Catching up...

 I didn't realize how far behind I've gotten in updates!  It's been a fun six months.  Lots of great things going on to keep us going.

I honestly don't remember when power retuned regular but most of Juagdan has resumed service (last i checked a few areas never got reconnected and I'm not sure how that will work out).

We had a longer than usual term and took classes all the way to the end of June and beginning of July 😃.  Of 90 kids we had 60 who attended 75% or more classes and those kids all got to celebrate closing with us receiving prizes and a small hygiene/school pack.  We also did a movie night with the 12 youth kids.  Mabini was a smaller group but we still celebrated them too.

July and August was just as full even though we didn't have much class for the summer.  I hosted 3 students for crochet club and it was relaxing.  I also met with my teachers once a week setting our next term lesson plans.  The other days I gathered the songs, worksheets, and other activities needed for those plans.

We waited until the second week of September to restart because the last week of August the kids finally returned to face to face classes in their regular school.  So September 10 we started kids class with 40+ participants, two teachers, and two assistants.  That week they split into two groups (PreK-2nd and 3rd-6th) to do letter sounds and fact/fiction lessons.  They will continue to do that every other week through December.  The other weeks they will be all together to do an Old Testament Bible hero story... last week my teachers told me they had 54 kids!

They are also hosting a games and reading class on Sunday afternoon for mostly the same kids.  It's more of a just for fun time with a safe place to come and read and play.  At the same time they high school kids (sounds like only 6 this time around) are doing review of the parts of speech with a project designed for each part.  Example an acrostic of their name using adjectives and sentences describing themselves using adverbs.

In case my choice of words sounds like I'm not there with them that's because I'm not.  I was there the first weekend but then headed out to visit our sponsors.  As of September 16th I've been in the USA.  It's been a strange and yet fun experience.  I'll share some of those joys later...

For now please continue to pray for our participants and teachers as they work through the curriculum.  I think this week is Jonah... Or was it Abraham, I can't remember...

Update

 Back in Juagdan we are again in blackout mode.  Still don't have power except by generator and so just charging phones and using a little light to cook by.  Although we had phone and spotty internet for a while it is completely gone again.  We are visiting the Poblacion, or city center for Ubay so we can accomplish a few things like Jun's driver's license renewal online and US taxes submitted.

In more exciting news... Classes have started again!  We have two kids classes and one youth class in Juagdan already and this Friday we will resume in Mabini.

Also in February Jun and I celebrated our anniversary and both birthdays!  We fed a bunch of people at a party and then visited a bunch more with take home containers.  Then the next weekend we went to the city and splurged on a nice dinner and hotel with a pool!

Just a tidbit...

Please take a few minutes to take this survey for us.  It is mostly about how we are doing with communication to our support system, but some other information as well!

 https://forms.gle/vPZXNKeWuteHJAu59

Also, we have updated our Amazon wish list if you desire to help out with physical items.  Some are just samples of items we use often and you could find something less expensive if you like (example pens, pencils, medical supplies, ect.) The address connected will send things to my family and they will add to the next Balikbayan Boxes they send.

Use this email: davenport.christine@gmail.com

Thank you for your prayers and concerns!

Be blessed so you may continue to bless those near and far💖😃

Surviving, Odette Damage, and Early Clean-Up

Hanging out in our room with Jebol and Ollie.  We were on the foam, but our butts started to get wet.  We let the dogs stay but moved to plastic chairs until the flooding went away about 2am.

This is the kitchen with the roof still inside.  Unfortunately, many of my classroom supplies were there as it doubled as my office.

Our main room had a river running through it.  We couldn't keep the door closed anyway so a few lighter things (like floor mats and shoes) washed away and I found them around the neighbor's house in the following days.

This is the church.  Most of the roof and ceiling collapsed.  For now it has been tarped so services can resume.

Our bedroom in the morning light.  We had tried to stop the waterfall as the cabinet with clothes and pots.  Eventually we just sat and turned the pots to rest our feet and stay dry.  I think it was almost ankle deep at it's worst.  The dark of our bed foam is definitely wet. It took a week to dry that out!

This is the playground and pastor's home in the background.  They lost about half to two-thirds of their roof, but only about 1/3 of the ceiling.

Basketball court in the compound.  Not so messy, but all those trees down...

The day after we walked the 3 km to our land to check out the house.  I started the walk first to stop and see family along the way and made the dogs stay.  Half a km from home I heard noise behind me and turned to see Jebol running after me.  So he walked all the way there and back with us.  I think he was more exhausted than us!

