Hugs and Games in the Valley

Jayson and Thomas

Jayson, the boy in the picture above, sent me an email a while ago saying how much he hoped we would be able to visit him soon at Valley Cathedral Children's Home. Of all the places we have traveled, Valley Cathedral Children's Home is one of our favorites. As our family talked about it, we thought the Christmas vacation would be a great time. In fact, we were as excited about this portion of our holiday travel as we were about going to the beach.  We were not disappointed!

Alleen and Lisa

The children, ours and theirs, were on vacation from school so that allowed for plenty of time for reading stories, playing games, and just being together.

Alayna reading stories outside the girls' cottage.

Alexie and Jenny, still inseparable friends

One day, our girls thought it would be great fun to put on a carnival for the kids. We had brought a few small gifts for the children and they decided to use these as prizes for participating in the various games.

Annalise and April

We spent New Year's Eve watching a movie then went outside to watch the fireworks erupting as the new year came in.

On New Year's Day, Lisa put together a collection of Minute to Win It games. The children went from one station to another, testing their skills against the various challenges.

There are too many happy faces and great memories to put into a single post, but here are a few...

and here are some more...

I had to cut out a lot of photos, even for the video, but the memories of the time spent with the children and the staff, our friends, will stay with us for a long time.

Finally, it was time to head back up to the mountains.

Adriana giving a few early morning hugs before we left.

Komeyabo

Lita from Valley Cathedral has opened a small restaurant nearby to help create jobs and provide discipleship opportunities. Before we left Lita told us to stop at the Komeyabo for a soda before the long trip back to Baguio. What she really meant was a variety of pizzas, mango shakes, and ice cream! WOW!

The restaurant is nice, but the garden-like courtyard in the back was beautiful.

Taking in the beauty of the courtyard

Alayna and Annalise resting in one of the garden nooks

Lita and Lisa enjoying the garden

Greg, Lao, and Tom

After we ate, Greg drove us to the bus terminal in Manila. We really enjoyed having Lao along for the ride. He was among the sailors we met when we were at Valley in 2007. It was a great encouragement to hear how God is working in his life and how he has been able to share what God has done in him with his Muslim family in Mindanao.

Fun at Valley Cathedral

As I said in our last post, we left the conference in Manila and headed directly to Valley Cathedral Children's Home. Unlike Manila, this is definitely on our list of places we like to visit in the Philippines. Not many places on earth are so permeated with love and affection.
Once again we had a great time playing with the kids, talking with the staff, and playing with the kids some more. As we were looking through our pictures, we realized that there were not as many of our trip this time. There are two primary reasons for this: I usually had the camera instead of Lisa and we were all too busy talking and playing.

Saturday afternoon, Greg took me to the village of Kakabay. Unlike most of my visits there, this time I had the opportunity to go with no ministry scheduled other than to sit and talk with people. I loved it! With Greg as translator, I was able to talk with Teresita, the widow of my friend Robuan.

Later I spoke with some young ladies who were busy making BBQ skewers. It was a community effort as some cut them to length, others rounded them, and still others whittled the points. I tried to put a point on a few when one of the machetes was not being used. There is a little bit of a knack required to do it quickly. I did not want to mess any up so I did not do it for long. They only get 3 pesos (about $0.06) for 100 skewers.

Diane whittling points on BBQ skewers.

Near them, a few boys were playing basketball. Greg challenged them to a game of 2-on-2. A few observations: it was fun, I am old, and sandals are not a good replacement for high top court shoes.

In the good news/bad news arena, Kakabay has a new well with good water, but as you can see in the picture below, the river is completely empty. (On the other side of the bridge, not in the picture, are a few pockets of nasty stagnant water littered with trash.)


Along with the numerous long-time friends we have at Valley, we made a few new ones. Don and Molly are long-time friends of Valley Cathedral Children's Home. Although we had heard about them before, this was our first opportunity to meet. They were both a great encouragement to Lisa and me. How fitting that when Don presented the sermon on Sunday, it was about encouragement.

Update from Valley Cathedral

I came across this on YouTube. It is a video of the children singing at Valley Cathedral on Father's Day.

I was blessed to be able to spend Father's Day at Valley Cathedral with all of my daughters and my own father.



Grace,
Tom

Lolo & Lola are Home

In our last post, we talked about the the numerous things that happened when my parents and niece arrived. But that as only the first part of their visit. The next day we traveled to Baguio so they could see a little of the Summer Capital of the Philippines. Since it was rainy and cool, most of their touring was on the bus and in taxis. We had hoped to show them a park or two, maybe next time...

We chose to stay inside instead, mostly. In a recent post (Adventures in Baguio), I talked about how you could seal your kids into gerbil balls and let them work out their excess energy spinning around on a shallow pool of water. Well, the girls sweet-talked Grandpa and Grandma into paying for the privilege. So while it poured on anybody who even got near the edge of a tent, the girls spun, slipped, and giggled their way through the allotted time.

But it really poured.

We also took them to the market in Baguio. It gave them a chance to look at various handicrafts, trinkets, and souvenirs. They did a little bartering and bought a few things to take back home.

