A whole week away from school with my students?! Yes, please! In just a week, all of the middle school staff and students will make the trek to Corregidor Island for Outdoor Education (OE), and I couldn’t be more excited! I’ve been looking forward to going to OE for six years!!
What is Outdoor Education?
Every year, the middle school division of Faith Academy spends a week getting away from the books and learning in a different environment. Each kid is in a squad of around 8-13 kids of the same grade and gender. A staff member is their squad leader. During this week, the squads go around to various locations. There are three different locations so that the middle school students will go to a different place each year. This year’s focus is history.
What will we do?
OE lasts from February 8-12. We will leave early Monday morning and take buses to two different stops where we will learn about the Bataan Death March that happened during WWII when the Japanese were occupying the Philippines. Monday night we will be at base camp, where we will have a speaker and set up camp. Tuesday through Thursday we will have three different locations. Two of those are on the island of Corregidor. While there, students will tour the monuments, explore the tunnels in the bomb shelter of the Malinta Tunnel complex, go on hikes, complete team building activities, and swim. The third day will be a ministry day on which we will be visiting a local school and sharing the gospel with the students as well as playing with them. We will return to Faith on Friday.
What is Corregidor?
Corregidor Island (one of the 7,107 islands that make up the Philippines) was an essential island in the battle for the Pacific in WWII. The Philippines was being ruled by the US, so the Japanese attacked the Philippines as part of their war against America, in addition to their desire for dominance in the region. The island is located at the mouth of Manila Bay, and thus is crucial in the protection of Manila. It is where General MacArthur stayed during much of the war until he was evacuated to Australia. The fighting that occurred both when the Japanese took the island in 1942 and when the US took the island back in 1945 was very intense. Today visitors can see many bombed-out shelters, old batteries (where the guns are located), and various monuments located around the island.
This is a picture of me at Corregidor Island from when I visited there during my student teaching. Click the picture to visit a website for more information about Corregidor.
What is a squad?
A squad is a small group of same-grade, same-gender kids who will work together throughout the week of OE. I have eight 6th grade girls in my squad. Our squad name is the Monkey Babes. We have been meeting every week since school started after Christmas break to prepare for OE. We have been making a squad flag, creating an intro, preparing for our ministry day, and working through various devotionals. We also had a squad sleepover that was a great bonding time. We will spend the whole week together during OE, and we will have one more meeting afterwards.
The Monkey Babes eating pizza at our squad sleepover!!
How can you pray?
I would covet your prayers while we are on OE! Here are some ways you can pray:
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Pray for unity within and among all of the various squads.
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Pray that we would have safety as we travel and do all the activities.
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Pray that God would grab ahold of the hearts of the kids and renew their walks with Him or draw them into relationship.
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Pray for the kids at the school where we will be doing ministry. Pray that they would respond to the gospel and that our kids would be bold to share it.
Thank you! I look forward to reporting to you next month all the wonderful things God will do!
