By Wency de la Vina
Navigators helping children in the Philippines
It all started in our garage.
In 2005, two small brothers from a nearby community of informal settlers kept coming to our house in the Philippines for free food and recyclable materials. We knew that we had to do more to help them and we could do a lot more as a team. So, we talked with the five couples in our Navigator Bible study group.
Each week in our garage, our team—sometimes including our children—provided meals for 15 children from the brothers’ poor community. Inspired by Isaiah 58:6-12, which is about helping the powerless, we saw our efforts expand. Within a couple of months, we had about 50 children coming to our garage for meals and conversations. Lacking space, we transferred to a bigger venue in the village. Then we started providing the children with school supplies.
We soon discovered that a small group of believers, knitted together by a common purpose in Christ, could use its resources to help the poor. We started to imagine what a thousand small groups like ours could do. They could potentially help 50,000 children!
According to the Asian Development Bank, 21.6 percent of the population in the Philippines lived below the national poverty line in 2015 and 4.1 percent of those employed earned less than the equivalent of $1.90 per day in 2016.
In light of these needs, we registered Community Hope Alternatives, Inc. (CHAI) in 2008. Today our small organization establishes small, biblical communities where people grow spiritually and help one another become economically productive and socially responsible.
Joining our team was Renz Rivera, a health-care practitioner. He turned out to be a prolific evangelist. After three years of training, we sent his family in 2012 to pioneer a CHAI ministry in a city 350 kilometers away. After recruiting more volunteers, he and his health team have established a CHAI ministry in eight communities. Today, CHAI has ministry centers in three areas: Los Banos, Tabaco and Naga City.
Early on, Renz led a girl named Erika to Christ. At the time she was eight-years old and living in a poor community. A decade later, at age 18, she rejoined his group. In 2014, Erika started serving CHAI as a volunteer. Our “Study Now Pay Later” assistance allowed her to fulfill her dream of going to college. She obtained a degree in social work in April 2019 and soon after passed the national board examination.
After much prayer, Erika has recently decided to work full-time for at least two years with CHAI. Armed with gifts of leadership and service, plus a happy disposition, Erika is a vital, energetic, innovative, and caring member of the team that ministers to young and old in several communities.
What have we learned over the years? First, to minister to the marginalized—and even to people who are not materially poor—we need a holistic mindset. Simple solutions that only focus on spiritual life usually cannot empower people. Poverty is complex, the result of broken relationships between God and humans, between individuals, between people and the environment. Many even experience a broken relationship with themselves. We’ve learned that our help should address all of these areas.
Our programs have included Bible study and discipleship; meals and educational support; training in health therapy; savings groups and microenterprises; reading and comprehension enhancement (in partnership with The Learning Place in Los Banos); the Study Now Pay Later (SNPL) initiative to help young people go to school; backyard gardening; and youth leadership. This holistic approach improves the lives of people and the health of communities.
Second, we have also learned the importance of international partnership, which is a strength of our Navigator movement. In 2013, we began an international partnership with U.S. Navigator Discipling for Development (D4D) leaders. They have coached us and helped us provide better tools to effectively empower the people we serve. Many of the principles they taught us were ideas they learned from their ministry in Africa. This is truly an example of our Worldwide Partnership working together!
Since my high school years, helping the poor has always been in my heart. It became clear to me that discipleship was not just about spiritual matters, but about the whole of life. Today, by God’s grace, I am seeing the fulfillment of this vision.
To learn how you can partner with this effort in the Philippines, see the “International Partnering” page of this website.
Wency de la Vina became Navigator staff in the Philippines in 1986. He started CHAI, an NGO that works with the poor, in 2008. He and his wife, Celia, have three adult sons and two grandsons.
