After spending a few hot, sweaty days in Manila, we’ve arrived in the cooler mountains of Malaybalay on the island of Mindanao. As we rode the bus to our location, I was constantly aware of how beautiful everything was. I was exhausted (because we had been up since 1 a.m. to travel) but didn’t want to close my eyes and miss anything. Amazing mountains and lush tropical plants were everywhere. The island is breathtaking- I couldn’t help but think about verse in Romans 1 about how God makes his existence obvious in what he has made.
We are staying at New Faith Family Children’s Home (part of Kids International Ministries, kidsim.org). While here, we’ll be assisting in running programs, monitoring both the older and younger children, doing maintenance projects, sorting donations, and other things. We also have the opportunity to work with a prison ministry for troubled children while we are here, which I’m also looking forward to. Fun fact: the children received recorders last week and I often hear the (ahem) lovely sound of their instruments floating across the field… some things never change! I’m sure my musical skills with come in handy this month.
Our contacts here have been extremely helpful and kind in making preparations for us. KIM thrives on short-term missions teams, and treats us well because of it. I have had concerns about whether or not short-term missions is an effective way to share the gospel, but I think a month of working here will put many of those thoughts to rest. KIM has a steady Filipino staff, but there is so much to be done, and short-term volunteers can help out with a lot of different things.
I’m hoping to include a picture of the home below, as well as a picture of my bunk in our room (previous racers decorated the walls with chalk… thank you, racers!), and a picture of our view from our balcony. [If the pics aren’t in this blog, you can assume that I was encountering really slow internet when I posted this.] We can hear the horses and goats in the field bleating/neighing throughout the day. And night. It’s definitely different than anything I’m used to! I hope to write again soon with some stories about working with the kids. Thank you for your faithful prayers for both my team and me… we’re finally here!!!
Oh wait, one last thing before the pictures: I’m going to try to include a Cold Shower & Coke count at the bottom of each blog. Racers like to keep track of weird things, and although I don’t like either one, I’m aware that I’m going to have a lot of each over the next 11 months! Here it is so far-
Cold Shower & Coke Count: 2 & 2
