Serving people is at the forefront of our mission at CK Fitness. We do this by providing tailored exercise and nutrition programming along with tips and strategies for living a healthy lifestyle.

But serving people and living a healthy lifestyle can go a lot further than just exercise and nutrition. I believe actively living a healthy lifestyle includes not only our physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health but includes impacting and supporting the lives of others as well.

I’m taking a different approach in this blog today.

It’s not going to be about tips to help you live a healthy lifestyle but to introduce you to an organization that I fell in love with when I first visited the Philippines and how we can team up to support them in their mission of rescuing and restoring children who have been victims of cruel abuse.

The Village of Hope is near and dear to my heart and I’m excited to be partnering with them.

The journey to the village

If you’ve read a few of my blogs, follow me on social media, or know me even slightly, you know that I love to travel. But there’s one trip that has changed my life forever.

But before I get into that, I need to give a little back story…

Mid-year 2016 I was in my early twenties and I was in a dark place in my life. For the few years prior, I had been living an incredibly self-centered life. It was all about me, my goals, and what I wanted to do. The only thing I cared about was getting rich and having fun.

My faith in God was diminishing and I didn’t have many good friends in my life that I could turn to. I knew I needed to make some changes- I couldn’t live this way any longer.

Through a series of events and people, God called me back home to Him; I was truly the Prodigal Son.

I got plugged back into the church and God instilled in me a heart to serve. I started volunteering for nearly the first time in my life and even took two mission trips to Haiti with my church.

And I found a good group of Christian friends that I could look up to and deepen my faith with.

This group of friends was a much needed step in my journey but I desired a deep and personal one-on-one friendship that I could lean on and do life with. I needed my ride-or-die brother that I could go through the trenches with and help build them up as well.
- I know, I’m pretty needy 🤣

This is when I met Kuya Jay.

“Kuya” means big brother in Tagalog- his native language, and is a sign of respect. I met him at a bible study at church in the spring of 2018 and we shortly became inseparable. I saw his heart to serve and I wanted to learn from and support him on his life mission of loving God and serving others.

This dude has been a huge blessing and has helped me in my personal life, business, spiritual life, and he’s someone I can rely on and look up to.

Ok, so now you know the back story, let’s get back to that trip that changed my life forever…

Fast-forward to April of 2019 and I had good people in my life, my faith and spiritual life was at a high and growing, and Jay and I were getting ready for a trip overseas. This was actually the first trip of many that we would go on together and this was the trip that changed everything.

Jay was born in the Philippines and had talked about how beautiful the country was. So we set off to visit.

I fell in love with the country.

The beautiful beaches and clear water…

The weather, the culture… it was all a new and exciting experience for me. I even got to teach a workout to a group of orphans and abandoned boys who had been taken in off of the streets.

This is the trip where Jay and I developed a deep bond and I will be forever grateful for the brotherhood we created. Our roots started in America but they grew deeper in the Philippines.

But my heart sank when I visited the Village of Hope.

At the time I was there, the place was still being built but I felt the hurt and brokenness from the devastating stories I heard about the children that would be occupying the Village.

Stories from broken families that had solicited their children to online sexual exploitation just to make it by financially. These KIDS, yes KIDS! Would have to perform sexual acts on camera (ofentimes with other siblings) to support their family financially.

I couldn’t fathom the darkness in it. I didn’t understand why anything like that could ever happen. It crushed me to my soul and I wanted to do something about it.

Tita Aidyl and Pastor Nonnie are Jay’s aunt and uncle who run the Village of Hope in the Philippines. When I first met them back in 2019 I could see how their hearts broke for these children. And I could see the love that they had for serving.

I got to spend some time with them at the Village and as we traveled through the Philippines. But I really got to know their stories deeper and the mission of the Village when they came to live with Jay and I for three months in late 2021.

I knew I had to do something to support the mission of the Village and to help rescue these kids.

When I started CK Fitness back in October of 2016, I was at a huge turning point in my life. I was desperately trying to part with my self-centered life and to live a life of service to others. Now we have an opportunity to serve on a global scale.

CK Fitness is partnering with the Village of Hope to raise money to fight human trafficking. CK Fitness is selling new swag items- t-shirts, water bottles, and hats and half of the proceeds will go directly to supporting the Village of Hope.

And if you don’t want any swag, you can still donate directly to the Compassionate Hope Foundation which houses The Village of Hope. There will be a link to their page below where you can give directly to their organization.

Let’s live a life of service

I heard recently that if you have running water and food to eat you are among the most privileged in the world. We take these things for granted.

There are children across the world (and even in our own backyard) that are fighting to survive. They are fighting to put food on the table and are facing horrible conditions to do so.

CK Fitness is on a mission to serve people. We have an opportunity to impact lives and fight for human rights. I hope that you’ll join me in this mission.

Click on the button below to head to the sales page to purchase some swag or to donate to the Village.