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