Hello world! It’s currently 8:53 PM in Manila, Philippines. That’s right I’m now currently in the Philippines. The motherland to my ancestors and home to many of my family that still live here. I apologize for only posting one blog while in Malaysia. I mean technically I was still in Malaysia earlier today. We left our hostel around 5ish this morning and left for the Philippines at 11:05 AM. We safely arrived around 3 PM and are now all cooped up in this lovely hostel called…”The Lion’s Den Backpacker’s Hostel”. January is another all squad month and we will be spending the majority of our time in Bacolod, where we will be living in a small village of about 1000 people. This is their first time seeing American missionaries! I will give more details in another blog, but I just wanted to share some basic information of where I will be this coming January.
I usually end with how grateful I am for all of the support and generosity that I have received in joining the race, but this time I am going to begin with a grateful heart! 2016 has been such an eventful year. I have many memories of trials, hardships, joy, failures, disappointments, fun, difficulties, sorrow, pain, love and redemption. So I guess you could say it was quite a roller coaster ride. A word from God that resignates in my soul for 2016 is Matthew 6:21-For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Words cannot express how thankful I am to be here on the race. I did have a life prior to the race too of course…and Lord willing I will afterward as well! What I mean by that is that I have a lot to be thankful for aside from the World Race, but honestly this is such a dream come true I still can’t fathom how I’m here sometimes.
I honestly don’t live like it on the daily, but that’s where grace comes in. So before I go on any bunny trails here, how this connects with Matthew 6:21. My treasure was to go on this mission called the world race to be known by God and to make him known. How this has been happening over the past few months has been simple so far, but I know will have a lasting profound impact on many lives. Not just for the racers or even the people they minister to, but to their family and friends back home as well! So my heart lies with God’s people. My passion is still for teen moms, youth and families, but people in general. Wherever you find these people, you will find my treasure. Right now, it is here on the world race!
I quickly wanted to share some of my experience in Malaysia. Southeast Asia overall is like this, but being in Malaysia during the holiday season especially softened my heart towards an awesome communicable attribute of God–generosity. Giving gifts is most (generally speaking) definitely their primary love language lol. So as most of you know, I quit my job to partake this venture in life and only had a small amount of savings to help fund myself. So most racers if not all at some point or other have to raise funds to be on the field of full time missions for the year. With that being said, budgeting is something that helps alleviate any financial stress and also learning to be a good steward of God’s provisions in your life.
This past month my team and I worked in a school called Dignity for Children. It is a non-government organization that provides quality education for underprivileged children. December also happens to be a month where all the students are off from school. So my team served dignity this past month by cleaning up, setting up, painting classrooms, tearing down ceilings, designing new program pamphlets, helping teacher’s lesson plan, going on home visits, stuffing donation information envelopes and fundraising via Christmas caroling!
We all had different tasks and I was blessed with the more “social work” aspect of going on home visits. I also got to deliver Christmas meals to families as well. Coincidence? I think not! I was humbled by all the homes that I got to visit. To see the poverty that some of their students live in and yet was gifted with their undivided respect, attention and food was so humbling. The staff of the school also had a family like feel and many of them constantly invited us to pray in the morning before we started to work, hang out with them, come to their churches/homes or even just to go out and makan (“eat” in bahasa Malay)! I also enjoyed getting to connect with our hostel roommates who also worked full-time or were students at Dignity. They were generous with their food, small thoughtful gifts and simply just wanting to spend time with us. So even though we may not have had the funds to give as abundantly as they have, we were able to generously reciprocate our gratefulness by making time to spend it with them as well.
The season of giving is not just during the holidays but everyday! To think we only celebrate receiving the best gift in the world once a year!? The generosity of the faculty, staff and some of the students that we got to connect with this past month was a daily reminder of how generous our God is to us. He loves to lavish us with gifts to show off his glory. Let us not forget to offer our lives generously to Him as well.
On another note…Goodbye 2016. It’s been real. Welcome 2017 ( in approx 1 hour and 40 minutes over here)!
