The Philippines are absolutely beautiful and are filled with a lot of beautiful people! I am falling in love with them more and more each day!
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We are currently living on the island of Mindoro in Aninuan, Puerto Galera. All 13 of us staying in Pastor Al’s home. It is such an honor that his family has invited us in this month. Their hospitality means so much when you realize that we are pretty much taking up every square inch of their home with all of our bodies and massive backpacks. But they continually show their love and care for us all of the time. Especially when I found myself sick in bed for the beginning of the trip. That is actually why I haven’t blogged since we started our ministry and I do apologize for the lack of communication.
Most of you know about my ear infection that started about a week before I left on The World Race. Well, I was still dealing with the ear infection and then added on top of all of that came a sore throat during my stay at K.I.M. our first week in Manila, Philippines. It then turned into a lot of congestion and a terrible, disgusting cough. Once we arrived on the island, I quickly found myself in the bed each afternoon. It was really frustrating that I was so exhausted to even go outside and play with the children or talk with the women in the community. And very discouraged that God wasn’t choosing to heal me yet.
My teammates made a final decision that I was going to go see a doctor because we were all tired of me being sick for 3 weeks. So Friday morning, Tricia and I set out with Pastor Al to Calapan City to find a doctor who could help me. It was a very long & interesting trip but Pastor Al did manage to stop the whole jeepney to get a picture of me & Tricia in front of a beautiful waterfall!
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Once we arrived in Calapan City, we finally found a Ear Nose & Throat doctor at a hospital and he gave me some more medication. Side note–I was even given my own hospital ID…sweet, huh? haha, not sure if that’s something to brag about. We pray I will never again have to use that!! Anyways, the doctor also shared the news with me that my ear infection is GONE!! Hallelujah, that was an energy-increaser once I heard that!! But yeah, I am feeling SO much better!!! I have energy to go out and spin these children in a million circles. I have energy to bless my team with Disney songs once again, so I definitely must be feeling better. hehe 😉 In general, God as chosen to heal me. It might not have been as fast as I wanted God to heal me, but I learned so much even in my sickness. Pastor Al’s incredible wife would come to me each evening and rub this oil on me that would help me to sleep at night even when I wasn’t feeling too hot. I even got a little personal massage each night along with that. I felt so blessed that she didn’t even know me yet took so much care of me. I felt at home.
These are incredible people and I am so happy that God has chosen me to spend time with them in such a beautiful scenery and incredible sunsets!!
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Some other quick interesting things from this month… we flush the toilet with buckets, wash our clothes in the creek, and even take our showers in the creek. We are living in a rainforest/jungle so there is a ton of beautiful greenery around. We are about a 10 minute walk to the beach, which is absolutely incredible. A thunderstorm comes around almost each evening. Butterflies are always fluttering around…some even land on me! We have a monkey who lives in a tree in our backyard called Muy Muy. He is a funny little thing and very thrilling to play with. Don’t you wish you had a monkey? 😉
*** I am having difficulties uploading some pictures, but please know that they are coming as soon as I can get them up! 🙂 Thank you for your patience.
