“To serve God by serving others”
Just a little background about the history of Bonbon Church and the Faith In Action Ministry. My parents, Charles and Leah Quilo, started a house church over 30+ years ago in their home town of Bonbon. Their goal was to help people in our area who wanted to go to church, but could not afford to travel to the city. After about a year, no longer could the house accommodate the people in our living room, so they built a church structure next to the house. This is how Bonbon UCCP started. To this day the church still caters to the same type of people. A number of years ago, one of the members and main financial supporter passed away. The church really struggled financially. To put this into perspective, the church operating expenses was around $270 a month including the pastor’s salary.
Faith in Action Ministry started in hopes to re-ignite the energy of the church. A church full of life will find a way to overcome any problems including financial. The goal was simple: Let's help those in need and in the process it will help us understand the true meaning of worship. There are many ways to worship our Lord, but what is even better, putting our faith into action going beyond the walls of the church, to serve Him by serving others and sharing the love of Christ through us.
There is a story I read about a person who asked a missionary on why God allows so much suffering, injustice and hunger. The missionary replied that it's not God who allows all these things to happen, it is us. If all of us will only do what God wants us to do, there will a lot less suffering and hunger in this world. Faith in Action Ministry is our opportunity to do just that. Together we can make a difference.
Since we started the Faith in Action Ministry, Bonbon UCCP has grown quite a bit. The youth and the children population has tripled. Yes, money is still a struggle, but they are getting by. Since the church income barely covers the monthly expenses, they have no money for anything else. With our help they can finally concentrate on worship and fellowship on Wednesday, Saturdays and Sundays during the rainy days. We also implemented 2 other projects: setup of a Christian Education Center in a place called Baungon at the Baviera Neri residence. Baungon is a remote mountain area outside of Cagayan de Oro City. It usually takes about 3 hours to travel there by jeepney (if it’s not raining), but if it is, would take about 8 hours because the road by the river gets easily flooded and becomes dangerous. Over 40 children attend Bible study regularly and normally would do their activities on the ground because there is no floor and on boxes as their makeshift tables. Our mission provided them with new tables, benches, shelving, materials and supplies. We also pledged to provide snacks every week as some of the kids walk for over an hour. The second was to remodel the church kitchen and start a monthly feeding program, called Full Belly. The area where the church is located is not short of hungry people, especially children. This program has been as a big success.
My friends at Calvary, there are so many similar stories like this. Just know that your support is really impacting people’s lives on that side of the world. That’s why we are so thankful for your continuing support.
--Neil Quilo
If you would like to support this mission work, a Domestic Non-Profit Corporation licensed by the State of Washington for charitable purposes has been established. 100% of each donation goes to Faith in Action Ministry and qualifies as a tax deduction. Donations from individual donors may be sent as designated to a specific project: Scholars, Full Belly, Baungon CE Center, Bonbon Support, or Where Most Needed. Please send to: Faith in Action Ministry, c/o Neil Quilo, 8509 125th St. Ct. E., Puyallup, WA 98373. Thank you so much!