Staff Blog

There has been an excitement going around CSC for the past few weeks.  Every other year in February a work team from Minnesota comes and does a camp with the older kids at CSC.  They get to ride a bus and travel to camp. Once at camp it is four days of fun, fun, fun!  The kids get to hear from Gods word, swim, sing, play silly games, eat good food, have camp fires, hang out with really cool people, and so much more.  It is definitely an experience the kids never forget!

Camp is approaching this week but the kids have had their bags packed for awhile already.  Those who have been to camp before have shared with their new friends at CSC all about it. Our work team arrived within the last few days and everyone is ready!  

A big thank you to our work team for coming and giving our kids such a special experiences! Please keep our kids and work team in your prayers as they are off at camp this coming week and weekend.

As you may know, my wife and I have been serving in Cebu on a short term basis. We were there for about 13 months. We returned to MN at the end of December because of an urgent health concern in a close family member and will be ending our time with CSC in March. While the circumstances which brought us home have been discouraging we’ve been blessed by how flexible CSC has been with allowing us to continue to serve.

Going to the office in Minnesota has been a slight adjustment. Instead of seeing Mitch each morning, we see Matt. At lunch time, we don’t hear Cebuano, we only hear English. In Cebu I was relieved to get to the office and sit in air conditioning, now I see snow outside and keep inching my chair towards the sunlight.

Strangely though, it’s the similarities that have been more striking. The people who come in and out of both offices are talking about what’s new with the kids.  The walls are covered with pictures of the same smiling faces. Even the work is the same; it’s true that many of the tasks are different, but that great momentum God gives us to bring glory to His name while serving these children, it remains unchanged.

What an amazing thing that God has done; bringing so many people with so many different stories together to share in the work He has in store for us.

Yesterday the CSC workers all had their annual physical checkup.  A big truck pulled up into the driveway at CSC and the workers came throughout the day to have blood work, chest x-rays and a physical checkup. The needles were not well liked by the workers but they were grateful to know more about their health.

Aunties waiting for their turn.

Blood pressure check

The least favorite. Blood extraction

As I do research for my book on the history of CSC I find stuff that can't go in a written volume but is part of the story of CSC. I can mention it in the book but I can't put in the video that shows it. Here is one such incident, when the kids ganged up  on me because they won the Reading Challenge. This was around 2006. Fun times at Children of Hope School. At my expense!

boo·mer·ang

/ˈbo͞oməˌraNG/

 noun

• 1. a curved flat piece of wood that can be thrown so as to return to the thrower, traditionally used by Australian Aborigines as a hunting weapon

verb

• 1. (of a plan or action) return to the originator

Over the last few years, former CSC children have been returning for visits with increasing frequency.  Some families have brought their children back to the country of their birth, and to see one of their first homes, for a heritage tour.  Other children---actually young adults now---have made the journey on their own, for a more independent experience.

One former child, who was the youngest ever to leave for adoption (at age 9 months) requested to celebrate his 10th birthday with the kids of CSC; it was his birthday wish!  Another young lady, who was adopted as a toddler, was here this past October.  She is now a senior in college, studying Early Childhood Development, and wanted to return to CSC to see firsthand how the children of CSC are cared for and loved on, since she was one of them too!  Last month, CSC was happy to have one of its very first children return for her 3rd visit back to CSC; this time she and her husband were excited to show their little girl where her mom came from.  And most recently, about 2 days ago, CSC welcomed back a young boy who left as a toddler exactly 4 years ago.  His family brought him back to once again play on the playground with some of the same kids he used to play with (though he made plenty of new friends too!) and to spend time with his former houseparents.

For each returning child, their story is of course uniquely theirs.  They all have different circumstances that bring them to CSC and they all have different life experiences once they leave CSC.  However, there is a pull, like that of a boomerang, for many kids to return to CSC.  To see a place that they might only have pictures of but for which they have no vivid memories.  They want to see first-hand former caregivers that put band-aids on their skinned knee, read stories to them or rocked them to sleep at night. 

CSC is happy to welcome back former kids because really, once you are in the CSC family, you are always in the CSC family!