I wrote this a couple days ago but didn’t get a chance to post it until now. It’s just a summary of the last three months, so if you’ve followed along faithfully most of this is old news, but I thought I’d put it on here in case people wanted to read it.
As I sit here on February 16
I realized a few things: First, that
the month of February is more than half over already yet it seems like I was
just writing “Merry Christmas” yesterday; secondly, that my trip is
over halfway done (the approximate halfway marker just happened to fall on
Valentine’s Day…what a celebration!); and third, I haven’t written a
“formal newsletter” for about 3 months. Where do I even begin? (For the long version, just read my blogs
from the last few months at rebeccawiltjer.theworldrace.org).
After arriving
in the Philippines, my team traveled via ferry and bus to our
destinations: we left Kari, Jenn, and Renee in the city of Dumaguete with
seven:eleven and Cait, Heather, and I traveled across the water even farther to
the island of Bohol. While there we had
a great Thanksgiving celebration and spent a solid four weeks ministering with
International Care Ministries (or ICM for short). There are so many stories of the different pastors we visited and
there is no way I could share them all with you, but here is a glimpse in to
our first day in Bohol:
We met the ICM staff when
they picked us up for breakfast at about 7am, then spent their devotional time
with them. At about 9 we piled in to
the van and drove about 2 1/2 hours to the opposite “corner” of the island, driving first along the coast
then up through the mountains. We were
greeted by a wonderful pastora who had a humongeous lunch prepared for us – rice, lumpia, crab, shrimp, fish,
bananas, and iced tea. After stuffing
ourselves, we drove about 2 minutes to the site of the medical clinic. People from the surrounding community came
first for a Bible study, then for a health clinic. We couldn’t understand the Bible study but were able to help with
the medical aspect – I was able to use my training and take blood pressures
(okay, so anyone could have done it, but I felt like I was being a nurse for a
couple hours). When all the people had
been seen, we piled back in the van and drove home through the mountains,
stopping at the Chocolate Hills, which natives of Bohol will claim are one
of the seven wonders of the world. We
watched the sun set over a vast landscape of beauty, then drove back to the
office for supper. Since the day wasn’t
already amazing enough, we went to the mall and picked up some ice cream and
drove to one of the ICM staff member’s house and shared our treat with her
family and friends that were there.
Note: that really all happened in one day. Needless to say, I was delighted to find a
shirt in the mall that said “My first day in Bohol was awesome!” and
promptly bought it.
Sadly, our
time in Bohol had to end, and we flew back up to Manila to meet up with our
squad for a couple days before the June squad flew in from Hong Kong. On Christmas Eve, we all traveled to a beach
resort (picture white sand beaches, but nothing else that you would normally
picture at a beach resort) and spent about a week there, soaking up the sun and
the Son, enjoying Christmas, and then having a debrief time before diving in to
our next months of ministry.
We spent New
Years in Manila, and were surrounded by the most amazing fireworks I have ever
seen at eye level (we were sitting up on a hill at Faith Academy), then flew to
Hong Kong on the 2nd of January. After
a couple days of orientation and getting used to cooler weather, we piled on a
train for about 36 hours with team ignite and headed to a city to do ministry. We met our contacts and had an amazing ten
days with them just being Jesus to their city before heading off (via train) to
Beijing for more ministry and some fun stuff.
We were able to visit the Great Wall and a Chinese acrobatics show and
some of the Olympic stadiums, as well as pray over the city and spend time
interacting with other guests at the hostel that we stayed in. We hopped on another train (notice a theme
here?) back to Hong Kong and spent a day there before flying to South Africa.
After a long
layover in Dubai (long meaning too long to go sit at the gate the whole time
but not long enough to leave the airport), we arrived in Johannesburg, South
Africa, on the evening of January 24th.
We promptly got in a van and headed somewhere outside the city to spend
the night and then drove to Swaziland the next day. We were able to spend an amazing week in Swaziland being filled
by teachings from Gary and Lisa Black and Mike Pascall and Tom Davis,
one-on-ones, lots of God-time, and some organized ministry thrown into the
mix. One of the things I was able to do
was visit the hospital in Manzini – my heart broke as I saw babies whose IV’s
had run out and clotted shut, kids stuck in traction and unable to roll over in
bed, and ladies who were neglected because it seemed they were dying, but I
rejoiced with those who had more strength than the day before, prayed over the
sick kids, and laughed with kids in traction who couldn’t do much but
smile…it was hard but good at the same time.
Our time in
Swaziland ended, and our team took a long van trip to Johannesburg and then a
30-ish hour bus ride down to Cape Town, which is where we are now. (The whole “long train ride” thing
seems to be following us around the world…good thing I’m getting used to them
by now!) We are staying with Tom and
Cindy Sipling, who have been here for about 2 years just being Jesus to the
people around them. They have no
agenda, but simply press in to the Father and seek after what He wants them to
do. We’ve been spending some time
hanging out with the students at Pneumatix, which is a 3-year Bible school with
a fine arts focus (they are all equipped to be pastors after finishing there,
and then choose a focus in counseling, drama, dance, or music to supplement
their education), did a morning feeding program with some members of JAM – Jabulani
Africa Mission, have prayer walked up and down the hills to our house, watched
fire dancing on the beach, and enjoyed time just “being” with
God. We’ll be here probably through the
end of the month, and then head either back up to Swazi or maybe on to
Mozambique.
Stay tuned to
see where else God takes us and what He chooses to use us for these next couple
months in Africa, and then follow us as we travel to either Central or South
America. Thanks for your continued
prayers and support and for continuing to follow my journey.
*Special thanks to those who have already financially
supported me! With your help I have
raised over $12,000 of the necessary $13,000 for the trip. If you feel led to help me raise the
remaining $1000 or want to help with extra expenses like my travel insurance or
vaccines or plane tickets home, please contact me and I will send you
information on how you can continue to support me. THANK YOU!!
