Join us for Reverse Carolling 2011!

Bless a family…

Share the gift of God’s love this Christmas…

Sing carols…

Help us bless a low income family this year with our annual project… Reverse Carolling!

For the 5^th consecutive year, we will be running our Reverse Carolling Project and we are looking for YOU to partner us in our project. To enable us to reach out to 300 low income families, we are looking to raise PHP 170,000 (approximately US$4000 or Singapore$5200).

If you want to contribute, you can send a telegraphic transfer to us directly:
Bank account name: ICPE PHILIPPINES FOUNDATION INC
Peso account: 003-115250-042
Bank address: HSBC, Ground floor, Discovery Suites. 25, ADB Avenue Ortigas Centre, Pasig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
Swift code: HSBC PHMM

Purpose of transfer: Reverse Carolling

If you are in Singapore:
you can contribute directly with a deposit via internet banking.
POSB Savings Account: 171-36923-1
Bank account name: Fong Tim Heng Esther & Chai Hui Chuan Amilia
Contact person in Singapore (Coordinator, ICPE Mission Singapore) Amilia Chai - 98291382

For all donations and contributions:
Please email Ms Esther Fong at icpeinfo@gmail.com with your name, contact details and donation amount so that we can keep a track record of donations. 

 

     What is reverse carolling? 

     Bringing Christmas cheer to low income families by sharing  food hampers, Christmas carols and     prayer. 

Each year, members of our adult ministry in Montalban also actively participate in the project. They share the joy of being empowered to give and share with the poorest in their community.

Why Reverse Carolling?

Praying for the family

Families usually host carollers by giving them food and money.  We do the reverse- giving each family food and praying for them. 

Who are the beneficiaries?

About 200 low income families in Montalban, Rizal Province and this year, we will also reach out to another 100 low income families in Tagaytay.

 Where will we go?

Montalban, Rizal, located at the outskirts of Manila, is a relocation site for squatters from Makati and Pasig. It is described by one inhabitant as a ‘human dump area’ because of its distance from the city and the lack of employment nearby. All the families live below the poverty line, struggling to earn around Php100-150 per day for food, utilities and the needs of the family. Since 2006, we have been reaching out to the low income families in this area.

Giving the Christmas hamper

Tagaytay City is known as a tourist or weekend escape for those from Manila. Yet, as we have discovered since re-locating here in 2010, there are many low income families hidden in the byways in this city.

 

For more pictures and information on past Reverse Carolling projects, please visit our blog pages:

2010 Christmas in Montalban –including Reverse Carolling

http://icpephilippines.blogspot.com/2011/01/celebrating-christmas-in-our-different.html

2009 Reverse Carolling in pictures

http://icpephilippines.blogspot.com/2009/12/carolling-we-go.html

Read a volunteer’s experience of 2009’s Reverse Carolling

http://icpephilippines.blogspot.com/2009/12/birthing-christ.html

2008 Reverse Carolling

http://icpephilippines.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmas-reverse-carolling.html

2007 Reverse Carolling

http://icpephilippines.blogspot.com/2008/01/reverse-carolling-christmas-2007.html

God surprises us...

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet isready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. ⁹So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ ¹⁰ So the servants went out into the streets and gatheredall the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the weddinghall was filled with guests.” (Matt 22:8-9)

These verses sum up my experience last Saturday, 24 September, as we prepared for our meeting with the youth. In these past weeks, we had been befriending several youths in our neighbourhood. They expressed a desire to know more about God, and their faith and wanted to meet together. It was agreed with them that we would meet together on Saturday afternoon. As the time neared, the ‘bleep’ of the cellphone message alert went off. True enough, it was an apology that said that she could not make it as she had a choir practice! But still there are the others who had agreed to come.

At the appointed hour, still there was no one! We were ready to start but walang tao (nobody in tagalog). So how? No problem. God is always present and we can always worship Him. Our team began to pray and worship. As we prayed, this scripture came to mind and some felt that we should go out to the streets and invite any youth that are there. We did.

Praising the Lord

God is indeed the God of surprises! He surprised us by inviting 9 young men. These young men were hanging around outside, playing, not knowing what to do. They were excited to come, though as you can see from the photos, some of them were younger boys. The younger boys followed their older brothers and friends as they did not want to be left out!

Praying together

We had an afternoon filled with laughter, prayers, games, praise, action songs and short sharing. A small beginning of something new for the youth – the older boys want to meet again and this time,they will bring their peer friends.

Sharing and sowing of seeds

My reflection on this – often times, we plan and prepare for something, and it does not quite work the way we expected. We put in the effort and work. Our temptation would be to give up and cancel the afternoon, yet God had a different plan and worked it for his purposes. It was my first experience of seeing boys coming together, having fun and open to learn and share on their faith. At the end of the afternoon, my heart rejoiced as I believe that the Lord was touching these young hearts, and sowing his seeds of faith!


Be faithful and do not give up even when things are not quite turning out as they should or what we would like. Trust in the Lord,and let him work his ways for ‘his ways are not our ways’ (Isaiah 55:8), they are much higher.

Thank you, Lord that it is a privilege always to serve you. It is never boring and always full of surprises! Thank you to my community, J, D and G for the way you desire to follow and serve the Lord.

Child vendors of Tagaytay

    We see them everytime we pass the heart of Tagaytay, fondly known as Olivarez- a place teeming with people who are waiting to board the bus at the bus terminal or frequenting the fast food centres located a stone's throw away from each other. Here, young children from ages 6 to 13 roam the streets, selling Filipino snacks to supplement their family's income. The lucky ones start their 'business' after school whilst there are some who drop out of school to earn money for their families. 

     We decided to 'visit' them yesterday, on the birthday of Our Lady to share with them some milk and to listen to their stories. Sure enough, when we arrived at the local fast food centre, Jollibee, 2 young girls approached us, asking us to buy their Espasol, a Filipino snack. Age 6 and 13, the sisters said that they were there everyday from 5 to 8pm, straight after school. They were joined by their friend, another girl of the same age. On weekends, they would be there the whole day to target the weekend visitors. Articulate and friendly, they immediately told us that it was the "birthday of Mama Mary" and they were simply delighted with the gift of chocolate milk, sweets and a picture of Our Lady. As we continued talking, a 13 year old boy joined us, carrying his peanut brittle for sale. His story was more heart wrenching as he had dropped out of school at 4th grade.  When asked if he would like to continue studying, his eyes teared and he covered his face in embarrassment. It was a familiar heart-breaking story in the Philippines- children forced to drop out of school due to poverty.

     As it grew darker and later in the evening, we asked if there were more children there and the girls piped up "marami" (many in Tagalog). Sure enough, they pointed us to the car park where more boys and girls were waiting with their baskets of snacks for sale. We went over and talked to them, sharing the chocolate milk and sweets. So many of them came that we had to return to our van for a refill of chocolate milk! We ended that time with a prayer- asking the Lord to bless them that night especially in the selling of their snacks. 
     
     We promised to return to visit and to see how the Lord leads us in our future outreach to them.

The children posing with their snacks

Gemma and Rannie packing milk packets for the children... getting ready to set off in the light drizzle!

Two grateful brothers, age 8 and 6, looking at their packet of milk