This is a view from inside pastor's house looking at the open roof.

This is normally open grounds and the playground.  So many trees don it wasn't passable.  Off to the right you can see the church windows, but no roof.

Straight out our front door.  Normally a beautiful "I❤️Jesus" sign and pathway.

This is the mess of things we were sorting through from the kitchen after Jun got the roofing stuff out.

Restored Heritage: Our partner ministry in Mabini.  The third floor lost most of the roof.

Parts of their main kitchen roof were ripped up as well (the back side of the 3 story building)

The day extension of the kitchen, laundry area, and Cars entirely lost it's roof.  The main house their had lots of leaks.  So much water came through that the vinyl tiles were all loosened from their glued in spots.

It took about two weeks, but I finally made the mess workable.  I think it was 7 tables covered with things to be dried out and cleaned (not counting the book shelves that I waited to do later)

These two pictures are out of order...but you can see the coconut on the far wall.  Somehow it didn't hit the roof, but ended up under the cement eaves.  Based on direction of other trees near by that should have come down directly in the middle and into our room!

This is the debris brought in from the storm and some of our damaged things.  In the above picture we had finally cleared most of it out and I started resetting the kitchen with things that would not get ruined with rain.

I could only handle taking one picture of our house.  At least the septic looks like it held up.  We allowed the near neighbors to use the lumber and walking to rebuild their shelters.

From the front, the Mission House doesn't look so bad!  Even though it sounded like the whole roof came off, it was really our neighbor's house that lost their roof.  Jun just had to reseal the roof/firewall joint and re-flatten one piece of tin sheeting.

I hope to add pictures soon of the cleaned up areas now.  Grass is already starting to regrow and the playground is usable again!
 

Typhoon Odette and Other things

 December in NorthEastern Bohol brought Typhoon Odette.  She was the worst any here have seen in nearly 40 years.  We are now one month later and getting to an alternate normal.  I have to say the Filipino people are very good at working with what they have available.

God blessed us with a week to dry out  again and so many were able to get tarps up to replace missing roofs and in some places school classrooms and health centers have become "home".  Then one week after Odette the rains came in force to re-soak many.  Despite a week of heavy rains, relief goods started to arrive about 10 days post storm.  Since then most families have been receiving rations of rice and canned goods to support them.

Due to extra year end support we were able to supply my approximately 80 students with a hygiene pack each at our rescheduled closings.  We might try to determine another distribution in February, but it's hard to know what families really need the help versus just willing to take free stuff.  Due to this most of our "relief efforts" are going into support funding of projects already underway by those who have a way to determine who really needs the help.

This Thursday marked five weeks and I just finally got the last of my books out in the sun yesterday (Jan 21).  That means I will make my goal of having the Mission House ready for the kids to come back to read and play games in February!  We are still without regular phone/internet service and no electricity at all.

Jun and I had hoped to move into our house my our second anniversary (Feb14), but God provided Odette to redirect that plan.  Our house was flattened so we were able to let those neighbors use our newer materials to rebuild shelter for them as we have the Mission House available to us still.  So our one house is now two houses and sheltering almost a dozen people.

I will likely begin regular class again in March, but we are taking this time to pray over what that might look like.  Perhaps God is using this break as a way to open the door for the next step he has planned.

Many are asking what we need in response to the recovery.  Our two greatest needs remain the same as before the Typhoon... #1. Prayer #2. Financial Partners.  I am thinking of starting an official prayer link/chain but am at a loss of how to do that.  It would be nice if I could have a central place to add and update specific prayer requests and allow people to respond.  I know many of you pray for us, but it's hard for me to know who and how best to connect.  We have a dream of mentoring and financially supporting youth through at least high school, but that would require a lot more financial partners than we currently have in place.  We were going to try starting at least more intentionally mentor when we moved to our new location, but who knows how long off that will be now.  We have put off deciding which to build next (mentoring dorm OR new house)

until at least June/July as we need to reassess the budget and start anew with savings for it.  If anyone is interested in sponsoring youth in the future, you can let us know now.  If you are ready you can become financial partners now to help us get started building up the capital funds, otherwise we will be sure to contact you directly when the time comes to determine how many students we can sponsor.

If I can get my regular newsletter out in time look for ways to get linked the ministry in these more specific ways.

In the mean time, thanks for your prayers and concern!  Be blessed so you can bless others!

~Jun and Christine Apatan