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We spent Christmas on a gorgeous island! But it took me a few days to consider it a cool place to be. It was kind of like Gilligan’s Island, remote with nothing to do. So imagine just a matter of hours after deboarding the plane from Hong Kong, we arrived on a remote island the afternoon of Christmas Eve, after traveling since 3 a.m. that day. And we didn’t even have Gilligan or the Professor to entertain us…. But once I got over culture shock of not being able to talk with my family for Christmas, I then embraced the paradise–it was gorgeous! Very cool time just to pour into God. (And I ended up being able to talk with my parents for about 15 minutes, so at least that was something.)  We also had a wonderful beach-side candle-light Christmas eve midnight service with the September team.  It was great praising God together.



I greatly enjoyed our New Year’s Eve celebration. We watched fireworks over manila. all the houses shoot their own fireworks (no firecodes to prevent this). so we went up to the school where we are working nearby and watched them. For about an hour or so, I snuck away and had some quiet time with God.  That was the best part.  I was able to pray for yal, my dear friends, family, prayer warrios.  Praying in the new year is just like I do in the States with my family or good friend (depending on where I’m at, MN or TN). A wonderful family tradition.  I then snuck back and watched the midnight fireworks and prayed in the new year from the hill I was on. the whole city was covered in fireworks and smoke from the fireworks. you couldn’t even see the city it was so covered in smoke 😉


I wanted to share some pictures from our Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. It wasn’t the same without yal, my dear friends, family, and prayer warriors. But God blessed us with a good time of celebration together as a squad (minus Katey & Sarah for Christmas, see their blogs) in the Philippines, a country which I love.  Sorry these pictures aren’t as orderly arranged as normal.

Descriptions of pictures (in order of appearance) — 1. These white figures are made from gloves in a performance at a mega church here in Manila.  We were only in Manila for about 4 hours when I got up to go to this church…can you tell I was starved for gathering with believers after China!?  Anyway, the performance was amazing.  Wish you could see the whole thing.  2. & 3. pictures of the beach front & island.  4. our midnight Christmas eve service.  5. Santa Casey?  6. Cameron, Pam & I (Sept team friends).  7. June WR’er team with the Pitts and the Days (our BELOVED prayer warriors who flew all the way out to the Philippines to be with us right after Christmas… and even brought us stockings and baskets of treats!  and did thought provoking dramas by Carol and Selena; good worship and teaching by Chuck; and lots of hugs and kind blessings from Santa Scott, who dressed up in a tropical santa outfit.)  They helped ease the ‘away from home’ feeling that I’d had the two days prior to their arrival.  8.  Back in Manila just hours before, Christy L and I got dressed up (WR style) for the fireworks.  9.  Manila fireworks… just one brief picture to sum up the massive firework display.