{"id":2077,"date":"2018-04-14T05:14:17","date_gmt":"2018-04-14T09:14:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/?p=2077"},"modified":"2018-04-14T05:14:17","modified_gmt":"2018-04-14T09:14:17","slug":"a-new-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/2018\/04\/14\/a-new-game\/","title":{"rendered":"A New Game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, people in the States will ask us:\u00a0 \u201cHow are your kids doing?\u201d\u00a0 Or\u00a0 \u201cHow are they adjusting to being back in the Philippines?\u201d\u00a0 Well, please let us share what we have been doing to try to help them with their transition back to the Philippines.<\/p>\n

Returning to the Philippines is a mixture of joy and sorrow, especially for our children.\u00a0 They miss their American friends and they have lost the privilege of participating in church activities they have so enjoyed during our time in the States<\/p>\n

Upon our return to the village, Abigail asked if we could make an \u201cocta-ball ring\u201d.\u00a0 This was her favorite game back in the States with her friends in youth group and she wanted to play it with the village kids.\u00a0 For those of you who don\u2019t know \u201cocta-ball\u201d, it is like dodgeball, but all the players are inside a large octagon shape ring.\u00a0 However, I, Stephen, quickly dismissed this idea as it is a large indoor game and if I could do it outside, where in the world would I do it?\u00a0 Even though I said no, I still had a desire to help my kids with their transition back to the Philippines.\u00a0 So, we decided to make a \u201csmall\u201d cement pad (16 feet x 16 feet) in our yard where the kids play basketball.\u00a0 Luke had requested this so he could practice for Sports Bible Camp and not twist his ankle so often on the uneven ground.\u00a0 This new slab was a hit with all our kids and with the village kids.\u00a0 Every day, dozens of kids come to play basketball.<\/p>\n

Well, one day, Ginger asked me if we could reconsider and make the octa-ball ring for Abigail.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take much persuasion, especially after Abigail found out that we were considering the idea.\u00a0 I knew I couldn\u2019t make it as big as the one back at our home church in the States, but I would try to make it as big as I could on the new basketball slab.\u00a0 However, to make this octa-ball ring would take some planning and traveling as we don\u2019t have a local Lowes or Home Depot.\u00a0 We were able to purchase plywood near our village, but, we also needed 25 pieces of 1\u201dx3\u201dx8\u2019, 500 wood screws and 8 pairs of hinges.\u00a0 The hardware store for these supplies is only a three-hour drive from the village.\u00a0 We will spare you the rest of the details of making the octa-ball ring.\u00a0 However, yesterday, all the pieces were made and just needed to be assembled on the cement slab.\u00a0 As we (Stephen, Abigail, Luke and Jonathan) were assembling the ring together, kids in the village started to gather around, wondering what is this new game.\u00a0 Once assembled, we jumped inside the ring and played three quick games. \u00a0After that, we explained the game to the village kids and let them play with us.\u00a0 It was a blast!<\/p>\n

\"Abigail
Abigail and Luke playing octa-ball with their village friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jonathan
Jonathan playing octa-ball with his friends<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Later that night, Ginger said, \u201cI have never seen Anthony (one of the village kids) smile so big.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Anthony
Anthony having a blast with octa-ball<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Hopefully, this new game will bring joy to our kids and draw village kids to Christ.\u00a0 Thank you for praying for our kids.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Occasionally, people in the States will ask us:\u00a0 \u201cHow are your kids doing?\u201d\u00a0 Or\u00a0 \u201cHow are they adjusting to being back in the Philippines?\u201d\u00a0 Well, please let us share what we have been doing to try to help them with their transition back to the Philippines. Returning to the Philippines is a mixture of joy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":232,"featured_media":2081,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[448],"class_list":{"0":"post-2077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uncategorized","8":"tag-ethnos360","9":"entry"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/232"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/stephen-jordan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}