join hands

christian unity. this week, we are called to be mindful and intentional about praying for christian unity. from the 18-25, we are to be unified in our faith in Jesus Christ, and to be in solidarity with one another. beyond this week though, too, we are called to be in unity with one another.

today i legit taught 3 classes, for 40 minutes each. how the HECK i was able to do that, i have no idea, but thank you mother cabrini high school! i taught the 4th, 5th and 6th graders religion, while doing an activity with them. i started off by teaching them a song with hand motions, "peace before us, peace behind us, peace under our feet..." and we closed with that song too. in between. i had some readers for the scriptures talking about the birth of jesus. i ended up doing some solo acting for the class, and with my broken tagalog, i made it through! :) the students were super shy, but they were super fun too. this is going to be so great! sister terezinha worked with the 1st-3rd graders, while i worked with the older kids, 4th-6th grade. it was perfect!

i surprised myself in that, i really improvised a lot. not gonna lie, i did not have a lesson plan prepared, cause i really had no idea what to expect...and well, so the spirit led me to teach! it was really funny because i had to make the stories real for the children, and so, i said, "the three kings were having chika-chika" which is like, "gossip" in tagalog, "and then, they saw a star!" hahaha...so, i improvised a little bit, and they got it. haha!

after teaching, we caught up with the teachers, had some snacks with them, and then waited for our taxi/jeepney to get home. in the hour long duration that we were waiting...no joke! we waited a full hour, until we decided to just take a jeepney, there was this young man who was also waiting for a ride, and because i had all of our stuff down in the little waiting shed, i decided that i needed to watch my stuff! so i was very careful with our stuff, and i was NOT about to make small talk with this guy.

but anyway, he kept telling sister and i, don't worry - a ride will come...and then he heard me say, "sister," so he asked, "what were you guys doing here? were you teaching?" and so, i didn't want to give out too much information, but i figured he deduced it from all the children's books we had. and i said, "yes. what are YOU doing here?" haha, and so, he told me he was preaching down by the school too. turns out, he is a jehovah's witness, and he preaches in the local barangay.

after discovering this similarity in our ministries, i loosened up a bit, and i thought to myself, maybe a ride isn't coming because this is such a great opportunity to learn more and to have good conversation. and so, i talked about one of my friends who is a jehovah's witness and doing her mission in the DR, and we talked about how there are a lot of jehovah's witnesses who come from california and canada to the philippines. it was really cool actually - really random. i then got hungry, so i ate some of my crackers, and gave him some too. he broke off one of the crackers, and then put the other crackers in his bag. it was really interesting though, because these were just like sheets of crackers. i don't know, there was a very simple, serene, very peaceful vibe i got from this young man - he seemed like a nice, faithful guy.

anyway, a jeepney arrived, and we said bye to each other and then sr. and i were on our way! at prayer tonight, reflecting on today's Gospel reading, on how Jesus shows himself to us in different ways throughout our day, i thought about how this was totally a God moment. looking back, i realize that now. there was fear and apprehensiveness at first, but then, the situation eased itself, and how fitting that it happen during the week for christian unity! it was great! :) it caught me off guard, but it was good.

together, let us pray for unity among all christians, and for solidarity with one another in the world. amen.