Rachelle Anne Ariaga

YWAM BALUT MINISTRY 2022 UPDATE The YWAM Balut ministry, a mercy ministry, has reached another year with fulfillment and victory in God's name. As many of us know, the pandemic has been affecting each and every one of us for years now. But by the grace of God, YWAM Balut is continuing to operate and do the works of the Lord despite these trying times in the areas of evangelism, health care, sponsorship programs, and bible studies. One of YWAM Balut's ministries is the Hospitality Ministry. This year; 3 years after the lock down, we gladly opened our doors first to missionary friends and individuals who were in need of a place to stay, and once again welcomed and catered guests and teams from different places around the globe. It has been a great honor to bless and be a blessing to these people, showing them the works that the Lord has been doing in the areas of Manila where poverty is rampant. Another one of our ministries focuses on discipleship, and last April, we conducted a Discipleship Training Week. It is a glimpse of what Discipleship Training School is. In a span of 1 week which consists of classroom learning, practical service like work duties and evangelism. YWAM Balut ministered to 20 students from different places. In line with this, another batch of students started their journey in knowing God by enrolling in Discipleship Training School in June 2022. DTS gives you an opportunity to discover your passion and your part in God's purposes for the World. It is for those who long to follow Jesus in new ways with a different perspective. It is a 6-month program of blended classroom learning, small group activities, personal reflection, practical service and community living. The training comes in 2 parts: the lecture phase and outreach phase. We have 4 students from smokey mountain and 1 from olongapo city. They are now in their major outreach in Batangas and will move to 7 different churches for the remaining months of their outreach. The Student Sponsorship Ministry is one of our ministries that seeks to alleviate the redundant cycle of poverty by providing an opportunity for an education through sponsorship in elementary, junior high school, senior high school and college from different locations. This year of 2022, 11 college students from Manila, some parts of Cavite and Dumaguete successfully graduated, together with 55 elementary, 14 junior high school and 18 senior high school students who graduated and moved up to the next journeys of their education. A Graduation Celebration in Manila was held last August of 2022 in honor of the college graduates and their parents who supported them non-stop. It has been such a blessing and our great joy to bring acknowledgement and appreciation especially for the parents of these students. It also served as an inspiration for the succeeding students to be motivated in finishing their studies. 4/14 Window is a movement that focuses on the demographic group of children from ages 4 to 14 years old, which is the most receptive to every form of spiritual and developmental input. Aside from planting spiritual seeds by means of bible-story telling, we also aspire to develop their physical and social attributes through various programs and social involvements. Feeding program is one of our avenues to impart God's word to these less fortunate children and it has been facilitated by staff, college sponsored students and young professionals. In this generation, nowadays, there is so much brokenness, hopelessness and dysfunctions in many of the families in smoke mountain, and we can see these with other families all over different places as well. The Family Ministry's goal is to bring healing to broken individuals and families and help them know the purpose of God in their lives. We desire to help families live out the biblical family lifestyles in the midst of a hostile and anti-family environment and to be made a God-centered family. It is indeed, by God's grace and love that we have been upholding the ministries that He had entrusted to us and is continuing to do so until everyone is won by spreading the good news that Jesus Christ brought to us thousands of years ago. We still have a lot of work ahead of us, and this upcoming November, we will be preparing for each ministry's Christmas parties and gift giving. Our goal is to bless the children and students with gifts that they seldom receive during the Season of Giving. Please join us in praying for God's financial provision as well as the strength for all the staff and the manpower that we will be having to make this happen. In December, we will be conducting Christmas parties for the Elementary, High School and College ministry as well as for the Family ministry and 4/14 Window. In 2023, our goal is: to have 300 sponsored students for the Student sponsorship Ministry. As education comes with a big cost of money that the sponsored students do not have, we would like to ask for you to join us in prayer for God's financial provision as we need around 5 million pesos to sustain every student's needs in school. We also aim to conduct Word By Heart school this coming April 2023 to open another batch of Discipleship Training School by July of 2023 to accept, host and welcome more teams from different places around the world to actually experience hand-in-hand the ministries in the mission field. As the Lord said in Hebrews 13:2, "Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it." We are also praying to have a mission trip outside the Philippines so the staff may experience the works in the missions fields of other cultures. The works of the Lord are continuing to work and will not rest until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. As 2022 is now a few months away from its end, we would like to express our deepest gratitude to our KCMC Family and to each and everyone of you who have partnered with us and supported God's ministries. It is an honor to serve alongside with you who believe in the good works for the advancement of God's Kingdom. We would like to ask and invite you, our dear friends, to come and visit us here in YWAM Balut, Philippines to see the wonders of God's faithfulness to these ministries. Last and foremost, we thank the Lord, our Almighty Heavenly Father who entrusted and chose us with the most important task that serves the greatest purpose in life, to Know and to make Him known. His grace is abounding, and His love is everlasting. Truly, the God we serve is the God that knows no limits. To God be the Glory!