Worshipper

One more reflection from this last weekend - the teachers and the school. For the last four years, the high school has invited my friend Neil to run a retreat for their students. The school is not able to offer a retreat for every level (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior) due to costs for the families, many of whom have children in multiple levels. The cost per each student is 250 pesos (less than $5) for the entire weekend, which can be over a week's salary for some. This weekend's retreat was for the sophomors. Later this year, the seniors will have their turn, which Neil will also run. The students, teachers, and the principal love the work Neil is doing for their school. They believe the power of a weekend spiritual retreat is helping transform the lives of their students and their school. Moreover, although their students come from some of the poorest families in the area, they consistently rank high in their academic testing. For this they praise God.

Oh yeah - they are a public school. Almost all the private schools here have similar weekend retreats built into their curriculum. But very few public schools are able offer them because of the money. The parents, principal, and district also have to agree to it. But this school finds that it is worth whatever the cost.

When I told my father about the weekend and what I witnessed, he cried because he too felt compassion for the kids. My father grew up on this same island and as a boy, he knew firsthand the poverty, the back-breaking work on the sugar cane fields, and the illusive dream of one day escaping it. And through hard work and studies, and by the grace of God, he was able to finish high school, go to college, and eventually end up brining his family to America. The thought of "I could have easily ended up living in this situation" is never too far away whenever I witness the hardships here. Why us? Why not them?

Like the generous man my father is, he asked me what we could do to help this particular school. For example, I met the teacher who teaches livelihood training so the students can learn a certain vocational skill. Unfortunatley, she teaches sewing by using drawings of a sewing machines and how each part works. They don't have any machines for hands-on-learning. Not one. I suggested to my dad that we somehow support what Neil is doing, because it is powerful and transformative. Many former tudents come up to him later and tell him how much that retreat from years ago meant to them. Perhaps supporting a retreat weekend for the other grade levels so they too can see and hear again the love of Jesus. The cost to the school for an entire weekend retreat is about P5,000, which is a little over $100.

I told the teachers that I would continue to pray for their students and their work. Neil also invited me to share with them a short devotional with the staff, which included the following passage from Mark Buchanan's book "The Rest of God - Restoring Your Soul By Restoring Sabbath"

"The opposite of a slave is not a free man. it's a worshipper. The one who is most free is the one who turns the work of his ands into sacrament, into offering. All he makes and all he does are gifts from Godm through God, and to God. Just as simple bread and juice, when we eat and drink them in a spirit of thanksgiving and faith, become the very presence of Christ, so simple tasks -- preparing sermons, cookings soup, cutting grace, growing corn -- when done in the same spirit, are holy. It is all the Lord's work. Virtually any job, no matter how grueling or tedious -- any job that is not criminal or sinful -- can be a gift from God, through God, and to God. The work of our hands, by the alchemy of our devotion, becomes the worship of our hearts."

And the end of the devotional I instructed each of the teachers to open their hands and in the posture of release, I prayed that they would release whatever burdens they had for themselves and their students into the care of our Heavenly Father. And at the same time, this posture was a gesture of receiving any blessing or grace He wanted to bestow and give to us.