Nutrition Program
As you know, we continue to distribute food to the poor and needy in our neighborhood. Last Saturday, with the help of our dear sponsors, we were able to buy and cook food for a feeding program for about 200 children organized by a youth group from a high school graduating class in Tagbilaran, the capital of Bohol province.
The venue was the Dauis Central Elementary School on the island of Panglao, which is run by a dear friend. In addition to food, the children also received school supplies sponsored by some youth groups and had fun playing games.

Last week was certainly our "prison week"! 

• Thursday we celebrated a belated Valentines activity with the dear ladies at the provincial prison in Cawasan just a little outside of Tagbilaran, Bohol. Besides a meaningful reading about St. Valentine's life and his death as a martyr, each of our dear women received a "valentines gift", and  thankfully we were able to also donate a sack of rice, courtesy of a dear regular sponsor from abroad!
  
• On Friday, Manny went early morning to Cebu to meet up with ATI (Agricultural Training Institute) to deliver a message about seed banking at the Cebu City Jail for women. He brought vegetable seedlings and seeds for some hands-on teaching.
  
• Saturday we traveled to Talibon and Ubay in the very North of Bohol to deliver seeds to the respective prisons.
  

This Christmas season was very eventful for us! Aside from the annual Christmas party for our STEPS students at the Bellevue Pavilion, our people visited their home in Mindanao in the southern Philippines. They organized a meaningful Christmas party with games, stories and lots of useful gifts for 130 children and their families. They also prepared a home-cooked meal and packed rice for those invited.
 
On December 24, we visited the prison to celebrate a merry Christmas with the inmates. Mr. Chan from Bellevue gave us a suckling pig for the women! This and the many gifts they received were a source of great joy for these dear women whom we have come to love and cherish.
 
That same morning we received an urgent call from an acquaintance who had 350 gifts to give for Christmas, but due to some sad circumstances had no children to give them to. Fortunately, we know many poor children who don't have a present under the Christmas tree, and Bellevue offered us the pavilion as a place to deliver the presents!
 
Our staff in Balilihan, the farm we manage, organized a Christmas party with games and useful gifts for 20 families, and in Samar our STEPS students celebrated Christmas with their families with gifts and games.
 
We ended the year with a candlelight celebration in the prison with our dear inmate friends. Most of them were deeply moved, and all of them shared what they were thankful for in the past year and what dreams and visions they have for the new year.

Our Australian friend Sharlene brought some of her friends to volunteer at our mission school. They were reading stories to the children, joined the dancing activities and brought reading and activity books and some sweets. Its always a welcoming change when visitors drop by in our preschool.