Lilok Updates (November 2020)

A blessed day to all those who journey with the Lord in transforming the world.

It has been a while since our last update. We are writing this post to let you know what we have been up to since March.

Virtual Graduation

The pandemic interrupted the training of our Certificate in Wholistic Ministry (CWM) and Certificate in Youth Work (CYW) participants for the training year 2019-2020. To give them closure, we invited them to a Virtual Graduation ceremony. We had each participant share about their experience under Lilok and presented them with digital certificates as symbols of their finishing their respective courses.

Lilok Online

A slide from the Introduction to Wholistic Wellbeing module.

Over the course of the continued community quarantine in Metro Manila, Lilok has been busy transitioning its Certificate in Wholistic Ministry and Certificate in Youth Work courses into an online version. After a few test run webinars on mental health led by LikHabi (Lilok’s youth advocacy arm) back in April, we decided to condense the 10-month curriculum of our certificate courses into a 4-month training focusing on Howard Clinebell’s Seven Dimensions of Wellbeing (Spirit, Mind, Body, Relationships, Work, Play, and World). This new training began on September 5, 2020 and is scheduled to end in December 19.

September 12Introduction to Wholistic Wellbeing
September 19Mental Health in a Pandemic
September 26Mental and Spiritual Health Under Quarantine
October 3Radical Discipleship
October 10COVID-19: Simple Facts and Practical Tips for Avoiding the Disease
October 17I Love My Body
October 24Well-being at Work
October 31Midterm Evaluation
November 7Well-being in Relationships
November 14God of the Poor
November 21Climate Change
December 5Crisis Care
December 12Play
December 19Culminating Session
Lilok Online: Wellbeing Series

COVID Responses

Urban Gardening

We implemented urban gardening training sessions for three of our partner communities. We also plan to deliver educational and recreational materials to selected families in those communities to contribute to give children productive reasons to stay indoors.

Sakahang Lilok

Due to the pandemic, Sakahang Lilok has not been accepting any bookings for groups, but does allow the occasional visitor to drop by, provided they follow health protocols. But the Farm has been doing what it can for the nearby communities in the meantime.

Live-in staff and volunteers packing relief goods.

In March, they distributed relief goods for families in the mountainside, who were cut off from supplies because they could not go to the market. And with the Department of Education’s shift to distance learning, the staff and some volunteers have also been helping schoolchildren with their modules, as many of the parents in the community have not finished their schooling and as such have a difficult time teaching their children.

Prayer Requests

Please continue to pray for Lilok as we navigate a pandemic-ridden world. We hope to find more creative ways of ministering to the urban poor through transformative training while we continue under quarantine. We also hope that God will empower the government to better manage the crisis and reduce our cases to zero. When that happens, we want to have offline training sessions again, which better fit Lilok’s style of training.

We will continue to pray for you all.

Lilok Staff