June 27th

One more quick post before I head off to camp tomorrow. In the email sent out to all the counselors we were asked not to bring computers or similar devices, so I will be leaving my tablet here at Sankey which means I won't be posting anything on here or responding to anyone's emails for the next few weeks. I will try to remember to take pictures while at camp so that I have those and some stories to post when I get back.
The last few days here have been fairly routine. I can tell the kids at school are becoming more used to and comfortable around me. The first couple computer classes they were really quiet and attentive, a little timid - that's not so much the case anymore. The first graders on Monday were something special. One of the little girls who I joke with before school and when I see the kids sometimes at recession - she continued the joking right on through computer class. I try to use tagalog words intermittently, just for simple things and to ask if the kids are understanding things, and this little girl everytime I said something in Tagalog would imitate me (fairly well I might add...haha). The other kids joined in soon thereafter - we didn't get a whole lot accomplished, but that's okay.
The last couple nights when I have been down sending emails, some of the kids come down and work on their homework as well. Occasionally I am able to help - one girl had english homework where she had a vocabulary word and had to select the correct definition from three choices. I thought I'd be able to help here no problem - there were some tough words though! Granted my vocabulary is extremely extensive, but I thought for sure be able to help with high school english vocabulary in a non-native English speaking country. Nope - we had to use the dictionary for 75% of the terms. Several words I had never heard of, and am confident most Americans have never used.
Well, that's about it - oh, I did catch bigger and more aggressive gecko to guard my table, but I'm beginning to think geckos have small appetites or just simply don't eat ants.
Anyways, I will post again in a few weeks.

June 24th

The rest of the week went well last week. Thursday was similar to the first three days of last week - devotion in the morning then computer class in the afternoon. We had devotion on Friday also, but no computer classes. Instead, I was in charge of chapel hour and gym class in the afternoon. Chapel hour went alright I think - not sure how much the younger kids retained, but the reactions/interactions with the older kids suggest that they all understood - so that was good. I have a short week at school this week as I will leave Thursday morning after devotion to head to Rizal to be a camp counselor for a couple weeks. I'm looking foward to that!
Yesterday was a long day. I was up and out by 3:30 and went with a group from Bethel to a youth conference in Manila called Campus Revolution. It was a conference for high school and college students from all over Luzon. It was at one of the larger domes here in the Philippines, called the Cuneta Astrodome (a large gymnasium where the PBA plays) - I asked one of the guys what the capacity of the place was, and he thought it was 14,000 - and the place was packed, plus chairs on the floor level! I didn't understand much of what the speakers were saying but the worship music was in english and I enjoyed that! Some of the speakers would use english every now and then, plus the verses they used they said in english, so I got the jest of what the were talking about. It was encouraging the kids to become campus revolutionaries - to change the atmosphere of their campuses for Christ because that generation is the future of the Philippines. Judging by the reactions and the enthusiasm of the crowd, the speakers all did really well. We got back last night shortly before 10, and I went straight to bed. Only woke up once between then and 7:30 this morning (which for me is really good!)
I'm not sure if I will be able to post while I am at camp, so I might try to post something Wednesday night before I leave - we will see how eventful the week goes.
I included a couple pictures from the conference yesterday, as well as one of me and the neighbor kid, John John. A couple times over the past week or so when I have been hanging out outside of the guys house he has come over to the fence and yells, "Americano, parito ka!" which means come here American...haha. So I go over and we talk for a little bit. When he says something I don't understand and I tell him that, he yells it louder thinking that will help - I get a kick out of that. I quizzed him on my name a few times this afternoon, we will see if he remembers it the next time he calls me over, or if it's still "Americano. "

