It was the most busy month of the race so far and, therefore, my favorite. Every moment was full with something tangible to do. I spent many hours in the infant room holding, feeding, changing the diaper of, singing to sleep, etc. one of three precious infants at the children’s home. HannahLeah was just 5 weeks old when we arrived – she is precious! Mostly she just slept, ate and dirtied her diaper, but when she was awake, I loved it! Ian was 8 months old when we arrived and is full of life and strength. He is very active, eats a lot, and drolls constantly. Also, he snores loudly.
Caleb – he’s my favorite. He was 15 months old when we arrived, though he was born premature due to a failed abortion attempt and, consequently, is the size of a six month old. Caleb is so happy and joyful and has a smile that instantly melts your heart. The house mother, Elizabeth, does physical therapy with him often (the doctors said that if he isn’t walking by the time he is two they will diagnose him with cerebral palsy) and I was able to help sometimes. If I held him just right and encouraged him, he would take steps toward me and get a huge grin once he reached me…he clearly knew that he had done a good job and was so proud of himself. I would take him home with me in an instant if allowed….so precious.
When I wasn’t in the infant room, I was playing with the older children. This included reading, coloring, making bracelets, hours of pushing them on the swing, or playing basketball and soccer.
In addition to hanging out with the kids at the home, there was an opportunity every afternoon to feed children in the poorer neighborhoods of Malaybalay. Five or so of us would go with a local pastor, noodles and tofu-balls in hand, to a different location each day. We would start with a skit about David and Goliath, sing silly songs and then serve the children. I loved the afternoon feedings and cherished the time spent in the community.
Our team also helped build a wall (mostly the guys, I “helped” one day, but actually made it worse!), moved boxes/furniture, played in league basketball team, and taught English at a local prison. The prison story is amazing – I am so proud of my team and squadmates for the work they did there. You can check out the video on Jodi Greenlee’s blog here: http://jodigreenlee.theworldrace.org/?filename=the-kind-of-love-that-changes-you.
And last, but not least, I had the opportunity to share my testimony with youth attending a week-long camp on the grounds of the children’s home. I should back up and say that the home was on the site of Mt. Moriah Youth Camp, founded about 10 years ago. It is name after the mountain where Abraham obediently went to sacrifice his son, Issac, and God provided the ram instead (found in Genesis 22). The name is symbolic because they started the camp because God told them to and they have incredible stories of God providing for their needs (like not having food for the next day of camp and random shipments of rice coming in!!). Anyway, every summer they have hundreds of kids come in for camps and we happened to overlap with one of the camps. The theme was “Live Out Loud,” which was the same theme of the conference I attended in 7th grade when I decided that I wanted to be a missionary. It was fun to have that common ground and to really connect with the youth.
Now, we are currently in Phnom Pehn, the capitol of Cambodia, receiving cultural training and awaiting our monthly assignment. I don’t yet know which city we will be in, but am pretty sure that we will be teaching English. It is bittersweet because May is our last month as a team (we separate guys/girls for the final month in Thailand) so we are anxious to get started, but also wanting to pull the breaks. I cannot believe how fast time is flying – must cherish every moment!!
