The long arms of CSC

CSC has long arms! They reach out to 80 children who have no other place to call home. They reach out to families in crisis and to children that have returned to their biological parents but still have needs for medical care and education. They reach out to adoptive families around the world: New Zealand, Australia, the Philippines, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, England, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Canada and the United States. And they reach out to supporters, helping meet their need to be involved in ministry to needy children that is done in Jesus' name.

But this ministry also reaches out to our many workers and their families. Many of our workers, in spite of earning a good wage and receiving health benefits through CSC, still live in difficult circumstances. Many are the sole wage earner in their whole extended family. Many are responsible for the health needs of their parents and siblings, not to mention their own families. (Most people in the Philippines do not have any health or life insurance.) Many are not able to accumulate savings because of the many needs of their families. The culture of poverty affects most of our workers in major ways on a day to day basis.

This fact came home to me in a big way in the past few days. One of our workers lost her father the other day and she needs, in addition to comfort and emotional support, money for funeral expenses. Another worker is in the hospital and needs blood. Another has to buy medicines that the health insurance doesn't provide for. Sometimes we can offer salary loans or emergency help to our workers. But the needs can seem overwhelming. And I wonder about the families that don't have a member who works for a benevolent employer like CSC.