A personal note

As I sat alone in my bungalow last week I started thinking to myself, “Why was it that I came here again?”

I don’t mean ‘here’ as in the Philippines… to be honest I couldn’t wait to get back to this country before I left it the first time. However, why did I come to Bohol?
Why didn’t I go back to Leyte?
What was my reasoning for working on this island… at least 6 hours travel away from where my enlightenment of the 3rd world Deaf came from?
What is going to happen to those children in Tacloban, Leyte that I first met almost exactly two years ago?
Have I even made an impact where I am now?

Some of those questions can’t really be answered fully, yet. On Saturday night I reluctantly attended a birthday party for a 3year old who belongs to one of the teachers at the high school where I live. I say reluctantly not because I do not enjoy the company of this teacher or his now 3 year old daughter, I very much have appreciated their company over the past 4 months. But I say this because I have somehow developed an antisocial tendency. And the worst part about it is I have grown acquainted to this new behavior and somewhat enjoy it.

Those of you reading this who know me, understand this is not a part of who I am. I recognize this feeling though… the exact image mirroring my attitude when I first arrived at college. So far away from home, so many new people to potentially become my friends. Instead of relishing in the fact that I could meet a million new people, I shyed away and stayed in my room most of first semester and went home every single weekend for fear of making new friends and forgetting my old ones… or worse yet, that my old friends would experience the same excitement of meeting new people and forget me! This is a new revelation to me even as I type these words. I now see that I have developed this behavior once again for fear that I will get even closer to the amazing people I have met here, only to leave them for months maybe even years before I will see them again.

How ridiculous. I actually remember having a conversation resembling this situation with Almira, my host in Indonesia. She said, well isn’t it better to have known those people for a short time, allowing them to touch your life for those moments than to have never met them at all? I suppose she is right. Ok.. she is absolutely correct.

I see I have swayed from my original intention of this post. I met a man who worked on the IDEA board of directors for many years and then he and his wife lived in Bohol for 3 years teaching bible studies to some of the Deaf. He explained that one of the things he and his wife really wanted to see happen was an evangelism team to go out to the different elementary schools. But they were never able to get it going. This is the one thing that has taken up most of my time here, creating the 4 year evangelism curriculum for the elementary schools. And we have already been going to visit each school every other weekend. What a blessing to see that this task of mine was soaked in prayer three years ago… long before I had left the USA for the first time!

One of the Deaf women who works in fly-tying gave me several tips on how to teach bible stories to the elementary students. She told a few Old Testament stories in FSL so I could understand the importance of acting out the stories rather than telling them. Her rendition of Noah and the flood literally brought me to tears. It was tragic and devastating. Her facial expressions and actions made me feel like I was one of those who didn’t listen to Noah when he warned the people.

I could on for pages about my new revelations I have had in the past week, but most of them have come from just meditating on God and listening to John Piper sermons… so it would be rather boring for you to read. Anyway… keep praying for me… and never loose faith, I haven’t.