A Genius

Chris Hansen is a genius. He's the guy who designed our new web site. He's a genius for lots of reasons, but I'm thinking about his idea to put the staff blogs on the home page callout in order of their having been updated. The slogger bloggers will be embarrassed into updating regularly, and the competitive nature of some of the staff will be stirred. I'm already seeing it.

We have some very competitive people on the staff. I've seen a game of Yahtzee played with the intensity of the Superbowl by some people who I will not mention. So I think we'll get more blogging done which will make our site better.

Now Chris, if you can set up something for a quality of writing indicator........

My cousin

Well, actually, she is the daughter of my cousin, so what does that make her? My second or third cousin? Once removed? Anyway, Erin is here to visit us in Cebu, all the way from North Carolina. She is on kind of a world tour, visiting England, the Philippines, Australia and New Zealand. She is a delightful person who brightens up people's lives wherever she goes. I'm happy that she chose to come here.

It is kind of strange to be meeting a relative who I don't know. I met her years ago at a family reunion, but haven't seen her for years. That's the way it is for missionaries, I guess. Even my nephews and nieces grew up without their Uncle Paul around much.

One of the exciting things over the years for all of our staff members has been the visits of family. It is fun to show them the work to which we have dedicated much of our lives, and what goes on "behind the scenes" to make CSC go.

One thing that I think visitors find interesting about CSC is the number of people who contribute to the work here. Stateside people tend to think of CSC as "Paul and Marlys's" or "Sandy's" or "Mitch and Ruth's" ministry. When here they see the valuable work of our social workers, our nurses, teachers, child care workers, houseparents, handymen, office workers and counselors. Erin has had a chance to see many of these folks in action, using their time and talents for the sake of the kids. She accompanied our Supervising Social Worker Carmelita to visit a group of siblings who we are considering admitting when our new house is ready. Being a nurse herself, she has spent a lot of time hanging out with the nurses and seeing the various medical jobs that they do. She has spent time with the children and observed the workers taking good care of them. She has been up at school to see the kind of education we provide them. And she has been able to hang out with the staff in various settings.

Most people can't actually visit CSC. So we want to do the best job possible of helping them feel as if they have been here by the way we present the ministry, especially on our web site. We are always look for ideas of how we can bring CSC "to life" for visitors to cscshelter.org. It helps to see the things that our visitors find especially interesting when they are here. It also helps to query our internet friends about what they are looking for in a web site.

I'm open to your ideas and reactions. Better yet, come on out and visit us in Cebu!

What we tell them

Yesterday some of the staff got up super early to watch the Twins play the Tigers for the American League Central title. It was a great game and it went into extra innings. We were watching at the school, and the kids arrived before the game was over. So we let them watch. We are just about all Minnesotans on the staff so we were cheering pretty aggressively for the Twins. Before long the kids were joining us, cheering for a sport that they do not know much about and for a team that they know nothing about. Because we were.

This got me to thinking about the responsibilities of being people of significant influence in kids' lives. They follow us. They believe us. They imitate us. If we say the Twins are the greatest they will buy that. If you ask most of our kids about their favorite state in the U.S., they will answer "Minnesota" without hesitating. They have heard us talk about our home state and they have met a lot of good people from there. We are the closest thing to family that our kids have at this point in their lives, so they feel connected to Minnesota, and, it seems, the Twins, in ways that are at the same time heartwarming and a little sad.

Some day many of these kids will be adopted and join families in countries around the world. Some of them will become Americans. Some will live in Minnesota and others will join families in other states, with other home teams. And then they will take the cue from their adoptive parents about which team is best. And eventually, they will make up their own minds about these and other more important matters, and pass those values down to their own children. But for now, they are watching us and learning.

Our Best Man

Before you start reading this I want to say this: this is one of the coolest stories I can remember around CSC. It is heartwarming and I'm sure I could not tell it to you face to face without my voice breaking up. This is about Jacob, our Best Man.

A couple years ago a guy named Bong was one of our therapists at Children of Hope School. He worked with Jacob and the other kids with special needs. He had a special bond with Jacob who suffers from cerebral palsy and is very limited in his movement. Bong eventually left us to work in Australia, but he has kept in touch. Recently he showed up back in Cebu with the news that he is getting married later this month. But the big news for everyone at CSC was this: Bong asked Jacob to be his best man. Sandy Swanson was there when Jacob got that news and she reports that he was so excited that he could not contain himself! Like usual when he gets excited, he goes stiff, but this time it was because of happiness, not discomfort. He shouted out with joy.


I don't know if you can get a sense for what something like this does for a guy like Jacob. I'm not sure I can really grasp it. Imagine: Jacob was chosen! He is valued in a very significant way by a friend. On Bong's most special day of his life, he wants Jake to be there. Jacob, whose disability rarely allows him to be in the spotlight, will be up front in the wedding party. He'll be dressed to the nines. For the days leading up to the event he'll be a center of attention as we discuss his attire, where his wheel chair will be placed and where he'll sit at the dinner. He has not stopped smiling since he talked to Bong. And neither have we! I keep thinking that this is one of the cool stories of CSC. An inspiring friendship and an acknowledgement of just what a great guy Jacob is. This will be one of the biggest days of Jacob's life.


I'll try to post something after the wedding with some pictures. I want you all to share in Jake's big day.