Hi friends!
I must begin with saying the Philippines is another one of the most beautiful places on earth. The Lord as given us such a beautiful place to live and it is far easier to see without the massive amounts of development and buildings we so often find in the United States.
Never in a million years have I wanted to go to Asia, nor did I ever think I would like it… and here I am and, boy, was I wrong. The two hour ferry ride I slept through to get to our island was so peaceful. The sunset I saw before passing out from my 55+ hour travel ‘day’ to get here from Nicaragua was absolutely gorgeous. God outdid himself that night.
There arer palm trees everywhere, more than any other tropical place I had visited before. The ministry site I am staying at for the month has planted hundreds of pineapple plants on a hill which is so fun except that they recently picked the last 20 ripe pineapples and will have to wait about another 18 months for more. There are banana trees and everyone has goats! Sadly, they eat the goats, but they are still fun to have around. My ministry host family has two monkeys for pets. They live in the wild here, but shy away from people. The pets are great. It’s a good thing they are tied up because they are good pick pocketers and get into all sorts of trouble. They are quite intelligent and mischevious! We are a 10 or 15 minute walk from a beautiful beach that doesn’t appear to end. There is white sand and aqua water. The waves are perfect. There are mountains and waterfalls. We do our laundry in the river and occasionally bathe there as well, because what could be more fun? We ride tricycles, which are really motorcycles with a side car and see how many people we can fit. So far, we have successfully fit 6 people to one. Figure that one out. 🙂 There are tons of beautiful flowers and unique plants that take my breath away.
There is so much beauty here, especially in the people. This culture is different than any other culture I have experienced. There is such a kindness and politeness in the people. They love to spend time with us. They just want to spend time with us. They love us and we love them. They love basketball and volleyball as well and, really, what could be more fun?!
We are working with Aninuan Christian Church and Threads of Hope. Threads of Hope is where women in the community make bracelets to sell. Many of the bracelets are sold back in the United States in order to bring profit back to the women who make the bracelets. Here, the woman are often the primary family member to bring in income. This organization is so important because with making bracelets, the women can do this at home and be there to raise thier children, rather than having to leave the home for work everyday.
This month our team spends the mornings doing manual labor. The church has ongoing building projects and we came just in time to rip up the basketball court. They will be putting a rubber flooring in. Too bad we won’t be here long enough to use it! In the afternoons we do beach ministry, which means we get to go to the beach and talk to people there. My team specifically found some women who make bracelets on the beach and have become partial to them. When families are tight on money, they have their children drop out of school after elementary school, which is 6th grade, and go to the city for work. That means 12 year olds are often required to work to help bring in income to provide for the family. The women we met at the beach are sisters who have experienced this in their own family growing up and vowed not to carry on the ‘tradition’ with their own families. God has been gracious to them and they have successfully been able to put their children through school for the most part, but they have still struggled. They are excellent at what they do, but they have been doing it their whole lives and it is such a joy to spend time with them.
We also visit families in the community on other days. On weekends, we go to the surrounding villages and teach the youth bible stories and memory verses. We have a prayer meeting midweek and church service on Sunday. We have gone to a Filipino wedding and a local church’s 4th year Anniversary. We have put on a Talent Show for the youth and have a movie night planned for the older youth next week.
The ministry we do is great and our ministry contacts are even better. There is such an innocence and pure love that radiates from them. They are always joyful and serve with all their hearts. It inspires me to give more and love better. I am so blessed by them. This month, though I’m sure we are blessing the community, is one where I am finding myself incredibly blessed as well.
