Happy Club

"Join a club. The people in it could become some of your best friends"

I am part of a group of guys here called Happy Club. It's simply me, the 7 high school boys, and two male teachers around my age. Since we all live in the same hostel, we spend a lot of time together. And because we're always happy, laughing and joking, Timrei found it appropriate to call us, Happy Club. Moreover, I think he got the name from some Indian movie, which is besides the point.

Happy Club does everything together. We eat at our table in the hostel that has our name on the table cloth we made ourselves (a big piece of green plastic nailed to the wooden table). We make chutney in our a Happy Club grinder and share the glory of hot food. We run around looking for jackfruit. We tell stories (they tell me the stories and I listen) around the table late at night. I tell them my love stories and how I vicariously live my love life through all my friends who are getting in relationships, getting married, and having children. I tell them about being forever alone. We sing special songs for church (I think I've taught them three songs so far). I help them with their homework and teach them English and Ebonics. They make things our of wood (their carpentry skills are amazing). I make them food or just give them my left over food for the day; it Is finished immediately. They say I cook better than the girls. We do insanity workouts together and I pretend to be Shaun T. We play volleyball and football. We take bucket showers outside and bathe at the waterfall. We go search for monkey fruit and other jungle food while getting leeches. We play chess. But what we do the most is play Uno.

When the guys discovered Uno, it was like they were introduced to gold. It at first began as a simple game. However, it turned into something crazy. The games became intense, fast paced, and extremely serious. They played so fast I couldn't even follow where the game was going. It got pretty frustrating at times with +2's and skip's and stacking cards. And before you know it, someone has won and you still have all your cards. The guys slap the cards down with such intensity, normally the pile is more on the floor than the table. The cards have become sticky and have black smudges on them because the guys play so much. I had to regulate how much they were able to play. It was taking too much of their time. And yet it is fun to play every once in a while.

But one thing that Happy Club does do is that they spend time with God. This is a pretty committed group of young men. They may only be 15 and 16 and some a little older, but they have taught me a lot about worship. They may sing some Jesus songs at the top of their lungs not in the most reverent way (I need to talk to them about that), but they pray religiously before every meal. They have that personal time with God every morning where I will sometimes over sleep and not make the time. They make statements like, "Worship is very important and we can't be late." They ask me questions about verses they read, showing that they are thinking intently about God's deep Word. They are the most thoughtful group of guys I have ever met, always thinking of others and self sacrificing. Giving up their chairs at the food table (if you knew the struggle of getting chairs here), making things for others when they hear there is even the slightest need (like the cooking island Silas made me when I mentioned out loud how it was difficult to cook food on my low lying desk because I'm 6 foot tall, or the cabinet Timrei made me to put clothes in when I asked him for one). They believe in Jesus and want Him to be a part of their lives. A few are actually getting baptized this weekend and it makes me exceedingly joyful. My "little brothers" are following the awesome Savior, and it's GREAT! More than great actually.

It's blessed. Right now one is singing one of the songs we taught him called 10,000 reasons. Praising Jesus at 5:30 in the morning? Oh yes, I like that. You could say Happy Club makes me VERY happy.

Bless The Lord oh my soul.