Travelblog II

Day 2

Having arrived around 1:00 that morning, we were allowed to oversleep a bit. We had breakfast, then carried two large containers of food to take to a gym housing roughly 168 families. Their houses in a squatter village were still unlivable due to flooding from the three typhoons that hit a while back. We drove in two vehicles, arrived, and following the directions of the ministry worker we came with, set to work.

The line moved in an orderly fashion. Later on in the week it would take more effort to keep order, but it did get warmer each day and I'm sure that counts as a good reason. The children ate first, then introductions were made and tall visitors were climbed on by kids. Fun was had by all.

I encountered a first on this trip--kids having trouble saying "Matt." On our first visit, a couple of failed attempts deemed me as the unpopular one as I trudged to the corner alone while youths chanted easier names. Later in the week I surrendered to a name change. I was "Match" or "Max," depending on the speaker. Both guys were a lot of fun, but Matt is a bit of a downer, I'm afraid.

We went back to the ministry building, ate lunch, and planned a Bible study for later in the afternoon. A few hours later, we returned to the gym, split into two groups, and had two lessons for the young children and adults, respectively. The younger group had translation, as it was needed, but those of us with the adults settled on an ESL-friendly gospel message. Our Bible teacher gave the message, and the listeners were intent. After the message, we served the second meal of the day, then played and visited some more. We made it back at a reasonable hour, and made it a point to get plenty of rest. We had a full day ahead of us.