(Excerpt from the April 2009 Status Report)

 I - IDENTIFYING INFORMATION

Project Title: Capability Building for Church Workers and Leaders & Members of In the Indigenous Communities in Northern Philippines

Project Site: Cordillera Region, Philippines

Project Duration: February 2009 – January 2010

Project Team Leader: Henry Caluya

Total Project Cost: $25,850

Amount Approved: $10,700

Amount Released: $3,360

BCFUMC Counterpart: $14,650

II - PROJECT OBJECTIVES

1. Strengthen the capability of the mission churches’ leaders to manage the affairs/programs and projects of the church.

2. Improved the agricultural production capacity and economic condition of the members of the church

3. Increased the internal capacity of the mission churches to generate internal resources to enable them to sustain church programs and projects.

      III - ACTIVITIES CONDUCTED & RESULTS

1. Project Team Orientation & Planning

As an important activity of the project, and prior to actual project implementation at the mission church level, a project orientation and planning workshop was conducted in February 12, 2009. The objective of the meeting and planning workshop was to orient the members of the project team on the overall objectives and the various activities that are programmed to be conducted during the project period.

The participants of the said activity include the Project Director, the Administrative Pastor, the Associate Pastor the Communications Committee Chairperson and the 5 mission churches pastors. Other members of the project team were not able to attend the orientation.

The content of the one day activity are the following:

• Discussion of the project objectives, activities, expected results and requirements from the Baguio City UMC.
• The project budget and how it will be spent based on the requirements of the project.
• The roles and responsibilities of the Project Team.
• The roles and responsibilities of the mission pastors.
• Schedules and Time Frames.

At the end of the activity, a work plan was prepared by the group outlining the various activities that will be conducted in the initial 3 months of project implementation and the responsibilities of the members of the project team and the mission pastors.

Also agreed upon are the schedules of the community orientation and the expectations from the members of the churches.

2. Mission Area Visit, Community Project Orientation & Planning

Community church visits were conducted after the initial planning in February. In these meetings, the members of the mission churches were appraised on the objectives and expected results of the project. It was also during the community meetings that the various issues, concerns and problems of the mission churches were discussed and the possible assistance that the project can provide.

In these community meetings, it was agreed that the livelihood support will be implemented immediately so that the church members will have more time to manage it in the project time frame.

It was also during the community meetings and orientation that the project team and the members of the church are able to assess the soil conditions of the proposed pilot farms to measure soil acidity and the volume of soil conditioner that will be applied.

Since the acidity of soils tested are very high, the community/church members recommended that soil conditioners will be purchased immediately in time for the next planting and harvest season

The mission visit activities and number of participants are the following:

Mission Church	Date of Meeting	Number of Participants
Guesset/Aguioas Mission	February 17	18
Pito Mission	March 16	13
Boklaoan Mission	March	12
Sowe Mission	April 3	11
Sapuan Mission	April4	15
TOTAL		69

3. Mission Church Management & Planning Workshop

The first major training of the project is Church Management & Planning which was conducted in March 20-21, 2009. The training was held at the Baguio City First United Methodist Church in Baguio City. Attended by 27 participants representing the 6 mission churches, the 2-day activity was a combination of lectures/inputs, group assessment of the current situations in the mission churches, workshops to identify the important activities to improve the current conditions and action planning to prepare for church activities that will be implemented to improve the capabilities of the church leaders to manage their respective mission churches.

Among the topics discussed by the resource persons were the following:

• Church Governance
  • Vision, Mission, Goals & Objectives
  • Leadership
  • Membership & Membership Participation
  • Church Structure
  • Church Development Plan
  • Church Policies, Systems & Procedures
• Church Ministries, Programs and Projects
  • Witness Ministry
  • Outreach Ministry
  • Nurture Ministry
  • Resource Development Ministry
  • Livelihood Projects
• Church Resources
  • Annual Budget
  • Financial Policies, Systems & Procedures
  • Fund Raising Campaigns
  • Livelihood Policies, Systems & Procedures

The resource persons in the training are Mr. Henry L. Caluya, the Project Director and Rev. Pedro Torio, Jr., the Administrative Pastor of the BCFUMC.

4. Purchase and Delivery of the Soil Conditioner

Immediately after the conduct of the church management training, the project team purchased 100 bags of soil conditioner. The supplies are to be delivered to the mission churches to be used in the pilot farms identified by the members themselves.

Although the cost of the soil conditioner will not be returned to the BCFUMC, the recipients will payback the amount to their respective churches and the collections will be used as revolving capital of the local church. The local church leaders planned to become the supplier of the said agricultural commodity and part of their livelihood project.

The 100 bags were distributed equally among the 6 mission churches based on the pilot farms identified as follows.