This week I caught myself thinking 'Hmm, guess life is back to normal.' I mean, after all, my car is beginning to have that lived in feel, I'm back to living at home with my parents, I'm working in some cubicle in an office, and once again I'm wondering what my next steps are.
But, man, I don't want normal. I don't want the old normal back and I certainly don't want to settle into another routine of comfort.
So what will be different this time? A renewed sense of purpose? New goals? I don't want to be bored with life and I certainly don't want to waste it!
So I'm not entirely sure yet.
What about you? Are you settled into a routine of comfort?
I don't pretend to be a poet. But then again, I wrote a poem, so by definition I am a poet. So let me rephrase, I don't pretend to be a talented poet. Alas, I'm willing to embarrass myself. I'm not really sure it makes sense or flows. Oh well. Regardless, enjoy.
I know that you've all been waiting with baited breath for my next blog post. Really, you can breathe now!
Well, I feel like I should put up a new blog post. Partially to keep people coming back in the future (though this post might bore you to the point of no return) and really, I just like blogging. It's a nice way to get my thoughts out (I'm not patient enough to actually write these things out in a journal!) and document my time, and get feedback from friends!
So, still playing catch-up with some friends these days! Applying for lots of various jobs and trying to be so very patient while waiting for that one special company to realize what gem I am! Doing some odd jobs to pay the bills in the meantime! Enjoying sleeping in nearly every morning! Yesterday and today I spent some time with some really fun people, finding 'the dress' for a super special friend. Yup, been busy! :)
So... that's that. I think this is just a grab bag post. And, here's a picture of my silly dog:
He's so goofy sometimes. Just chillin in the corner.
Hope that I'll get a job (I just put in a couple applications!)
Hope that my suitcases will quit vomiting all over my room! I'm taking time today to unpack/purge/clean
Hope that I'll win the lottery and be footloose and fancy free! (well there's maybe not as much hope for this one!)
And definitely a hope that I will figure out what really is next!
There's hope for it all! I'm trying to be optimistic, and remembering that vision that the Lord gave me of only seeing the little bit that the Light illuminated in the dark. It's still okay to not really know. By not knowing I'm all the more dependent on the Lord's leading!
In the meantime, I'm certainly enjoying my first summer without a job since high school! I've been able to catch up with some friends, see my family, eat some really great food, and facebook stalk a lot! (Yeah, that's right! I'm not ashamed, but you maybe should be! I saw those pictures you posted, yeah! You! ;) )
So. Not that I don't care about the future, I'm actually very excited! I just am not stressed about it right now!
'Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.' -1 Peter 5:7
So, do you have anxieties that your holding tightly to? The Lord cares for you! Turn your burdens over to Him!
BTW- Happy Independence Day! :)
Baby, you're a firework.
Until next time...
Wednesday, June 29, 2011
Is it possible that I could typing this up on the actual drive home? Yes. I have internet through my dad's phone to my computer! Crazy technology! Why not use this long long drive to accomplish a blog entry?!
Well... at this moment, I'm somehere between Salina, Kansas and Olathe, Kansas! Getting excited to see lots of friends and family over the next few days, as well as sleeping in my own bed!
Approximately 2000+ miles, one province, 6 states, a bag of sunflower seeds, countless potty stops, and amazingly, only one slightly sketchy hotel room later- We've seen lots of awesome places (and some less than exciting) I'm so thankful to my family for humoring me and picking me up in BC rather than just the airport in KC! We've had lots of laughs and it was a great way to catch up with them, but also to give myself ample time to process and think about the upcoming weeks and months. No real solid plans yet, but I trust that the Lord will continue to be faithful and guide my every step!
So really, I don't have much else to say, so maybe I'll just show some pictures? Sure...
Dinner with the Family in Bellingham, Wa
The Original Starbucks in Seattle!
Top of a mountain in Wa, snows over my head! Brr!!
Well, expect more blogs. The journey certainly doesn't stop here! And be sure to look out for more pictures on Facebook!
Well, friends. As they say, the first half of TREK is over, now comes the second half. This is the part where I go. Go back home or wherever God takes me next and tell the stories of the great things he is doing; in the world, but also in my heart!
