We have just finished our first week of ministry here in Malaybalay City and I didn’t think I was all that homesick until Friday morning. Over breakfast we began to have a discussion as to why vegetarians would eat veggie burgers. (Do they wish they were eating meat? Otherwise why not just call it a veggie patty? They must really want to be as cool as the rest of us, so they have to pretend like they’re eating a real burger, even though they’re not.) All that talk of burgers got me thinking of how great a burger would be. Since we’ve been in Malaybalay we’ve been fed like kings. Food is something we have not been left wanting. Still it’s been mostly Philippine cuisine, which is very good, but it’s no quarter-pounder. That talk of burgers was the first inkling I had of any homesickness.
After breakfast we went about our Friday – we worked hard all morning pouring the concrete for the steps in the new children’s home, moved some large rocks and made a gravel path. Then we went into town at night to visit the youth group of the church we’ve been attending. We were about thirty minutes late getting back to the campsite, so dinner was waiting on the table. IT WAS HAMBURGERS! There was already a plate full of burgers on the table and one of our hosts, cuya Glenn (cuya means brother), was on the grill preparing more. The burgers were like small sliders, so I ate 6. I was in heaven.
A few days earlier a friend of Grace and Glenn’s son had brought his karaoke machine for us to use for the week. It’s a full, arcade style machine. So after dinner we partied for a few hours over some karaoke. We’ve been going to bed around 8:30 or 9:00 most nights, but knowing Saturday was a fun day, we stayed up late – like 10:30 late — singing our lungs out. I had the high score of the night with Blink 182’s “All the Small Things” and pleased the crowed with “Ice Ice Baby” by Vanilla Ice.
The time that we, Team Quake and Team Transformers, have had in Mindinao so far has been great, but Friday night was one of the first times we were able to simply hang out with each other. I hadn’t even realized I was getting homesick, but as I got to rock the mic all night I really felt at home with my teammates.
I’m excited to be living in community. I’m not the greatest of singers and usually karaoke is not my thing. I tend to keep my singing to praisetime only, confident that the Lord doesn’t care what it sounds like. But Friday night I didn’t hold back, Ian and I even belted out Seal’s “Kiss from a Rose” and I sang “Grease Lightning” only to find I knew none of the words. In the end I was willing to get behind the mic because I knew that these people I was with would love me and stand behind me no matter how I sounded.
I feel like we’ve begun to get a picture of what ministry looks like on the Race – go with the flow until you find your groove, always listening to the Lord for where and how He would have you serve. I’m so happy we’re beginning to see what community living looks like on the Race. I can only hope it takes the form of burgers and karaoke more often.
