KIVU Diary: My Trip to the Philippines
Diary Entry by Rebecka Kaltenbach, KIVU Gap Year Participant
Camp KIVU is a Christian adventure camp in Colorado, USA where teenagers go to experience the great outdoors. One of their programs, called KIVU Gap Year, reaches out to students taking a year off in between high school and college. These students spend the year traveling to different locations around the globe, partnering with ministries in different countries. ICM was privileged to host a group of ten participating in the KIVU Gap Year at two of our bases in the Philippines. One of the participants, Rebecka Kaltenbach, shares her ICM experience below:
“To see what ICM is doing to help all those children impacted me in ways I can’t even explain. One memory that will stick with me forever was in El Nido. I had been going to the preschools regularly to get stories of the children and visit their homes to meet their families. I would see the kids every week and hangout for the day, so they got pretty comfortable with me. One day I went to Marty’s House Learning Center and I am not going to lie, I was starting to feel the heat. I was pretty exhausted. But when the kids saw me they stopped what they were doing and all 23 of them ran over to me and swarmed me with a huge hug! It is something that I will never forget; every time I think about it, it makes me miss what I was doing more than anything. But it also gives me joy to think that I as able to experience that!
The other thing that really stuck with me is the relationships I made with the ICM staff. Just being able to have fun fellowship with people that love the Lord and share a lot of the same interests was amazing. The last night the staff threw us a going away party and let me just say that I have never laughed so hard in my life. It was amazing and a highlight of my trip. But over all, to see what God is doing in the lives of so many people through the ICM staff just blows my mind and I was more than blessed to be able to experience that for a few months.”
Photos courtesy of Rebecka Kaltenbach
ICM’s 1804 Young Graduates
Throughout the month of March, 1804 proud graduates of ICM’s 80 Learning Centers marched across the stage in their cap and gowns to receive their “diplomas”. The students finished their year of learning with formal graduation celebrations held in each region. Songs were sung, dances danced and poems and verses recited. And family members and friends clapped and cheered. Thank you to all the generous sponsors who made this possible.
The Value of Knowledge
Story by ICM CO Team
Meet Jay Stephen Moses, and his mother, Rodalyn. Jay is a growing nine-month-old boy living in a rural slum community on the outskirts of El Nido Town. A few months ago, he was discovered as malnourished by ICM staff, with an untreated cleft lip & palate. He was soon enrolled as one of ICM’s Special Medical Cases and is now one of over forty children in the region on the list to receive surgery from Operation Smile. Their offer to ICM was “If you can find them, we can fix them”. Since that day ICM staff has been on alert for any children requiring the life changing surgery.
Recently, several ICM staff members, including Executive Director, Julie Turner (pictured below), arranged to visit Moses and Rodalyn to assess his progress. Rodalyn began sharing with them about how her life has changed significantly since ICM began working in El Nido. She now has her own container garden and feeds her family from its produce, no longer having to purchase the expensive imported vegetables from Manila that are sold in town. Now Rodalyn and her husband can save a small portion of the income he makes as a tricycle driver.
The staff encouraged Rodalyn to keep attending her ICM Transform Program Classes. That is when Rodalyn smiled and told them that she actually wasn’t part of the ICM Program. The staff was stunned. How then could she have implemented all of the lessons so keenly?
Rodalyn happily explained that her 55-year-old mother-in-law, Chita, was an active participant in the ICM Program. Every time Chita learned something new, she passed the knowledge on to Rodalyn; the lessons in values, health and livelihood. Because Rodalyn and her husband were living in a small nipa hut and did not have a big yard, Chita taught them how to adapt the farming method by using empty bottles to create a hanging container garden. Now Rodalyn is just as keen about the ICM Program as her mother-in-law.
The vegetables she gleans from her garden have made a noticeable difference in the health of her family, especially little Jay. This change in diet, supplemented with the Kids Against Hunger and Feed My Starving Children nutrition packs and the milk and vitamins provided by ICM, Jay’s health is improving quite rapidly.
As the staff left, there stood Chita, proud and tall, with vegetables in hand, surrounded by her community. Although a recipient herself, she knew the value of the knowledge being given to her in class and had to share the life changing information with those around her.
Photos by Erin Manfredi, ICM Media Officer