After spending a couple days in Baguio, we made our way to Manila. The first leg of our journey was great. We have become accustomed to the roads and buses between Bontoc and Baguio. Just taking the Victory Liner bus from Baguio to Manila was like going on vacation. The seats were comfortable. Best of all, there was actually leg room. I am not talking about being able to stretch out as if it was first class on a 747. It was not that nice. But I was able to sit without having my knees jammed into the seat in front of me. As an added bonus, about an hour out of Baguio, you leave the mountains and the roads become straight and flat so that you are not being tossed side to side on the mountain roads. Most of our trips to Manila we have taken the overnight bus directly from Bontoc. But it is not as nice of a bus and after our last trip where 12 hours became 22, I am a bit reluctant to jump on that bus again.

Our plan was to drop off our extra luggage at the YWAM Balut base then drive to Valley Cathedral Children's Home in Naic. Did you know there are two Yangco Streets in the Tondo, Manila area? Did you know that they do not connect and are actually separated by a river?If not, don't feel bad. Neither did either of our taxi drivers...or most of the numerous people who attempted to help them. It is always an adventure to get to the base and because of that, we have never taken the exact same path. As a result, I am not much help other than telling the region of town, Tondo, and the address. We finally made it after more than an hour of driving around. When we arrived, our friend, Greg, from Valley was waiting for us. So we went from bus to taxi to SUV with little time between each ride.

But it is always worth it! We all loved being with the kids.

Adriana making kites with the boys. Plastic shopping bags may clog landfills, but this week they enjoyed another life as a kite before their ultimate demise.

Whenever we make the journey to Valley Cathedral, I always look for the opportunity to make a trip to the village of Kakabay. Greg took Lisa, Dad, and me to the village Saturday afternoon. I went with the expectation of seeing some friends and delivering the books we had brought as a gift. We walked into a church service where we were the featured speakers. Each of us shared a little with the group and enjoyed the special music of the children.

Afterwards, Lisa helped distribute food that Valley Cathedral had sent for the people of Kakabay.

While Dad and I toured the village, Lisa read several of the books to the children who had gathered.

It is exciting to see the changes that have taken place in Kakabay since we first visited in 2007. The school is now enclosed and has about 4 times as much room. The school also is home to a church that was planted by Valley Cathedral.

Sadly, the well that was installed by YWAM years ago is now contaminated and can no longer be used for drinking water. Nobody knows for sure, but it is easy to suspect the nearby garbage dump as the source of the problem.

Later that afternoon, Mom told some of the stories she has memorized. These stories are so familiar to me because Mom told them so often when I was a child. They were especially helpful in making long car rides shorter before we owned a car with a radio and long before mp-3 players. It was a joy to me to hear her share them with these kids. She also read some of the books she brought to share with the ministry.


After all of our fun, Sunday we returned to Manila so Dad, Mom, and Jordan could catch their flight early Monday morning.
Early Monday morning, we dropped them off at the airport. Jose, a fellow YWAMer, then drove us to the bus terminal for that luxury ride back to Baguio. We spent the night there and because the weather was nicer we visited Burnham Park before getting on the bus to Bontoc. (That bus ride is much different than Victory Liner.) We made it home without any problems. But the bus driver did give us a little scare. A couple times he stalled the bus and we weren't sure it was going to start again. Fortunately, each time he was able to coax the engine back to life so we continued on.

Now we are working on conquering the mountain of laundry and getting back into the normal flow of things.

Grace,
Tom

Robuan's Funeral

Last week was a blur of days for me. The overnight travel and full agenda while in Naic made Monday through Thursday difficult to distinguish as separate days. But I will try to paint a picture of my experiences related to Robuan's funeral.

The entire experience began with getting on the Cable Tour bus Monday afternoon. (The first time I saw the office in town, I thought there was a suspended cable car in the mountains somewhere.) The bus was nice except for one detail which became a major drawback for the trip: the seats were too close together for my long legs. I could not sit with my legs in front of me like normal. I could move them sideways or lift them and put my knees on the back of the chair in front of me. As the 12 hour trip went into the night, sleep was elusive because of this. Fortunately, the person directly in front of me never tried to put their seat back. Most of the trip the chair next to me was empty so that helped a lot. When I arrived in Manila about 3 in the morning, my friends Greg and Jerry, from Valley Cathedral Children's Home, were waiting for me. About 2 hours later, I was resting in a bed at Valley.

Later that morning I visited with the Valley staff and those students who had not yet gone to school for the day. The kids were really disappointed that Lisa and the girls had not come as well.

We made plans to go to Kakabay to visit with Robuan's wife, Tess, and to hold a memorial service for the people of Kakabay and the teachers from Valley Cathedral Academy. Pastor Tang invited me to share the message that God had put on my heart from the time I had first been told of Robuan's death. So in the afternoon, we loaded up the generator and sound system and went to Kakabay.

We parked the vehicle outside of the garbage dump and carried the equipment through it into the village. Fortunately it was dry so the walk was not difficult.

In the covered area just outside of their doorway, Robuan was in a white casket. At either end of the casket was a candle stand. The open portion of the casket was covered with glass. On the inside of the lid were pinned ribbons with the names of their 12 children and a picture of Robuan cut from one of the snapshots from the album I had given the village when we visited last month.

