To say that Maggie has a servant's heart would be an understatement. Oh, I am so proud of her that I don't even have words to describe it. I'll never forget watching her interacting with the kids, teaching them, playing with them, loving them. She began the day greeting the kids in her very best Bahasa, "Selamet Pagi", which means "Good Morning". She did not hesitate or lose confidence once. Not once. It was really amazing watching her. The kids adored her. The poor kid was literally pulled in every direction, yet she handled herself so well. I tell the kids to "Shine for Jesus" everyday when I drop them off at school. Well today our little Maggie BEAMED for Jesus!
Here are a few photos that were taken throughout the day. I can't take credit for most of them because my camera fell into the hands of couple of boys early on and I didn't have the heart to ask for it back because it was so entertaining for them. Kids from as young as 4 all the way up to the teenagers waited patiently for a turn with my camera. Although I often observed the careful transfer from one child to the other with a stern Bahasa request to "put your hand through the strap so you don't drop it!" it was returned to me covered in glitter, frosting and what I can only assume was sweat. But I will treasure the photos they took with it forever (there were over 500!). Bless their hearts.
Here are a few of my favorites:
No English lesson today - it was all fun and games! Our purpose this time was to help the kids set up and decorate the Christmas tree, make Christmas ornaments together, sing Christmas carols, wrap some presents, and decorate Christmas cookies! Kind of an interesting list of items to get through customs, I know, but everything arrived without any problems and our journey there was relatively smooth. It was a lovely Christmas celebration...
Here's Maggie teaching a couple of kids how to cut out Christmas shapes to make ornaments.
then she introduced stickers and glitter... it was a very popular activity!
Decorating the tree...
Keep this woman, "Ibu" in your prayers always. She takes care of the kids living here. She is a saint.
Don't you love how shiny all of our faces are? It's a combination of glitter and sweat!
More Christmas activities...
new friends...
lunch time:
look at that huge pot of rice!
I wondered how Maggie would react to eating lunch with children who eat with their hands. Again, she handled herself so gracefully.
You wouldn't believe how well-behaved these kids are. I'm not sure what their list of chores includes, but there must have been a few kids that were assigned to "clean up after the helpers". Anytime we dropped something on the floor, or left craft scraps on the table, they were always promptly swept away before we could get to them! They never complained, bickered with each other or even talked while we were trying to explain something to them. Unbelievably polite. As soon as lunch time was over even the younger kids went to the backyard to wash their dishes in this little trench. It was so humbling to watch them.
I seriously have to figure out how to take this little cutie-pie home with me!
I walked over to the side of the house because I heard roars of laughter and I was curious what was going on. I found these two boys, with several more circled around them laughing and cheering them on. They were playing some kind of game that simply involved 4 or 5 popsicle sticks and a single coin. That's it. I'll have to remember that as I do my Christmas shopping for the girls this year. Really.
Remember those dogs that barked at me and constantly licked me last time?
Oh, boy!
Maggie's Hair...
Such wonderful entertainment for the girls.
Salamet Hari Natal! (Merry Christmas!)
Hannah will be next to work in the orphanage with me, and we'll have to see about Mia. She's pretty young and I'm not so sure she'll be able to put the needs of the kids before her own, but we'll see... :)
I can't believe we'll be back in the US for Christmas in one week! We're getting pretty excited around here...
