Filipiniana Week.

Mabuhay! Welcome to Filipiniana week! The elementary celebrates the Philippines and the Filipino culture every October. It's a week of festivities and filled with cultural experiences.

Monday morning started off with a ceremony where all the classes came up on the stage and the teachers smashed a clay pot (kind of like a pinata).

The kids are excited and ready for the flying candy.

The clay pot. Whacking like it a pinata seems kind of dangerous.

Then the blindfold you... awesome

... and in front of the whole school. I had to turn on my unagi ;)

Whack! I got it on my fourth swing.

The kids went crazy! It was so funny to see them going crazy.

And then for lunch another Filipino school came to join us. The Faith kids brought lunches for the other kids and then they were supposed to show the kids around the playground and teach them their favorite games. It was absolutely amazing to see these kids pour their hearts out to this school. Alot of the kids from this other school were living in an orphanage or were squatter kids and so they've lived hard lives. My 9 and 10 year olds were paired up with some kids who were in 2nd grade but were 12 years old! Seriously though, I have never been so proud of kids before. At the end of the day my class felt so good. They went on and on about how much fun they had with the kids and giving them lunch. It was so fun to see their smiling faces.

It reminded me of a little girl long time ago who took a trip to Mexico with her family. She had never felt so proud of the work she was doing even though all she did was pass out tomatoes to the squatter camps. I think that trip planted a seed which eventually led me to overseas missions. There is nothing like a toothless smile on a kid who has just experienced the love of Jesus Christ. I'm so glad I was able to share that with my class this week.

The kids were a little overwhelmed at first. Faith kids are in blue, the other school is in yellow!