At Rex and Lanie's Foursquare church today, they held a kids day, featuring a dance clinic run by our team!
After having a team prayer-breakfast (of oatmeal, apple bananas, mango, peanut butter un-toast and guava jelly, and mango) at our Fontana villa, Nolan picked us up around 8am, and we arrived at the church around 8:45am. We were surprised to find our iCare youth friends still at LOTB Foursquare Church, as they had spent the night with the youth praying all night (they do this every Friday night at Rex and Lanie's church, but the additional prayer warriors were utilized in preparation for this Saturday of activities that was planned.) Also when we arrived, it came to our attention that they were experiencing an electrical brown-out, only the second they've had in the 8 months they've been at this location. Spiritual warfare is still at play, but the devil can't stop us and our outreach endeavors! We proceeded with our plans, regardless. We said a (final?) goodbye to the majority of our iCare youth friends, but Alvin and Isiah ("Ice") remained to help us with our day. Good thing they did, because we utilized their musical talents since we had no electricity with which to power our speakers for our music.
After leading/teaching a full ballet warm up (plies, tendus, degages, port de bras, chasses, bourrees, a little adagio balance-soutenu turn combo, and more!), Bethany and I danced "Oceans" to the acoustic/vocal accompaniment of our friends! The day was warming up, and so were we!! Continuing with our dance workshop, we split the kids into two groups, to teach them choreography to Planetshakers "With God All Things Are Possible" and Hillsong's "Faith." Again, we implemented the musical talents of guitar players present! Then the groups performed for one another. We switched groups and taught the other song's choreography. Then they performed for each other. We took a break for morning merienda (snack)- surprised with Oreo cookies from Papa (Pastor) Bob! The rest of us enjoyed Pandasol (pan de sol), a baked bread with a seeded/grainy filling inside.
Regrouping as the power came back on, we moved inside for the shade and fans, performing all together the two songs, with full, surround sound accompaniment! Then ensued the "freestyle" dance session. For the next 30-45 min, breakdancing, hip hop, and acrobatic movement filled the church room. Then a tickle-fest broke out, followed by further rough housing. It was a blast. Everyone was showing off and sweating buckets in our exertion during play time.
Lunch of adobo chicken with potatoes and rice was served by the church mommies around 12:30. Kids were camped out all over the place, eating in trees, on the ground, at tables too, as well as in/atop a trike parked in the yard (tricycle, tuk-tukesque motorcycle cabs that are commonly used as taxi carriages here in the Philippines, smaller and more personal than their mini-bus jeepneys). Everyone rested/set up for the afternoon's activities until 2pm, while the kids watched a movie. Our afternoon activities included several crafts, puppet shows, and more song/dance.
Lanie and the church youth helpers taught another song with hand motions. Then they presented an awesome puppet skit to the kids and had an altar call, with many children reciting the salvation prayer. Outside, our team had set up craft stations: mustard-seed (Matthew 17:20) bookmarks, Jericho drums and egg (maraca) shakers, and gospel "faith" bracelets. It was hot and in the direct sun on the concrete basketball court, though we tried to keep under the shade of the trees that edged the court. Kids had so much fun flitting from station to station, making their own creations. And the helpers from the church also took ownership of the crafts, learning quickly and instructing the kids on what to do in Tagalog.
As I have caught on to vocab over the past several days, I use choice words here and there to communicate. Usually they are the words that are cognates or similar to Spanish vocabulary. (Present-day Filipino Tagalog is a fusion of native words, adapted to modern times with English/US/Western culture as well as adapted Spanish vocabulary from hundreds of years of historic Spamish colonial rule.) When the chicken especially hear me use words like "diseño" - to tell them to decorate their bookmarks, or "basurero" - to bring the trash can over, they don't understand those are Spanish cognates, nor that I speak Spanish, for that matter! In combo with me using Tagalog words like salamatpo (thank you with respect, colloquially stated), or "hello po" (colloquial/honorific greeting), they think I speak/can understand anything they say, and to my dismay, typically begin to rattle off whole thoughts in Tagalog. Especially getting little ones to understand that we speak a different language is tough. Whenever I travel, I try to use nonverbal cues as communicationally indicators; body language, tone/inflection (which actually is culturally similar between Tagalog and US English, as opposed to the relationship between English and Mandarin, for instance).
Back to events of the day...
We wrapped up the activities after crafts with a puppet show of our own-- the one telling the story of Jericho. Ending the story with "marching around the walls of Jericho" (aka the basketball court), kids were handed kazoos in addition to their drums and shakers, and we made a joyful racket, shouting "Break through! Break through!" After marching not quite 7 times around, we broke out the candy and prize toys to continue our celebrations, but conclude the day's activities. The festivities were wonderful, jovial faces seen everywhere--kids, our team, parents, pastors, and the like.
We said "see you later" to everyone (we will see most of them at church tomorrow), leaving the church around 4pm. We stopped by SM Mall to get dinner at Max's (I had veggie lumpia and kamote (sweet potato) fries, dipped in banana-ketchup), and finished up with a quick shopping trip for postcards and souvenirs and things of the sort. We were home in the villa by 6pm. Showering, I came up to the "clubhouse" lobby with the girls to get the first real, valid internet I've had in days (the wifi at Rex and Lanie's is terribly weak, so it was all I could do to post text-only updates). I'm going to try to post some photos now...
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