Latest and Greatest
New flash, I've been able to save pictures so you can click on the photo link to the left.
July 22 – 23, 2008
Wow, these last two days have been a real answer to prayer. The students seem to be crossing over and becoming friends. It is cool to seem a few girls run to their teacher for protection from the boys. They are also coming into the teachers room to hang out with the teachers during lunch time. All are hopeful signs.
We held our third Wednesday which is an all day activity day and requires a large amount of energy. We started it out with a skit by the team. Basically, it ends with me taking a whip cream pie to the face. The kids loved this, to see a leader humiliated is great for them. Later, they drew pictures and wrote teachers names in special styles on the blackboard. These are more signs that the ice has melted. The coconut is creaked. Yes, we still have the whacko unruly kids, but now we have made inroads. Unfortunately, my counselors are still adults and have they not breached the barrier to make, as my friend Joyce says, a donkey out of themselves. I have. I run and chase them, grab them, turn them upside down, play cards with them, punch them and various other juvenile things. However, the counselors did participate in the skit and they did see how it affected the students and maybe now realize it is okay to be a little goofy.
This is the key to success. We can discipline them all day, but until we win their hearts, it isn’t going to matter and the only way to win their hearts is to play with them. This is something most 20-22 years still can do, but it is harder for mature, educated adults to do. This weekend the counselors have some dates to take their students out and have fun. This is where the good stuff happens, the bonding, the relationship, and hopefully a few good conversations take place.
July 21, 2008
Monday, blue, blue Monday. The bus ride to school this morning was silent. We arrived and went into the teacher’s room, still silence. The air was thick, nobody wanted to be there. What a tragedy. God knows what he is doing, but the same cannot be said of man. Often times, God gives us the tools, the blue prints, and the road but for some reason we still fail. It is as the sermon from Sunday suggests, we have eyes but we cannot see. We see only the physical and fail to see the spiritual because we lack faith. Stop! Think about the verse were Jesus states, if only we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move a mountain. A mustard seed is a tiny little thing, which truly suggests that we don’t have much faith at all.
Mother Teresa stated that when she washed the feet of a leper she saw God in his face. She had the spiritual vision. We need that here and now. The tragedy isn’t in us being here, or in what we are doing, or even the behavior of the students. The tragedy is in the people being short sited, feeling discouraged because they don’t see what God is doing. They suffer from a lack of spiritual vision if you will.
If we have faith, if those on my team have faith, than they must know that God didn’t send them here for nothing, that God didn’t put it on the hearts of our friends, family and fellow brothers and sisters to support us both financially and spiritually. As team leader, and as an outsider to an extent, I get the privilege of seeing the changes in both the counselors and the students. I dare say that there has been greater change in the students than some of the counselors. The change in the students is what we are after; change in the counselors is always a plus.
July 20, 2008
Yesterday, ah I mean today, well that is in Oregon it is yesterday, but as I write this it is today. Okay, so we are 15 hours into the future. I called Coy at 5:00pm her time which would be 5:00pm on Saturday July 19, but for me it was 8:00pm Sunday, July 20, 2008. For Coy it was her birthday so I wanted to wish her a happy birthday. Yesterday, my yesterday, I stayed in the dorm, washed clothes, and got a bunch of school work done. It was a good Sabbath.
Today however, now I am speaking about July 20, Sunday, we went to Church, Kowloon International Baptist Church. They had a guest pastor come and his sermon was on seeing the things we cannot see, the invisible. He told some great stories, and the sermon was right on the mark for my counselors. They need to see the invisible that is, that God is working even if they cannot see it. They are focusing on the physical world, the trouble being caused by the students, their need to count beans, I mean see results. Hence the invisible part is the spiritual results often, no always left up to God.
The overall message was, walk by faith, and you will see the invisible. Our need to see the tangible often clouds our spiritual sight. The counselors have to learn that they very well my leave Hong Kong without counting one bean, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any beans. Okay, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t positively affect the lives of some children. We are making connections, we are growing, we are having nasty layers scrapped off, and we are shining light into the lives of some of the students. Two weeks left to go, still plenty of time to see a bean or two.
