St. John’s School and Website training – July 29
This morning started with a trip to St. John’s Church and School, on the outskirts of Cotabato City. St. John’s has 120 students and 8 faculty, Kindergarten through 6th grade. The student body is both Christian and Muslim (as is all the Episcopal School in this part of the Philippines). We were invited to the Nutrition Month closing assembly. The theme was 1000 days of a baby’s life and focused on good nutrition beginning with mother’s milk in early childhood and good eating habits in childhood. It opened with the raising of the flag and national anthem and prayers and continued with a dance routine including all the students, followed by a talent contest.
While there I talked to Mrs. Magnaramas, School principal about making a contribution to the school and gave her $500 from St. Benedict’s, Lacey mission funds (I was asked to give to a ministry in the EDSP during my visit). She thanks St. Benedict’s for their generous love offering; which will be used to rebuild kindergarten classrooms and library destroyed in a fire late last year.
Fr. Francis Imperial is the rector and someone I met in 2013 on my first visit to EDSP. I spend a week in his parish, St. Francis, during that visit. He has recently been reassigned to St. John’s and I’ve been asked to preach and celebrate on Sunday (Jul 31). It will be an honor to be part of their worship and fellowship. It’s always an interesting experience to preach when the lessons are read in a language I don’t understand.
St. Peter and St. Paul school also had a Nutrition month assembly that was still going on when we returned to the diocesan center (some photos of their displays in today’s photo album). The Filipino school have a monthly “theme” that is a focus in all school, public and private.
We had lunch with Fr. Francis and Mrs. Magnaramas and returned to the diocesan center for a short rest. In the afternoon, I held training for the diocesan staff on managing their website. Two members of the faculty of St. Francis school joined the class and after class, we chose a domain name and later in the day I got a website for St. Francis High School “live in the web” – http://stfrancishighschoolupi.org. This is the 5th website I host for ministries in the Episcopal Church in the Philippines. I got to see the computer they purchased with the donations from St. Mary’s, Lakewood, St. Christopher’s, Olympia, and St. Luke’s, Vancouver.
We had a pause in the class for the time the power was out, and resumed after the “brown out” was over. The rest of the day was quiet. Jaime and I went to the grocery store next to the diocesan center and got peanut butter, jam, and bread for dinner.
It rained most of the day, so it was a little cooler. Early night to bed and actually a full night’s sleep. Saturday is to be a quiet day with lunch with Bishop Dan and retired Bishop Magaramas and his wife.