2011.
Wow.
January 5, 2010 I got accepted to the World Race. That was over a year ago now.
I’m in the Philippines. Never in my life did I think I would say that. Not about me anyway. Perhaps I would have visited my brother if God called him to the Philippines, but Asia has never been on my heart.
It is now.
We could possibly be in the most beautiful place on earth. At least the most beautiful place I’ve been.
But it’s not the palm trees, the banana trees, the bright flowers, the monkey outside our house, or the beaches that are only a 20 minute walk away.
It’s the
people. It’s our
contact. It’s our
ministry. It’s the
kids in the houses all around us that come out and just stare at us until we say hello, which always brings a HUGE grin, with a shy ‘hello!” It’s the amount of people, mostly women and children, who attend the church up the road.
I’ll be the first to tell you how extremely blessed we are this month. It truly is gorgeous everywhere we’ve gone. Life is simple. We bathe in the river. We do laundry in the river. We do landscaping with machetes (or bolo) and rakes with branches for handles. We have the freedom to go to a beach pretty much whenever we want. The food is incredible (and coming from me, that’s saying something).
Threads of Hope.
For those who remember, I sold bracelets as a fundraiser. Half of what I sold them for went back to this organization. I can’t describe what a unique experience it is to be able to work on this side of that project. I’m meeting the women who make the bracelets. The moms, widows, with a house full of kids, who can put food on their table and clothe their children because of the bracelets they are able to make for Threads of Hope. The women on the beach, making bracelets. All day. Everyday. Each of them has a different story. It’s our great pleasure to get to spend time with them, learning about them and learning from them.
It’s going to be a remarkable month in Aninuan. I can’t wait to see what God does.
I suppose I should explain the title. We were invited to a wedding our first day here. We went, naturally. They fed us, naturally. It was rice, normal. And blood/pig intestine, not so normal. I didn’t eat it, naturally J. They were incredibly hospitable and treated us as guests though we were at a couple’s wedding. They invited us to dance, tradition being that men ask women to dance, and then pay the new couple. I danced with Edgar, who had a bit too much to drink by the time we got there, thought it made for an interesting conversation. And I danced with the Baranguy (political party in Aninuan) officer.
