By Steven Bowman
This year, 2020, has been a tremendously challenging year for all. Our lives have been turned upside down due to the coronavirus. The entire world is experiencing unrest and desperately in need of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have had to cancel two scheduled short-term mission trips planned for this spring and summer. We all need to remember to “be a missionary every day, and tell the world that Jesus is the way.” I thought I would reminisce with you about my short-term mission’s experiences in the Philippines during the summers of 2017 and 2018. They were life changing experiences and ones I will never forget in experiencing God’s kingdom being advanced to the least among us.
In July of 2017 I joined a team of Peer Servants volunteers on a trip to visit Visions of Hope in the Philippines. Let me share more about the history of Visions of Hope Foundation, Inc. (VOH). It is the children and youth ministry of the Center for Community Transformation (CCT) Group of Ministries. It was established in 1999 to address the needs of poor children and youth from disadvantaged families and to give them the chance to grow and reach full maturity as individuals in the image and likeness of God. Initially, its objective was to provide cash assistance for the elementary and high school education of abandoned, orphaned and neglected children in urban and rural poor communities where the CCT branches were operating. The idea of serving young children originated from houses in CCT communities where fellowship group meetings of the micro finance ministry under the CCT Credit Co-op were held. Community partners often brought their young children with them to these meetings where the children grabbed their focus away from the fellowship. It was then that some branches began to offer child care services while fellowship meetings were held. In time, CCT thought of establishing preschools in open or rented spaces near the branches and founded the CCT- Visions of Hope Christian School on September 2011.
Today, VOH operates preschools, boarding schools, community health clinics and other community-based social services for children and youth geared towards nurturing the Filipino children and youth in Christ-centered faith families, empowering them as agents of change for community transformation and nation-building. VOH has grown into an amazing ministry in which the last are becoming first (Matthew 20:16) and the Kingdom of Heaven is being extended to earth (Matthew 6:10). The testimonies and smiles on the children’s faces blessed me in wonderful ways! The tireless and selfless commitment of the VOH coworkers was inspiring! They truly treat the children better than they treat themselves (Philippians 2:3). And for me and our team they rolled out the red carpet for us. All our needs were met beyond my wildest expectations!
In the summer of 2018 God raised up a team from the Chinese Bible Church of Greater Boston (CBCGB) to go to the Philippines, with the purpose of cross-culturally experiencing Vison’s of Hope and how we may be a blessing to them. I guarantee you we were much more blessed in the process. We had an awesome time visiting VOH’s ministries in and around Manila and beyond. We even flew to the southern most island in Mindanao and visited a new boarding school for tribal children. I was able to meet Mark Jomel, the boy my wife and I have been supporting for the last three years. Please remember to pray for the poor in the Philippines and for the VOH staff and ministry. God is doing amazing transformational work amongst these wonderful examples of His servants. Hopefully we can raise up another team from CBCGB to go to the Philippines soon and see for ourselves what God is doing.
The author is the pastor of the Children’s Ministry in CBCGB. Pastor Bowman continues to host children’s worship services on Sundays and lessons on Fridays (as an AWANA substitute) for families worshipping at home during COVID-19.
Editor: Florence Yong