Props to Vancouver musician, Lance Odegard for the title of this blog. You see, long story short, there's a band that kind of became a favorite amongst the trekkers and even our friends in The Philippines called 'Gungor'. They're great, check out this song of theirs:
My apologies in advance, because this will probably get stuck in your head!
Well, they just happened to be in concert in a neighboring city during debrief!! How exciting; of course several of us wanted to go.
BEST CONCERT EVER!! (I'm pretty sure that that's a totally accurate statement, but don't quote me.)
So much talent in this band. Anywhoo... Lance Odegard is a local musician that opened for Gungor. To be honest, his portion of the show was mostly less than exciting. Except for a particular song that stood out to me. It was called - you guessed it! 'After departure, before arrival'. He told us before he started the song that he had only written this song that day and last minute decided to include it in the show. I felt like God had done this just for me. He shared that it came from Genesis 12 when God told Abram to leave his country for something unknown. A verse that I've clung to over the last few years is Hebrews 11:8 'By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going.'
Here I am sitting in a dark auditorium amongst my fellow teammates. We've just returned from our time in the Philippines and are faced with a giant question of what's next? I was just overwhelmed as Mr. Odegard began singing the song. To be honest, I don't really remember the lyrics of the song, I was just so caught with the title and thinking about the call of Abram.
Well, I've just left TREK. I've departed, but I've yet to arrive. Not only because I literally am not home yet, but just thinking in the bigger scheme of things. Home is not here, home is not a house in Kansas, it's not even a house! My home is with my creator.
So. I've departed. I've departed onto a journey where God is calling me to be faithful and obedient to his guidance. Sometimes the road is a little rocky, the path might be narrow, but man, the company is great and the view is breathtaking!
I know you still want to know what's next, guess what? So do I! I don't really know. But there is something so precious about trusting in the Lord. It's completely terrifying, but so exciting and beautiful!
Such a mix of emotions. What in the world have I been doing these last 5ish months? I'm not even sure yet. Am I different from when this first began? Am I excited to be back in Canada? Am I ready to go back to Kansas? What has God taught me these last few months? What have I learned about myself?
So many questions with so few answers. I feel like I've just been given a 10,000 piece puzzle and asked to solve it. I almost don't know where to begin. I guess you find the corners then the borders and start piecing. But the picture that I'm seeing on the box is so fuzzy that I'm just not sure what it's supposed to look like.
Hmm. What's the progress on your puzzle? Do you have any advice?
There’s not really any other way to describe these last few days here with our Filipino family. I’m very much looking forward to seeing friends and family at home, but with that comes not seeing my friends and family here in the Philippines. Last night we took some time out with the Arcano family and some others that we have worked alongside to do some sharing and a little footwashing. It was great to reflect with our friends on the last few months and encouraging hearing the things that they had to say.
Pastor Sam shared that life won’t really go back to normal after we leave because this has become normal. And I totally agree. Going back to Kansas doesn’t really mean going back to normal life. Not really sure what normal looks like anymore. But the good thing about that is that I have the world at my feet! I’ve already expressed my nervousness about lack of future plans in previous posts, but I’m still trusting that God will guide my every step.
So… what have we been up to the last couple days? Well… we climbed a mountain, ate some more interesting foods, attended and led more bible studies, and started saying our goodbyes.
We’ll be leaving Baguio this Sunday morning, around 7am, after a special 6am Sunday service for us. It will be a 5-8 hour ride to Manila (depending on lots of factors) where we will catch our first plane at 5pm to Taipei, then from Taipei to Vancouver. We’ll arrive around 8pm the same night (after crossing 15 time zones!)
Well, hopefully we'll be headed to a bible study very soon, assuming the rain lets up (by the way, I've officially survived a typhoon now!) So I'll leave you with a few pictures!
Grace washing my feet.
Praying with Britt after washing her feet
Eatin' some dog.
My irritation at waking up so early made more determined than ever to just get to the top.
Well, That's it for now. Expect to hear more again soon.
