The Life Changing Impact of CSC

Recently a wedding and a funeral wake reminded me of some of the ways that CSC has impacted individuals and families here in Cebu. We won't know the full significance of this impact this side of heaven, but I know that lives have been changed for the better and families given opportunities that they would never have otherwise had. Oh yeah, the wedding and the funeral.

E-Boy's wedding was a great even for the Martinez family. He is an employee of CSC, and has many family members who also work for us. In fact, three of his brothers, one of his sisters, two sisters in law and one brother in law all are on our payroll. His dad and another sister were formally working for CSC. Years ago, when we first arrived in Cebu, one of our neighbors in Bulacao told us of a baby boy who was dying in the government hospital. We went there to see him and learned that he needed some medicine and blood. One of our staff gave blood while others went and bought some antibiotics. From death's door little Jessie started to come around, and eventually he got better. Now he is 32 years old, and he is the brother of the aforementioned groom. Though assistance like this, and through the employment of many of their family members, CSC has had a huge impact on the Martinez family. They have risen up from destitute poverty to owning a small business in Bulacao. Family members have their own houses and families.

The other day we learned that our friend Erning Ochea had died. Ernie was formerly the caretaker of our land in CarCar and has been a friend of CSC for 30 years. One night in 1979 when we were making our rounds in the government hospital (before CSC had taken in any kids), we saw a lady crying at the side of a crib. He little girl was dying of pneumonia. She needed medicine that would have cost about $5. The family didn't have a penny to their names so she was standing there watching her daughter die. We bought the medicine needed, and found out that she had three more kids, just as sick, back in their little shack in a squatter village in Mandaue. Without thinking too much about what we were doing, another staff member and I comandeered a jeepney and went to their shack. We brought the kids and their father, Erning, to the hospital for treatment. Later, when the kids got well and the family went back home, we decided to move them out of that filthy slum to Bulacao, near where we lived at the time. Later, we gave them a job taking care of our property. When we eventually sold that land the new owners took them on, and we haven't seen too much of them for the past 15 years. When we heard that Erning died the staff went to their home in CarCar to see the family. It was an overwhelming time for us in remembering how God had brought us to this family, and to see how their lives have developed over the years. Rescued from sickness and despair they were given a chance to work and prosper.

There are big differences in the emotions of funerals and weddings, but both of these events provided an opportunity for me to see the ways that CSC has impacted people, quite apart from what we do with the children under our care.

Jenny's Work

Jenny continues to enjoy drawing and crafts. She recently made this drawing which she included in a newsletter for some of her friends. She writes many letters to friends and, occasionally, gets one in return. She doesn't really enjoy e-mailing, prefering snail mail. Envelopes from Jenny usually include a number of surprises! She loves to collect Barbies and to watch her two favorite shows: Full House and Little House on the Prairie. Jenny works two days a week at the Children of Hope School, helping out in the library putting books away. I will occasionally post pictures from Jenny on this blog. She is the real talent in the Healy family!

Facebook

I am a new and reluctant member of Facebook. I have wavered for some time. I initially signed up, then quit, then got back on board. I am not entirely comfortable with the whole FB culture. Maybe that is partially the result of my not living in the U.S. and not participating in the information/social networking lifestyle for so long. I have a hard time thinking that my circle of friends cares about my status at any given point in time, or what I think about pictures, games, etc. I'm trying, but I feel like I'm slipping away again. Too many friend requests to decide on. Too many former CSC kids to keep up on. Too many needy people. Too little time......

One thing that I've come to realize in my short FB stint is the ways that many former CSC kids rely on each other. I think that it is a good thing, usually. They are friends for life. They share their pictures, information and they interact. Sometimes they show off, brag and try to shock. I confess to finding some of this stuff very annoying and disappointing. I'm not easily shocked about anything, any more. But I'm fairly easily bothered by some of the stuff that FB has brought to my attention about the life choices of some of our former kids.

So I'm still trying to decide whether FB is for me. It is certainly a good place to keep up with my own kids and their families, and I've enjoyed reconnecting with some old friends. Maybe I just need more time to learn how to ignore the stuff that bugs me and enjoy the good things.

Hey, maybe that is a good life principle, in general.

A Sense of Place

The house that I grew up in was sold by my folks back in the 80s. We were already out here in Cebu at the time, but I remember the news giving me a kind of strange feeling. And when we went back to Minnesota on furlough and I drove by the old homestead, I remember feeling a little bit unsettled. That place had been the only one where we had all lived together as a family (with the exception of a year when we lived in Phoenix while my dad took a sabbatical). That was our home. Who are those people walking in an out as if it is theirs? Every time I'm in St. Paul I drive by the house, sometimes even going down the alley to look at The Hoop, our dillapidated garage that (thankfully) "they" have not felt a need to fix up and the yard where we played countless hours of whiffle ball. I guess I have a pretty strong sense of place when it comes to my childhood. We painted that house. We did pullups on the water pipes in the basement. I can still remember the smell of our sun porch and the dusty fruit cellar in the basement.



I wonder sometimes if our CSC kids have any of that. The other day the kids from our Eicher Home moved into the new Duterte Home. A few days later the Cherne Home kids moved over to the Eicher Home so their place can be repaired. For a couple days the Eicher Home was completely empty, and quiet for the first time in 18 years. Strangely quiet. I remember standing outside and reflecting on all the kids that we have helped raise in that home - the laughter and crying, the sounds of kids eating, singing, running up the stairs, playing, shouting and praying. That house, and the Cherne Home, too, has a lot of significance for me. The memories can be overwhelming at times, when I think of the kids who have been housed there, and have left for adoption or have gone other places. I wonder how they feel about that house, if their memories are as strong as mine.



In a few weeks a woman will be visiting us who spent time at CSC as a child. She is now about 35 years old. The house where she lived has been torn down in Bulacao. I wonder if she has any memories of that place, and if she'll feel sad that it no longer stands. I can remember how badly I felt watching that place go down hill after we sold it and to learn that it was torn down to build a new house. I remember so many of the kids that lived there with us, back in the day when all the kids and staff lived together. I remember pulling kids around in our wagon, and our playground where they would run and play. I wonder if the kids remember that. Or maybe, there is something about their having been uprooted from their birth families that results in their not really developing a sense of place like I seem to have.



Pardon my notalgic rambling on a Sunday afternoon.

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.