The Sea Turtle Analogy

     The second week in the Philippines was not an easy one. Second semester has already been a lot harder than expected.
     I never really thought I would have too much of a culture shock while traveling. Honestly I think that the world "shock" is not the right one to use. When we hear shock we think of an immediate reaction. the culture shock that I have been experiencing has been a slow, on going ordeal. While I am currently trying to process the things that I am seeing today, and am also trying to process the experiences that I had during the first week. This past week I was given the opportunity to go with one of my co-students, Kaitlyn, to one of the smallest islands in the Philippines. This island is maybe a football field long with over 400 children living on it. That's just children. For about three hours we played basketball with the kids and taught them other games like duck duck chicken(pato pato manook) and down by the banks. The children loved learning these new games and found so much joy and laughter in watching their friends and family members join in. As the time drew closer for us to leave the island, my heart was torn up by how quickly the day had gone by. I didn't see the purpose in spending so little time with these kids, giving them nothing, then just turning right back around and leaving. As our boat pulled away, we were forced to watch the children wave goodbye as they began to cry and shout "come back, come back!". Again, why we were there for so little, giving them nothing, I do not know.
    We then had the next day off to have time to ourselves and to catch up with friends back home. All that was on my mind were these children and the little time I had with them. While complaining to a friend over Face Time about all of this, she quickly stopped me to tell me the turtle analogy.
     "Imagine you are on a beach with thousands of washed up sea turtles", she began. "You are sad because you can't help all of them. You want to, but you just can't. You then see a man throwing the sea turtles back in the ocean one by one. You say to the man 'what are you doing?! You can't help all of these sea turtles! You are just wasting your time.' But the man says to you 'at least I can help them one by one, even if it is just a few.' "
     After I stopped laughing at Georgia's analogy, I paused to actually think about what she really meant. I realized she was right. Just because I couldn't help every child on that island, doesn't mean I didn't help a few of them. By giving something as simple as a high five or a hug might make a child's day just a little better. When Jesus walked the earth, he couldn't/didn't change the poor's circumstances; he just loved them and showed them his joy and peace.
     I am very thankful for the time that I had on that island. I am very thankful for all of the hugs and high fives that were given and for all of the laughs that were shared. I am very thankful for the sea turtle analogy.

Philippines Update

     My group and I have been in the Philippines on the island of Bohol for about five days now. It's really hot and crowded but the people are great. So far, all the filipinos love americans and they think white people are really funny, so that makes me feel confident. We worked for two full days this past week, sorting seeds and delivering christmas presents to kids in different communities for International Care Ministries. Next week we will start our first full week of work and I will start my job doing photo journalism for ICM. I will be going into different communities with a translator, hearing success stories that pastors have had working with ICM, then sending their stories and photos to their donors to show how much their donations and prayers have helped them. I'm excited about that because I like people andI like that everyone has a story. Please pray for ICM, the people we are going to work with this next month and the relationships that are going to be made.