McPherson Marathon: For the love of the poor . . .

The church we attend here in Oki goes on regular trips to an orphanage (GH) in the Philippines and always open it up for others to join. This summer I threw the idea out to Jon that I would like to go not thinking it would be a possibility. Then a few weeks ago they put out an email saying the team was small and asked if anyone else would like to put in an application to join. Jon called me up to say Ashley get the application we will figure out things and I will take off work and finish C4 while taking care of the kids. I put in my application and was accepted and immediately started going to team meetings. Before we headed out we realized that Jon would be leaving the island the day before I was to get home to go to mainland for work. We talked about what to do and even discussed me leaving them team but our amazing friends stepped up and said don't worry we will help with the girls.

Day 1 - Our team leader was not allowed to go with us because his passport expired in 4 months and they had some rule about it needing to be good for 6 months. That threw us all but the pastor from the church looked at another member and asked him to step up and lead. We were a team of 5 adults and 1 kid. I talked to my mom and told her the name of our hotel and it ends up that the owners daughter go to her bible study in Maryland.

Day 2 - I got to work with the school aged boys and it was amazing. These boys speak Tagalog, English and American Sign Language. Some of the kids in the GH are unable to speak so many of the others have learned sign language to communicate. We played basketball and got to go to a local park. It was amazing going to the park because we went with almost all the kids at GH and the sibling groups would meet up and play together for a little before going back to their own groups.

Day 3 - Got to worship with all the kids. It was amazing and made me realize how much I miss working with kids during church. We were warned that the caregiver who leads worship makes it more like a ZUMBA session with dancing and signing - that was true but the kids seemed to love every minute of it.

Day 4 - Many of the kids go to public school and a few stay at the orphanage to get some extra hands on learning and I got to work with them. Coming up with problems was the easy part - getting the answers faster than the kids was the hard part. This night we also found out there was a Dairy Queen near us and that they sell Granny Smith Apples at the local grocery store - after a few days with emotions running high it was nice to have a few things I miss from America that we don't have in Oki. Oh and to bring a few smiles at the dinner table I took the dare to eat the fish eye after we had our doubts about being able to eat our whole fish dinner and not insult the cooks.

Day 5 - I got to work with the preschool kids. We sang, wrote, colored and walked to the park. The caregivers gave us the opportunity to work in many of the rooms so we could meet most all of the kids. People on our team starting getting a little sick.

Day 6 - Today was the day I feared - the toddler room. That is a lot of little kids who are potty training and don't take naps so they sleep at night. The caregivers in this room were amazing and made my time in this room so awesome. The little girls had ballet and watching them get prepped and ready and dance was so fun. One of the workers has a background in ballet and teaches classes to all the girls throughout the week. Two of our team members had to stay back at the hotel because of an illness.

Day 7 - I got to be in the toddler room again and today was lots of reading books, doing hair and playing chase. Also I escaped the room to go watch the big girls in their ballet class.

Day 8 - Today we painted nails for all the girls. In the afternoon we got to take the boys to the zoo.

Day 9 - I was pretty sick most of the night. We think I might have picked up something from the zoo. So today I worked in the nursery were I could hold the babies and run to the bathroom.

Day 10 - Got to do one last worship time with all the kids!!! We handed out letters to each kid - for most of the kids I printed a picture of them and wrote the note on the back of the picture. As we were leaving we handed them out and the kids loved the notes and they all had notes to give to us.

Day 11&12 (which was only supposed to be one day) We headed out and flew in Taipei into Typhoon Dujuan. Once we landed we were told the airport was closed and we needed to leave. We left and went to a hotel. The windows were leaking before the typhoon even hit and we changed rooms. After the room change we went to the dining room and got some dinner and made some friends who a lot of older ladies. The next day we were back at the airport hoping to get out. I got my Taipei airport haircut, did some cultural experiences and enjoyed delay after delay after delay. At one point I had to call a friend to see who actually had my girls and let them know I still had no idea when I would be getting home and would they be able to continue helping me. After many hours I was home and thankful for the many friends who stepped up to take care of the girls while Jon and I were both off island.