This is the view from our porch in the Philippines, we got the see this view very morning!! Absolutely incredible!
Month 8 in the Philippines is over, well actually it’s been over for almost 2 months now. Sorry this blog is coming so late, I don’t really know where time goes these days!! Everyone told me that the past few months of the race would fly by and now I see how that’s true!
Fun fact, about 100 yards away from where we lived (from where the above picture was taken) is the largest statue of the Ten Commandments in the world (as of the Guinness Book of World Records)!!
So back to the Philippines…I really couldn’t have asked for a better month or a better contact or a better team. Oh yeah speaking of teams, team changes occurred again at the beginning of this month. I became a team leader and had 5 other amazing women with me. Some of them you might recognize from my last team but some are new, so check them out on the left of the screen!!!! They are all great and amazing and I honestly couldn’t imagine this journey without them!!
Meet my team!!
Being in Asia for 8 months has its struggles sometimes though.
“But I am a citizen of heaven…” Philippians 3:20
The above verse feels so much more real when you are in a place where you aren’t a literal citizen. There is a disconnection that is undeniable when you travel overseas; the people around you look differently, they talk differently, they think differently, they act differently; it makes you feel out of place in a heartbeat or at least I have with my blond hair, blue eyes, and southern accent. And at this point I even think I might feel a little bit like an alien in the US too; for example, it’s going to be hard going back to the shear amount of things (clothes, electronics, nick-nacks, etc) that I have waiting for me back home after I’ve lived out of 1 backpack for 11 months. It will be weird not having people stare at me or having a bed and a room maybe even a bathroom to myself, that’s unheard of on the race. In thinking about all of these things and feeling like I don’t fit in, this verse really struck a chord. Even though many times during the month I felt at home doing what we’ve done and I’ve loved it, there is an even more overwhelming sense of this not being all that I was made for, of there being more. It’s a sobering and exciting thought all in one. It makes me not satisfied with where I am currently but expectant for the future! It’s been cool walking through that this month and I feel like the timing is perfect with just a few months left. I want to know where I’m from and take that with me the remaining months that I have on the race!!
Fishing boat going out one morning at sunrise! One of my favorite moments so far on the race.
So this month we worked at a camp/farm about an hour and a half outside of Manila. It was a perfect mix of physical labor restoring the grounds and interactions with locals doing a VBS and street boys camp!! The part of me that is task oriented loved cutting bamboo and picking up leaves and mending fences and collecting wood for the bonfire and feeding the rabbits and gardening. And then the other part of me that loves kids and connections with people loved being able to help put on a VBS one week and a camp for street boys the next. It was amazing to be able to partner with contacts, both American and Filipino, who have a heart for seeing the Kingdom come to this small local village in little San Mateo in the mountains of the Philippians. They do amazing work and it was a privilege to come along side them this month and help in whatever ways they needed!!
Now for some pictures:
Aerial view of our farm. To the right is where we sawed bamboo most days and on the left is one of the many fences that we mended throughout the month.
Morning VBS!! Each morning about 50 kids showed up (most of them early) to sing, dance, color, and learn about Jesus.
Our teams with the street boys camp. There were 10 boys aged 10-19 who came and hung out with us for the weekend. On the morning that they arrived, many of them were coming off of highs that they got the previous night on the streets.
Meet Maria Lynn! She is my favorite kid at VBS!! At first she was shy and didn’t want anything to do with me, but after a week of pursuit, we became friends and she even started taking silly selfies with me.
More kids that I feel in love with this month!!
Month 8 was amazing and the Lord showed up as always!! I can say with certainty that the Philippians is another country that has a little piece of my heart!!
PS – Shout out to the most supportive, loving, and caring dad out there!! Pops, I love you a lot! Happy Father’s Day!!
You’re my favorite man in the family!!
