Three years into the scholarship fund and we now have 18 graduates, most of them now have jobs and are blessings to their families, their employers, and their friends.

Worthy of note is Mimi, who works as an administrative assistant with a local company here. Her immediate superior describes her as hard working and efficient and full of surprises. Lately they discovered that she was a great artist and was talented in design. They were supposed to employ an artist but since discovering her talent, they decided they need not.

Also among these 18 graduates, we found out that four of them (Mimi included) were giving regular monthly support for our local campus ministers in VCF Pasig. Several words that could describe them:

1. Grateful. I guess that the best proof of gratefulness of a student is that when he/she excels and becomes a productive individual and is able to apply his education in life. We don’t need thank you cards from these. We already know they are.
2. Generous. Even with a lot of opportunities these days for employment, very few would immediately, in the first year of employment, assure financial stability. The majority of people give because of an excess in revenue. Not these young ladies and men. What makes them give is the heart of generosity and a deep desire to be a blessing, as they have been blessed.
3. Guided. I believe thankfulness and generosity are not natural for a lot of us if not rare. What makes them give is biblical training, the discipline of studying the Word and being constantly encouraged to give as we were freely given, to sow in order to reap, to realize more and more in our lives that indeed no one can ever outgive our God.

These are the kinds of leaders that we want to see come out of the Life Scholarships—3G leaders and more.

Jenny is a 3rd year student in Rizal High School (RHS) and the 3rd among 5 siblings. She first attended our Barangay Kids Church outreach last year. Her father was one of the drivers we hired to fetch children from the barangays to our youth center and back, and to his work, he brought Jenny along. After attending several times, Jenny was invited to our Friday Youth nights where she had become a regular attendee and usher. Since then, she has invited her sister, Jinky, also from RHS and now an incoming college freshman.

They say that before, they were quite financially well-off. Their father had his own jeep that he was driving while their mom was a seamstress– and income was good. Last year however, the jeep’s engine bogged down, and they were unable to have it repaired. Jenny’s father then resorted to driving for other jeepney owners as an extra driver. Daily income however was even less than the amount he needed to pay for “boundary”. They started getting into debt. MJ, the eldest child had to stop schooling to help with the family needs.

When asked how much they needed to have the jeep fixed, they said they needed P35,000. We prayed for them and taught them to also pray as a family. We told them to write down their requests and paste them on a conspicuous place in the house so that all of them would be reminded to pray about it. A week after that, when we paid them a visit, we saw sheets of paper with P35,000 written on them, scattered and posted all over their 10 sq m house! –a whole family praying for provision!

The prayed for amount has not yet been provided, but today, the entire family is in church.

Rizal High School (RHS), located at Dr. Sixto Antonio Avenue, Caniogan, Pasig City, Metro Manila, is mentioned by the Guinness Book of World Records as the “largest high school in the world” since 1993. Today, it has a student population of more than 25,000.

Named after the Philippine national hero, Dr. Jose P. Rizal, RHS boasts of great men and women who wandered its rooms and halls. Some of these notable figures include former Senator Neptali Gonzales, former Senator Jovito Salonga, former Senator Rene Saguisag, Maestro Lucio San Pedro, and National Artist Carlos “Botong” Francisco, to mention a few.
Miss Josephine M. Cruz, an alumna and a Rizal High School teacher once, is the school’s current and youngest principal to date. She leads a faculty of over 700 teachers, not to mention the non- teaching staff.

There are about 45 sections per year level here, and about 60 students per section. 85% of these can barely buy 2 sets of uniforms and a decent pair of shoes. Most of them walk to school and back, and go almost the entire day at school without food. A lot of them come from dysfunctional, if not broken families. Yet, in the midst of these, the school boasts of brilliant students who excel in National academic contests, Math and Science Quizzes, Arts, Journalism contests, Sports and Music. Among these seemingly financially deprived youth in RHS are the future leaders of Pasig City and our nation.

Our Every Nation Youth Student Center is just a stone’s throw away from the RHS main campus. Every Nation campus ministers members roam the rooms of this school daily, connecting with students and teachers—speaking purpose, destiny, hope and encouragement to one potential leader at a time. During Friday afternoons here are 2 youth services—one at 4 pm and another at 6 pm—attended by about 200-250 RHS students weekly. Highlights are fun, food, games, friendship, fellowship, teaching, and prayer—anything and everything we can do to touch this next generation of leaders and train them to be all that they can be for God.