I've written lots of blog posts over the last couple weeks. You haven't read them though, because none of them have made it out of my brain. So here are some random thoughts:
Easter isn't:
-A pretty new dress
-A sunrise service at church
-bagels and doughnuts and orange juice
-Ham and boiled eggs (since were on the topic of food)
-A day spent with the family
-Months of easter candy in the grocery store aisles leading up to the actual day only to be discounted at midnight
-My favorite Cadbury commercial (though I did youtube it. I don't know why it's so funny.)
So then, now that we've established what Easter isn't, what is it? Well, I'm sure you already know what it really is, but it was interesting for the first time ever in my life to celebrate a big holiday like that away from my family (also, my favorite holiday).
John 11:25-26
Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die."
Yup. Just like that. Easter is Christ. Easter is our Risen Christ! No more, no less. It was good to be away from the distractions of commercialized Easter and dependency on others, family or church, to create some emotion. Truth is, Christ is risen everyday. And shouldn't we celebrate that everyday? There's nothing wrong with pretty new dresses, spending time with friends and family, and there's definately nothing wrong with doughnuts! I guess it was just good to strip Easter down and really worship my risen Lord.
Easter Sunday was also the day of our 3rd and final evangelistic concert! I LOVED IT! I had so much fun rockin' out and worshipping the Lord with my teammates and friends, and praying with people and hearing people pray to accept the Lord! Now THAT'S a great way to spend Easter!! We were in the middle of downtown Baguio City at Malcom's square/People's Park, so there were TONS of people there and people strolling by. Really, I had such an awesome time!! Are you feeling my excitement? =D
We're legit.
So yeah. What else has been going on? Oh, you know... just spending a little time on the beach... :) We had our team retreat in Palawan Island. It was a great time to reflect on the last couple months as well as thinking a little about the future. Also, part of our purpose was to spend some time with the youth at Pastor Jonathan's church. Who is that, you are wondering. He is Pastor Sam's twin brother and the pastor of a church in their hometown of Brooke's Point. Because of a few reasons (cholera outbreak in the area, and Muslim extremists who were out 'fund raising') it was decided that we shouldn't spend more than a day there. So our time in Palawan ended up being a little more relaxing than intended. But we got to see some more of God's beautiful creation, and He sure did a great job there! ;) Lots of pretty beaches and neat caves and such.
Sunset from the baywalk in Puerto Princessa
Just where I belong! Out of the water. :)
Fi-ya Pow-ah! Diving board on the beach! How fun!
We got up at the buttcrack of dawn to see the sunrise.
Heading into the Underground River
Well... we just finished our youth camp yesterday. For three days and two nights we held a camp for youth ages 10-16 here at the church. We had 14 students show up, which was just about the perfect number. I wasn't feeling totally stoked to do it, but ended up having a really good time. I enjoyed spending a lot more time with the youth of this church! Our theme for this years youth camp was 'Lord of the universe; Lord of my life'. We started off by watching the sermon 'Indescibable' by Louie Gigglio. You can watch it on you tube if you'd like. It was pretty interesting. He talks about the universe and how it's incredibly huge and amazingly made and how our Lord is so great and beyond our understanding but still chose to humble himself 'to death, even death on a cross'. From there, we shared the gospel and talked about how Jesus is our Lord and Savior. And for our final day we discussed the cost of discipleship. After every session was small group time, I was paired with the 10-11 year olds. They were pretty quiet, so it was hard to guage their level of understanding, but some of the things that they shared were encouraging and showed signs of learning. So! Yeah. That brings us up to some current events.
Today we had our 2nd baptism service in one week! We went to La Union to the beach there today for the service. And, well, I mean, since we were already there- why not just go swimming?! So today was a pretty chill day, though now everyone is completely wiped out. Tomorrow, we will get a chance to finally visit the Camp 7 church, Pastor Erick's church. Looking forward to that and trying to figure out what we are going to share with them, also, we will be singing our team's 'theme song' -Everything by Tim Hughes. And- The guys are preaching tomorrow! It will be interesting to see them in action and to hear a sermon in english! :)
This next week was reserved for VBS at the Ambiong church, but it was cancelled, so now we're not sure how we will spend our last couple weeks here.
