There are many great days at CSC for each kid.  Going on the beach, playing in a baseball game, ice cream and a movie, any number of school activities, and their birthday party are all up there on the list of memorable days.  This past weekend, several kids had their second best day at CSC!  They were told they will be adopted and were able to see pictures of their new family!  The kids walk into a room with their house parents and all the CSC missionary staff, so right away they suspect something.  Once the kids are told, the reactions differ.  It is hard to know how to react to the biggest prayer/hope/dream of your life being answered.  After the initial shock, they go and share the news with the other kids and they are all smiles.

Have you guessed what the Best Day at CSC is for the kids?  The day the kid gets to join their adoptive family!

CSC is here for the children.  I came here to help care for them.  The longer I am at CSC the more I realize that it is a HUGE team effort.  The American missionaries (I am one of them) are by no means the only people caring and providing for the children.  There are childcare workers (aunties), guards, social workers, accountants, teachers, therapists, guards, Stateside office staff, etc.  Those are just the people employed by CSC.  Local people also lend a hand in helping care for the children as well as supporters around the world. 

I have been able to spend time with some of the workers at CSC outside of working hours.  Several of us found we have a common interest in riding bicycles. In the past year, we have have met up several times at Jollibee (Filipino fastfood chain) early in the morning to pedal.  The traffic and scenery keep you on your toes through the entire ride.  When my dad was here in Cebu in June, we made sure to organize a ride up the coast.  Our group in is a make shift group of guys.  One guy works at CSC part time, another used to work at CSC, another puts in more hours than there are hours in the day and there is me, the odd-ball American.  Having a common bond in our interest for biking has been a real joy. 

In January, councilor Victor and I started a Bible study with the older boys.  Every Wednesday we gather the boys 13 and above and head to our usual meeting place--the Children of Hope School library.  We started by looking at men in the Bible and how God used them and worked through them.

There is a fine line for teen boys between having fun learning, joking, being engaged in the topic and complete chaos.  It is great when the group can walk that line.  Victor and I want the boys to be comfortable and relaxed so discussions can be candid and open.  The silliness and comfort levels seem be settling in at a good balance.  The boys are opening up more, asking more questions, offering more ideas.  When it comes time to close in prayer, all the boys shout out prayer requests from thanking supporters to new construction, healing sick kids to asking for adoptive parents.  However, it is hard to get the boys to volunteer to offer up the requests in the group.  Over the past months, Joevanie and Christian have stepped forward to pray almost each night.  Joevanie has since left for adoption, but Christian is picking up the slack.  The moments of openness and volunteering to pray are encouragements for me. 

Something in Boys' Club must be fun. 

• The 12 year old boys count down the days until the first night they can join. 
• Throughout the day on Wednesdays, I am asked several times, "We have boys' club tonight?" 
  
• Joemar calls Boys' Club "church."  Monday mornings Joemar is already asking me when we have "church" next. (Joemar is a 33 year old guy with mental limitations.  He can hold three or four thoughts at a time.) 
• The girls keep asking to join.  However, the criteria for attending Boys' Club is strict: 1) You must be a male.  2) You must be 13 years or older.

Birthdays are a big deal here. For the kids at the shelter it is one of the few days that all attention is on them.  My birthday just passed so it was my turn to be the center of attention.  Bart (almost 5 years old) wished me a happy birthday by saying, "Happy Birthday Bungot."  Bungot means beard in Cebuano.  He had decided that sounded better than Uncle Joel.  A couple days later at Argei Kem's birthday party I sat at the little kids table with Bart and his little sister Jashly (3).  Bart was still wishing me a "Happy Birthday Bungot."  He started chanting it and pulling my goatee.  Jashly joined in with the chanting and pulling.

Two years have passed since the two new buildings started going up.  Now the Duterte House and Frankie Wright Center have been finished!  It is an extremely exciting time at CSC.  The children, staff, workers and visitors are all smiles when these beautiful buildings are mentioned. 

