Serenading

Raijan (middle) with a few other faculty kids.
There are certain memories that really make me smile. Here is one of them.

In Yap, there is a little boy named Raijan. He is from the Philippines, and his parents work at the school. He was my next-door neighbor, so I got to know him pretty well.

One evening, I was feeling kind of down, so I decided to go for a walk with my flat-mate, Lorraine. As we began our loop around the school property, 6-year-old Raijan decided to join us. We were just passing the elementary building when we noticed that the 3rd grade classroom light was on, which meant Aila was in there doing some teacher work. Suddenly I had an idea. We should surprise her at her back door and sing her a song! I can't remember if it was me or Raijan that decided on the "Happy Birthday" song, but I do remember that he picked some lovely weed-flowers. The three of us crept up under the classroom window, and on the count of three began our serenading. The door flew open, and Aila beamed an "it's-not-my-birthday-but-this-is-nice" smile. She happily took the weed-flowers too, and we chatted a little before letting her get back to work.

As we walked the next few rounds around the school, Raijan, Lorraine, and I planned our next "attack." Raijan was now bursting with special ideas for "Miss Aila." We gathered some more weed-flowers, and crept up to the FRONT door this time, following Riajan's lead. But right as we were about to start, Riajan was trying to tell me which song was Miss Aila's favorite, which is what he wanted to sing. I didn't quite get it at first, but eventually I understood he wanted us to sing the chorus of "Still:"

When the oceans rise and thunders roar
I will soar with you above the storm
Father you are King over the flood
I will be still know you are God.

So that is what we sang. Twice. Aila was again delighted, and it was one of her favorite songs. (Mine too, actually).

We started back to the apartments playing Follow-the-Leader until the leader (Raijan) started going a bit too far off course (naturally, he wasn't quite ready to go home yet). When I got back to my apartment, my heart was much lighter. I was reminded that to lighten another's world with God's love, you can't help but get some of that love-light splashed on yourself.