Hello, friends!!!!
After 2 plane rides and a 4-hour bus trip, I have officially arrived in Dagupan, Philippines! Every morning, I wake up to the sound of motorcycles driving by, children laughing in the streets, and the Filipino news blaring on the television downstairs. My team and I share a room with 7 twin-sized mattresses on the floor. It’s actually quite the set up! We have air conditioning which is a gift from God because it’s hotter than Texas summers here. Our host mom cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us every day and it is some of the best food I’ve ever had. Mama Han (short for Hannah) is as selfless as they get. She is always looking for different ways to serve us in the best way she can. She has been teaching me what it looks like to truly serve others and love doing it.
The first couple of days here I was in a little funk. I loved what we were doing and all of the people we were meeting and ministering too, but when you mix that with being integrated in a completely different culture and some jet lag, you find yourself not being yourself. I wasn’t on fire for God. I was kind of lazy. I wanted to recoup and just be. However, thank goodness for my team who helped me stand up and remind me that the feelings I was feeling weren’t feelings from The Lord. They were from Satan. Satan loved watching me be off and feed into the temptation to be lazy. Satan didn’t want me to come on the race in the first place. The moment I got here Satan found a way to redirect my mind to what I really needed to do. Satan is a sneaking guy. He makes us feel trapped and tells us that are feelings are valid. Satan tries every day to pull us down and tell us what we want to hear. It’s up to us to decide which voice we are going to follow.
It’s only day 4 and it feels like day 80. People have told me that would happen. It’s now beginning to fly by and I don’t want it to. I’m finding the pure beauty in being overstimulated. In being in a culture I’ve never been in, serving others when all I want to do is feed into my laziness, and loving how simple the life is here. In my quiet time yesterday, I came across this –
“I’m a willing vessel, emptied of my ability, but filled with His”
I LOVE that. That is exactly what I am. What we all are. It isn’t up to our ability or our strength. It’s on Him. All God! How cool is it that we get to rely on such strong strength?
I’m definitely seeing the world in a new light. A new way and I’m trying to grasp all that I can before it’s gone. People don’t care about half of the things we do back in America. It’s refreshing to be around! They all love each other hard and well. It takes them a full day to do laundry and it take us about 5 seconds to throw a load in. It’s a beautiful kind of simple. The kind of simple I want to keep learning from so that I can be this way.
Xx,
Mace