Someone from Valley had printed a full-page print of a picture I had taken last year of Robuan, Tess, and their youngest son. When we arrived and gave Tess the picture, she began wailing. Although I could not understand what she said, it was clear that her emotions darted between grief and anger as she cried out. It was explained to me that she felt guilt because she had not taken good care of him.

Tess shared that Robuan had been looking at the photo album a week before and talked about his salvation. He even teased that he had proof of his decision and she did not.

After sitting a while with her, I joined the others as they set up the sound equipment for the service. Pastor Tang spoke a few words (in Tagalog) and then introduced me. I reminded them of the day they saw Robuan proclaim his decision to follow Christ by being baptized in the river. I talked about how I was sure he was in heaven, no longer restricted because of the stroke he had.

After the service, we headed back to Valley where I was able to visit with the kids more. I love being able to enjoy the love and affection these kids so readily share. It is especially amazing when I consider the horrific things so many of them have gone through.

Wednesday, we headed back to Kakabay for the actual funeral service. I was asked to speak again. Pastor Francis translated for me and performed the graveside rites. After I spoke, several eulogized, again in Tagalog. It was easy to see the grief that they felt. After the closing prayer, the somber, quiet tone changed. People went back to where the casket still sat. There they began wailing. I have never experienced such a show of emotions. Men, women, and children were all crying, sobbing really, and wailing. It was really loud! There were even a couple of gunshots fired. One man was so overcome with emotion that had to be helped as he staggered from the room.

Pastor Francis commented that this was a cultural lesson from "Filipino Missionary 101". It certainly was not something I have seen before nor was it something I was expecting from this culture.

As soon as this began to calm down, the casket was taken out to a truck that had been brought all of the way to the village. We all then walked about an hour and a half to the cemetery. When we reached the road, the casket was moved to a hearse.

The cemetery is much different than the manicured lawns and rows of marble headstones of the midwest. There were crypts of various levels of craftsmanship. Some were covered with marble or tile and inside barred enclosures. Others were simple cinder block enclosures with a name painted on the end. They were placed close together, even on top of each other. I had to overcome my own cultural hang-ups and walk on several crypts in order to get to the grave. Rather than manicured grass, I was warned of broken glass underfoot.

Prior to committing him to burial, a graveside ceremony was performed. For the most part it looked much like what I was familiar with at home. There was one thing, however, that I had to ask about later and saddened me that it was part of a Christian funeral. At one point, the small children, perhaps Robuan's grandchildren (?), were handed over the top of the casket. While holding the child, the second man would turn his back on the casket for a moment, then turn and return the child to the first man. When I asked about this later, I was told it had to do with preventing the untimely death of the children.

Then it was back to Valley for a few good-byes. (I was sad that my little buddy, Jason, was sick when I went to say good-bye.) I did not have a lot of time before we needed to travel to Manila to catch my 8:30 pm return bus. Fortunately for me, there was more room between the rows of seats so I was able get some sleep before arriving back in Bontoc Thursday morning around 9 am.

It was a long trip. At times I was feeling very sick. But I pray that in some way I was able to be an encouragement to the people of Kakabay during their time of grief.

Grace,

Tom

Loving Life at Valley

Okay, it took a while. But finally, here are some pictures from our time last weekend at Valley Cathedral Children's Home. We really enjoyed seeing the friends we made there last year as well as making a few new ones. The kids love the new swing set!
Patricia in her Sunday best
Jenny still loves to climb on everything and everyone.

Novi and Adriana really enjoyed their time together.
Anna and Alayna
Lita celebrated her anniversary with us. Her husband, Pete, was accompanying Mommy Zelma in the USA.
My buddy, Jason, was almost always at my side. He still does not have much to say, but he sure can make me feel special.
Walking to the beach.



Judy
Of course, Alexie and Jenny were nearly inseparable.

This is "Baby". His real name is Allan, but everyone calls him Baby.

April and Annalise became good friends.
This is Ton-Ton. He recently came to VCCH, a tragic story of abuse. But you can see that he feels the love of the staff at VCCH.
Annalise and Hannah

Annie is the youngest girl. She and her 3 siblings, all with "A" names, are new to Valley's family.
Jenny likes to hold onto hair - it seems she liked to keep a tight hold on us.
We did not get to see to much of John Mark. He and several of the other children were quarantined due to mumps.

Miracle has graduated and is now in college.
Giggles with Jenny
Adriana and Stephanie

Lisa and Judy loving on each other


Sad goodbyes

Lisa's buddy, Emmon, is back at home with his biological parents. Lisa missed seeing him and giving him hugs but hope and pray that he is experiencing life in a loving family home as is God's plan for every child. Returning to Valley Cathedral Children's Home was bittersweet. It was a joy to be with the boys and girls and all those who lovingly care for them but it also meant we needed to endure goodbyes once again. Everyone wanted to know when we will return. It is so far away, about 15 hours, that we really don't know that we will be able to even though we would love to. Knowing that, we just tried to give out as much love and hugs we could in the two days.