I know, I know.
I’ve been on the Race for more than 83 days. It’s actually been over 100 days now. It’s crazy how long I’ve actually been gone. I’ve been in the Philippines for 2 weeks, but it feels as if Albania was a lifetime ago.
My team and three other teams from our squad are located in a city called Tacloban working with Kids International Ministries at a place we call the Lighthouse. We do a lot of different ministries here and it keeps us pretty dang busy.
A few years ago, this area was devastated by Typhoon Yolanda. Thousands upon thousands of lives were lost and the area is still suffering from the effects. Each day the 4 different teams from our squad have different schedules based upon which ministries they’re working with that day. Here are some of the things we do:
Monday-Saturday there are feedings in the mornings and the afternoons to help give food to the hungry here. Each feeding is located in a different spot on this island. We go to villages, schools, and places like that to pass out a special nutritious porridge; after the food is distributed, we play with kids for a while before heading back to the Lighthouse.
Lighthouse has 2 early childhood development classes Monday-Friday. We go down and help the teachers in whatever way we can. It usually takes a hot minute for the kids to warm up to us because the first time these kids saw white people was after Yolanda when foreigners came in through different relief programs. Now the children associate white people with trauma. After a while, they typically warm up to us and, like all 3 and 4 year olds, climb all over us, play with our hair, sit in our laps, and the like.
Another thing we do is called foundation. We’re building a church in a local village. It’s our manual labor aspect here in Tacloban. We just started building the church this past week, but hopefully the church will be ready to open its doors in early to mid December. Fun fact: this project is actually being funded by a former World Racer who was here in Tacloban.
We also have kitchen duty some days. We go downstairs and help our lovely Mama J (I know, the name is ironic) cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner; clean all the common areas; and have night guard shifts.
On Saturdays, all the teams help with Awana. It’s basically VBS. We play games, sing worship songs, and split up to different Bible studies based on age. These kids aren’t afraid of us here and love to tease us.
Fun fact part 2: I ate a duck embryo. It’s in a hard boiled egg, you crack it open, and you eat the duck fetus. Bones, feathers, beak, eyeballs, all that good stuff is included in the texture. It’s a delicacy here, but I won’t be trying that again. Bleh.
I know you’re probably thinking that all this information is fine and dandy, but what does it have to do with 83 days? The answer is simple: nothing. I just wanted to update you on what I’ve been up to here in the Philippines before getting into the title of this blog.
83 days ago I began my read through of the Bible.
In 83 days I read the Bible cover to cover.
And you know what? It wasn’t enough.
I need to read it again and again, over and over. I’ll never get enough of this book. I could never read the Bible enough. I’m going to start over today. I began my morning with reading through Revelation and I’ll end my day with beginning Genesis again. This time I’m going to go slow and really digest what I’m reading. 83 days is a very short time frame for such a big book.
I didn’t just skim the pages when I read through, but I definitely didn’t study God’s Word as in depth as I want to do now. Each time I read it, God seems to reveal more of Himself to me.
As I was reading, I realized that I was mixed up on a few different Bible stories. I knew the basics of some stories, but I had been wrong about the specifics. I also had forgotten about a few stories and even an entire book or two (those last few books in the Old Testament seem to slip my mind sometimes). The Bible is so full of information that it’s easy to get overwhelmed and just focus on the big things, like the 4 Gospels, Genesis, or whatever, but the little stories have so much wealth in them.
I’m going to try to blog more often, but no promises my friends. If you’d like to send me letters, either give them to my parents or mail them to my home address and my parents will get them to me. Thanks guys!
