4 “Give justice to the weak and the fatherless; maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked.”

    Ps 12:5 “Because the poor are plundered, because the needy groan, I will now arise,” says the Lord; “I will place him in the safety for which he longs.”

    Over the course of February, we will continue to make steps towards these 2 ministry plans.

    Meeting with the Mayor of Burgos

    Over the course of February we will continue to make steps towards these 2 ministry plans. 

    By the end of February Jenn will head back to Canada for a month with Brison to tie up loose ends in order to make the move full time to Asia. Brison has a desire and plan to live with family friends in Kelowna for a season to finish up his studies and work. 

    Makana has been excited to return to Philippines for many years. It was so exciting for us both when the borders opened to travel back here. She is back home where she grew up in the ministry. It has been a joy to see her reconnect with Hope family and the friends she missed while away. Makana will be staying at Hope for the Island full time to help in part with new ministry plans, develop social media / communications and to prepare to receive 3 mission teams scheduled to come in. 

    God bless and keep you in His grace!

    Derek and Jenn Van Ryckeghem 

  • God’s living Word

    From Janece:

    Each week we open God’s living Word and help kids think of practical ways they can obey and apply it in the week ahead. When they return the following week we all take time to share opportunities that we could in faith obey truth. It’s exciting to hear simple yet heartfelt victories from the mouths of young children. It is a great way to affirm them in their obedience and for them to clearly experience as children the blessing and power of being a doer of God’s Word.

    I would like you to meet Andrea. This week she shared how she made an effort to obey all that her Lolo (grandpa) asked her to do. Other times she will complain or not do it willingly but she realized that attitude is not pleasing to God or honoring her Lolo.

    She said she also offered to help in washing the laundry by hand even though not asked. Although she was not thanked for her efforts, she had peace and joy knowing God helped her to do the right thing.

    As her teacher I am also blessed to see the positive affect when we obey God’s Word. The testimonies they share and our excitement and affirmation helps to encourage and inspire other kids listening to make the same efforts to obey!

    Paul John ( Standing)

    I was reviewing with my kids about Abraham who was kind to Lot. Paul John is a new kid in my group and it was the second time he joined us in Kid’s Ministry. I was amazed he was very interactive and willing to answer my questions.

     

    Paul John always has a smile on his face and seems to be a leader with the other kids. I am really blessed and thankful to God for the life of Paul John. I pray that he will continue to join us and grow more in knowing God. Just as Abraham’s life impacted all those he came in contact with, we trust God to raise up kids like him with a heart to influence their community. Thank God that He uses children and that we at Hope for the Island have the privilege to disciple them to know their creator.

  • Maylene

    From Gina:

    Maylene is 10 years old and is one of my kids in the town of “Bitaug” where I serve each week. She was one of the participants who was impacted by the “KIDS HEARTLINE SEMINAR that we hosted.

    Heartline VIDEO

    Last Saturday I had a hard time in sharing a Bible story to the kids because there are many little ones moving around and noisy. Currently we are in a transition training up new assistants so all areas don’t have assistants yet. Please pray for the new assistant we involve each week to have God’s heart and grow in their love for kids in communities.

     

    Maylene surprised me and offered to take all the little ones while I teach. She did such a good job taking care of them. It was nice seeing her taking the lead and the kids responded well to her.

    I’m thankful and blessed because our topic was about “KINDNESS” and Maylene showed kindness to me and to the kids by helping and serving them. It was a good way to have a practical example to explain ways they can apply God’s Word.

    From Derek:

    God is really working in Maylene and other kids. Even at a young age they already have a willing heart to help and be used by God in the ministry. In some areas local religious groups do all they can to prevent kids from joining us on Saturday. Threats carried through by these groups, forces some parents to not allow their kids to attend. Tears are common when they have to leave.  We pray that the real encounters they have had with Jesus during their time with us will provide a foundation that securely holds them. Praying also that doors will open for them to return. Thank you for all who join us through support and prayer. You are helping these kids know God and His purpose for them.

  • Lhaica

    From Nermilyn:

    12 year-old Lhaica has become a very good example to her friends.

    Click on the link to hear her boldly share one of the memory verses she has learned.

    Lhaica memory verse Video

    At the age of 12 she is already teaching and challenging the other kids in her area to grow spiritually.   Even at her young age she teaches effectively and humbly. Her boldness inspires the other kids. They can be used by God as well to live love and care for others.

     

    Kids in Algeria are praying for the dreams that God places on their heart and for their future. Our topic was about Joseph who dreamed and God brought it to completion in the future.

    I was able to share from my personal experience that even though poor and from the same situation as them, I dreamed as a kid to ride on an airplane and go outside of the Philippines.

    God in His timing and purpose allowed it to happen for His glory. God took me to new countries to serve others and learn more about God’s heart for the world and me. I encouraged them to trust God and that nothing is impossible with God. I heard the kids sharing their plans to each other how they will study harder at school so nothing could hinder them from reaching their dreams. We prayed over each child and trust God with each life He allows us to care for.