Here is a video tour of the new Duterte Home. It is a beautiful building designed by Alan Wright, addressing the specific needs of CSC. The entire building is handicap accessible and has two rooms specifically for handicapped residents. The center courtyard and its skylights make for a striking entrance. There is a lot of storage space in the basement. And, of course, there is a nursery, bedrooms, dining room, kitchen, house parents' apartment and places for the children to play and hang out. It is exciting to have the Duterte Home finished!
   

Here is a video tour of the Frankie Wright Center. This new infirmary building will be a huge improvement from the existing three-room infirmary. The Frankie Wright Center has a bigger office and laboratory for the CSC medical staff. It also has six isolation rooms surrounding a nurses station, making it easier to look after more sick children at one time.
  

The construction of the new residential and medical buildings has been going on for two years and the planning started several years before the land was even cleared.  They are nearly done! The finishing touches and final cleaning are underway.  The doors are in, ceiling tiles put in place, light fixtures and switches wired, walls receiving the last coat of paint, beds and cribs being delivered,...  To see it all coming to fruition is amazing.

From the beginning, Joemar has known we will be moving into the new residential building.  He will be sharing a room with Jacob, who has cerebral palsy.  Joemar can hold three or four thoughts at a time, one of which is always "his" new house.  He will ask, "Balay?" ("House?").  In return I will ask, "Mana?" (Finished?").  Joemar will answer disappointedly, "Wala pa." (Not yet.")  That interchange will have to be edited to end with Joemar exclaiming, "O, MANA!" ("YES, IT'S FINISHED!").

Joemar and I walked through the new house one evening last week.  Joemar pointed out each fan in every room.  The rooms are looking great.  Cabinets finished, door hung, windows installed, fans wired, tiling and painting done.  The rooms are big and wide open.  It reminds me that they need to be filled with beds, cribs, chairs, toys, clothes, papers, books, and (of course) children.  These building are a wonderful blessing.  Now that they are nearly finished, we are looking to furnish them so they are ready for the children.  Follow this link to find out about the needs for the furnishings of the residential and medical buildings. 

The dedication of the residential and medical buildings will be June 20th.  Be sure to check out the CSC website to see the buildings completed!

Summer activities are underway.  There is basketball, guitar lessons, cooking, swimming, art and badminton.  I am responsible for getting the kids to guitar lessons and swimming class.  They all want to sit in the front seat so I have them take turns.  One day, Joselito was riding shotgun.  We passed an old man walking along, carrying a child of six or seven on his back.  Both the man and child were very dirty, but the boy wore no clothes.  Joselito asked, "Could I get some of my moneyand buy shorts and give them to the boy?"  Some kids know how to ask the right questions. 

The kids and I talked about the offering at church and tithe and giving to others the rest of the ride home.  Teaching opportunities can arise from simply passing a child on the road.

This week, April 20-24, the CSC kids will be going on a field trip!  Not just a field trip.  There will be three different field trips!  The little kids, 4-7 years old, will be camping overnight at the school complete with tents, hiking and smores.  The middle group, 8-10 year old kids, will be traveling to the neighboring island of Bohol to see the Chocolate hills, tarsier monkeys, a giant snake and more.  The older kids, 11 years and up, will be going to Manila for four days and three nights!  They will visit museums, historical sights, the presidential house, an ice skating rink and much more. 

The teachers will be accompanying the kids on these trips.  I will be joining the Manila trip. 

Check out the Mega-Field Trip website for more information of the kids on the trips, where they are going and what they will see. 

Daily the Mega-Field Trip Blog will be update!  Check here frequently to keep up with the fun the kids are having on their respective trips. 

The Level C students have been taking a life skills and industrial arts class this year.  I taught the industrial arts part.  The students learned how to work with wood to make a small box in which they can put some belongings.  They learned the basics of measuring, sawing, hammering, gluing, sanding, screwing and more.  Each student started off with the same basic design.  I encouraged them to make some variations, especially with the lids of the box.  When the plans were finished being drawn no two boxes were the same. 

Once a week for 45 minutes they worked on their boxes.  That is a short amount of time for beginners to accomplish a lot, so the weekly progress was some what slow.  Things started coming together and moving faster when the sawing was completed.  When the boxes were assembled with hinges and latch installed the students painted their boxes.  They used their knowledge of painting from art class to create a variety of colors and designs.  The students were very excited to bring the boxes home once the paint dried.  The boxes were filled that day.  Check out the pictures of the box building process and of course the final products. 

