Broken Pots

When you pour your heart into a broken vessel it can hurt. 

I have learned that I set different standards for different people pots.  Some people I give much of myself to and I expect very little, a smile will do.  Other people I pour out for and am hurt to the core when I get back next to nothing.  I don't know why my expectations are different, but they are. 

Much of what we do here involves the broken - families, people, animals, shelters....But I did expected that the umbrella we came to work under would not be broken.  We expected strong, firm, support; mentoring, encouragement, love and guidance.  I will not go into the details because most of you would not fathom the depth of the cracks in this organization.  When I look at the hurts caused by those in 'our' ministry I am amazed; if anyone had told me beforehand I would not have believed that a Christian organization could be so damaging... Naive, I know. 

So what have we done in response?  I confess that I have been angry, sad, hurt.  I gave more weight to the approval of some people than I did to others.  In just these past few days I have realized that the people we came here to serve have been amazing!  Every Filipino teacher at school has taken time to thank me specifically for help that I gave to them over the year.  While our 'leadership' has never bothered to know us, we have been known by those we serve.  The families at our outreach site are always so kind.  Our community knows us, they see our hearts.  I have had to let go and know that the people who invited us here will never know us, they are indifferent to us.  But that is their loss.  Our gains are so great.

Ethan going sailing with some of the school staff.  My grade 4 teaching partner is the first guy.

 

 C with very large pizza on her head.  C and I went to pick up the 30 inch pizzas for our staff party, there was no way we could carry them back to the J house.  A Caldo's Pizza employee offered to deliver the pizzas for us, 4  30 inch pizzas!  on his scooter!

Once the kind scooter pizza guy got the pizza to Angol road, Man carried 3 up the walk to the house, C and the scooter guy delivered the other one to our children.  

Pizza and Karaoke at the J house.

The following Saturday my co teacher and I had a bit of a party on the beach for the grade 4 kiddos.

 Paradise, sort of.

Kids on our beach - they always have smiles for us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Same old same old

Not much new stuff going on here lately.  Wrapping up the school year, writing exams, proctoring exams, grading exams.....not the part of life that I love.

Man took boys to Donsol this week so I'd have a quiet house to do all of the above.  Too quiet.  Man and I have said in the past that we'll never be apart again, but here we are: away from each other and hating it.  I guess that's a good sign isn't it?

Here is what they have been doing:


Seriously!  Swimming with the whale sharks!  Totally a once in a life time opportunity.  When we would talk to people about coming here, they would often ask the kids what they most wanted to do, Biz would say "Swim with the whale sharks."  Right now they are inside the bay area, east of Leyte Island, eating plankton that has come in on the current current (hey and that's not a typo).

I have been eating.  Amazing how cheap it is to eat out when it's just me.  And of course I've been working.

Here are some pics of what I've been seeing.

 This little girl's mom sells hats along the beach path.  I imagined her shouting "Olay!"

She is just so cute.

 I pass these two on my way to and from work.  The dog is old, rare around here, the duck looks old, too.  Usually there is an old cat. 

Sure I don't know how this got on my camera. 

He's hot, and he's a biter.  The dog.  

This is Susan, our second storey Tokay gecko.  She was shedding her skin and unable to climb so she sat on the top step and growled at me.  We now have a third Tokay up on the roof landing - he's a little guy. 

Heading out to play with kids for a bit, then to eat Greek food on the beach.  Nice

speechless

It is hard to take time and energy to post each week, or every few days.  The burden of being here is heavier than I would have imagined.  The attacks come from all sides.  On an island where God is minimized, sex is the main thing worshiped, and change is a such a constant, the battles are harsh. 

But many things do shine through.  The Bible reminds us to focus our thought on things that are pure, beautiful, lovely.

Yellow or green?  How about both!

Isn't this the biggest smile you've seen in a long while?

At the Cagban site these two ladies climbed up on the bamboo and repaired the roof, allowing us to keep our feet on the ground.

Ethan is the extraordinary kid entertainer of this family.  

An adorable kitten.  

Ethan up to his usual role of making kids smile.  

Seth burying Yo.  I lost track of how many people wanted their picture taken with this kid!  Note the guy in the background trying to copy the boys; he was not nearly as popular. 

Olive in one of his non-biting moments, but he is just about to bite.   Or just finished biting someone and is now tired.

Love this guy at Laguna who prefers to bring his own stool, thank you very much.

Man's tat.  It goes around onto his chest.  All 5 of our boys' names are in Filipino script, worked into the tribal art.  

Yes, our sunsets really do look like this.

Imagine this pic before the other one.  Don't know how they get switched in the download.

This is at Diniwid site.  Shan's mum came for a visit these past two weeks, at the site she enjoyed a game of football catch with the local hambone - every village has at least one kid who is the smilingest, most joyful kiddo.  

THe roof was beyond repair so we ripped it all down and started fresh.

The Diniwid well. 

The kids playing marbles.

That's it for tonight.  Cock-a-doodle-do to you.