June 20th

Hello everyone!
School has been going well this week. The activity level in my day has come down a few notches, but actually it has been really nice and is allowing me to regain some much needed energy (especially since I will be leaving next week to be a counselor at a camp up in Rizal for 2 weeks, and I'm sure I will need as much energy as possible for that).
Before classes start each day, the kids and teachers and myself have a flag raising ceremony out front of the school (that's what the couple of years picture below are from), and they sing the national anthem, another Filippino pledge, and then pledges to the Bible and the Christian flag (these are in English though). We then have our devotion. One of the kids plays guitar and leads everyone in a song, and then I give the short devotion for the day.
I try to avoid doing a lot of talking, because with all the kids I know that many of the younger ones don't understand as much English as the older kids, so I've tried to make it a little more interactive. This week I am teaching them what I've heard called the 'Roman Road' (the basic Gospel message using all verses from the book of Romans). I think it is going fairly well - I am having them memorize one verse each morning, and then I just give a short meaning of the verse - this seems to be working well.
After devotion I usually head off and I have been working on a PowerPoint presentation for chapel hour on Friday. I will be talking about the fruit of the Spirit - I figured those were concepts that could be broken down into simple enough terms and stories that I should be able to get the point across to most of the kids. It's been somewhat of a challenge, because I usually have a difficult time expressing ideas to children in general, now I not only have that to deal with, but these are children with an even more limited english vocabulary...haha. It'll be alright though.
And then in the afternoons, depending on the day, I teach one or two computer classes. Pretty basic computer stuff, which is good, seeing as how computers are definitely not my strong point! It's good though, it gives me an opportunity to spend time with the kids and get to know their names and talk with them a little.
The couple of other pictures - one is the newest puppy here at Sankey. One of the guys bought it from the neighborhood the other day for 30 pesos (about 75 cents...haha). The reason I put the picture up though, one of the younger boys came up to me and told me that it was an American dog. I looked at him a little confused and asked how he knew that? I don't know if you can see it in the picture, but the puppy has blue eyes - thus making it American! Haha!
The other picture was my latest idea, that didn't work out quite as well as planned. It is a small house gecko on a leash (made of dental floss). Even though I keep it clean, there are several ants in my kitchen upstairs - and the place they really bother me is on the table on which I eat. So I thought...hmm, if only I had something like a watch dog that would eat ants, and that I could keep it on my table. The problem is, dogs don't eat ants, and they're not nearly small enough to keep on a table. But...geckos eat ants, and they would fit on a table. Long story short, Max (that's what I named him - short for Maximus the Enforcer), spent most of the time hiding under a basket that I keep on the table and never ate a single ant. In fact the ants would walk right in front of his face and he was unphased. I only had him for less than a day, and maybe I just wasn't patient enough, but he didn't show much potential, so I released Max back into the wild and am keeping an eye out for a bigger, more energetic and fierce gecko.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to my dad, grandpa, Grandbob, and all the other fathers! They do celebrate fathers day here in the Philippines as well.
Another week has flown by! This past Tuesday, the 12th, was independence day here in the Philippines. They don't do anything to spectacular here to celebrate - there was a Youth for Jesus event at the park in downtown Lucena that I went with some of the kids and the youth from Bethel to. They had worship music and a couple different speakers, some of it was patriotic, but for the most part it wasn't. I asked if they have any big celebrations or fireworks to celebrate their independence day, but it didn't sound like they do anything like that. I wasn't expecting Bay City fireworks, but I thought they might do a little something in the city seeing as how it is a decent size city - but nope. That's okay, the youth event was fun too!
School started Wednesday, but it was only orientation, so I didn't really have to do anything, just be there in the morning for introductions and I tried learning the names of someone the kids. It's a small school - I think total between the 6 grades there are maybe 40 students - so learning the names shouldn't be too terribly difficult.
Thursday regular classes started, however I was sick again, so I spent most of the day upstairs resting. Friday I was back to somewhat normal though so I did the devotion in the morning and then PE in the afternoon. We only have two separate classes for PE, one for the younger kids and onefor the older.
With the younger kids I tried doing some relay races, but I think only 2 out of the 15-20 kids actually understood what I was saying. It showed when we started, and what we had talked about and even practiced walking through once, was scarcely what took place. So we stopped that and ended up playing a kind of tag - they all seemed to understand that...haha. With the older kids we just played capture the flag - the all already knew that game and enjoy it, so we took the easy route.
Most of the Sankey kids are now in high school or college. The college students started this past week as well, but the kids who will being to high school don't start until tomorrow. So we spent the last few nights playing basketball since they won't be able to as much once school has started and they will have homework in the evenings and have to go to bed at a decent time so they can get up early.
Each month they rotate chores, and those responsible for washing the clothes have to get up at 4am!! That way they can wash the clothes and they can dry during the day.
I'll try to remember to post something midweek this week, maybe with any stories that take place during school.
Happy Father's Day, again!