Saturday was a good day.  The kids 9 to 13 years old participated in a baseball tournament.  The CSC Twins took the field after a two year hiatus and placed second!  The kids had loads of fun! 

The first game ended in a flurry of runs by both the Phillies and Twins.  With the score tied at four entering the fifth and final inning the Phillies cranked in five runs.  The Twins were not to be out done.  Arnel hit a three run home run bringing in Paula and John.  Then Milbert followed suit with his own three run home run hitting home Christian and Birny for a 10 to 9 win! 

The second game was against a tougher team, but that did not stop the Twins from playing well.  Even though the final score was 10 to 2 in the other team's favor the Twins still held their heads high, because they knew they had played well.  The defense played better and little John hit a solo home run in the last inning.

The sun shone on the kids as they enjoyed a day of playing baseball.  By the time we returned to the shelter stars were out.  The kids jumped out the of vehicle and hustled to their houses for a much needed supper.  As I shut off the vehicle I noticed John laying in the grass.  Thinking he was being dramatic I walked over and asked, "Are you tired?  Do you need me to carry you inside?"  He said, "No.  I am looking at the stars.  Look, an umbrella."  So I lay down in the grass to his right and he pointed out the umbrella in the stars.  After only a minute or two we stood up, he gave me a hug and said, "Thank you Uncle Joel."  He turned and jogged inside to get his supper.

John had a blast simply playing a fun game today.  It did not really matter that he was one of the better players even though he only 11 years old.  The solo home run he hit did not really matter.  It was a just good day.

Several months have passed since the staff has been able to tell a child they will be joining an adoptive family soon (excluding babies and toddlers).  Within the last week we have been able to share in this special moment with several children.  I had forgotten how powerful and moving the simple sentence "You have a mom and dad" actually is for the children.  Watching and waiting for reaction to the sentence triggers tears.  Then to actually see the light behind the eyes and the smile stretch from ear to ear causes the eyes to leak joy.  The situations of the child/children can be different but the prayer is the same.  A child with no siblings at CSC or a sibling group in jeopardy of being split up, it does not matter.  Adoption is the dream and when it comes true joyous tears are a necessity. 

Analiza came to CSC just after her 12th birthday with her five siblings.  Four years have past since then.  Analiza, Jenive, Bernardo, Birny, Jeffrey and Rafael have grown so much in that time.  Physically all of them are short for their age, but they have been growing upward.  School does not come as easily to them as it does to other kids.

Analiza is a great big sister.  She looks after her siblings as well as the other kids.  She especially likes to help the aunties in caring for the babies and toddlers.  I am never surprised when I see her leading the toddlers around the yard by the hand.

School is hard work for Analiza.  She graduated from sixth grade last year and has been spending this school year at CCHS preparing for high school.  This year she has gained many good study habits and skills and is ready to enter high school.  She enjoys science experiments.  This week her math class started Algebra!  Analiza is excited that it is making sense to her.  She also enjoys music a lot too.  She plays the clarinet, is learning the saxophone and piano, and sings in the praise band.

She is quick to laugh and crack a joke.  Like most sixteen year old girls she likes going to the cinema and beach.  Her friends mean a lot to her.  Kids at CSC need their friends to help them deal with their pasts and look forward to the future.  The future is not easy for her to dwell on.  By that I mean, Analiza dreams and prays for an adoptive family for her and her siblings, but she has already seen many of her friends leave CSC with their "new" families.  She is waiting and praying and dreaming.  Please pray for Analiza, Jenive, Bernardo, Birny, Jeffrey and Rafael.

