Livin in the boonies of the phillies
The Philippines is a truly beautiful country. The city isn't magnificent but when you live in the mountains in a small village an hour away from the big stuff, you get all the coolest views. Me and my new team (team matapang) live in a small village in the north island of the Philippines. It's in San Mateo, Rizal and the village name is Pingtong Bukawe. I love it. A 5 minute hike up the mountain and we not only have incredible views of the valley and surrounding areas, but we also have the biggest 10 commandments tablets in the world (as can be found in the Guinness world book of records.) Those are some big commandments! (See what I did there)
Not having Internet and being an hour away from really anything has been so good for us. Instead of running to other distractions we have really focused on our relationships with one another and our relationships with God. I feel like I have gotten so much goodness from him is month. I'm still in the Old Testament (trying to read the whole Bible through this year) and I'm just realizing how much I don't know. There are so many stories and it's like even the ones I've heard my whole life I'm getting new information from them. For instance David and Saul. Saul is jealous of David and wants to kill- tries multiple times. He runs David out of his people. And when David has the opportunity to kill Saul he doesn't do it because he loves Saul even though that's ridiculous. And he knew Saul was special to God. When Saul eventually kills himself David tears his clothes and mourns. And he makes all his men around him do the same. That is some intense commitment to a friendship that was one sided and unstable. But God hit me with that and was like A. This is how I love you. You try to block me out or so things I don't like. You try to hurt me. But guess what? I still love you more than you'll ever understand. Mind blowing. And then B. He was was all like, you need to love the people around you in this same way. They are special to me. It doesn't matter if they don't show you that love. You show it to them. Big stuff.
Our ministry here is with Grow Asia. We have done a variety of different things here. We leveled ground for the goat pens to be built on. We're working on building the bamboo fence around that area too. We painted the whole worship hall. But my favorite things to do have been in interacting with the community here. There used to be a dump here but it closed 10 years ago. However, there is still a community of people called the scavengers that go into the landfill and dig through the trash to find recyclables and things they can sell. The children in this community don't go to school, they start scavenging at the age of 5. Their homes are made of sticks and tarps. Many girls are pregnant and have their own children by the time they are 14 or 15. This is my favorite part of the community. The people are so welcoming. They are so fun to be around. We did a vbs in their community, just outside right in the middle. Everyone came to watch. There were so many kids. We acted out the story of David and Goliath. We did a little hygiene presentation. We sang some interactive worship songs. And we played games, mainly duck duck goose which is an all time favorite game here. The kids literally go wild over it. And they all say "Dock, dock, Dock, Dock, Gose" it's precious. It was so much fun and seriously so beautiful to look around and see how the whole community was joined in for this short period of time- everyone was cheering for the children chasing one another and everyone was laughing together and smiling. It was one of my all time favorite race moments.
We've also made friends with a man named Bernie and his family. Bernie invited us to his church's anniversary last week. We ate a feast of Filipino foods and we also got up and sang in front of his church (gettin pretty good at that). Bernie cooked us his own feast one night too, spaghetti, pork liver adobo, rice, pineapple, sticky rice dessert, soda. He really did it big. Hanging out with Bernie is always an adventure and we have coined the term "Bernie journey" for anytime he takes us somewhere. Bernie has a daughter named Monica that is 15. Monica and her friends are really funny. They are starting to open up to us but at first they were pretty shy. They all speak really good English. Hanging out with them has been really cool though. Through it God is showing me just how much I have a heart for teenagers. It's going to be cool to see what he does with that.
We also work with Natalie, our contact, in her clinic here on Wednesday mornings. This past Wednesday we did a special day for the women that came in- we gave them manicures and pedicures. I'm not going to lie I have a serious aversion to feet. I don't even like touching my own feet. So I was concerned to say the least. But I did it and honestly it didn't bother me one bit. It was actually really cool. Rayhan (who is our sidekick, our partner in crime, our top dog, he really is like our coordinator and he is awesome and he will get more airtime soon) he told us this was like a once in a lifetime deal for these ladies to be pampered like that. Pampered was lukewarm water in plastic basins and hotel shampoo and lotion. It was extremely humbling and such a perspective check. I am really happy that we were able to serve them in that way and just that God blessed them through that so much. I would definitely do it again.
God is working here and I am so excited to see what he does in the next couple of weeks. We have some things planned that I think are going to be incredible but I will let yall in on those when they happen! For now, salamat po. ( that means thank you with respect in Tagalog)
