There’s so much to share this month, no way to keep it brief so here goes:
The Birth Attendant School midwives left the YWAM base the end of May and Leslie left a few days later to teach at YWAM’s University of the Nations Kona campus. It was a rejuvenating week, (the campus environment is both peaceful and invigorating!) spent with friends, staff and students of the Community Development School. They will be going to Haiti for their 3 month outreach, joining hundreds of YWAMers serving there. We were also joined by other seminar students who are training to teach childbirth classes at the Kona Crisis Pregnancy Center.
after THAT we hosted the 12th St. women’s leadership retreat at our YWAM base. Five women gathered here to be nurtured and taught. The theme was “Being loved…loving others”. The teachings were based on the Father’s love for them, and also the importance of loving their neighbors. They also had a fun time and received many unexpected blessings! The women are now practicing what they learned as they lead the 12th St. women. Thanks to all of you who participated by sending letters of love and encouragement to our women.
The Isaiah 61:4 livelihood project is up and running! The core group is well trained and now training others how to sew and how to use the high speed machines. Others are receiving training on machine maintenance and repair. They have gone into production and are gearing up for a full scale business. Approximately 14 people have jobs and more will be trained in the near future. This is giving jobs to former trash scavengers and others with no high school diploma or job skills. Please pray for the leaders of this project as they learn the skills needed to have a successful business. They are getting training to do accounting, marketing and management. Hopefully, this project will be duplicated someday in other areas of the city. We are so excited to see what happens with this in the future!
Another bit of exciting news: 20 of the 12th St residents have been granted free Phil Health coverage! The head of the Phil Health Indigency Program and his assistant came to our vacant lot and met with over 40 attendees last week. They gave a thorough presentation about the program, its benefits and how to qualify for this medical insurance. For those that have some work but are still poor, they may sign up for a 300 Peso ($7) per year fee. Leslie is submitting a request to the Honorable Mayor Gordon asking for him to approve 30 more families for the free health care. Pray that this is granted! We recently had an unnecessary infant death due to the mother not seeking medical care because she had no money. 
Men’s Bible study is GROWING! The men are so interested in the “Purpose Driven Life” study that Sonny is leading. They recently had a guest speaker, John Santos, who was released from jail last month. John has been leading the men’s bible study in the jail with Pastor Mar for the last two years. Please keep him in prayer as he transitions to a new life.
We attended the “Blessing” of the new Pag-Asa Health Center’s Birth Center the end of June. Project Life was able to donate time and money (big “thanks “ to last year’s Primary Health Care team from Perth and others for donation) to help open this center to serve the local women. (And our livelihood project made the curtains!) Of course, there was LOTS of food and karaoke! Fun to see all the docs, midwives and other healthcare workers turn out for the big event.
We are currently hosting a counseling team from the YWAM Kona campus. They will be here until the 25th. Leslie leaves again July 31 to teach for one week at the Birth Attendant School in Perth, Australia. Then we will slow down a bit the rest of that month. HA! We’ll try….
Thanks so much for your interest in our ministry. We hope you feel like you are a part of all we do. We certainly couldn’t do this without your prayers, love and support! God bless,
Sonny & Leslie