And about that- we only have a few weeks until we return to Canada for debrief. There's definately a mix of emotions there. There are people and even things back home that I miss, for sure, but it will be so hard to leave all of these awesome friends behind here! We've already had to say some goodbyes to some friends, and that was pretty rough. So in the span of 2 weeks, I'll be telling everyone that I've spent the last 5-6 months with goodbye. Yuck.
Let's end on a happier note.
So I mentioned thinking a lot about the future. And this is what has been decided: I'll be moving to Australia to attend a culinary school. I'm super excited, I'll be fulfilling a life long goal. All in the hope that I'll someday open my own bakery 'Bread of Life'. Too bad that all of that's not true. Not even one bit. I'm not a very good cook (so perhaps I really should take some classes). The real truth is that I have no idea. As of June 13th, I'm done with TREK and will eventually make my way back to Kansas, but from there?! Well... no one really knows. This is something that has been on my mind a lot over the last month or so. I have been praying about it a lot and was excited yet somewhat disappointed with a picture that the Lord gave me. It was an image of me holding a flashlight out with a beam piercing through the woods on a trail. The flashlight only illuminates a small patch in front of me, and the rest of the trail is total darkness. I was excited just to get this picture from the Lord, but dissapointed because I knew excactly what it meant- Basically, I don't need to see the whole picture right now. I think there are going to be lots of little steps of faith in the future... I have a feeling that doing Trek was only the beginning. Hmmm.... But in the mean time, I still have no job when I get back or plans of any kind.
So! I'm taking suggestions! :) If you want your input on what I should do next or just in general, please feel free to comment!
Yes. This week I begin my international singing career.
We've been doing lots of practicing over the last two weeks in preparation for 3 'evangelical concerts' during this holy week. We start on monday with a concert here in Balacbac Road. Wednesday will be in a neighboring community - Don Togan, and our final performance will be on Easter sunday in a park right in the center of town, next to the market! Very exciting times! Pray for us this week as we bring the gospel to the residents of Baguio City! Pray that people's hearts would be open to hear the Word! Pray also for us, we are definately not professionals by any means, but we aim to give our best to the Lord and from there, it's in his hands! Pray for humility, that we would in no way be glorified, but that all of the glory would go to God! And lastly, that we would just have a rockin' good time worshipping together!! :)
We just completed another busy week of vbs here at the church. We're tired, but thankful for such a successful week! Pray for us to maintain energy, we have our retreat in about a week and a half. Not sure of all of the details about that yet, but I'm looking forward to a little R&R!
*Exhale*
Okay, we're off again... worship team practice... Trek team leads again this week! But I'll leave you with this, during practice one day this last week, Zach and Tim were rockin out the air guitars (or hangers) with the band. I love Zach's little swagger, and Tim 'breaking' his guitar! Enjoy:
It's been a while, eh? (Yes, I realize that I just wrote eh. Those Canadians... they're wearing off on me)
I'm going to have the weirdest Filipino/Canadian accent when I come home. That's okay.
So, what's new with you? Feel free to comment and let me know. I think it's okay and a little expected that I would be a little out of touch with people, but I still want to know what's going on in other places. Life still goes on.
So... what's new here? Lots I suppose. Life is busy. I just realized that my last post was over two weeks ago, about the last VBS we did. Well, that one is over and we are onto another one! The VBS at camp 7 went a million times better than I ever expected. I had a class that averaged about 50 students everyday, the entire 4th grade class. They were all very sweet and incredibly well behaved. How crazy that we were invited into a public school to conduct a vacation bible school. Where not only is prayer allowed, but welcomed! Things went very well and we are hoping that there will be many more opportunities for the church to partner with this elementary school in the future. I was very excited that by the end of the week over half of my class had prayed to accept Christ. Then comes cynical Andrea... I began to question how many of them really understood or only did it to be pleasing. But I keep reminding myself that it's not my job to judge the hearts of others. I'm simply called to share the Word. Hmm... anyway. That was just a little bunny trail.
