St Oswald’s Mission Link

St Oswald's Mission Link, through the Church Mission Society (CMS), is with Kate and Tim Lee and their children Rebekah, James and Grace.

The Lees lived in the Philippines from 2003 until 2009. They started kids' clubs, in four squatter and slum areas, for street kids and children of very poor families. This 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 to lead club activities, which include time to play with toys, games, singing, Bible stories, puppetry, homework clubs, serving nutritious meals, literacy and more.

School sponsorship has given some children a chance of an education; two of the kids workers have had university sponsorship to study for a social work degree (one has graduated and is leading social outreach through Jigsaw); 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.

The Lee family have now returned to this country and, in a visit to St Oswald's in November 2009, explained why. They had become convinced that the only way Jigsaw would be able to develop as a truly Filipino project, with the staff there taking decisions and initiatives would be for the Lees to take a back seat.

So they worked out, with CMS, an interim strategy: the family would move back to England but remain CMS mission partners. They would be in touch with the Jigsaw team several times a week by Skype and Tim would travel out to Manila three times a year for the next two years. He has also started a Masters Degree in Community Development from a Christian perspective.

Tim made his first visit back in September 2009 leaving on the very day that a typhoon, bringing massive floods hit the Philippines. The areas in which Jigsaw operated were badly affected but the Jigsaw team was able to spring into action, turning Jigsaw centres into relief shelters and providing essential supplies and utensils, bedding and food for hundreds of people. The CMS Link churches here, including St Oswald's, also sprang into action sending cheques amounting to thousands of pounds so that the relief work could be effective.

This was a major test for the team which they rose to wonderfully - even though many of them had lost homes and all possessions in the floods.

As a church we continue to support the Lees and their work with Jigsaw in this new and exciting development, praying that Jigsaw may go from strength to strength as it serves street kids and families in slums and squatter areas in the love of Christ.

Jigsaw Kids Ministries website www.jigsawkidsministries.org
Church Mission Society (CMS) website www.cms-uk.org

www.stoswaldsowerby.org.uk