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St Oswald's Church, through the Church Mission Society (CMS), supports 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 returned to this country and, in a visit to St Oswald's in November
2009, explained that 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 it
has proved and some able leadership has developed from the original Jigsaw team.
In 2019 the Lees have returned to South East Asia to live in Kuala Lumpur,
the capital of Malaysia. Tim is working with Asia-CMS but still able to keep
a hand in with Jigsaw. Kate is teaching at an International School.
Jigsaw is now headed up in the Philippines by Lendehl Sallideo, who is ordained
in the Episcopal ( Anglican) Church of the Philippines and who is a Church Mission
Society "Timothy" mission partner. Lendehl works in hands on ministry alongside
the Jigsaw team and is also on the Jigsaw Board in the Philippines.
Below are some photographs taken In October 2013 when Jigsaw celebrated its
10th anniversary. Cecily Rands and Diana Wild from St Oswald's flew out to share
in the celebrations in all four Jigsaw areas - Batasan, Area 4 and Vasayas with
Forestry, all in Manila and Jigsaw’s outreach in Angeles, a city to the
north. The children enjoyed days of fun sports, grouped into teams named Faith,
Hope, Love and Grace. There was special food and teams were awarded medals.
A big gathering for celebration in Area 4 church saw different groups put on
presentation of dance, singing, sketches and plays. A special joy was to see
former Jigsaw Kids, now in their upper teens and twenties, come back to share
in the celebration and speak about how Jigsaw had been significant in their
lives.
Cecily and Diana with Jolly, Jigsaw's manager
Lendehl Sallideo and Tim Lee in discussion
Kids story session at Angeles
Kids at Forestry - the parachute was a gift from St Oswald's
As a church we continue to support the Lees and their work with Jigsaw, 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.
In August 2015 we were delighted that Lendehl Sallideo, the Filipino Director
of Jigsaw, was able to visit Thirsk and Sowerby. Invited to UK by the Archbishop
of Canterbury with a group from the Philippines, he stayed on in order to visit
some Jigsaw supporting churches including St Oswald’s.
After his arrival a small group were invited to meet him at a meal hosted by
Cecily Rands. He shared in the Saturday morning programme of the Holiday Club
– seeing the types of children’s activities used by the team and
being a part of the fish and chip lunch and discussion about aspects of the
week.
In the afternoon, in glorious sunshine, Lendehl was the chief guest and speaker
at a garden party at Saddlers Cottage. He was able to speak about the work of
Jigsaw as an “insider” – someone who had lived in the slums
of Manila – now ordained in the Episcopal Church and committed to the
ministry amongst children living in poverty. Generous gifts of those who came
enabled us to send £300 to Jigsaw Kids Ministries.
Kate and Tim Lee - Church Mission Society mission partners
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Registered charity number 1135485.