St Oswald’s Mission Link

St Oswald’s Mission Link, through the Church Mission Society (CMS) is with Kate & Tim Lee and their children Rebekah, James and Grace. The Lees live in Manila, the capital mega-city of the Philippines.

Serving there since 2003, they have started kids clubs in 4 squatter and slum areas for street kids and children of very poor families. The has become Jigsaw Kids Ministries – a registered charity in UK and the Philippines.

A team of local people have been trained as children’s workers, acquiring skills lead club activities, which include time to play with toys, games, singing, Bible stories, puppetry, homework clubs, serving nutritious meals and more.

School sponsorship has given some children a chance of an education; one of the kids workers has had university sponsorship to study for a social worker degree; families can get financial aid for medical needs; children have been rescued from abusive and dangerous situations and taken to safe places.

The purpose is to surround the children with the love of Jesus, to give hope in the hopelessness of dreadful poverty and to give the children opportunities they would never otherwise have.

In November 2007 a CMS Praxis team of 10 people, most of whom are from churches who also support the Lees, went to see the work first hand by spending two weeks in the Philippines. The team was led by Diana Wild, from St Oswald’s, a former CMS mission partner in Singapore, who has visited the project twice previously. They had the opportunity to meet the kids workers, go to each of the Kids clubs and further support Tim & Kate in their pioneering work. They came back inspired by what they had seen and full of admiration for the way the Filipino Kids Club staff organised the clubs and the love & care they offered the children. Lives were being transformed by the love of Christ and situations that seemed hopeless had changed for the better.

representatives from a number of link churches in the UK venture out to The Philippines to see the work of Kate and Tim Lee with the Jigsaw Kids Ministries among street children in Manila

Website for the visit www.cmspraxis.org.uk
Church Mission Society (CMS) website www.cms-uk.org
Jigsaw Kids Ministries website www.jigsawkidsministries.org
Jigsaw Kids Ministries newsletter