Patrick and the Philippines

A Brief History

In mid December 1999, the four of us (Patrick, Inneke, Kezia and Teah) left our home on the NorthShore to live in an urban poor slum in Davao City Philippines for “18 months”. It was there that Inneke delivered hundreds of babies as a midwife with Mercy Maternity and I connected with out of school youth and taught in a bible school. It was through getting to know the community well, that we began to understand the plight of the urban poor; lack of education, hunger, sickness, disease, injustice, death….

Our 18 months stretched into 7 years as we developed Hope for the Nations Philippines as a response to the urban poor issues that surrounded us. We officially registered in 2004 and began several programs of which the most fruitful have been Tabitha – Food for Life and House of Jubilee. Tabitha is a daily nourishment and education center where undernourished children come for food and good hygiene, supplemental education and care. It has been amazing to see the growth in the children physically, socially and spiritually. House of Jubilee is a youth driven church that brings hope to the community. The bottom line of all the programs we did was to see urban poor youth and children have a hope and a future. Our motto, “investing in tomorrow’s leaders today”.

Due to an important matter, we needed to return to Vancouver for the period of one year in December 2006. Being hired at Tenth Avenue Church for that year was not only a terrific answer to prayer, but great learning opportunity. So it has been with great pleasure that we have served at Tenth and helped kick start the longer term Cambodia strategy while getting to know some amazing people.

Meanwhile, while serving at Tenth, Inneke and have been tending to the organizational needs of Hope for the Nations late at nights. There were some significant challenges over the last year that led us to pray and spend significant time helping our team problem solve. During this time, our Canadian interim Executive Director, Dave, was dating one of our American staff, Liz, which led them to get married June 1. Now a happily married couple, they will return to Davao but not in the capacity of Executive Director, but as Tabitha Manager. This had led to a need for new executive leadership.

Initially, we decided that we would return to the Philippines to cover the gap in leadership while searching for a new Executive Director for the period of one year. However, in light of Linda Gotts (other Pastor of Missions and Outreach) becoming pregnant and planning to take a year maternity leave in October 2008, I reconsidered our decision. So I decided to compact our time in going back to the Philippines from 1 year to 2 months. I will be leaving July 4 for the Philippines, hosting the Cambodia outreach in July in Cambodia and returning to Tenth Church for September 15. We are expecting the grace and provision of our Lord Jesus to prepare the way for us so that we are able to accomplish our goals in such a short time.

Major Goals

Strengthen Board of Trustees and make many new resolutions.

Start the process of the society to turn into a foundation.

Impart vision and values to new staff and volunteers.

Help revise structures and systems to be more sustainable and successional.

Find, train and release new Executive Director.

As we embark on this journey of faith, we would appreciate prayer. Much has to come together for us financially as well as practically in areas involving my role at Tenth. Feel free to email if you have any comments or would like be on a prayer list for more personal prayer items patrick@tenth.ca . The Hope for the Nations Philippines is due for an update, but you can check it out at www.hftnph.com .