Staff Blog
A few weeks ago I had a heart attack. They put in five stents because of significant blockage. I spent a few days in the hospital and went home to embark on a new lifestyle. I exercise every day and am very careful about my diet. Because I am diabetic, the need for controlled intake is doubly important. I am super blessed to have understanding staff at CSC, a loving wife who takes good care of me, and health insurance that will pay for much of the medical bills associated with my surgery, hospitalization, therapy and medications.
In addition to exercise and diet, I have been advised to try and identify areas of stress in my life and work to lessen them. The past year has been very stressful at CSC with lots of personnel and program changes and some difficult situations to handle. There is no way to eliminate stress in my job, with the responsibilities of overseeing a ministry that employs 135 people and provides care for 80 children. But I can say that, in the midst of changes and challenges, God has provided some significant "de-stressers" for me through the people on our Leadership Team. They help manage the challenges and absorb a lot of the stress that would otherwise come my way. For example:
Eldie, who directs our new Human Resources department, takes on issues relating to managing our employees. He handles problems and policies. When we recently had to terminate an employee, he handled it. We discussed it and came to the decision together, but he was the one to implement it. Ging, our Financial Director, manages our funds. This is budget preparation season and she has handled much of the work of gathering the information and working with the staff on the preparation of the various departmental budgets. Klaris, our Social Work Director just got back from a quick trip to Manila for pre-matching one of our children with the Inter-Country Adoption Board. Six months ago I would have had to make that trip and deal with the challenging work of choosing a family with all the complicated procedures and policies of the government for matching. She also does all the editing of child study reports that go to the government for all our kids, again, something I would have been doing a year ago. Jinkee manages the Child Development department, seeing that our kids get the care they need from our house parents, child care workers and therapists. Marlys heads up the medical team of four nurses, making sure the children get the medical care they require. Ben and Cris are at the reins of Children of Hope School, managing the teachers and curriculum so ably and professionally. Although I am responsible for the care our children receive, our relationship to the government, and our financial and human resource management, I don't need to worry about the details of the work being done by these fine people and their teams. They handle problems and challenges, spreading around the potential stress that I need to minimize.
Our generous supporters are also de-stressers. This is crunch time at CSC. We need to raise a lot of money in November and December to meet our income needs for the year. We watch the daily mail counts carefully and prayerfully. Admittedly, we worry a little at this time of year! But much of that is alleviated by the knowledge that our supporters always come through in big ways. Our hope for year-end 2017 is based on the awesome provision of our God through our supporters every years since 1979. That's 38 years of faithfulness! God's admonition for us in Philippians 4:6-7 not to "worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done." Not only is it important to show our faith and appreciation to God for what He has done, we will avoid stress as we "experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. " Truly His peace will "guard our hearts and minds as we live in Christ Jesus."
Thanks for your important role at CSC for the children, first of all, but for those of us who lead this ministry as well.
First Tears
Level A class has one girl
and six boys and that lone girl is a sweety. She always wears a beautiful smile every day.
But one day during the first week of school, her smile turned to a frown and she
eventually shed some tears. The reason she was crying was because she got tired
of writing her name! The class kept on encouraging her to do it, but it didn’t
help. She was then brought outside the room to calm down. After a few minutes,
she was back with her beautiful smile again.
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Basketball!
The kids like games, sports, activities and visitors. Right before school started, a visitor shared his love of basketball with the kids.
Every morning for a week, the driveway was full of bouncing balls and kids learning new skills in basketball. Dribbling, passing, shooting, and rebounding were the focus, of course.
Basketball is not a new game at all in the Philippines, but all kids need to start learning at some point. This past week was the time for some of the CSC kids to learn a bit.
Some terms that are used in basketball vary from one side of the Pacific Ocean to the other. In the US, a made shot which hits only the net, not touching the rim or backboard, is called a “swish.” In the Philippines, that shot is called “ringless.”
Different cultures’ coming together always opens doors to learning new things, from new terms to different approaches to a game.
Check out the video of the basketball fun.
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Twin Babies Arrive
Today was fun at the shelter. Twin babies arrived!
The little boy and girl were born at Glory Reborn maternity clinic. So many loving hands and hearts have already cradled these precious children in their few short days. CSC is excited to continue the loving care which Glory Reborn started.
As the twins came in the gates of CSC, aunties from all the houses were buzzing, “Are those the new twin babies?” Hundreds of babies have received loving care at CSC and still the arrival of two more babies is an exciting event.
The little twins are settling into the Eicher nursery. The other toddlers are peeking into their crib. In the evening, the older children in Cherne home crowded around a camera to see a picture of the two new children.
The love and care for the new twins will come from everyone—toddlers to adults.
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When is snack time?
School opening is one of the most exciting events of the school year after weeks of summer vacation. Teachers and students have been waiting for this day to come.
For the teachers, this day marks the new adventure they will have with their students. On day one the teachers try to present the new school year with enthusiasm and anticipation that the students will learn their lessons in school.
For the students this day will be the confirmation of who they think their teachers are and their classmates in the morning and afternoon sessions. For the younger students it’s time to remember where they are going and figure out what comes next.
Here is an experience of one of our students:
At 9:30 the bell rang when it was snack time. All of the students were in the snack room to eat their snack. A new student asked for more snacks, but the teacher explained to him that one helping of snack was enough. So the student went to math class. The next time the bell rang for the start of math class, the new student asked, “Are we eating snack again?” He'll get the hang of it and figure out there is only one snack time in the morning.
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The Five Dollar Bill
A cool thing happened the other day. I was unpacking a box of math workbooks Tammy Vosika had brought over to Cebu. I had actually packed the box of books myself in Minnesota and taped it up, ready to go, and dropped it off at Tammy’s house. In Cebu as I unzipped the travel bag around the box, I noticed the tape was gone from the box. That was not surprising as boxes are often inspected at some point during the travel route. As I was taking the books out of the box, there was a five dollar bill taped to one of the books! I was a bit surprised and wondered out loud if Tammy had taped the money in between the books just to see if the inspection guys were honest. Tammy came around a bit later and I asked her about the money. She said she had not put any money in the box! So that meant an inspector at one of the airports, most likely Minneapolis or Chicago, had taped the five dollars to the box, contributing to the shelter and school. Maybe that person read the name of the orphanage on the outside of the travel bag. Maybe he had a connection to the Philippines. We’ll never know, but what a sweet and powerful reminder of God’s work. Thank you to that anonymous donor!
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