So I made it safely to Puerto Galera, Praise Jesus! It is so beautiful here, the smell of hot, salt water and burning wood, can't miss the 90% humidity, lots of coconut trees, sounds of tricyles/jeepneys/motorcycles, and slight breeze. We had an incredible first day after leaving Manila City at 5 AM in the morning and arriving Puerto Galera 5 hours later on a van, next a bus, then a ferryboat and finally a jeepney where we got to ride on the top of the vehicle to our destination!! It was AWESOME! aside from being so tired after all the traveling. Meeting the people we get to work with was a pleasure, Pastor Al, his wife Ate Marina, daughter Ate JoJo and friend Ate Helen. Once we got there, we were served rice, pork steak, beans, and bananas for lunch and were given the chance to rest for the day. We spent the day exploring the town and were guided to the most incredible beach I’ve ever seen by three adorable little girls, Banessa, Gail, and Angelica.
On our second day, we began with devotion- each person every morning will take turn sharing a word between the group and our hosts- early in the morning at 7:30 AM then had breakfast. Afterwards, Pastor Al decided to take us to Aninuan Falls where we hiked for 30 minutes before sliding 5 times down a 15-20 feet drop to a really cold pool of water that was very refreshing to an incredibly hot and sunny day. When we got back we were told to prepare 1- 2 songs for the night service and so we spent a couple hours doing so and later helped set the chairs out. The night service was incredible! We sang the song, King Jesus Is All, as we did the sign language for it. Seeing the number of Filipinos that came to worship and feel for God’s Words through Pastor Al was beautiful to watch as he preached on how to trust the Lord through the story of Moses. After the sermon, Pastor Al had everyone pick a partner and pray, so a 13 year old girl named Jerline came up to me and asked if I would like to be her partner and of course I gladly accepted. For the past couple of days, God has shown me the wonderful blessing of just being able to know the children around the little community that I'm in and it's amazing even if we hadn't really engaged in a lot of activities thus far! Excited to see more of His incredible grace throughout the rest of the month here.
The third day, we had our first labor work where we tore down a hut and used the pieces to build more space to Jojo's house under the very hot sun. Before we even began and while praying at someone's house I was literally sweating like a pig, i'm sure i had more than a gallon's worth of sweat the entire time we were praying and working. Always love a good sweat. After a good hard morning's work, us girls went to the beach to cool off with Angelica while the guys stayed at the house/church. Afterwards we washed our clothes in the RIVER!! yes i said the river and it was fantastically fabulous, definitely had a great time and hope to do it everytime i need to wash my clothes.
PICTURES AND VIDEO COMING SOON!
