I'm sorry, walking how far?
My lesson of humility began as I sat on the porch of a lovely wooden built house in Dingasan, responding to the question: "Would it be ok to start at 9am, just to give those walking 4 hours enough time to get here?" ... I'm sorry walking how far?! ... ...
Josh and I as part of our trip to the Philippines had agreed to do some training and teaching days round the issues we had learnt from through our studies at University and work in church. On this particular occassion we were doing a training day on "Working with faith and families", looking at how the church should or could be engaging families. One way that we have found encourages families along to church is family services. Family services allow space for the family to be together and worship together. For parents who are just begining to consider the idea of God or faith, for children who have heard something from a club or school assembly, these family services are an ideal "danger-free" space for the family to come together and explore. This is a totaly new concept to the church in the Philippines, wherever you go in the country the layout of a Service is the same. This is not nescessarily a bad thing, but we felt it would be good to challenge this thinking & demonstrate a different way of doing church services. We also done some teaching around the importance of children and their need to be protected in church - it was a long day and very hot! We had to teach the day through an interpreter, which when teaching a totally new concept is always challenging.
Now with all that being said I didn't particularly think that I was sharing anything that ground-breaking, or anyhing really that would be worth listening to! (I may have been having a weak moment), but to then be left with the knowledge that someone was walking 4 hours in order to be able to hear what Josh and I are saying... humbled... I should add, this wasn't just a long stroll along a smooth country lane. This guy, I will leave out his name, was walking from a town/village in the mountains that is currently unreachable by most vehicles, you may get a motorbike up there but not much else. He was basically hiking 4 hours in his sandals because he thought that something I (or Josh) would say, would be so helpful, so encouraging, that it would not be a wasted journey... humbled...
As part of our training day we brought along, Tina the puppet to help us show new ways to engage the children ... and adults with issues from the Bible and we encouraged those attending to join in some children action songs. One of my trip highlights came after we had finished the day when I sat having had to abrutly end the final session due to the most incredible thunder storm I've ever witnessed. The rain so loud that I may as well have been in a sound proof room in Ireland giving my message because no-one was going to hear me over noise of the raindrops pelting the tin roof. Followed by the electric going out, which Philippines title a "brown out", leaving me with no microphone, in a pitch black room with both my husband and my dad in hysterics as they wondered what I would do next... (I sat down and let the Pastor take over!)
Sorry side tracked, regain thought: after my rude interuption and the end of the day Josh and I sat with this guy who had trekked 4 hours and listening to him ask in very broken english if we could teach him some children songs he could bring back into the mountains. We sat and wrote out some songs taught him some actions and sung them through with him a few times, until he was sure he knew them, or maybe he just had a headache from my singing! He ripped out the pages of the notebook and off he went to rest...
In those brief moments dear readers, it didn't matter if nothing else I had said had been of any use, here I was, sat a milllion miles from home, covered in mosquito bites (I got 43 in total), helping a man from a place many people will never hear of, a place that will probably never even get put on a map, learn how to engage children in his church and make them aware of a huge God who cares intimately for them and believes that even if the world don't know they exist...He does!!
...humbled...
Josh and I as part of our trip to the Philippines had agreed to do some training and teaching days round the issues we had learnt from through our studies at University and work in church. On this particular occassion we were doing a training day on "Working with faith and families", looking at how the church should or could be engaging families. One way that we have found encourages families along to church is family services. Family services allow space for the family to be together and worship together. For parents who are just begining to consider the idea of God or faith, for children who have heard something from a club or school assembly, these family services are an ideal "danger-free" space for the family to come together and explore. This is a totaly new concept to the church in the Philippines, wherever you go in the country the layout of a Service is the same. This is not nescessarily a bad thing, but we felt it would be good to challenge this thinking & demonstrate a different way of doing church services. We also done some teaching around the importance of children and their need to be protected in church - it was a long day and very hot! We had to teach the day through an interpreter, which when teaching a totally new concept is always challenging.
Now with all that being said I didn't particularly think that I was sharing anything that ground-breaking, or anyhing really that would be worth listening to! (I may have been having a weak moment), but to then be left with the knowledge that someone was walking 4 hours in order to be able to hear what Josh and I are saying... humbled... I should add, this wasn't just a long stroll along a smooth country lane. This guy, I will leave out his name, was walking from a town/village in the mountains that is currently unreachable by most vehicles, you may get a motorbike up there but not much else. He was basically hiking 4 hours in his sandals because he thought that something I (or Josh) would say, would be so helpful, so encouraging, that it would not be a wasted journey... humbled...
As part of our training day we brought along, Tina the puppet to help us show new ways to engage the children ... and adults with issues from the Bible and we encouraged those attending to join in some children action songs. One of my trip highlights came after we had finished the day when I sat having had to abrutly end the final session due to the most incredible thunder storm I've ever witnessed. The rain so loud that I may as well have been in a sound proof room in Ireland giving my message because no-one was going to hear me over noise of the raindrops pelting the tin roof. Followed by the electric going out, which Philippines title a "brown out", leaving me with no microphone, in a pitch black room with both my husband and my dad in hysterics as they wondered what I would do next... (I sat down and let the Pastor take over!)
Sorry side tracked, regain thought: after my rude interuption and the end of the day Josh and I sat with this guy who had trekked 4 hours and listening to him ask in very broken english if we could teach him some children songs he could bring back into the mountains. We sat and wrote out some songs taught him some actions and sung them through with him a few times, until he was sure he knew them, or maybe he just had a headache from my singing! He ripped out the pages of the notebook and off he went to rest...
In those brief moments dear readers, it didn't matter if nothing else I had said had been of any use, here I was, sat a milllion miles from home, covered in mosquito bites (I got 43 in total), helping a man from a place many people will never hear of, a place that will probably never even get put on a map, learn how to engage children in his church and make them aware of a huge God who cares intimately for them and believes that even if the world don't know they exist...He does!!
...humbled...
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