I have recently realized that I haven’t given much description about where I am staying this month.
We are staying at the Mt. Moriah Camp/New Faith Family Childrens Home (NFFCH). The New Faih Family Childrens Home is owned and operated by Kid’s International Missions. The NFFCH is on land shared by Mt. Moriah Camp.
Mt. Moriah camp has been operating for several years under the ownership of Glen and Grace Ayalan, local small business owners. The camp runs through April and May when school is out. The camp has an open-aired, bamboo construction, mess hall/multipurpose room; a dorm; and also a church building that is under construction. Also the camp has a regulation sized soccer field and by the end of the year the mess hall will be replaced by covered basketball court, locker rooms, and multipurpose room. Glen and Grace hope to start a sports camp here in the near future. An Awana program is also hosted here every Saturday.
The New Faith Family Childrens Home opened in 2009 and is an orphanage for children taken under custody of the state. The ages of the children range from infant to fourteen. Currently there are four older girls, 14 older boys, and 10 infant/toddlers. Quite a few of the children come from either physically or sexually abusive homes, but they couldn’t be more loving kids. Some of the kids have cognitive disabilities, physical disabilities or both.
Part of our daily ministry here is take a four hour shift working with either the older boys, older girls, or infants/toddlers. Working with the older boys or girls is relatively simple, but no always easy. Depending on the shift you help keep them on task with their chores, do a devotion with them, or my favorite part sit down and play a game with them. The toddler shift is typically a little more demanding as you are typically holding a one child, playing with another, and then realizing that one of them just escaped out the door.
The Childrens Home is located about a half-hour public tansit ride into the city of Malaybalay. Malaybalay is home to about 100,000 people. It has several schools, private and public elementary and high schools, as well Bukidnon State University. Malaybalay is full of bakeries, small electronic shops, internet cafés as well as many other privately owned businesses. From my understanding many in the community make a living off of farming.
