Short Synopsis of Current Mission Work

We both teach at Union Theological Seminary (UTS) during the week and then on weekends we do church and community development with the Aetas (30 villages of indigenous people in Tarlac & Zambales provinces about 90 miles north of Manila). While there we make our base camp at Immanuel Bible School (IBS), which trains Aeta village church and health workers..

At UTS: Caring teaches Church in Community (social action), Psychology, and Literature. She also helps teach English and edits various publications. Richard teaches Research Fundamentals, Thesis Writing and coordination, Computer Literacy and Church in Community. He is also charged by the UTS president to be responsible for equipping a new computer laboratory. At present five 80386 and five Pentium computers are available for student use. But we need at least 10 more units. He is editor of the UTS Catalog, brochures, etc..

At IBS and surrounding villages: Caring teaches the IBS students and village volunteers in Community Based Primary Health Care who will be the Village Health Volunteers in the mountains. We also provide the food for this group of 25 when they meet for training. Richard hikes four hours to several Aeta villages on weekends to help with church leadership development and trains them on Sustainable Agroforestry Land Technology (SALT). They are showing more interest in SALT rather than slash and burn agriculture. We are currently educating and helping the Aetas apply for a Certificate of Ancestral Domain Claim so they will no longer suffer from land grabbing by loggers, ranchers, miners, etc..

For more information about our work please refer to our previous issues of our occasional email newsletter, "PHILIPPINE MISSION UPDATES," sent out from Christmas 1996 until now. For back issues just click on: http://www.wisconsinumc.org/conference/missionaries/missionaryupdates.html

You can also see more about our work with pictures in our Internet web site, "SCHWENK PHILIPPINE MISSION." Just click on this link: http://www.starnet.net.ph/schwenk/. Feel free to printout text and pictures for your mission education.

After you have visited our web side, drop us a line by simply clicking your mouse on the hypertext link, "GUEST BOOK" and then on "ADD," for a blank to write on. We look forward to hearing from you. It is the wwwave of the future! :-)

We send our warmest best wishes to you. May God continue to bless you..

Sincerely in Christ,