Staff Blog

Most of the activities for our CSC kids involve groups. They eat together, play together and go to school together. But some of the most precious times at CSC involve them receiving one on one attention from a staff member, a house parent, a counselor or a teacher. At CSC we recognize the importance of providing one on one situations where our kids can experience having the undivided attention of a person that they admire, respect and enjoy being with. With more than 90 children to attend to, we cannot provide as many of these experiences as we would like, but as I go around the shelter and school, I am encouraged to see that they do happen, every day.

Have you ever tried explaining something that is native and normal to your country, only to realize how strange it really is?  If you are an American, stop and think about, say, the way April Fool’s Day is celebrated. You get to pull tricks on people and get away with it all day! When you explain that to a foreigner, you would get a pretty confused reaction.  In American Studies class, I have the privilege of doing just that: introducing children who are about to be adopted by U.S. families to American culture!

Before we get too far, I need to introduce myself. My name is Katie Elliott, and I began teaching American Studies at Cebu Children of Hope School when Teacher Tammy returned to the states.  My husband and I moved to Cebu in January 2013 for his job at the business outsourcing office for his company and I have been volunteering at CSC since February of this year.  American Studies is a course designed for the school-aged children of CSC who have been matched for adoption to U.S. families.  In American Studies, we learn things like the pledge of allegiance, information about the state they’re moving to, national monuments, U.S. history, and American customs and norms.   My favorite unit was holidays and seasons.  It has been so funny to hear their reactions when I explain things like being pinched if they didn’t wear green on St. Patrick’s Day!  Or a leprechaun trying to steal a pot of gold from the end of a rainbow...especially when the holiday is celebrating Irish heritage, yet you're moving to America!  When we learned about winter, they were disappointed to hear that it might not snow every single day of winter, as they can't wait to build snowmen and go sledding.  Check out our adventures in making pumpkin pie when we studied Thanksgiving!

Every one knows that we have cute kids. That is one of our prerequisites for admission! But we recently found out that we have some pretty sweet kids too. We were in the midst of an emotional and difficult situation with one of our kids,  we had to tell him that he would be leaving CSC. He is a great kid, we had just come to the realization that CSC was not the best place for him. Praise the Lord we found a good place for him in a family - but this was still a very difficult task that was weighing heavily on us. Literally, just a few minutes before Ruth and I had to have that conversation with the young man who would have to leave CSC, four of our darling young teen and pre-teen girls presented us with an artistic creation that they had done all on their own. I had seen them working on something earlier in the week, but they quickly hid it from me, I thought it was just a silly girl thing. It was not. These girls presented us with this work of art (from their heart) at the time that it could encourage us the most! It was the sweetest thing. They didn't know we were dealing with this especially tough situation at that moment in time. It was an encouragement and a reminder to us that God is using CSC to change hearts. I thank God for the sweet kids that he sends our way. And I thank these SWEET girls for being God's hands and voice to us at a time that we needed it!

Last week was Conferences at the Children of Hope School.  So on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, from 12:30-4:30, our hardworking teachers presented on their students to the staff and house parents.

It is so nice to be able to learn how each child is doing in their class, what their strengths are, what their favorite subjects are, what they like to write about or talk about most.  Our kids are funny!  And creative!  And inspiring!  It was a great time to hear from each teacher how we can encourage, support and praise our kids for the unique skills, talents and challenges they have.

What also stood out to me so vividly is the dedication with which our teachers approach their class and the unique students they have in it.  We are blessed to have small class sizes at our school and most children are working at the level that best fits them.  When children come to us they have had little to no schooling, certainly none of which was at all consistent.  The gaps are significant.  Our teachers make countless accomodations and modifications so that each of the children in their class is being challenged, but not overwhelmed.  It is no small feat.

Check out some of their work below.  I am sure you will find the short stories entertaining and the letters heart-warming!

We do not recognize the contributions of our direct service workers enough. They are truly the heart and soul of our ministry. They feed, cook, bathe, change, medicate, comfort, mediate, encourage, admonish, discipline, and a whole lot more things I can't think of right now. We need to honor them more often. Consider this blog entry and attempt to do that. You can help honor them by praying for them and their families. Our aunties and uncles are very hard working and dedicated, and most of them have families of their own to go home to. There they need to do the same tasks that they perform at CSC. It is not an easy job, but I think most of our workers would tell you of the ways that their lives have been blessed through investing in the lives of our children.