Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Happy Holidays

I give the gift of laughter. Well, that and old Onion articles. Enjoy.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/real_life_grinch_celebrates?utm_source=onion_rss_daily

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Travelblog III

Day 3

We got an early start, ate some breakfast, and prepared to bring food to the gym again. The kids in particular seemed glad to have us return, and proceeded to climb over us. Match and Max were gaining popularity, but Matt was nowhere to be found.

We went back, ate lunch, and prepared for that afternoon and evening. We would share a devotional at the children's home that evening, and a Bible lesson the next morning at a school nearby. We pooled our resources, assigned parts, and prepared lessons. The Bible study and feeding proceeded in the afternoon,and it along with the evening devotional went smoothly. Romans 16:19 served as a popular one, as everywhere we went children were singing it.

After the evening devotional at the children's home we each chose a child to read a story to. The young man who chose me also negotiated three stories. He did most of the reading and agreed to let me explain. After reading the Christmas story, he refused to close it until I read the "Note to Parents" on the last page. After that, he was satisfied and we were able to move on.

The stories were finished, so we went back to our current place of residence and practiced being spies and Cananites, respectively. The part of fruit would graciously be played by actual fruit.

Days 4 and 5
The skit, songs and lesson went well. Myself and another teacher got to be giants, which entailed students from the local school riding on our shoulders. From the reactions, they must have looked scary. Helmets fell, but no kids, and that's always a plus.

That afternoon we brought more than just food. We had learned the lack of Bibles in tagalog, so we arranged to purchase one per family. I can't recall ever seeing Bibles received so well. It being the last day, everyone wanted us to sign in addition to our message in the front. We also had tracts with the Gospel in tagalog in the Bibles to use as bookmarks. We hugged on kids, sang, let them wrestle us and heard our names (or something close) chanted one last time. We left, promising to pray for them.

The devotional that evening went well. Two of our students shared, and story time gave way to movie night. As the movie played, we went to a mall to buy some snacks some of us forgot existed. After that, we went home and rested.

Saturday we ate breakfast, then went to visit the children's home one last time. We played ball games, and I got claimed by two young ladies who tried to teach me marbles. It didn't take, so we took turns between the swings and the monkey bars. At one point Beka and I each had a child and proceeded to race them. Fortunately,I had the sneaky one who learned she could go faster if she let go of the bars. After that, we said our goodbyes, finished packing, and returned to the airport.