Last week was a little more low key. We stuck around the house for the most part because we had concert practices in the afternoons. Next week we will have (hopefully) 3 evangelistic concerts around the city, during Holy week. A couple days during the mornings we went out into the surrounding community and went door to door inviting all children ages 4-15 to participate in the vbs this week. We had about 160 students sign up, though, as expected, only about half showed up today. But I'm thinking that there will be more students that show up as the week progresses, especially as the current students invite other friends to come too.
We're getting to know the Arcano's more and the members of the church too. I'm finally getting to the point where I can tell you which children belong to whom, and even name some of them. But don't test me yet. I'm not that confident.
So now you know at least a little of what's going on. I will leave you with some tidbits of wisdom that I have acquired these last few weeks:
Ipis: Tagalog for cockroach
Ipi does not mean one cockroach, you will be laughed at if you say ipi
Mga ipis is the plural form of cockroach
Remember to shake out your underwear before usage: May contain ipis
Don't kill the spiders: they kill the ipis.
Remember to keep us in prayer, and not just that we would be safe from mga ipis.
Something I hated as a child: VBS. Sorry to all of the ladies at church who worked so hard to make it fun for the children (including my own mother). I was that wierd child that never liked going to sunday school, awana, or vbs, probably because I was very shy. But here I am prepping to lead my own class of 4th graders for the next week, number of students, unkown (though I could safely venture a guess of 35+ in each room). We had our orientation today which basically consisted of 'here is a stack of the materials you will need. Cut this stuff, color this stuff and read this stuff.' We also learned 8 songs, some with actions. I'm completely and totally freaked out. I'm not a very good teacher and when put in front of a large group, the issue is only compounded! But 'I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me'.... I'm clinging to that promise! I did get a chance to briefly meet some of my students, probably about 20 of them, the other day. They seemed pretty excited for next week. Also, I thought this was funny: I told them my name and where I was from and asked them to guess how old I am. The guesses started at 35 and went up. Hmm... perhaps because they thought I am so wise... Yeah, I'm sure that's it. Anywhoo... pray for me as we have a SUPER busy weekend followed by a full week of vbs followed by another SUPER busy weekend. We are busy, but it's good! Being busy means that God is giving us opportunities minister to others! But it's important to remember that being busy for God doesn't replace time with God! It's important to continue to be in the word and spending time just in fellowship with the Lord.
My stack of materials for next week.
We had a good week this last week. For 3 days we helped out with another vbs. Actually, the boys helped while us ladies sat outside. :) A lot of the mothers stick around outside instead of just dropping the kids off, so pastor Erick asked the two of us to just hang out with the mothers and get to know them so as to possibly have a chance to share the gospel with them. Well... Brittany and I quickly saw most of the mothers flee when we sat down. One of the other ladies told us that most of the women didn't want to hang out becuase they were embarrassed of their English. Too bad, we could have used some brushing up on our Tagalog! Well, regardless, there was one mom (grandma actually) who stayed behind and talked with us. We got to know her a little better as she actually tried to witness to us! Ate Marilyn... she is a Jehovah's Witness. She saw Britt's bible and it was all history from there. :) Actually, we discussed a little on the first day, and Ate Marilyn told us she would bring her bible the next time we came and we could talk more. It gave us a chance to get to know what JW's believe a little bit more and learn how to point out the differences in our bibles, verses that teach us that we cannot get to heaven by works, and verses to support the trinity. It was very interesting... a little like prepping for battle. So we armed ourselves with the armor of God including the belt of truth, and the sword of the spirit. It was exciting to be able to share a little more in depth with someone just exactly what we believe, and definately challenged me to study up on the word. We had some very good conversations and ended by agreeing to look into what each other believes and meet again this next week (over some home-made peanut butter, YUM!) hopefully able to better answer some more questions. Hmm... I'd love to muse a little more about this but it's time for worship team practice. The team is leading this week at church. But I'll leave you with this:
Wow! Sooo much has happened this week! We've been going around the neighborhood doing community bible surveys. It's a good way to get a feel for interest in the gospel in the area. It's pretty simple actually. You knock on the door '*knock, knock* Tao po!' and repeat until they answer. Then you just simply explain that we are from a chuch just up the street and we are doing a short survey throughout the community. Then you ask if they have a bible, if they want one and if they would like us to come back and lead a bible study in their home. We've walked up and down all kinds of hills, up and down very steep, unequal stairs, some of them made of mud and old tires. We've seen a lot of the area and the wealth of some people on this street, and poverty of others. Anyway... back to the surveys. I wasn't sure what to expect, and as we were doing this, I wondered what kind of effect this would have in North America. Honestly... I can't even tell you how many times I've just ignored the knocking at the door if I didn't recognize the person knocking. Even if I did answer the door, I would probably just try and get whoever it was to leave as soon as possible. But anyway, back to the surveys...
