Sitting here at a nice little restaurant in downtown Malaybalay, getting dinner with Team United after an awesome day off at a waterfall for Chelsea’s birthday – more on that later. But just so you know…that’s where all the pictures on here came from, so don’t expect them to actually have anything to do with the text they’re next to. (FYI – I’m uploading pictures to flickr)
On Saturday the AWANA group of kids came, which really made for an incredible day. I taught/refereed a handful of games of ultimate frisbee, which certainly felt like a pretty comfortable fit for me. The kids caught on surprisingly quickly, and seemed to really love it. There were also a group of teens, some that had been kicked out of school for gang recruitment, that asked me to teach and play with them after the young kids left. Definitely looking forward to getting a rematch next Saturday.
Saturday night we heard from Glenn and Grace, the owners of the Mt. Moriah camp property that we’ve been working and staying at, and their awesome testimony of faith and obedience. What they originally envisioned to be a summer camp for 11-13-year-olds has evolved into an amazing beacon of light to kids of all ages in Malaybalay. They have amazing stories how God provided in times of distress, and how they’ve been enabled to run this camp for the impoverished children of Malaybalay without having to charge them anything.
Sunday morning a good number of us hung out and went to the church service on the camp property. The church is led by Pastor Larry, who also leads devotions up at the orphanage. He is an incredible, humble man to talk to with an amazing heart for the Philippines and an admirable knack for preceding every blessing in his life with “by the grace of God…” The church is a small gathering, with most of the members coming down from the mountain communities near the camp. Benhard, who also does lots of crucial tasks around camp, leads worship and other duties. We’re just dealing with some quality people around here.
As I said, today we took our weekly day off to celebrate Chelsea’s birthday (go send some birthday wishers her way). Donald, a local guy who works closely with the camp and is doing some incredible work in this city, was our guide for the day, hiking and exploring some waterfalls. After seeing a number of falls from a distance, we practically climbed down a mountainside and swam back to a gorgeous waterfall back in a secluded alcove. Incredible.
Well, that was my weekend. How was yours?
