Arrival to the Philippines was a fun experience. It was nice that we had 2 flights split between two days and were able to celebrate New Years together as a squad in a really nice hostel. We officially arrived to our ministry on January 1st, 2017.
We are working with GoMinistries this month and our host is David Sgro. He has partnered with Pastor Callejos at First Sunshine Baptist Church.
This month has already been an experience. It has taught me a lot about the expectations I bring to the table and has given me a glimpse into the poverty that many people in South East Asia live in—something I haven’t seen much of the last three months.
Ministry this month changed for my team. After two days of briefings, Anchor Depths and River Dancing got switched to school ministry. Our double team name is Ankle Biters which has been given to us by our ministry host.
This ministry has us working at Sunshine Christian Academy each morning where we work with kindergarten through 6th grade sharing the Gospel, our testimonies and teaching English. In the afternoons we will be going between 7 different public schools to spend 10-15 minutes in each classroom sharing the Gospel.
Though the switch in ministry was a hard switch for myself, I am excited for what we will be doing. I will be teaching 1st grade with Caleb Pauls and we have decided to focus on Health and teach the Bible verse 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 for them to memorize. Along with this we will be teaching physical health, mental health and spiritual health.
Our evenings are spent working together as our double team (Ankle Biters) to work on school lesson plans, who is going to do what, and plans for the 3 day event at STI University along with an event on the 22nd with the whole community. This month we are having the ability to evangelize to over 15,000 people. This is truly an amazing experience for my whole squad and we are all trying to prepare ourselves and plan for these events accordingly.
On Saturdays our whole squad will come together to practice the dramas performed, go over details for these upcoming events, and be taught the cultural dances.
The STI 3 day event will be the 18th, 19th and 20th.
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Some fun stories…
1. The first couple of nights, the Ankle Biters stayed at the Church/School in three of the classrooms above the church. We originally had 5 girls split between two rooms and the three guys in the third, but after finding an infestation of cockroaches in one of the girls rooms all ten of the girls bunked in one room. It was a fun experience. We have now finally been moved to the house in which we will be staying at and it’s looking to be a fun month of community living.
2. One of Pastor Callejos’ sons has a huge interest in insects and arachnids. Yesterday, we got to see many of them. He has over 300 tarantulas and over 100+ different kinds of tarantulas. He breeds and sells them which is really cool, and the Ankle Biters got to learn a lot of fun facts about them. Some of us also got to hold one of them and while I did not hold any of them, I did touch one’s back. He also has scorpions, a bearded dragon and a gecko which were all really cool.
3. The Ankle Biters got to be on a Christian radio station here this morning!! That was really fun and a cool experience.
4. One of the ministries amongst the squad this month is writing a book that will be published. There are 8 members on the team of which I am one of them. I am really excited for this ministry and how this book is going to come together.
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Prayer Requests:
1. Be praying for the Ankle Biters as we work and live together.
2. Be praying for the upcoming events as we witness to these people here. That God’s will will be done
Till Next Time,
Kara Faber
