Super Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful storm to ever make landfall, arrived in the central Philippines November 7, 2013, ravaging Asia and leaving at least 10,000 dead in the Philippines.

Three years later on November 27, 2016, Ormoc City Church of the Nazarene launched Training, Equipping a Child Holistically (TEACH), a holistic child development program designed for children and their families in the community surrounding the church. The program involves cooperative participation between the community and the church to provide for the basic needs and protection of children, as well as opportunities for the children to participate in building their lives, families, and community.

The Ormoc church has played an active part in the lives of the neighborhood children since the church was established there in 1990. In the wake of Super Typhoon Haiyan, many people from the coast were relocated near the church, and eventually the population began to swell. The church now ministers to nearly 250 children every week through kids club, feeding programs, tutoring for young children, and youth discipleship.

Susan Balasbas, who pastors the Ormoc church, envisions the church as a channel of God’s grace for people to find hope, experience the love of God, and to share that love of Christ to others. Together, the church hopes to build this community one child at a time.

TEACH is a partnership between the Ormoc church, the Philippine Field Children’s Ministries Office, Nazarene Compassionate Ministries, leaders of the Eastern Visayas District, and local community leaders. To learn more and support TEACH, click here.

--Church of the Nazarene Asia-Pacific Region