So we had several homes express intrest, and have been doing some follow up the last couple days. Yesterday I went with Moses and Pastor Sam to do a follow up to the initial survey. The owner of the home is a believer along with her family, but she has two young women living there with her, I believe they also work for her, but they were not belivers, they were loosely Roman Catholic. Well, we sat down with them and Moses shared his testimony (in Tagalog to boot! He did great!) and pastor Sam was able to witness to them and walk them through some passages in the bible. From learning how we are all sinners and that that sin separates us from God, to showing them how Jesus is the free gift that God sent to free us and redeem us to bring us back into communion with God and spending eternity in Heaven with the Lord. Well! Praise the Lord! They both accepted and are now my our new sisters in Christ! It was so exciting to be sitting there praying for Pastor Sam while he shared and these two women while they listened! God is so good! We invited them to church this morning, though they didn't come. But they asked us to come back next saturday for another bible study, which I will lead. I'm excited for this, but not sure really where to start with a new believer!
We did another follow up today with a young lady, probably about my age named Maritess. This time it was Chris and I, along with a friend of ours, Vok, who translated for us. I'll be totally honest- We had just gotten home from our church service at the second church (We have church here at the house, Balacbac, and then we go to the other church in Ambiong after... it makes for a long day), we were all pretty tired, I had a headache, and I've been fighting a cold for the last few days. The last thing I wanted to do was hike down to interior B to lead a bible study where I wasn't really sure what to say, and last minute it was decided that I would lead it because we were sure that this lady would be more comfortable talking to another female. So, down we hiked, praying all the way that she would even be home, that she would still be interested in talking with us, that she would be open to what we said, and that the words we shared would be of the Spirit and not ourselves. Well... We arrived and Maritess was there and still willing to meet with us. So... I began the study and was feeling a little frazzled, but continued on sharing with her while Chris silently interceded for us and Vok translated. Well... guess what?! Maritess seemed to actually be interested in what we had to share... and even more than that... you know what?! SHE ACCEPTED THE LORD TODAY!!! I'm sooo stoked I can't even express it!! We invited her to come to church next sunday and are really hoping that she can make it! Sunday is her only day off. It was so exciting to be involved in what the Lord was doing this weekend! 3 new sisters in 2 days! Please continue to pray for these new sisters, that they would sincerely continue on in our studies and seek out the Lord and really building relationships with Him. But also! I'm so thankful for the guys that were there with me, for Chris' interceding but also especially for Vok. Obviously, the story would have ended differently if she hadn't understood what we were saying, but also, did I mention that Vok is a new believer also?! Yeah! He only accepted the Lord 3 weeks ago!! God is doing such awesome things in Vok! He was able to share a little bit of advise to Maritess about starting a new life as a believer! Soooo cool! Wow. I'm seriously so excited! Are you?! I hope that whoever reads this silly blog of mine feels encouraged today. Encouraged in their walk, knowing that they serve an incredible God, but also encouraged to share the gospel with unbelievers! It seems so scary to have those conversations with friends and family, but man, the sacrifice that Jesus made for us NEEDS to be shared!!
*Sigh*
Wow... I'm tired! What an interesting week. Looking forward to tomorrow and my day of rest, but also looking forward to more follow up visits and bible studies with new believers! Keep on praying for us!
