The last bracelet

Julius George playing Goliath 

I started the day with another huge breakfast.  It seems to work well to hold me over.  Quite frankly the rice and fish are now not doing if for me.  I thing the cups of fish oil are so strong in odor that I can smell them a mile off.

For the morning we had a number of programs, skits and plays and messages.  The kids were broken into age groups again so that the speakers could focus.  I was lucky and was able to speak to the elder kids today because I really wanted to do so.  I used the materials that I developed for them that I talked about in the church message blog post that I had done day1 but went into power vs leadership.  I explained the different types of power like (coercive, expert, reverent and reward).  I gave examples of each and then talked about how people in power are not necessarily leaders.  Then I went into Leadership in Christ, Servant Leadership, compassion and love.  So fascinating this time and something that totally floored me.  If you recall the example I told the church about deed vs words and how I turned my back to say "I Love You" and then took a knee and did it again..    I did the same today and got a totally different response.  The children just lit up and immediately without missing a beat made the Cambodian hand gesture for love and said they loved me too.  Almost totally threw off my message as I was not expecting it.  I was humbled once again by these kids.

How about some fresh cow on a stick

All of us in the George group did a skit for the younger children.  It was all about "what does a leader do".  Unfortunately I was nominated to play the bad guy which the kids loved.  The skit was a pantomime with Julius narrating.  First we all sat in chairs and the pretend teacher left during a test.  I then started cheating and we all froze.  Then Julius asked what would you do?  and the leader of course tells the bad guy to stop cheating.  Then we reset and I pretended to steal a laptop.  STOP.  what would you do.  The person who saw me came over and made me return it.  Then I beat up on DJ as a bully... you get the theme.  Finally DJ came and forgave me and showed me God's word in the bible and taught me about Christ, all the others prayed with me and then forgave me.  It was very well received and we are on again for tomorrow for another topic.

 When I gave my message on leadership, The children followed along with my references to scripture in their own bibles.  I didn't know it until afterwards.  So cool.

These guys seem to be listening pretty intently.

I really had a good time talking to the kids.  It so reminded me of when I taught Economics so long ago.

Horsing around!

In the afternoon (I skipped lunch) we went to the beach.  It has rained every morning and today was the same.  As soon as we got there it got sunny.  Very cool.  I have to take a minute to describe the beach.   Its not like an american beach.  It has sand and surf, but otherwise different.  there are spots with lots of erosion, lots of trash and refuse and the sewers and stuff dump in so although it was nice, by our standards it likely would not be open.  One of the interesting cultural differences here and I know it was like this many years ago in the USA is that when the people here finish with something they just throw the trash on the ground.  Lots of litter and trash and food bits everywhere.

some great beach pics

These prawns are at least 6 inches long.  Very tasty though when you dip the meat in lime juice and pepper.  I have to try that at home.

Kids are the same all over the world.  Loving playing at the beach.

This little guy came over and tugged on my shorts with one of the beach balls I gave them.  He dragged me to the volleyball court and for at least 15 min we played one on one.  then about 3-4 kids came over and they were all the same age.  Game on.  It was hilarious and we really had fun.

This is Hubert, he came here for a year and has been fixing the orphanages and creating water sources etc.  The construction here is terrible so for example the plumbing in the houses is encased in concrete and within a year leaks like crazy.  Bad materials and worse worksmanship.  For example our hotel is pretty nice, but its just not to standards we would think of.  In my room the plumbing for the toilet is leaking but hey no need to fix it, it just runs across the floor into a floor drain.  Hubert has been a tremendous blessing for these children.  The folks with him are his family.  and what a cool ride!

Our hotel, the seaside hotel

I'd like to close tonight's blog with a moment in time.  It's one of those moments when you know every thing is just right and God is looking out for us and is very much involved in our lives.  So here it is, the story of the last bracelet.

I come to the beach today with some things that I had purchased for the kids.  Some blow up beach balls, mini-frisbees and some glow in the dark rubber bracelets.  Not saying anything I just walk out on to the sand in a spot that is without kids.  They are all playing in the surf and all around.  I set the bag down and start blowing up the beach balls.  First one, then two boys come over and start helping.  We blow them up and give them and the frisbees and the bracelets out.   The crowd grows and all the kids are loving it and so happy.  I finish up with the balls and frisbees and have about 6 bracelets left but all the kids have dispersed.  So I decide to get up and the first 6 children I see without them I will give them one.  So I walk and give out 1,2,3,4 and 5.  Again now there is a gap with no children to my front.  I have one left,  the last bracelet.  I see movement out of the corner of my eye and so I turn to see who is beside me.  It is a little boy who had been trying to get my attention but he was shy and could not tug on my shorts because he had a birth defect and no fingers on either hand.  He looked up at me holding his arms up.  I knew this bracelet, the last bracelet was for him.  I stretched it over his misshapen hand onto his wrist and said "of course this is for you.  It looks so wonderful son.  I love you." and gave him a big hug.  He was so happy, huge smiles.   Its moments like these that convince me that I was supposed to come here.  Gnite all, if I am lucky,  I might dream about the last bracelet tonight.