Kids will surprise you.  Conversations can take interesting turns without warning.  Birthday parties are a time when these conversations sometimes occur.  At Bernardo's birthday party (who turned 12) I sat by Nino and Jeremie.  Most of the meal was filled with good food and silliness.  Many jokes were being sent back and forth.  The jokes continued into cake and ice cream time.  As I was finishing my dessert and Bernardo started to open his presents, Jeremie turned to me and said, "My name is Jeremie."  Wondering what joke would come out of this comment I answered, "My name is Joel."  In an assertive voice Jeremie said, "I am a warrior of God!"  I was taken by surprise!  I love the twists of conversation over mango cake and ube/mango/chocolate ice cream!

Rafael and I go way back.  In January 2006 I visited CSC and that is when I first met Rafael.  He hung on my leg and sat on my lap.  He was cute, silly, funny, and he knew it.  At that time he was four and a half years old.  Now Rafael is seven and a half.  He still is cute, silly, funny, and he still knows it.  In addition now, he is growing up.  He is no longer the youngest boy in Eicher House.  Being in Level A has helped him to realize it can be fun to be a little older.  He is taking on more responsibility and liking it.

Rafael showed his maturity Sunday night.  Paula, a ten year old girl in Cherne House, was scheduled for surgery Monday morning.  Many of the children wanted to write her letters of encouragement especially when they heard I was going to visit her at the hospital that night.  There was a mad scramble for the paper and pencils.  Over the next hour the children came through in fine style for Paula.  This is where Rafael enters.  In addition to having the children writing letters I was putting them to bed.  Rafael took on the role of letter collector.  Without being asked he picked up my folder and walked around making sure that no letter of encouragement was forgotten.  He dutifully put the completed ones in the front pocket of my folder for easy access.  If another child had a question or needed help, Rafael would come find me.  When 7:45 rolled around my folder was bulging with prayers and positive thoughts.  I gathered the children who were still awake and we asked God to be with Paula and the doctors during the surgery the next morning.  I then hustled out the door, down the hill and to the hospital barely making it before visiting hours ended at 8:00.  The letters in the front pocket of my folder put a huge smile on Paula's face.  [Quick aside which is too good to deprive you of:  The children usually end their letters with "God Bless You."  Jenive ended her letter to Paula with "God Bless Your Kidney."]

Paula's surgery went well.  She will spend a couple more days in the hospital recovering.

Thanks to all the children who took the time to let Paula know how much they care for her.  Thanks to Rafael to overseeing the gathering of all the letters. 

Christine has surprised everyone with her transformation this past year.  She arrived at CSC with her little sister Ge An in January 2008.  This was just before her eighth birthday.  When Christine first came, she was extremely shy.  It was several months before she initiated a "high 5" with me.  Slowly Christine has allowed people to get close.  Now in most settings she is one of the more talkative kids.  In one week she will celebrate her ninth birthday.

Yesterday Christine was writing a reply letter to her Foster Friend.  She wrote a nice letter and took her time drawing a good picture, which she usually rushes through.  When she finished I walked down to with her from the school to the shelter.  As we exited the school gate she reached for my hand.  We walked we talked about her first year at CSC and I asked her, "What is your favorite thing at CSC?"  She did not say Christmas, special activities with work team, school, attention from staff, or all the food.  In a tone full of thoughtfulness and at the same time happiness, Christine said the friends she had made at CSC were her favorite.  She said she had so much fun playing with all her friends whether in her room, their room, or outside.  It does not matter what they do together, because they will have fun.

Christine has grown in so many ways this past year.  She likes to ask questions.  She likes to joke around.  She likes to share her knowledge of things she has learned in school.  She likes to have a handle on things.  She is still figuring out life, but she is on her way.  Christine has gone from beyond shy to a little leader in her own way.

My tasks at CSC cover a wide range and are always changing.  I update pictures and news items on the website (www.cscshelter.org).  I help the kids write letters to supporters (Foster Friend program).  I teach physical education to the Children of Hope School (CCHS). 

There are other things which come up throughout a day.  With 75 children in CSC's care, rarely a day goes by without something coming up.  From a medical standout, there are sick children nearly all the time and someone has to drive them to see the doctor.  These kind of trips are done by the person who is the closest and is able to take the time.  So sometimes that is me. 

