Day 2 - One piece of paper...

Who knew one of the greatest gifts from day 2 would be one sheet of paper.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words but…

After an hour long drive into the countryside we arrived at a public high school.  Two open air buildings surrounding a field and an open air auditorium with a dirt floor and tons of smiling faces were what greeted us.  

We did a short program for them that included songs, a skit, and Austin’s testimony. (Note: I should never be the videographer in that I thought I recorded the skit but actually recorded me putting the phone back in my pocket after the skit.) We gave the school notebooks and gel pens for all the students and provided lunch for the teachers, but in this upside down kingdom God has put us in, we received far more than we gave.

They broke us into groups and taught us Filipino games.  The best part was the loud cheering that each one of our students heard as we attempted a new feat.  It was as if they had reached celebrity status for the students.  They chanted each of our students names as they attempted a new feat.

Kickball played with flip flops for bases and the ball too.  Racing with coconuts for shoes and a lot of jumping games in which the students seemed to sacrifice their bodies trusting that their heads really could be unscathed as we jumped over them.  There were a lot of laughs and tumbles, but we came away mostly whole.  

This high school is a massive blessing to the community. These kids used to have to walk very far to get to school, but someone donated this piece of land so that they could have a school closer and more kids would be able to attend because of the proximity.  

One of the greatest blessings to the students is the food that is provided by Feed One (the program that we all support monthly).  I was so blessed to see how healthy they looked and to know that so many are taking a part in it.

The coolest gift though was a short ceremony in the teacher’s lounge where they gave us a copy of the daily bulletin for the school.  He gave it to me carefully with two hands and I received it with a bow with both hands.  It listed us as the guests of the day and one of the top stakeholders in the school because of the feeding program. I was afraid to fold it and put it away as it seemed so valuable.  

I wondered at how many times my name has been printed in publication form (not a ton by the way) and how this legal sized black and white paper seemed far more significant than all other accolades in print.

Note: The trivia of the day at the bottom of the paper was about how lemons are one of the healthiest foods and how you should have a little in a mug of warm water to kickstart your day. I approve of this message.