1 week?! That’s it?!

Things have definitely gotten more busy as the week has progressed. It's hard to believe that we've been here for 7 days already. It's one of those things that feels like I've been here forever even though that is definitely not the case.

We've been doing so many things both with the ministry and with our teams.

For the ministry side of things, I've helped out with feedings in the afternoons (twice a day a van goes to different parts of Manila and feeds the community there). I've also spent time at the nursery where orphans live (holding them, loving them, and playing with them). I'm planning on doing that daily in the mornings and doing feedings in the afternoons. I've spent a little time with some of the neighborhood kids – I did a bible study one afternoon, swimming another with JAZ girls (more about them further down), and a few other things here and there. It's been really good so far even though we've only been skimming the surface. I'm excited to really get to dig in these next weeks, now that we know what's going on a little better.

I've been on an outing with my teammates 5 of the 6 actual days we've been here.
As a team we've gone Karaoke-ing, had a girls nights with some of the staff, gone swimming, went to a volleyball game, a college basketball game for Ateneo (a University in Manila) they've made it into the playoffs, had a girls night with our two teams, met Gab Valenciano {man in white shirt next to me (google him!)} 
and have just been able to learn about the ladies and men on my team and on Team Nikao. 

I've also done a very small amount of ministry with the girls who live at Josie's Angel's House (JAZ House). The girls are between the ages of 11&15 and all of them have suffered some sort of physical or sexual abuse. 2 of the girls there were even raised as boys for the majority of their lives. Talk about heart breaking! It's been eye opening to see how girls who have been through all sorts of calamity and darkness are learning to embrace people and to not let past situations cloud their ability to learn to love again.

support update:: I've hit the $6000 mark! Now I'm looking towards my goal of $10,500 by December. I've only been abroad for a week but if it's any indication of how much I'm going to grow this year, I'm stoked! Please help support me and allow me to be able to do this for a year! If you can sponsor me monthly, I would appreciate it! Get in touch with me and lets talk! 🙂 <3