My alarm goes off at 6:00 am. I roll over on my sleeping pad in my bunk bed to hit snooze. Ten minutes later, I hop out of bed and wake up my friends sleeping in the bunks close by. We walk five minutes up the mountain from the church to do some yoga. There is a beautiful overlook and a platform to set up our mats on for our morning workout. It is peaceful and the colors from the sunrise still dapple the clouds above the horizon.
After yoga, we walk just across the road to a coffee shop owned by a new friend our team made- Lee Ling, a kind 85 year old Filipino woman. Lee Ling sits and talks with us as we enjoy french pressed coffee and a fresh mango at her mountaintop coffee shop.
We head down the mountain to grab a small breakfast with our team and go to the micro-farm for morning chores. The church, which is also a camp for street kids, has a little farm which includes rabbits, chickens, and pigs. We try to distract the rabbits with grass to attempt to feed them without them hopping out. I go over to the chickens and while trying to put new grass in their nest, one escapes! Tammy, Bethany, and I hilariously chase the chicken around the farm until it is back in the pen.
I then head up to our porch and have a quiet time with the Lord. After, our team meets to pray before diving into our day.
The morning is spent at our ministry host’s local Snack Shack in the community. It is a ten minute walk up the road. The neighborhood kids run up to us, give us high fives, and ask our names. The Snack Shack is our host’s way of being connected in the community for opportunities to share the Gospel. Today, we continued painting the outside of their grocery store next to the Snack Shack. Before heading back to the church for lunch, we buy an ice candy from the snack shack for two cents.
All our meals are prepared by one of our hosts, Rhyan, the pastor of the church who cooks us delicious Filipino food every day. He is funny, hard-working, and serves his church with passion.
After lunch, I seize the free time to do some hand-washing in our bathroom sink. I then snag twenty minutes in my hammock on our porch before heading back to the Snack Shack to do some more painting with my team. I spend time talking to Rudy, the guy who runs the Snack Shack for our hosts, about his family.
Next is farm chores again- those pigs have gotta be fed! I muck the pig stalls while one of my teammates throws slop into the other stalls. The pigs like to jump up on the walls of the stall, which freaks me out a bit.
I hop in the shower before dinner- it’s freezing, but so amazing after sweating all day in the sun and getting yucky from farm chores. I hang out down in the sanctuary of the church with Rhyan’s kids and some of the other people who work at the church until dinner. We dance and talk and spend time together.
Dinner comes- homemade spring rolls which are call Lumpia. After dinner our team gathers for Team Time- we head up the mountain again for stargazing where we do our daily check-in and feedback while sitting under the most beautiful stars over the mountains.
The day finally comes to a close as I crawl into my sleeping bag. Some nights we have to hide in our sleeping bags when we turn the lights off because massive bees have swarmed the light in our room and they dive-bomb us once the light is out. Other nights I have to put in headphones so I don’t hear the rats making noise in some empty boxes in our room.
This is a picture of what an average day in the Philippines has looked like for me this month living in the mountains at a church and camp.
You might be wondering, why I would I tell you all of this?
I want people who follow my Race to understand more pieces of my life. Yes, some days I get to go on awesome adventures. Some days I paint a mural at a day camp our Squad helped build all month. Some days I speak in a church at an orphanage on Good Friday. Other days life looks like what I just described. There is the simple of eating meals, the ordinary of working out, the relational of conversations, and the challenging of sleeping in a room with rats.
It is easy to post a picture of me hiking to the top of an active volcano in the Philippines or playing at the river with one of the street girls who comes for overnight camp here at the church. But this is what it can look like in the day to day, and these moments matter significantly and shape my life as well.
In the day to day, I get to share the love of Christ in the in-between spaces: like when my team walks to the snack shack and one of the neighborhood girls comes up to hold my hand, or when I get to share life stories and encouragement with Lee Ling, or when I get to serve Rhyan and his ministry with my team by helping him run and maintain the church property.
These in-between spaces have been some of my favorite moments this month and that’s why I share it. Ministry looks like so much more than what is on paper or what is seen on social media. God meets people in their day to day life and this month I have gotten to live that with the people here in the Philippines. The Lord put me in a beautiful place this month so I could do beautiful things in the in-between spaces with His people here in the Philippines.
Anna Lauren feeding the rabbits at the micro-farm at the church.
Some of our teams at the ministry hand-washing our laundry in our bathroom.
Sunrise at the overlook platform on the mountain at the church.
