After going on the World Race, I had no idea what my life would look like after coming back to America. It was hard for me to think that I could just go back to the same exact life I left behind for 11 months when I wasn’t the same person coming back home.
I never planned for my life to be what it is right now.
I’ve been called back to my homeland – the Philippines.
[Off to Manila!]
The Lord told me I had another season in Southeast Asia after the Race, so after a move to the state of Georgia in January (because the country isn’t outside reality anymore), spending the summer in Honduras, and then four weeks in Guatemala, I’m finally here.
So now what?
I’ve left home, comfort, family, and friends – yet again.
I’ve missed about every single wedding for the last 3 years and babies being born. When I go back home, ‘catching up’ hardly seems possible anymore.
Here I am in the Philippines now, on the other side of the world again.
I feel like I’ve given up everything again, and for what?
I know people think I’m crazy- which I guess isn’t an untruth.
[The Dahlia House – home for this season]
Honestly, I have a total of $75 in monthly support, which at $5 a day for food, covers half the month.
To make sure I can eat for the other half of the month and have a place to live and get around, I’m running on savings that aren’t going to last forever- I haven’t even seen a paycheck since the first week of January.
I have no idea how long my “Yes, Lord I’ll go to the Philippines” is for, but I’ve seen the Lord provide for me day after day, and have no doubt in his faithfulness. However long I’m supposed to be here, he’ll provide for it.
If you had to ask about my living situation, the best way I can describe living situation is, “I’m a fancy squatter.”
We have running water, electricity, and a gas burner. Recently, we were blessed with a refrigerator, which definitely is a step towards “normal”.
Furniture? We have a wooden loading pallet as a table and cabinet doors with rusty hinges and chipped paint on top of cinder blocks to sit on.
I sleep on a mat on the floor and still live out of a suitcase.
The roof still leaks in the kitchen when it rains.
Bucket showers and bucket flushing.
The hinge on our door just broke and if we all leave the property, someone has to jump the gate and chain and padlock it.
Don’t even get me started on the ants.
It’s not glamorous, but it is home for now.
[View from the overpass that we use to cross the street]
I didn’t move to the Philippines to feel like a rich man in a poor country.
In and of myself, I have nothing to bring to the table.
I’m here because God is absolutely crazy about me.
He loves me.
He invited me on a journey- to be an expression of his love for other people.
Right now we are in a place of seeking the Lord and getting our direction from him, in every decision and at the beginning of every day. He’s brought our team to the Philippines to accomplish his purposes for his glory, and not our own.
I’m more interested in what the Father is doing than what I want to do.
I want to see people come alive in a love that cannot be contained.
I want to see people awaken to a freedom that has been given.
I want to see people walk in a forgiveness that has been paid for.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rustdestroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. -Matthew 6
I’m giving my ‘all that I can see’ for the all things I cannot see.
It’s no longer happening as an event on a calendar, or an item on a list, but it’s become my reality and a way of living.
And it’s totally worth it.
Thanks for checking up on me,
Peace & Blessings
– Dan²
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