Hello everyone! I’m currently in the Philippines if you didn’t know already. We got here 2 weeks ago today. Our ministry here is a lot different than South Africa. While we were in South Africa we worked with a life skills class that taught everyone about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and much more involving Christianity. We sat in on the classes and discussed things with the 5 people that sat at our tables. The age group was between 18 and 35. It’s a 4 week course and then they move on and they have a wide variety of skills they can do such as: fork-lift driving, sewing, home care, welding and much much more! After they finish these skills, Pop Up (the organization we were with) helps them find jobs. They help with their resume and job interviews. If the person can’t find a ride to their interview then Pop Up will provide for them. They want to see their students succeed so they help them out as much as possible. If they don’t have the right clothes for the interview then they’ll give them what they need. Super awesome of them. Since that was only a 4 week course we had different stuff planned for ministry. We helped out in the vegetable tunnel, went out into the community a lot and evangelized, did devotions every morning with the staff, welders and another class that was on campus, helped out in the kitchen, worked on the property, went to an orphanage/daycare and on the last week a couple of us went to a preschool and helped the teachers. We did a lot 🙂
Here in the Philippines it looks a lot different! K.I.M (Kids International Ministry) does a thing called feedings. They find churches and they provide food for them to pass out to the children in that community. There’s a feeding at least once day, sometimes twice. Each feeding looks a little different. It depends on the space we have, if there’s a lot of space then there’s more of an opportunity to play with the kids and do a Bible story but if we don’t have that much room then they’ll come in, get their food and leave. Another ministry we have is the birthing clinic! This one is one of my favorites. The ladies come in, we check their weight and heart rate, then we bring them to another room and check the size of the baby and we also find the heart beat 🙂 the first couple times I did it I felt very awkward because touching a pregnant women’s stomach isn’t a normal thing for me, but then I go more comfortable with it and it was amazing! Feeling a baby inside of a person is so strange but so beautiful. We also go to a children’s center and clean up anything they ask us. If there’s nothing to do or we get done early then we get to play with the kids. In the afternoons some of the kids from the community come over and we get to swim with them in our huge pool we have! There are two slides, a diving board and a high dive 🙂 it gets hot in the afternoons so it’s nice to be able to swim for ministry! We get a little bit of free time between 1:00 and 3:00 so I either take a nap, read my Bible or watch a movie. It’s pretty chill here but the ministry is absolutely amazing! The hosts are awesome, we all love them! Some of the girls had a water fight with them the other night so they’re pretty darn cool 🙂 the meals here phenomenal. We get desserts at least once a day which is dope. Also, there’s normally other teams that come in and out so we get to meet a lot of people! There was a world race team here when we arrived and they were so welcoming and kind. I actually miss having them here but it was so cool to meet them all. One of the girls I met lives a half hour away from me and played my sister in volleyball so it was fun to talk about Iowa with her 🙂
Life’s good right now! I’m loving the ministry we do and the people I’m with. I get to see my mom in about a week for Parent Vision Trip so I’m excited for that! 🙂 So yeah, that’s a little update on my life, where I’m at and what I’ll be doing for the next 2.5 months!
