Day 5 - Clinics and the Orphanage

March 12, 2019

We started the day by leading clinics at Liberty Christian School. This was the school that sent eighteen 9th & 10th graders to help us translate during our first clinic last Friday. We ran four 1 hour sessions and by the end of the day we were EXHAUSTED! We started with the preschool group and, after clearly explaining the rules of our game and that the kids needed to stay inside the cones, we started the game and the kids ran the exact opposite direction! It was hilarious and made it very clear to all of us that preschoolers need A LOT more guidance! This group was adorable and once we were done with our games we got to spend some time playing with them on the jungle gym. Our next group was lower elementary (1st-3rd) and again, they had such high energy and were so excited to play whatever games we had for them! They LOVED playing sharks and minnows, red light green light, dribbling relays, and our individual sports groups. The next group to come out was our most challenging group, the junior high and and high school group. When we announced that we were splitting them into a basketball and soccer groups we could have dropped dead from the death stares we were receiving. The boys who were leading the basketball group grew very frustrated because the junior high kids DID NOT want to participate, but after talking through it with them and explaining the need for patience and clear instruction, we were off and running. The thing is, even though our kids are not all playing their true sport on this trip, they have still had SO much more training than the kids we were working with. These kids have not really ever had any true PE class where they learned the basics of a sport, so many did not know how to dribble or shoot, let alone run through layup lines. By the end of this session we were really proud because all of them got into knockout and were having fun competing.

The JH/HS really wore us out, but we pushed through and our last group came out— the upper elementary students (4th-6th). This was a great group to end on because they were excited and participated and had great attitudes. The whole morning I was incredibly impressed by our own students’ willingness to go all out when playing with these kids and leading their individual sports breakout sessions. It was hot, we were all sunburned, hungry, and tired, but our kids had the BEST attitudes and it made me so proud to be their teacher! As we debriefed this evening, the main lesson we learned from our morning clinics is that we are called to have a childlike faith. This was shown so vividly today when the little kids were so excited and screaming at the top of their lungs when we said we were going to play a game, whereas the high school kids just stared at us and were honestly quite obstinate. We want to have the kind of faith where we scream at the top of our lungs (metaphorically of course) when we get to spend time with the Lord, instead of treating it like drudgery like the high school kids did when we said they were playing basketball.

The senior class of Liberty Christian High School!

After we ate lunch at the school we headed over to the orphanage to love on and play with the kids. When we arrived, our leader, Ronald, explained to our kids why we cannot have our phones out to take pictures and that we cannot ask any questions about the kids’ backgrounds or how they came to the orphanage. He also got emotional explaining why this ministry is so important to him—because he himself was an orphan and has been adopted by a loving family, but that his heart breaks for the kids who have not yet been adopted! He asked our students to go all out when playing with these kids despite our exhaustion and to remind them that they are loved and not forgotten, and in doing so, show Christ’s love for them. At the orphanage there were only about 15-20 kids on site at the time because the older kids were at school, so our 18 students surrounded these kids and gave each kid so much attention and love. The girls held and soothed the babies, our boys put the little ones on their shoulders and ran all around the yard, several of our kids made bracelets for the kids, and we had a blast playing with stickers and letting the kiddos experience pop rocks for the first time. It was hard to leave and many of our students asked if we could bring the kids home with us. We all thought it was heartbreaking seeing their beds and knowing they do not have a family to go home to. When we were debriefing at night I explained to our kids that we’re all those orphans in a way—feeling lost, rejected, abandoned, or overseen at times, yet God has called us His and has adopted us into his family and has given us his full blessing. Even though we can’t adopt all of those kids, we can love other people the way we loved on those kiddos today and we can have empathy for others, understanding that everyone has their own hurts, fears, and insecurities and are doing their best. Instead of immediately getting annoyed or angry when someone hurts us, we can try to see them through God’s eyes and try to have empathy for what they might be going through.

After the orphanage we had quite the evening, we stopped by the souvenir market in downtown San Jose to pick up some keepsakes, we stopped by POP’s to grab some ice cream for Diana’s 17th birthday, then we drove home and had a surprise birthday party complete with a BBQ and dance party for both Diana and Vinnie’s birthdays! The best part of the night was when we sang happy birthday to Diana and Vinnie and our host, Ronald, shocked them by cracking an egg over their heads as part of a family tradition!! We were so grateful to the Rodrigues family for inviting us into their home and providing the food and hospitality for a great birthday party!! Today was a great day!