It all started with the vision of John Lindvall, who visited the Philippines in 1984; it excited him; he saw the opportunities available to serve the poor.  He brought his vision to Stewart De Boer.  Through his organization, Mission Ministries in the Sates, with their donors providing a financial base, and through the contacts of Dr. De Boer in the Philippines, Mission Ministries was born.  MMP’s response to this opportunity of an expanded sphere of ministry to the disadvantaged is the theme of this strategic plan.  How MM leadership attempts to chart a path of good stewardship of this opportunity will be the consistent prayer and challenge throughout all that you read in the following pages.



            For example, in 1984 MM had no staff or core of trainers to establish and conduct preschools. 

In MMP’s first preschool, a qualified teacher was asked to teach preschool children in a poor community using church facilities and a put together curriculum.  This school continues to this day.  Other preschools were established in other squatter sectors of the city.  Slowly the number increased and MM found the need to train their teachers.  A competent staff of trainers was developed; this body grew in number.  In 2001, it was decided the curriculum needed to be revised to meet the unique needs of the poor.  A curriculum committee of highly volunteers from the University of the Philippines faculty of the Family Life and Child Development Center was formed and out of that came the publishing of several texts in reading and writing.



             As MM matured, it produced highly qualified staff with qualities of leadership and management. 

The policy of MM was to limit itself to establish early childhood ministries; the very capable staff desired to venture into their own areas of expertise.  Some were encouraged to leave to start their own preschools, one left to establish a college in early childhood development, while another branched out into a franchise of drug stores to the poor.  In doing this, MM has become well known for whom they have trained and their encouragement to churches among the poor to provide families with early childhood education.



          For this and prior years, MM has defined itself narrowly to only addressing one area of service to poor communities, that of early childhood education, specializing in preschools.  MM’s new strategy will examine the possibility of taking a broader more holistic early childhood developmental approach.  One facet of the strategy is to make more seriously the field of research, specifically gaining a baseline to see where MM has come from.  Other findings which could be drawn from this research, could be determine the advisability: to expand services through the development of MM’s own new ministries, to cooperate with other agencies to deliver a better mix of assistance, and the suitability to take our ministries to fields outside of Metro Manila. 

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         With more than 15 million early childhood age children in the Philippines, and 70 percent of those living in depressed areas, MM has no desire to duplicate what others are doing, nor is MM interested in developing a program that the poor cannot sustain for themselves.  MM desires the opportunity to carefully design and build an organization capable of understanding the poor and ministering to them in the global, postmodern, and pluralistic realities of today’s world.  Surrounding this core journey of paradigm changing milestones in this five-year exploration are various guided learning experiences to be developed for both MM and the recipients of those services if they are to apply their new understanding of global realities to their local setting. This strategic plan plots the intended journey of MM from 2003 to 2007 as it stewards the opportunity of being thrust onto the challenge of developing early childhood education programs.