The great thing about having a birthday in the Philippines with a bunch of Americans, is that it begins midnight Filipino time and doesn't end until midnight American time. So Dani got to celebrate her birthday for 39 hours.
Most of it was spent running around with kids, doing dramas, the usual. Part of it was spent swimming late at night with kids who came up from the barrio to join in. It felt great to just celebrate as hard as we could, and I finally took to just diving over and over and over...
At one point I was hoisting myself out of the pool when the sky caught my eye. It was perhaps the clearest night we'd had so far, and the stars were out in force, gleaming to be noticed. I paused at the edge, and following my awe came the thought, "what if there were sharks in this pool?"
With a strong imagination, that's a terrifying question. But on that night, it was my turn to be nonplussed. Instantly the reply in my mind was "so what about sharks? I've got stars."
I shared this later with the group, and they laughed. I laughed with them-- not everyone contemplates the idea of the swimming pool shark. But I had learned something from that moment. As I told the team, "Even if it's entirely absurd, God still knows your language and how to speak it."
The team is keeping a quote book to remember the funny and memorable things people say while we're here. There are plenty of humorous moments, but one of my favorites came when Kari was teaching a group of deaf students using sign language. She came to the verse "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Confessing with your mouth would be pretty pointless for someone who communicates with their hands, so Kari signed assurance to them "God knows sign. You can confess with your hands."
Most of it was spent running around with kids, doing dramas, the usual. Part of it was spent swimming late at night with kids who came up from the barrio to join in. It felt great to just celebrate as hard as we could, and I finally took to just diving over and over and over...
At one point I was hoisting myself out of the pool when the sky caught my eye. It was perhaps the clearest night we'd had so far, and the stars were out in force, gleaming to be noticed. I paused at the edge, and following my awe came the thought, "what if there were sharks in this pool?"
With a strong imagination, that's a terrifying question. But on that night, it was my turn to be nonplussed. Instantly the reply in my mind was "so what about sharks? I've got stars."
I shared this later with the group, and they laughed. I laughed with them-- not everyone contemplates the idea of the swimming pool shark. But I had learned something from that moment. As I told the team, "Even if it's entirely absurd, God still knows your language and how to speak it."
The team is keeping a quote book to remember the funny and memorable things people say while we're here. There are plenty of humorous moments, but one of my favorites came when Kari was teaching a group of deaf students using sign language. She came to the verse "That if you confess with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Confessing with your mouth would be pretty pointless for someone who communicates with their hands, so Kari signed assurance to them "God knows sign. You can confess with your hands."
keep posting. more often even.
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