sara takes a step

   My name is Sara Stuart, I live in Hamilton Ontario, Canada.  I have just finished second year in Religious Studies at McMaster University.  I have worked at a Christian camp in upper Ontario called Joy Bible Camp, completed a Discipleship Training School and Reformation Generation Seminar with Youth With a Mission in Maui Hawaii, and am actively involved at my local church and campus ministry Inter-Varsity Christian Fellowship.

   This coming August I am going to be participating in a missions experience with an international organization called International Teams.  Earlier this calendar year, John Coffey, a representative from IT in the Philippines, came to our church to share how their ministries are doing.  He works with a branch of IT Philippines called IT Tender.  They have many ministries that reach out to the poor, homeless, and poorly educated.  I have a dream of one day being a Social Worker, and all the opportunities he described made my dreams seem more like a reality.  There is a Social Worker currently on his team and getting the opportunity to work alongside her in their ministries sounded too good to pass up.  I began emailing him and his Canadian contacts, and here I am.  I will be in Manila, the capitol of the Philiipines and the IT Tender place of operations, for three weeks this August as a type of experiment.  I'll be dipping my toes in the water of the community building aspect of Social Work as well as seeing how well this set up fits the dreams I have for my future career.  For more information about IT Canada and their various ministries, click here for their website.  For John Coffey's personal blog, click here.

   As stated above, there are various ministries that I will be able to partake in to gain some knowledge and experience in the community field of Social Work.  The ministries that IT Tender runs in Manila include: a child sponsorship program, an alternative learning system, an "at risk" street youth outreach, an educational day care, a parenting program, and a feeding program for the kids living on the streets of Manila.  As I will only be there for sort time and can not adequately be involved in all of these programs, I will be most involved in the child sponsorship program, the street youth outreach, and the alternative learning system.  All of these are areas in which I can greatly grow in my views as a future Social Worker and as a believer.  If you're interested in more information on the IT Tender ministries, click here for their newsletters.

  If you would like to see how I'm doing as I get ready for my trip, or when I am there, go to my blog page.