My team is currently staying with a family in Manakao, New Zealand. We will be working with youth ages 5-15 that have broken families. They are of the Maori tribe and Polynesians. Because they are living in poverty, the government provides housing for the families. The parents of the children are active in gang activity and often come home every night drunk. It is not uncommon for a 16 year old to have gone to jail several times. Almost every household is a single mother household with many children- one of the homes has a grandmother (still under 60) with over 20 grandchildren already.
My group has teamed up with Redeemer church to reach out to that community. I and my teammates are staying with the community pastor’s family (he is also a construction contractor). We will be doing construction work to build a preschool (one of the only ones in the entire city) for that city and it is fully funded by the government as a plan to end the cycle of poverty and violence that exists in that area. It is a $1.5 million dollar project to build a preschool with a medical clinic for the families along with rooms to provide community programs such as cooking and music classes for their enrichment.
In addition, since it’s summer, my group will be holding a holiday program for the underprivileged kids in the community involving sports and fun games. We will be building friendships and loving the kids. Because many of them don’t have a father and are neglected, we will be sharing with them about how they are valued and loved by God, their Father, and how they have Jesus as their
