All you need is Proudlove – as one small village of poor fishermen and their families in the Philippines found out.

“God does not play dice,” said Einstein.  The experience of mission partners Lee and Sally Proudlove lends weight to the idea that there are no chance happenings in a universe ruled by a caring Creator.

The Proudloves arrived in Cebu, in the Philippines, in April 2004 with a brief to work with the Episcopal Church there in a church-planting role.

The Episcopal Church has been in the Philippines for over a hundred years — based mainly in northern Luzon and Mindanao, the southernmost land mass.  The central region is known as the Visayas; Cebu is the regional capital and the second-largest city in the country.

Lee remembers, “When we arrived, the Episcopal church had just a handful of members in the city, who had moved up from Mindanao, partly to seek work and partly to escape from the armed conflict that troubles southern Mindanao.

“Our work in Kalubian began rather by accident.  We were working to establish a congregation in Cebu’s neighbouring city of Talisay with Father Jonny, the Filipino Episcopal priest assigned there.”

One of the ministries they began was a Saturday-morning children’s club, very similar to the kind of holiday club that many churches in Britain run – using drama, songs, worksheets and the added inducement of some healthy snacks.

A group of mums began to help them and the club grew.  A key contact was a woman named Jenny, who began to attend a church bible-study and brought around 10 kids to the children’s club.

Giving her a lift home one day, Lee discovered that she didn’t live locally to the church, as he’d thought, but in a nearby fishing village, Kalubian (meaning “the place of the coconuts”), an hour’s walk away.

The community numbers around 40 families and is very poor.  Most fishermen catch about half a kilo of fish a day, which they sell for a few dollars — just enough to feed and clothe a family, but with little left over to pay for school fees or health care.

After visiting it a few times, Lee was asked by the mothers of the village to begin a Sunday service in a small shelter built specially for the purpose — there is no other church there.

“Soon we’d started a modest health-care programme and a sponsorship programme, in partnership with an American church, which meant that the village’s children of school age could have new shoes, books and school uniforms.

“As the church grew, I was invited to visit nearby Bahala and begin a similar programme there.  This is still in its infancy, comprising just visits and a bible study as yet.

“Three years have flown past, but the small
church in Kalubian has slowly taken root and grown.”

Jenny has now moved away to Manila, and, in a month or so, the Proudloves will return to the UK, but the ministry in Kalubian will continue.

“A young pastor called Brother Glemar from the Christian and Missionary Alliance has taken over responsibility for Kalubian and Bahala. We met through a mutual missionary friend.  Unbeknownst to each other, we had both been involved in almost identical ministries in neighbouring villages entailing school sponsorship, mother’s groups, bible studies and Sunday worship among very poor communities.

“In the last month I've bowed out and Pastor Glemar has taken on leadership of the groups.  The work among Episcopalians here will continue through the ministry of a priest recently assigned to work here by the Episcopal Church as our replacement.”







For more information about the Proudloves’ time as mission partners in the Philippines, check out: 

http://anselmic.wordpress.com/2008/02/15/ministry-update-kalubian-and-bahala/

http://anselmic.wordpress.com/2007/06/19/new-shoes/

http://anselmic.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/health-seminar-in-kalubian/

http://anselmic.wordpress.com/2007/06/04/a-picture-is-worth-more-than-any-words/

Published: 3:03 PM :: Friday, May 09, 2008 :: 149 views :: 0 Comments :: Featured News Stories, Mission partners, Community development, FEATURES