Actually, It's almost typhoon season here. I didn't know what to title this blog because my brain is such a mess at the moment, so I swiped the title of the featured article of the day from wikipedia. But the more I think about it, the more appropriate it seems. My brain feels scattered, and after laying our our schedule today, I believe we are certainly entering hurricane season. We will be incredibly busy in the next couple months. We have 4 (count them, FOUR) VBS that we will be doing, training people on personal evangelism, teaching music seminars (ha, I was tapped to teach vocals. This could be interesting.), and honestly, my brain doesn't feel like recalling the other things that we will be doing right now.
SO! What have we been up to these last couple days since arriving?! Lots! Thankfully, the pastor with whom we are living and serving with realizes that we are pretty jetlagged and adjusting to the culture, so he has let this first week be fairly restful. We did go to 2 church services on saturday. One of the churches meets at the home of the pastor (where we are staying, along with about 12 other people, who knew that leaving the Mark Centre we would move in with even MORE people?! That's okay, It's nice to have the family aspect and have a chance to get to know the Arcano's a little better!). We were also able to go to the downtown area of Baguio and enjoy the flower festival that was going on. We also had a chance to visit the Philippine Military Academy because our new family had a nephew who was graduating. We visited the botanical gardens yesterday and also got to see the SM mall. It's huge. Um... well... how about some pictures?! Unfortunately, all of my pictures prior to yesterday were deleted somehow. My heart is still quite sad about that... alas... a new day has come and I've taken more pictures. So here goes:
Us at the mall
Baguio City... try navagating through that!
A house we saw while out walking
Praying over the city
The market... what a busy place!
Well, my friends, I should get off of here... we are watching Les Miserables. :)
In some ways I thought that this phase of Trek would never end, but now that it is, I'm wishing it wouldn't! Maybe I'm just on a high because the last few days have been so great! Training has definitely had it's challenges though. I didn't really know what to expect, but I knew coming in that I had some festering wounds, and wow, did they get poked and exposed! With the good comes the bad. It's been stretching, but my goodness, I'm 1000% sure that the stretching has only just begun!
I head out in just a few short days with my team... so exciting yet so scary! Pray for us! Some quick prayer requests:
-Ears that are open to hearing where the Holy Spirit is directing. And boldness to follow.
-Safety- Last years team's house was broken into twice. The first time was the first night they were there, and then again later.
-The church in Baguio had a keyboard that was broken, they are looking for a new one. We are praying that the Lord will provide a new one.
-And also, one of my team members, Brittany, is about $3000 short on finances. We are praying that God will provide that in His perfect timing! :)
Well, we had some free time the last couple days, here are some pictures for you:
'Chai' at East to East in Vancouver
I actually had a Calcutta Monsoon. Yum.
In Stanley Park, view of the city and beach.
Afgan food. YUM!
Banquet in our honor!
Trek leadership!
Well... I don't know if I'll blog again before I again before I leave, we have a super busy schedule this week. But keep us in your prayers and I'll try by best to keep you updated. Not sure what kind of internet connection we will have, but here's hoping!
Greetings my fellow bloggers. It's that time again. BLOG UPDATE! Lots of stuff has been going on over the last week +... sorry, there's not enough time for everything and I also didn't capture everything by picture. But here goes:
We had a night of prayer last Friday night. 6pm to 6am. I had to relinquish my rights in believing that 4 o'clock only comes once a day. Apparently it comes around twice. It was set up in a way that kept you awake (hard to believe, I know. Sometimes praying at 3 in the afternoon can make you a little sleepy!) It was set up in about 45 minute increments and you were always praying with others. During each time, we learned about individual nations and how to pray for them (ex.- 45 minutes for India, 45 minutes for North Africa, etc) with some worship and snacks here and there in between. I think I enjoyed India the most, for the last couple months India has been on my heart a lot. I find it interesting and exciting that there is such a large Punjabi population here. And one of my favorite things on the amazing trek was when we went to a Sikh temple (and not just because I got to take off my soaking wet socks and shoes and sit inside a warm building and eat semi-normal food). Um, yeah. But anyway- This is a shot of worship with Kevin Boese during the prayer night:
Kevin is an AWESOME worship leader! So thankful for him!
