Day 4: Back to School

Today started off as usual, with a wonderful breakfast at Talima Resort, before we headed to the leaders’ cabin for devotions, where we read some of Mark 3 and Katie shared some of her thoughts surrounding the passages.

As we headed off for the day we walked down to the basketball court and while waiting for our ride, the boys playing allowed as to join in and play a 3 on 3 game (apart from Caity B, we weren’t very good!). Basketball is a very big sport in the Philippines and every time we pass the courts, there are always boys playing, whether it’s part of a structured game or they are just practising and enjoying the game.
 
When our ride got there (a motorbike with kind of like a tray on the side with planks of wood to sit on) we headed to the high school, which was not a Christian school, so we were very privileged to be able to go in and sing a worship song “Good, Good, Father” and then have Beth share her testimony which was so powerful and I truly believe would have impacted the students; it definitely impacted me. Joel followed by sharing on John 1 and the gift of love and grace that God has for us and how it’s a gift for us to receive. Afterwards we got the chance to spend some time talking to the students, learning some of the language, learning some dance moves, which were followed by many laughs as we struggled to conquer them, as well as getting to know a bit about the students.
 
Something that we all found difficult and sad to hear was how particularly the girls but also the guys didn’t believe they were beautiful or handsome and they idolised us because we were white, it was just sad to hear that they didn’t see themselves as equal to us.
 
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel for a much needed swim and rest before we heading out to do some house visits, inviting children to come to the feeding program and then participating in the food program afterwards. It was very similar to yesterday, hanging out with the kids, doing lots of hand games like apple of a stick and tic-tac-toe, doing some songs and going through our skit, as well as playing with the bubbles. Watching the kids play with the bubbles was beautiful as the sun was setting and was a pinkish-orange colour. It was just a nice end to an incredible day before heading to dinner, where we debriefed afterwards as a team.
 
- Jacinta