Hope you enjoyed my video on launch BUT here is some about the Philippines thus far!
Oh so much to talk about, but first I want to again tell everyone how thankful I am that you are keeping up with my blogs and commenting, it makes a huge difference and I love hearing your encouraging words.
We are in the Philippines just in case you have not heard yet, made it safe and thank God, we have no lost luggage. I am sure that is due to all your prayers! We are in Manila at K.I.M. which the Long family started up 20 years ago. They are from Kansas, and they felt their heart being pulled to the Philippines. I could go on and on about how amazing their ministry is but I want to skip to a specific part of the ministry. Their daughter, Josie, went to the states and got her Cosmetology degree and came back and started teaching some widows cosmetology and now started a little salon and spa for them to work at. The moment I heard about this my heart bounced out of my chest. I have been praying since training camp for an opportunity to use my hair cutting as a ministry and not only am I going to serve at the salon every morning I get to teach the women new techniques! God is good! I am excited to be able to share little stories about that with you all.
On top of the salon ministry Josie started, she started one called Josie’s Angels. It started as a Bible Study for some of the young girls in the community, when it started getting really big, she decided to start a home for some of the girls that she knew were living in abusive homes. After a long selection process she picked 24 girls to live in a home she found close to the K.I.M. building. So all the girls went to JCCV, the christian school next door for Josie’s Angel’s Bible Study. Today, when we were touring the school a little girl went up to Cindy(one of the workers here, who I love!), hugged her and whispered, “What is her name? She is so pretty!” She was talking about me and Cindy told her to tell me that. Her name is Hadassah. This little girl is so precious. Later I found out that she is actually the daughter of one of ladies that work at the Salon that Josie stated. Ironic, I think not. SO, when we went to Josie's Angel's bible study later that night, Hadassah was there and came up and gave me a huge hug! ‘Ate Kathryn!’ In Filipino, that is a term meaning sister. There are levels of relationships, Ate, is pretty general, and Tita, is deeper, meaning a relationship they really cherish. Moving on, Hadassah calls me Kathryn because that is how I introduced myself but after that I decided I would just say Kat to the kids because it might be easier. When she heard me say that my name is Kat, she started feeling like she knew something special about me that no one else did, and she made me promise not to tell anyone my real name. It was so sweet. Then later another girl came up and hugged me, and I loved herrrrrrrr tooo! Cindy then told me that SHE was the sister of Hadassah! I thought that was kinda crazy. I met both of the girls’ ‘best friends’ Hadassah’s was Jasmine, who is just so cute, I love her little haircut and she is a little smaller than Hadassah and from what I can tell, she just seems to follow in Hadassah footsteps. Then Hannah, Hadassah’s sister’s best friend’s name was Bianca. She was much more quiet than the other girls. When is was over, Hadassah and Jasmine just gave me huge hugs and they kept saying they loved me and to hug them longer. I got a huge kiss on the cheek, sweetest thing ever. I can go on and on about that experience. I am excited to see what happens next with those girls. Since the beginning of this journey I have prayed for divine encounters with the kids. For God to send me certain one to impact, maybe this is the baby steps of this.
It is really hard for me to put everything that has happened the first few days into words, so I apologize if this is all over the place.
