The children at the orphanage had off school yesterday, so I went up to the big house to help out. I was supposed to be with the boys, but one of the 11 year old girls kept asking me to watch a movie with her on my laptop. The boys were running around doing other things anyway. Grace (name changed) and I started the movie. She just wanted it to be a time with just the two of us, but in a house full of children, that’s very difficult. Soon a couple other little girls joined us.
We talked often during the movie too. Grace kept asking questions. She had seen pictures of my family before, which she loved. She especially loved seeing pictures of Jessica, my adopted sister. I told her about a little baby in a Russian orphanage that became a part of my family. I even showed her the very first picture of Jessica that my family ever saw and we talked about how God had a plan for that little baby in the Russian orphanage just like He does for her life.
As we were watching the movie, I was looking more closely at Grace’s arms and noticing more scars on them. I don’t know much of her story. I asked her how long she has been at this home and she said for 3 months, but when asked where she was before she told me she didn’t remember. One of the scars she said was a cut from bamboo and for some others she said she doesn’t know. Some may be cigarette burns. It’s hard to tell. I just sat there are touched all her scars and told her I thought they were beautiful. I told her that our scars tell a story and make us who we are and God can make even bad scars good. I also asked her if she knew that Jesus had scars? She said yes she knew. I told her that his scars were on her arms just like some of hers. She just looked at me and didn’t say much. I’m not exactly sure what she thought.
The movie ended and she ran off to play. I just said what I felt like I needed to say and trust God to do the rest in her heart. Grace loves God. She told me so. I’m learning that this is what the WR is about. For everyone it is a little different, but we have so little time in one place before we move on. We have small conversations of sometimes just pieces of conversations and have to say what we feel we are meant to say and trust God to do the rest. It’s really not about us anyway and what we can do. God can and will accomplish what He wants without us and even in spite of us at times. It’s just an honor that He will use us if we are willing. I was so thankful for the conversation that I got to have with Grace yesterday.
I enjoy being at the children’s home. I still love being with the babies, even when they are sick and screaming in the middle of the night. I just try to be thankful that I can be there to hold them. My squad mates do all different things around the property. One thing we have also been doing is planting grass in a field. Do you know how hard it is to plant a soccer size field that is mostly dirt with grass? I think grass will be on the whole thing sometime around 2015. We make sod runs with this Jeep that I’m pretty sure saw both world wars and this old trailer with two flat tires. It’s great fun and my favorite malfunction so far of the Jeep is when the horn just gets stuck. This makes it appear that you are driving down the road just honking at everything and everyone. We stand out enough as a bunch of white people in a trailer without the honking.
Once we get to the sod farm, we get to work. We form a big assembly line. Some people (men) cut the pieces of sod out of the ground. We have other people down below gathering the big chunks of sod up and bringing them to the bottom of the hill to begin passing them on up the line. I’m somewhere on the hill. Sometimes if you are not fast enough throwing your sod piece up to the next person someone just tosses a piece at you before you are ready to catch again and it can get quite messy. Mud is pretty much everywhere by the time you are finished and so you don’t even mind climbing up on the big pile of sod for the drive back to the field.
Once in the field, some people dig holes, others throw fertilizer in the holes, some cut the sod into smaller pieces to fit in the holes, and then we plant the sod.
Another project that we have been a part of has been building a church/house. I have learned things I never thought I would about how to mix mortar and build walls with concrete blocks. I really enjoyed the couple days spent doing this. They were some hot days out in the sun, with the occasional fire ant bite thrown in. It was great to just listen to music and work together with some members of the other four teams here.
I’ve learned that ministry can look like so many different things. Even just spending some time with some of the missionary kids and helping them with math and writing reports can be ministry. Sometimes I can think that I have to be doing some big project to be really doing something worthwhile. I’m learning that it’s more about the conversations that are had every day. They can happen while working on a project or just sitting around getting to know each other better.
We leave Malaybalay on the 26th and head to Manila. We will be there for three days to say goodbye to out old squad leaders before heading to Thailand on the 29th. I’m excited, but will be a little sad to say goodbye to the kids.
