Speaking at the Elementary Schools

I went to a couple elementary schools to speak and help out with a skit.  It was fun interacting with the children and getting to know them.  Most of them were fascinated by my hair and some had watched me play basketball the day before.  They were a friendly and joyful bunch of children.  It's funny because sometimes the interaction seems like they're observing an alien.  They peek from behind their friends to catch a glance, the children upstairs were glancing over the rail, but they keep their distance and make a large path when I walk by.  That is until that one bold child comes up and touches my hair from behind or one student comes up to give me a high five, then before I know it I'm surrounded by and talking to a mob of students.  The children are generally very passive and observant initially, but they warm up very quickly.

The team leader led a skit where we made a chant where the first four people stated what gave them comfort and joy.  One person would say something like "I smoke, i drink, i blow my mind til I can't think" or " I'm buff, i'm tan, I'm the macho man..."  but were all sad at the end.  She finishes up by stating that Jesus gives her joy and comfort and she's the only one satisfied at the end.

Then I spoke about how sometimes it's tough to follow a life of Christ, especially if the most popular children are doing things like bullying, being disruptive, and saying bad things.  I tried to encourage them to continue to strive to do the right things and even if that means they lose some of their friends who are doing bad things it's okay because they'll always have a friend in... (and the students said on queue).. "Jesus!"  They were very attentive and interactive for the most part, except for the small group led by the student with the marijuana leaf hat.  He was singing an old Wiz Khalifa song as I was talking to him.  He was a funny kid.

I got interviewed by a third grade for his class project.  He asked a few questions like: what is your missions trip for?  What do you think of Filipinos?  How have you liked it here?...    That student was a good listener and very insightful.  Afterwards the students asked for autographs, so I signed them along with a bible verse.

As the students were playing basketball and in other areas, I noticed something peculiar.  Whenever i have been shooting around here in the States, you don't get the ball back unless you make it.  However, as they were shooting around in the Philippines the shooter gets three tries to make it, and if they do make it they don't get the ball back.  It's a small observation but I think it speaks to the overall generosity that I've noticed during my short stay in the Philippines.

To wrap up our visit we got a chance to talk to the principal.  It's amazing that we were even able to have an assembly on short notice.  The schools our team goes to speak at are not always Christian schools, however they still manage to accomodate us.  The separation between the church and state is not emphasized in the cities we went to, and Christianity is influential in the places of government that we visited.  What we did wouldn't be hard to do in a secular school in the U.S.  It was refreshing to see Jesus glorified at a public school.  She was very flexible and she thanked us for coming to speak to the children.  Then we prayed with her and took pictures.