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!
