To give is better than to receive.
Last month was eipc. BAM, enough said. Sike.
In the past 30 days, I was blessed to live with the people of Lower Mangannah neighborhood. A squatter’s neighborhood in Metro Manila. Just one of the thousands of illegal neighboorhoods in the greater Manila area.
It only took thirty days for me to learn the blessing that Jesus talks about in Acts 20:35 when he said “It is better to give that it is to receive.” Love is not about ourselves, it is about others.
Love is patient, it is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast. It is not self seeking. I will certainly tell you that I am not the perfect person, and its not like I am even any kind of authority on the subject as I have only tried dating once, and it lasted for about one month. =) But of the little bit I have learned, it’s that as you start putting others before yourself, you get blessed as well.
The lesson was obvious last month. Give to others, bless others, give them your time, your rescources, and attention because they are great people and they deserve it. It wasn’t easy at first trying to love on strangers, but as we kept pursuing the neighborhood, they began to respon. And wow it is so true, the Filipinos really are great people and I miss them so dearly. But love and life doesn’t stop when it gets difficult.
I think it would be juvenile to say that my lesson in love happened in the Philippines. I believe that the real lesson is taking place right now while I am in Malaysia and my heart is in the Philippines. In this past week I would consider my attitude to be somewhere between sub par and epic failure =)
I have been lalligagging all week over those I miss. My heart wasn’t in evangelism, it wasn’t in practicing for the church worship that I led, and it wasn’t until Saturday that I really had any sort of real attempt at getting to serve this country or our contacts. And now as I sit alone the night before I head out into the jungle, I am realizing that all my time pity-partying left me with less time to get to know these great people. I could have invested so much more. I could have laughed, I could have helped and could have encouraged, or even if nothing happened, I simply could have tried.
So this blog isn’t a sad blog. If anything I am rejoicing because my confidence is in the Lord, I have been BLESSED WITH GREAT FRIENDS IN THE PHILIPPINES, I know that I have people and dear friends praying for me in the states, and I am ready to serve Malaysia.
It’s go time God.
Oh yeah, lastly i would like you all to meet my new team. Several of us are the same. But as they raised up new Squad leaders, serveral teams lost one or two people to make a whole new team. So bye Susie, you will be missed.
And i would like you all to meet Emily Younge and Karen Wheeless.