June 10th

<p>&lt;p&gt;I didn't realize it has been a week since my last post...sorry! How the time flies!! This poses a problem, now I have to try to remember all the way back to Monday as to what we have been doing this week...haha. Let's see.... &lt;br&gt;<br>
Actually, for the most part I think we have just been doing stuff here around Sankey - the school is pretty much all set now, a few people and the teachers have been putting some finishing touches on the classrooms, but I think it is all set for school to start this Wednesday. I will be teaching 3rd grade computers and doing devotions every morning as well as chapel hour on Fridays (which, due to my inability/dislike for speaking for extended periods of time, we have come to an agreement that it will be chapel half-hour now...haha!) So some of what I have been doing this week is trying to come up with devotions for this fast week and ideas for chapel half hour. It's a slow process...for me anyways. &lt;br&gt;<br>
Oh, and Wednesday I lead a book study at the church I have been attending. They are going through the book Purpose Driven Life, and they asked me if I had read the book, to which I replied yes, and the pastor said, "good, you can do this chapter." So I did! I don't know how much of what I said everyone understood, but I know there were atleast a handful of people there who speak English well and could translate to others if neccesary or desired. &lt;br&gt;<br>
Maybe it was Thursday, we all went to a resort nearby and swam for much of the day. This was kind of a last hoorah for the kids before the all have to start school again. It just so happened, that the one morning it was cloudy/rainy this week, was the day we went to the pool. It was still fun - and it cleared up every now and the sun came out, so the cold water felt nice especially at those times! &lt;br&gt;<br>
Yesterday we had another feeding program. And I had a first at this one. Some of the kids that I meet are immediately drawn to me and we talk and talk. Other are a little more hesitant and shy, but usually after a while I can talk to them a little bit, or at least get a smile or a wave in return. But yesterday, there was a two or three year old girl sitting with I am assuming her sisters or neighbors, and I walked under the pavilion where we were all meeting, and she looked at me with very wide eyes and just started screaming and crying! She would look away for a moment, still crying, and then turn around and look at me again, her eyes would get really big, and start screaming again! Eventually they had to take her out of the pavilion and back to her mom because she couldn't handle me being anywhere in sight - it didn't matter if I was looking at her or if I was near her - if she could see me, she was crying. I felt bad, but it was also a little funny at the same time. &lt;br&gt;<br>
The rest of the feeding program was great - a lot of kids at this one, so that was good. I found out after we had a left that the community we were in was a squatter community (which I surprising seeing as how many people were there), and they are currently in a small battle with the owner of the land, trying to negotiate someway for them to keep living there. The owner owns a hotel on the same land, but where these people are staying was at least a couple hundred yards away from the hotel, and the only way to get to it was by walking those couple hundred yards through a field with grass/weeds over my head. &lt;br&gt;<br>
The main event today was the boxing match between Pacqiou and Bradley. Everyone knows and the loves Pacqiou here in the Philippines. I bet a couple of the guys a soft drink that Bradley would win (I felt kind of obligated to root for the American) - but it worked out! Tomorrow I have a couple soft drinks coming my way! Haha! The downside of Pacqiou losing, is I have had to listen to at least a half dozen people tell me how Bradley cheated and Pacqiou should have won - haha. &lt;br&gt;<br>
Well, that's what was new this last week, or at least some of the highlights. I've included just a few pictures from the feeding program. And there is the picture of Kim, one of the kids here at Sankey, next to a Pacqiou statue at the resort we went swimming at - we were calling it the preview for the fight that happened today...haha.

June 3rd

I want to start by just saying thank you to everyone who has continued to support me in being here, either financially, or I have received many encouraging emails from people saying that they have been praying for me as well - so thank you!
The last few days have been busy. The basketball tournament that I mentioned in my last post that we had a scrimmage for, it was actually this past Thursday through Saturday. And actually it wasn't just basketball, it was a variety of sports tournaments held at one of the local universities for all the church in the area. There was basketball, volleyball, ping pong, badminton, chess...
We played 10 games of basketball over those 3 days and 6 or 7 games volleyball. I woke up this morning to an achey body. But...we ended up winning the basketball tournament and finishing 3rd in volleyball. The go from Bethel also finished 2nd in volleyball.
They also had a scrabble tournament at this event, which I was kind of forced to play in. Originally I was asked simply if I like to play scrabble, to which I responded, yes, of course! The pastor then said, good, and that I would the male representative for Bethel in this tournament. I tried talking a few other people into playing instead of me, since it wouldn't really be fair, me being a native English speaking playing games against non-native English speakers, but he insisted that I play. I decided it wouldn't look good from the perspective of the others churches if an American won first, but I didn't want to disappoint the pastor, so my goal was to play well enough to finish in second, which I did. It was kind of a lose - lose situation.
The pastor at Bethel joked that if I posted this on my blog, people back home would think that all I do here is play basketball...which is partially true, we do play a lot of basketball. And yes, while I do enjoy playing, the reason I continue to play and go to these things is because that is where the people are. Through playing basketball, I have gotten a chance to meet a number of people, whether they be teammates, opposing players, refs, or spectators, and in our 5-10 minute conversations, try to offer some sort of encouragement. With some of these people we end up talking longer, and like at this last event, by the end of the 3 days and talking with some of the same people over and over, friendships form.
I do not share this with you all because I feel like I have to justify how much I have been playing basketball, I share this hoping that it might encourage some of you to not let seemingly ordinary situations or events pass by as such, but rather to view them as opportunities to encourage those around you, whether through conversation or even just a smile and a passing "hello." Make the most of every situation.