Staff Blog

Ruth, Anthony, Andrew, and I traveled to the West Coast this past week to visit family and friends, giving us the opportunity to spend the afternoon with several "kids" who were adopted from CSC 15-20 years ago.  We were hosted by Neil and Nelia (Healy) Collins for a delicious lunch of Filipino fare.

Joining us from the greater Washington and Oregon area were Jennifer, Nolly, and Aida, along with their families and friends.  It was a great joy to be "cared for" by these wonderful "kids" whom we ourselves had cared for so many years ago.  We all got to wow over each other's families and share stories from the past.  Often the discussions drifted to the topic of how tall some at the gathering had grown and how vertically challenged others had remained.  Puzzling.

But an even greater joy was to see how these now young adults have grown in their personal lives, established loving marriages, had beautiful children of their own, and gone on to find success in life despite some challenges along the way.

It gave Ruth and me a great deal of satisfaction to see a few of the successes of CSC's ministry and the ongoing benefits children are having from adoption.  God has continued to bless so many who received the gift of a new family so many years ago!

I'd like to introduce you to Elesio Ewayan, or as he's known as around here, Sho.

Sho has worked at CSC for 13 years.

Sho is one of the reasons why, as a visitor recently told me; "the Children's Shelter of Cebu has the best kept facilities in all of Cebu."

If you're looking for Sho the first place to check is the workshop. The kids know that this is a place they can't play, but they will often times stand at the invisible fence in front of the shop doors as Sho works to patch the sole of a shoe, repair a desk drawer, or mix a batch of paint.

The workshop isn't state of the art, but it's amazing what he can accomplish with a basic set of tools.

When CSC's president Matt Buley came to Cebu earlier this year he met with the staff and handed out bracelets. The braclets had CSC's logo on them and the phrase "These hands change lives." As I watched Sho work I looked down and saw that he was wearing his bracelet.

What an incredible example of someone using their hands to change lives.

One of the things we often hear at CSC is laughter, and one of the best places to hear it is during a movie night.

It's hard to organize a trip to the movie theater, so often times staff will gather up a group of kids and setup the projector in the library at the school. The movie night below was a "girl's night out" that Teacher Lindsay organized. However, being the IT guy, I was allowed to attend because I had to setup the screen and projector. :)

The movie was Mr. Popper's Penguins.

It's hard to see much in the video below, but it's really fun to listen to the laughter of the kids.

I never loved math as a student, but every year my love for teaching math grows a little bit more. And this year my love for teaching math is at an all time high because of my hard working and motivated students! I have never had students who are so excited to not only know if they got it right or wrong, but WHY they got it right or wrong. Sometimes they interrogate me - in a good way - "Why, teacher Lindsay? Can you show me number 6 again?" It's like a teacher's dream come true.

Not only do they love to work on their assignments in class, they will gladly accept homework and even get excited about "extra challenge" assignments. They truly hunger for knowledge and academic challenge, and it's such a privilege to be their teacher.

They even sing songs about math!

I'm so proud of these girls. :)

Over the weekend, I made a phone call at 4 a.m. Cebu time/2 p.m. Minnesota time to a bike shop in Roseville, Minnesota.  When the connection went through, right away I heard lots of people talking and laughing and the hum of bike trainers in the background.  A bunch of people with various connections to CSC were at a Habitat for Humanity event called Ride For Cebu (http://habitathomescebu.wordpress.com/) to raise money for the purpose of helping CSC workers get better housing. 

The phone was passed around so I could talk to some of the riders.  I talked to a couple of employees of CSC, an adopted CSC child, two supporters of CSC, an adoptive parent and an employee of the bike shop.  There were a lot of other people there whom I did not speak with. 

The verses in I John 3:16-18 say, "This is how we know what love is:  Jesus Christ laid down his life for us.  And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.  If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?  Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth."

All of the people who showed up at the bike shop care about CSC.  They were there living out God's love through their actions by participating in the trainer ride.  Tears came to my eyes as I sat in my apartment half way around the world in Cebu in the middle of the night.