Today one of our staff witnessed that compassion can be learned even as a baby. Moses, age 2, was in a time-out lying on his bed crying. Andrew, who just turned one on May 16, has just begun walking and is beginning to waddle himself all over the room. He heard Moses crying and so he gingerly walked in and went straight to the closet and grabbed one of Angel's little dresses. He preceded to walk himself over to crying Moses and wipe away his tears with Angel's dress! This is definitely more than bottles and changing diapers...
DJ and Rachel
The long family is purging itself of some 'stuff' that others needed much more than us!! Its moving time after 14 years of living in the same condo building we are packing up and moving to the ministry center 30 meters or so from the children's home and adjacent to the Cuatro Community we have enjoyed reaching out to for the past many years... We are about 90% finished and its a good thing as since Colene, Jackie and Kyle will depart Manila on May 25 and Janel and I follow on the 31st. Kirk is already in the United States with his college basketball team in the greater Los Angeles, California area for three weeks. He is enjoying himself as he prepares for his starting point guard role in the upcoming season(opener on July 6 vs. arch rival LaSalle) Keep praying for Kirk to be strong witness for Jesus..
It’s always nice when family members move close to each other, well most of the time. But here with our Family, the move of our Nursery to the Children’s Home has been more than just nice; it’s been great for all of us. All 6 of our nursery babies (from ages 6 months to 2 ½ years) now temporarily occupy two bedrooms and the “big room” in between the girl’s and boy’s sides of the home.
All of the children have had no difficulties adjusting to life in a different environment, especially when 3 of them had lived there before.
The oldest children enjoy playing with and taking care of the infants. In the midst of their fun they are learning life skills - how to hold, feed, change and play with a baby. It really brings a good sense of unity in our family. We are still on the squished side and look forward to the completion of the new nursery/dining room project, which will be wonderful to spread out into. Life is good and God is great!
Water is talked about a lot around here. There is the free water stations for the community outside the Children's Home and at the Cuatro Community Center, and the new community cooperative water stations going in other parts of the neighborhood. Our fellow Kids International Ministries friends Bill and Debbie Shaw launched their first issue of the Jeepney magazine (a street mag designed to raise awareness about issues of the marginalized while providing employment to underprivileged vendors) with articles on the struggle to find clean water for those trapped in poverty.
But today I am talking about different kinds of water - the chlorinated kind and that which falls from the sky. It has gotten hot recently. The hot season finally hit here in Manila and the days are consistently beaten with intense sunshine. That is why one of the greatest activities for us to do with the kids these summer months when they are off of school is swimming. We are blessed to have Faith Academy nearby, which has an amazing pool. We go swimming there twice a week, once with the older kids and once with the younger, so everyone gets a chance. Every single kid looks forward to swim days; we always have such a fun and satisfying time spending a couple hours immersed. Like today, there was almost a collective sigh of relief as we plunged in with the older kids, escaping the heat in the cool water. Really, it's that nice. Plus, swimming: what a great life skill for our kids to learn! Here we are in a nation of 7,000+ islands, surrounded by water, and yet most kids around here in urban Manila don't know how to swim. Thanks to the Minnesota YMCA for donating enough goggles for all the kids to use, we have plenty of little fish on our hands.
While the pool is a fun way to cool off during these summer days, so is the rain. We've been getting an early glimpse of the upcoming rainy season this week with regular afternoon downpours. While this is not helpful to the guys busily trying to finish the roof on the new dining room/nursery construction at the Children's Home, it can be fun and refreshing. Unique to places in the world like this is the glorious sound of a warm, heavy rain drumming on corrugated metal roofs. When we left the Faith Academy pool this afternoon, it was just starting to rain hard. When we arrived back at the Children's Home in the middle of a downpour, we realized we were all still wet in swim suits and perfectly dressed for the occasion. So instead of drying off and changing, we splashed around with some of the kids, playing basketball, soccer, swinging on the rope swing, and just having a good time getting drenched. With even more rain to come, that will be the first of many times to enjoy the rain this season!