I’M IN ASIA!!!!
A little over 2 weeks ago, 14 other girls and I arrived in Antipolo, a city on the outside of Manila, the capital of the Philippines. We drove through the city and I stared in awe at the clusters of shacks and the apartment buildings that were packed in so tightly. I felt a mounting excitement as we drove through busy streets filled with motos and jeepneys and little street shops. Already the culture looked so massively different from where I had just come from. Africans live at a slow pace. They don’t hurry or stress or fill up time being busy for the sake of being active. I spent four months in Botswana and South Africa, countries that thrive on a relaxed culture. But here, as I rode through the city already I could tell that I was in for a massive change. That is, until we kept driving, and driving, and driving. We left the city and drove up the mountain, and as we drove the buildings became less and less common, and the traffic got lighter, and the streets less busy.
For the month of March, the girls on my team and 11 others are living on a mountain outside the city. We live in a village full of small metal shacks and bamboo houses. Our hosts are the pastor and his wife who live in the back of the church where we stay. Beautiful, lots of stone, old, and definitely not what I imagined.
So far, I have done a little bit of “outreach” which really means just walking down the road and finding people to talk to, painting a preschool, tutoring english at an elementary school a little ways down the mountain, and filling in a trench by a new wall. Ministry changes from day to day, our free time is filled with lots of studying, crocheting and just being with people, creating relationships and loving this community.
It’s almost month 8, which means that the race is coming to a close soon. I’m getting ready to leave this season and go back to what’s familiar and comfortable, but I want to soak up everything I can here. I want to live today like I’ll live in a week and in a month and in a year. I want to walk out everyday with the same conviction and the same drive to draw closer to God in everything I do, whether that includes shoveling dirt or sharing the gospel or going back home to school. I don’t think that the almighty wants me to throw myself into the future completely, how would I enjoy the present? This isn’t going to ever happen again, not like this at least. I’ll never be in the Philippines, on this gorgeous mountain with these incredible girls again, so I’m living in the moment and focusing on my day to day. I’m getting through the rough moments and missing what’s at home, I’m looking forward to what’s next, but I’m also reminding myself daily that this isn’t over quite yet. I still have 2 1/2 months. I still have an opportunity to help people, to be a vessel, to carry out what the Lord wants done. I still have time for my testimony to change and grow and alter itself. The opportunity for devotion and time with God has never been so easy to grab onto. So pray that I know that and remember it everyday that I’m here. Time with the Lord is vital. Who can have a relationship with someone without spending time with them? That’s my goal here, to spend time with Abba. Soak up the spirit. Enjoy being in his presence, and notice how He walks beside me as I finish the race and move on afterwards towards whatever is next.