Last sunday, my team went to one of the local churches to hear Art Loewen speak about what is going on in the Philippines. He has been working with DMI for the last decade or so and has lead about 13 short term mission trips to The Philippines (actually, to the same city we will be in! Baugio City) So it was awesome to see a glimpse of what the city is like and to be able to pick Art's brain. He is back there now and will be coming back a few days after we get there, so we are hoping to be able to meet up with him while there!
Art's presentation
Work duties- Yep, that's right I personally stuffed your tax info!
Lots of paper... perhaps some bloodshed.
WE'RE DONE... for the day...
Really?!
The girls had a little date night on friday night. We went to the mall for a while, grabbed some snacks and a movie and came back to the Mark Centre to hang out and generally be girly. It was nice since I feel a little bit of our girly-ness is maybe a little squelched by SO MANY GUYS!!! But seriously... House of Knives? Would you ever see a store in the States that just has loads of butcher knives freely hanging on the wall?!?! Okay... maybe in Texas...
Well... that is all for tonight. I have a little reading to finish before discussion tomorrow morning!
Well... last friday we went to Missions Fest in Vancouver. I think if I weren't already involved in a missions program, I might have found it more interesting. Basically it was just an expo with tables of different agencies and people sharing their causes. I think I would have enjoyed it better if the amazing trek wasn't looming for the next day (more on that in a second!) and if I had had the time to go to some of the sessions. I did get to sit in on a part of one of the sessions. It was the daughter of the founder of World Vision. She was pretty interesting, and it was interesting to hear a little about how WV got it's start.
It was located at http://www.canadaplace.ca/. Pretty sweet location, right on the water. I heard something about cruises leaving from here... the building itself almost looks like a cruise ship.
Chris was so excited at 4am for the Amazing Trek
Moses and Brittany were less excited.
I caught a fish! And then ate him. :)
Team time- We went out for coffee and then for pool.
2 Bdays in a row! John-Michael...
Jason!
A clear day... :)
Yeah... busy week. Amazing trek was... difficult but good. I was SOOO sore afterwards. I didn't even realize that my body had some of the muscles that were sore afterwards! Who knew the muscles in the tops of your feet could hurt so much! Oh well... even though my team didn't win, I had a great experience. Some of the challenges were more fun than others. One of them was at a firehouse, we had to dress in full gear and bowling roll the hoses out to hit a cone. Then we got to play with the hoses and had to knock a sign over with the water. Also, we had to find 4 bandannas that were located in a park with just a gps and the coordinates. Caught a fish, built a fire, cooked the fish, ate the fish. Had to solve a riddle. Had to eat LOTS of disgusting food:
Balut, anyone?!
Oh and the list goes on of things that we had to do. We were told that it would begin sometime between 4-6am. So we all got up at 3:30 (AM!!) in order to be ready, even though it didn't actually start until 5:30. And the day went on and on and on... We finally finished around 9:30 that evening... many, many miles and obstacles and odd food delicacies later. Ugh... won't lie... glad that one's over. But I definitely saw the value in it. It was good to see some of the strengths and weaknesses of each person in our team and our team as a whole. Hmm... Okay. That's enough for now. I must sleep. :)
Looking back on today's pictures, they are all from outdoors! Today started off rather chilly and quite foggy, but evolved into a slightly chilly and not so foggy day. :) It was probably one of about 3 or 4 days that it didn't rain or just stay all foggy/cloudy. So! I walked a lot today, which was nice, and I got to take in some pretty scenery:
Pretty excited for the location, but also for my team. Moses will lead us across the waters... (It was coming, I thought I would just say it first) along with Brittany and Chris. Team Philippines Unite!!
Work duty- Make Verenika for dinner!! :) Yum!
So excited for a clean room!
Amelia dusting
Clean bathroom!
After working out, we deserved those left over verenika!
Sorry, not much more time to go more into detail. I'm tired! :)
