Here’s a lil life update:
For a little over a week now I’ve been in the Philippines! So exciting! I still can’t wrap my head around the fact that I’ve made it to my last country of the race. Life is looking a little different since I’ve been here though, it refreshing, I’m learning a lot from it. Here’s how it’s looking different:
1.) I’m only with half my team this month!
-Usually I’m on a co-ed team consisting of 4 girls and 4 guys. Well this month the men I usually live with are partaking in what the world race calls “manistry.” All 12 of the men on my squad are together this month doing ministry. So obviously that means… I’m living with only ladies! I’m living with the 3 other girls on my team, plus an all girls team (team vessel, there’s 6 of them), and 4 ladies from team agape (they’re also usually a co-ed team.) Fun-fact: I have never in my life lived with only girls! This is the first time!!! It’s a blast.
2.) Obviously I’m at a different ministry site!
-This month I’m working with a ministry called Grow International Ministries. On the daily I’m working with my two hosts Mama Jo, and Pastor Roland. They’re Filipino, and they run the church we stay at and live where we stay. We are staying in Antipolo city, but not really in the city, we are up in the mountains! It is breathtakingly beautiful. The view is unreal. We are sleeping in dorm style rooms, actually my stuff is on my bunk bed, but I’m sleeping in my tent outside. It’s cooler at night and it’s basically a mega sized bug net. But the couple who runs the ministry are Mike and Natalie, they’re Illinois natives,(they’re huge Bears fans…) but I guess I can overlook that. They are incredible people, and hanging out with them every now and then is nothing short of fun, and so encouraging.
3.) The kind of ministry I’m doing is different… who would have guessed?!
-So fat ministry has been kind of slow, but also all over the place. This past week we all went to one of the local elementary schools and tutored the kids. Fun fact- we thought we were tutoring them in English reading…but we got there and discovered it was Tagalog(the local language) reading. Now that was an experience. Pretty sure I taught them wrong, but all of the teachers were nothing short of excited for us to be at the school. In Asia white people really get celebrity treatment.. something that I am not used to. We’re all humans right?? We also have been helping paint the preschool at the church, and we will start gardening this coming week.
4.) And of course I’ve been learning lots of new things!
-I’ve been doing an intense deep bible study of the Book of Acts since being here. It’s actually incredible, new bible knowledge always blows my mind. The Lord also spoke the word Revival over this month for me, so I’ve been exploring what that means. It definitely has a lot of meaning, and I’m going deeper into it. I’ve also been learning about time. Now maybe that sounds silly, but do-time is a big thing. And it’s helping me stay present with this short time I have left on the field. It’s helping me enjoy every breath a little more, giving me the knowledge to seek the question what does the Lord want me to do with this breathe?
As of now this is what life is looks like!
