Children's ministry at EMC Dagupan: Sidewalk Sunday School & Feeding

"Every child you encounter is a divine appointment."

Children are magical. Really, they are. They have an innate ability to steal your heart when you're not looking. Their innocence takes you back to a time when the world was an open frontier full of endless possibilities and the smallest smile can melt your heart no matter how hardened or frozen your heart is.

Mimi teaching the children

Every week EMC Dagupan ministers to about 75-80 children ages 4-12, via feeding programs and Sidewalk Sunday school. Sidewalk Sunday school takes place (you guessed it) on sidewalks and side roads and provides children with knowledge of who God is. In our last mission, our missionaries had the opportunity to evangelize and teach children during sidewalk Sunday school.

Today one the biggest problems the children of Lasip chico face is malnutrition. As I've mentioned before, Lasip chico-pantalan is a poverty stricken barangay. The parents here cannot afford to consistently feed their children. If they are able to provide meals, often they are very small and insufficient to provide proper nutrition. For many of the children, breakfast (if available) is composed of just rice mixed with coffee to provide flavor. If the parents can provide some money, the children can then buy lunch school. But many times, that is not the case. It is difficult to tell how many times a child eats a day or worse yet, if he/she eats at all on a daily basis.

Alfred preparing the food

Each child gets ONE. JUST ONE

When Pastor Ferdinand and Tita Hannah first began their ministry in Lasip chico-pantalan, they saw how malnutrition ran rampant in the surrounding barangay and began a weekly feeding program. As of today, almost all the children who attend Sidewalk Sunday also receive food from our feeding program. EMC Dagupan does its best to provide nutritious meals to every child. The children are fed porridge, champorado (rice porridge with chocolate), lugao (plain rice porridge), and arozcaldo (chicken soup). However some months, there isn't enough funds to provide food and sometimes EMC Dagupan can only afford to provide the children with biscuits.

Most of us live in places where food is at our fingertips. Many of us have been blessed with the kind of life where we never have to wonder where and when will we get our next meal. These children do not have such a life. Many of them have never even seen the inside of a fast food place like Burger King or McDonalds. EMC International and EMC Dagupan struggles to provide nutrition to children trapped in an endless cycle of poverty and malnutrition. I am confident that God is with us and will continue to be with us as we reach out to the children. God will not only do miraculous things, but we will use us to change lives and help break this cycle of poverty and malnutrition. Will you answer God's call and help us break this cycle?

-Melissa M