To see the latest Updates from Bryant and Patty Sabandal in regards to the Manila Schools of Hope click on the link provided.

November 18-28, 2009:  Bags of Joy Team

Come deliver hope and gifts to the Manila Children of Hope Pre-Schoolers.  Families and individuals are all welcome to join this trip.  Please contact Brandon Brazee at brandonb@eastsidechurch.org for more information. Cost:  TBD

The UCPP has become  The Manila Schools of Hope.

We are currently starting seven new preschools which will be established during the coming few months in slums of Manila.  Our teachers are being trained, students have been recruited and hope is emerging for hundreds of new children. 

Let us know if you can pray or give towards this transformational project. 

2009 Schools of Hope

By Ina J. Hughes

We pray for the children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled, who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, who sneak Popsicles before supper, who erase holes in math workbooks, who can never find their shoes.

And we pray for those who stare at photographers from behind barbed wire, who’ve never squeaked across the floor in new sneakers, who never had crayons to count, who are born in places we wouldn’t be caught dead, who never go to the circus, who live in an X-rated world.

We pray for children who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions, who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish, who give hugs in a hurry and forget their lunch money, who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key, who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink, who slurp their soup.

And we pray for those who never get dessert, who watch their parents watch them die, who have no safe blanket to drag behind, who can’t find any bread to steal, who don’t have any rooms to clean up, whose pictures aren’t on anybody’s dresser, whose monsters are real.

We pray for children who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, who throw tantrums in the grocery store and pick at their food, who like ghost stories, who shove dirty clothes under the bed, who never rinse out the tub, who get visits from the tooth fairy, who don’t like to be kissed in front of the school, who squirm in church or temple or mosque and scream in the phone, whose tears we sometimes laugh at and whose smiles can make us cry.

And we pray for those whose nightmares come in the daytime, who will eat anything, who aren’t spoiled by anybody, who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep, who live and move, but have no being.

We pray for children who want to be carried, and for those who must. For those we never give up on, and for those who never get a chance. For those we smother with our love, and for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it.

1700 bags have been received for the Pre-school children and are ready to be shipped out to Manila, Philippines. These gallon sized ziploc bags are stuffed with toys, toiletries, and school supplies donated by the members of Eastside Foursquare Church. The Bags of Joy Team arrive in Manila during the Thanksgiving week where they will distribute the bags to the Pre-school children as Christmas gifts.

Eastside Foursquare Church (eastsidechurch.org) is involved in a collaborative outreach project with the Foursquare Churches located in the cities of Metro-Manila, Republic of the Philippines. The objective is to plant hundreds of new churches and their accompanying community development projects in the slums and squatter sections of this sprawling city of twelve million souls.

Foursquare Philippines, focuses on unreached areas and provides support for training leaders and planting churches. They hold In-Service Leadership Training seminars throughout the country. The Center for Community Transformation, founded in 1992, ministers to entrepreneurs, service workers, orphans and itinerant vendors in urban poor communites. They provide the UCPP with the micro-lending infrastructure utilized by our leaders and members.

This rapid church multiplication project is called the URBAN CHURCH PLANTING PROJECT (UCPP) Beginning in 2003, the UCPP’s goal was to plant approximately 30 churches and 15 pre-schools each year somewhere in the Metro-Manila area. As of February, 2008, the total number of churches planted is 100. The total number of preschools numbers around 42, with an active enrollment of well over 1500. Since UCPP began in 2002, thousands of documented decisions for Christ have been made. With over 300 communities targeted, and intercessors that are praying on behalf of God’s purposes and heart for these devastated and difficult neighborhoods, we look forward to seeing how God will contintue to bring help and hope to these people.

Our full time missionary families serving in Manila:

Pete and Tina Forras

(Children: Cameron, Carina and Cassidy)

For more information on Pete and Tina Forras’ missionary work go to www.forrasmissions.com.

Bryant and Patty Sabandal

Email: sabandal5@aol.com

For more information please contact:
Matt Messner at: mattm@eastsidechurch.org
Phone: 425.488.2500 ext. 324