Hello everyone!
So I am officially a world racer! This thought blows my mind! I am so humbled and blessed to be where I am serving and loving others. The Philippines is hot but nothing this Louisiana girl can’t handle. Don’t worry we are drinking plenty of water and our bodies make sure we get rest bc by around 8 pm every night we start passing out. We have been blessed this week to live in a facility that has beds and showers, clean water and a pool. We know not to get use to this lavish lifestyle but we appreciate it and are very thankful for it and wi-fi to be abel to get things taken care of.
Getting here took a while.. and by a while I mean about 50+ hours of travel from Atlanta to LAX to China and then to the Philippines. The final leg of the trip was the tiredest I have ever been in my entire life! We were all packed up in a car that held more people than seat belts and continuously would pass out mid sentence in an hour and a half ride to our home. We have gotten sleep since and have been able to help in the community and serve in different ways. We have been helping at the orphanage across the street where there are 20 something children who have been cared for their entire lives! We get a chance to show them that they are special. We get a chance to show them that people care about them and that they are loved. We also get to bless the workers who are to little in number in comparison to the children needing to be cared for. They have so many tasks that they need to do and we get to bless them by helping out with getting the chidden looked after, fed and entertained while they do everything else.
We have also had a chance to go out on this thing called the feeding. We bring big tupperware/ rubbermaid containers full of soup out into little villages that the people are in to help feed the hungry. Josh and I got ladles last night and we were distributing the soup to all who would bring us containers for food. There were children who would even bring dirty containers just so they could get food. This isn’t something that you take in and don’t get impacted on some level. The poverty and need are huge here. Its easy to think with everything they need how are we helping in the grand scheme of things! I continuously remind myself God has me here for a reason and that I am doing what he placed me here to do. God doesn’t do accidents and He doesn’t make mistakes so I am certain that I am here for a reason and will strive to make sure my focus is on His calling and what He is guiding to do while here.
While here I find myself constantly trying to find what God is tying to teach me or even the lessons I can learn through the smaller things. The other night our team was going to have team time and we decidede to let Josh pick a game and play until Scott got back from his meeting/errand he had to run. Josh jokingly came back with a 1,000 piece LOTR puzzle. Megan instantly was like all about it, I was like yeah ok I like puzzles, but not thrilled bc I knew we just said goodbye to swimming that night with starting a puzzle this large. Josh was about it to and a little shocked I think bc it was kind of a joke but he was in it, the other 3 were NOT about it, at least at first. They went from 20 something to 12 in like 5 seconds and were playing with the puzzle pieces more than anything just having a good time. I think with me being tired and wanting to swim that night I was a little bitter lol but I got into it and we slowly all started to get into this puzzle. Incase you don’t know what LOTR is, it stands for The Lord Of the Rings, and our team is The Fellowship, which is the group of people who work together in the trilogy to et the ring to Mordor. The Fellowship is full of characters who are all different. From different backgrounds, walks of life, past that maybe didn’t see eye to eye all coming together for a greater purpose. 
There are 4 hobbits, a dwarf, an elf, 2 men and a wizard. Our team is not THAT different haha but we all come from different places and have different personalities. We all bring something different to the table and all can learn something from the next person. We do have a passion for carrying out the Lords calling though! This is a huge thing to have in common and what binds us all together. We have yet to have any issues but I have no doubt that we will grow through hard times and sharpen each other to be better than we were before. So here we are Megan the only one who had a positive attitude the whole 3hrs we did the puzzle, and we are finished. We had frustrated times in doing it and times where we didn’t want to finish but we weren’t giving up. We, The Fellowship are a team God has brought together for a purpose. He wants us to Go out into the world and love as He has loved. He wants us to share His word, truth and love with all we can. So knowing we can stick together through a puzzle we may not all be crazy about doing, it shows that we care about the other team members wants, needs and desires as well as our own and that we are open to putting theirs over our own.
So right now I am sitting in a counrty God is using me and my team. He is using team times to help us sharpen each other and grow closer to Him and to each other. He is giving us opportuntites to be His feet and hands. He is letting us experience these emotions, these lessons, letting us see those in need, letting us love on those who need love to help others but to also help us. I can’t wait to see what comes next. Our God is a good, faithful and all powerful God who loves us and wants us to love as he does. I plan on not letting Him down and to be a daughter he is proud of and delights in!
Thanks for all the love, support and encouragement! You all have helped to make this possible and I hope you get to experience whats going on here as a result of your donation and blessing you have given me! Until next time! Keep us in your prayers as well for the people we come into contact with.
