Blessed to be a blessing

“It’s about giving back,” says Margie Oralde (Philippines), a young woman serving as a social worker with OM for nearly seven years. She did not plan to pursue this profession when she was younger. “I thought, that’s not really me, I don’t want to talk in front of people, I was very shy before,” she shares, but God had different plans for her. “In my four years studying social work, I learnt to love what social work is.” For Margie, social work is helping people, and that encompasses giving them hope by sharing God’s love with them.

Margie grew up in a poor community, sharing a small house with her parents and three siblings. Her father, a man she greatly looks up to, sustained the family by working hard as a construction worker, a laborious profession with little return. It was a life of lack and budgeting. Raised in a Christian family, Jesus was no stranger to her. Margie went to church and Sunday school, mainly because her mother made her go, and the snacks provided to the children attracted her to OM’s weekly outreach in her community. But only when her father got sick, and the whole family gathered to anxiously pray for his recovery, did she meet Jesus personally. Being lifted out of the terror of fear for her father when he received healing without seeing a doctor, Margie gave her life fully to Jesus.

This turning point in her spiritual life did not come with a change in the situation she lived in, “You know, my family really couldn’t support me financially.” Through the OM volunteers who led the weekly outreach, Margie was chosen to be part of OM’s scholarship programme when she was in her last year of primary school. That was the start of her long-standing journey with OM.

The scholarship programme started in 2008 in partnership with schools, churches, and other like-minded organisations. Teachers or OM workers recommend students for financial support to continue their education. For many recipients, the scholarship enables them to stay in school when life circumstances would otherwise not allow them to. The scholarship starts in primary school and can last until students graduate from high school or college.

When Margie reached college, OM offered to sponsor her studies in social work. “For me, it’s also like: ‘Lord, thank You for choosing this course for me’, because at that time I also didn’t know what course I should take,” she remembers.

During her college years, Margie felt shaped and impacted by OM beyond the financial aspect. Outside of college classes, OM immerses the scholars in many activities, and challenges them with teaching at camps, engaging with people and taking up leadership roles. “When I had to do an internship in my fourth year of college, I knew that ‘I am able’ because I am well-trained by OM,” Margie recounts.

Paying her blessings forward

Today, Margie’s work in OM is primarily overseeing the scholarship programme. She interviews potential scholars and conducts home visits, while also working with current scholars weekly, leading them in Bible studies, or visiting them at home during school breaks. Some of the scholarship recipients come from islands far away from Cebu, and some of them live in Muslim communities closer to Margie’s workplace. “I like it when we go travel to different places for work […], engaging with people, hearing their stories, it’s really amazing.”

Her interactions with the scholars are not just on a superficial level. Their weekly meetings are filled with laughter, openness and trust. “I think it’s because I share my life with them; with the scholars, I share my story,” Margie says. She tells the story of one scholar who, in turn, inspired her family members to go to church as well. The young woman is still involved in some of the community outreaches of OM. As the youngest daughter in her family, a position without much influence, it is a considerable accomplishment for her to graduate from college, “and now the family is so supportive and they look up to her. She graduated! The respect is there.” Recalling this development in a former scholar’s life visibly fills Margie with joy.

Meeting with so many young people and hearing their life stories is not always easy. “Sometimes I get overwhelmed,” she opens up. Many of them come from backgrounds similar to hers. Additionally to working with the young people, Margie also still bears the load of her own family’s history. Her father passed away shortly after she graduated, and since then, she has become the main breadwinner for her family. It is a difficult balancing act, taking care of everything at home and at the same time making sure the scholars feel loved and taken care of. “But what the Lord is teaching me is really to trust Him more, ‘Hey it’s not you who is doing it, it’s Me, so leave it to Me’.”

Margie is incredibly thankful for what the Lord has done and is doing in her life through OM. “If I did not accept the opportunity [to become a scholar], I don’t know what my life would be right now,” she says. And she hopes that the scholarship will continue to change more young people’s lives.

OM’s ministries are reaching people in all phases of life through workers like Margie who are using their respective skills to support the work among the least reached. She encourages those who are considering joining missions to really search their hearts and ask themselves: “Are they really prepared for joining missions? Because it’s really not easy, there are so many things you need to consider. But once you are there, enjoy. Enjoy and obey. Obey and trust the Lord.” 

Please pray for the scholars, that they will come to know Jesus, personally experience God’s love and grow in their relationship with the Lord. Pray that the scholarship programme will continue and that many more children’s lives will be touched and blessed through it and that there will be many more financial supporters. Please pray that the personal needs of the scholars and OM workers will be met.