July 22 – 23, 2008
Wow, these last two days have been a real answer to prayer. The students seem to be crossing over and becoming friends. It is cool to seem a few girls run to their teacher for protection from the boys. They are also coming into the teachers room to hang out with the teachers during lunch time. All are hopeful signs.
We held our third Wednesday which is an all day activity day and requires a large amount of energy. We started it out with a skit by the team. Basically, it ends with me taking a whip cream pie to the face. The kids loved this, to see a leader humiliated is great for them. Later, they drew pictures and wrote teachers names in special styles on the blackboard. These are more signs that the ice has melted. The coconut is creaked. Yes, we still have the whacko unruly kids, but now we have made inroads. Unfortunately, my counselors are still adults and have they not breached the barrier to make, as my friend Joyce says, a donkey out of themselves. I have. I run and chase them, grab them, turn them upside down, play cards with them, punch them and various other juvenile things. However, the counselors did participate in the skit and they did see how it affected the students and maybe now realize it is okay to be a little goofy.
This is the key to success. We can discipline them all day, but until we win their hearts, it isn’t going to matter and the only way to win their hearts is to play with them. This is something most 20-22 years still can do, but it is harder for mature, educated adults to do. This weekend the counselors have some dates to take their students out and have fun. This is where the good stuff happens, the bonding, the relationship, and hopefully a few good conversations take place.
July 21, 2008
Monday, blue, blue Monday. The bus ride to school this morning was silent. We arrived and went into the teacher’s room, still silence. The air was thick, nobody wanted to be there. What a tragedy. God knows what he is doing, but the same cannot be said of man. Often times, God gives us the tools, the blue prints, and the road but for some reason we still fail. It is as the sermon from Sunday suggests, we have eyes but we cannot see. We see only the physical and fail to see the spiritual because we lack faith. Stop! Think about the verse were Jesus states, if only we had the faith of a mustard seed we could move a mountain. A mustard seed is a tiny little thing, which truly suggests that we don’t have much faith at all.
Mother Teresa stated that when she washed the feet of a leper she saw God in his face. She had the spiritual vision. We need that here and now. The tragedy isn’t in us being here, or in what we are doing, or even the behavior of the students. The tragedy is in the people being short sited, feeling discouraged because they don’t see what God is doing. They suffer from a lack of spiritual vision if you will.
If we have faith, if those on my team have faith, than they must know that God didn’t send them here for nothing, that God didn’t put it on the hearts of our friends, family and fellow brothers and sisters to support us both financially and spiritually. As team leader, and as an outsider to an extent, I get the privilege of seeing the changes in both the counselors and the students. I dare say that there has been greater change in the students than some of the counselors. The change in the students is what we are after; change in the counselors is always a plus.
July 20, 2008
Yesterday, ah I mean today, well that is in Oregon it is yesterday, but as I write this it is today. Okay, so we are 15 hours into the future. I called Coy at 5:00pm her time which would be 5:00pm on Saturday July 19, but for me it was 8:00pm Sunday, July 20, 2008. For Coy it was her birthday so I wanted to wish her a happy birthday. Yesterday, my yesterday, I stayed in the dorm, washed clothes, and got a bunch of school work done. It was a good Sabbath.
Today however, now I am speaking about July 20, Sunday, we went to Church, Kowloon International Baptist Church. They had a guest pastor come and his sermon was on seeing the things we cannot see, the invisible. He told some great stories, and the sermon was right on the mark for my counselors. They need to see the invisible that is, that God is working even if they cannot see it. They are focusing on the physical world, the trouble being caused by the students, their need to count beans, I mean see results. Hence the invisible part is the spiritual results often, no always left up to God.
The overall message was, walk by faith, and you will see the invisible. Our need to see the tangible often clouds our spiritual sight. The counselors have to learn that they very well my leave Hong Kong without counting one bean, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any beans. Okay, that doesn’t mean that they didn’t positively affect the lives of some children. We are making connections, we are growing, we are having nasty layers scrapped off, and we are shining light into the lives of some of the students. Two weeks left to go, still plenty of time to see a bean or two.
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