Breaking up the monotony of the daily routine has to be dealt with at times.  I usually do not come up with the ideas for special events, but I am more than willing to participate.  Uncle Paul Healy and I challenged the kids to a reading contest for the first quarter of the school year.  Their reward for winning (which they did) was to throw Uncle Paul in a pool and have me ride a carabao (water buffalo).  Last week was Thanksgiving in the US and the US staff helped put on a little program at CCHS to show the kids what Thanksgiving is about.  I played the role of a pilgrim in a short reenactment of the first Thanksgiving.  Experience is not a requirement for these type of things. 

Throughout each day I am an authority figure to the kids as well as a mentor and hopefully a friend.  The list of tasks that I need to do continues to morph and that is fine.  At CSC, we are here for the children.  Next year my duties may be completely different.

Joselito asked the other day, "Uncle Joel, are you an astronaut?"  I answered, "No, I am missionary."

A year and a half ago a church in Colorado donated bicycles to CSC.  The kids enjoy biking a lot!  The trouble is to find the time to take all the kids biking.  This past weekend I took four of the older boys out for a ride.  Melvin, Nino, Argei Kem and Rael had fun.  We rode on a road which follows a river into the mountains.  I chose this road because the traffic is lighter.  And the view is icing on the cake. 

The kids enjoy breaks from the routine.  Going biking is one of those special, routine breaking activities.  While riding with Melvin, Nino, Argei Kem and Rael I was reminded that simply doing an activity outside the shelter is somewhat of treat.  Routine breakers do not have to be big, elborate things which the kids will talk about for years to come.  They can simply be a change from normal, everyday life. 

Traveling to new places sometimes has a way for creating funny comments and exchanges in conversations. 

When the students "visited Brazil" for United Nations Day they were greeted with the challenge of crossing the "Amazon River" in a zip line.  John Ray has brittle bone disease so riding the zip line was not an option for him.  His job was to tell the other students when it was safe to cross the crocodile inhabited "Amazon River".  John Ray is a very nice boy who is very considerate of others, but with the megaphone in his hand he changed.  He started telling the crocodile (played by the school janitor Uncle Bobong) to, "Eat the children!"  It was funny to hear John Ray's little voice over the top of the noise of excitement chanting, "Eat the children! Eat the children!" Of course he was joking.

Arnel is in Level B (3rd grade).  He was trying to enter Russia when he was stopped for questioning by Teacher Francis.  "What is your purpose in coming to Russia?" Teacher Francis asked.  Arnel thought for a while.  Teacher Francis asked the question again.  Thoughtfully Arnel answered, "Colonize."  CSC teaches to dream big dreams.

Its was a great day!  Follow this link to see what fun a zip line over the "Amazon River" can be!

Rubik's cubes are everywhere!  And a high percentage of them are solved!

Several weeks ago there were only a couple, now lots of the children have them, and they are getting really good at solving them.  Melvin is the resident champ among the children.  He said a friend timed him at 1:53 (that is one minute and fifty three seconds)!!!  I will need to time him to believe it.  While we were talking he solved one (casually) in less than 5 minutes!  I finished one side and got stuck (the stopwatch was NOT running for me).  I will have to get a lesson from Master Melvin.

Supporters send letters to the children of CSC, mainly through the child sponsoring program "Foster Friends."  When letters arrive in Cebu I deliver them and help the children respond.  Because of this a common greeting I receive is not "Hello" but, "Uncle Joel, do I have a letter?"  Most days I have to answer "No."  On Saturday, at least 6 children had asked if they had a letter as I entered the shelter.  Then Arnel came up to me, gave me a hug and said, "Hello, Uncle Joel!  How are you today?"  I answered, "I am doing well Arnel.  Thank you for asking.  And how are you?"

CSC may be the first place these children have been given a letter, a chance to go to the movies, and those are just surface things.  It stands to reason that they will ask me every day if they have a letter.  Having Arnel come up and genuinely ask how I was made my day.  It reminded me that the children are grateful to receive letters and all the other things, but they may not know how to express it.  Showing gratitude and understanding giving and receiving falls under the job description of the CSC staff and workers.  Arnel's greeting is just of many examples of a child learning to think of others first and not focus on their own wants.  It is encouraging to say the least!