Christmas and New Years were amazing. Christmas was spent at the beach (a first), then we had debrief with the June squad. For New Years we were looking out over Manila watching the sky light up with fireworks for over 2 hours! It was surreal… pictures and words don’t do it justice.
I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and are ready for the challenge of a new year!
We left the Philippines and have made it to Hong Kong. I am wearing a jacket for the first time all year and I am not sweating… big day.
I will be here for a little and then we are heading to an Asian country that is closed to the gospel. So, this will be my last update for awhile… going stealth mode for Jesus.
I feel like I’m at a turning point… I’m tired of this being about me. God has been doing some amazing things in my life and really just pouring into me. I am filled with joy and so free right now. I am so thankful and now I have a choice… i can bask in this and start to take ownership or i can turn the corner and work on being an outward pouring of all the blessings God has given me. I want my focus to this month to be on serving my teammates and to be really praying my face off like I never had before. Please please pray for me, Team LESS, and our squad this month! We appreciate it!
Meat Log
Philippines: New Foods: Lumpia, Adobo, and pheasant eggs, Adventures: Playing paint ball, swimming in the Manila bay/South China Sea, sleeping on a beach, riding in a Jeepney (see below) and a Tricycle (moto with a sidecar!), lice encounters, holding a puffer fish, spending Christmas on a beach, Thai massages, Thai massage in a pizza place at the table while you wait for your food, drinking a frappachino (who knew Starbucks would be an adventure that would catch up with me on the other side of the world!)
This is a picture of Jeepney and what the view looks like from the
inside of a trike… modes of transportation new to us here in the
Philippines:
Cambodia: Riding a motorcycle sidesaddle (riding a moto at all), eating fermented duck egg (a delicacy here- Hard boiled 19 day old duck eggs (Containing a fully formed baby duck fetus) ), “Shark Fruit Eyes” which is actually “Shake Fruit on Ice” but we thought we were getting fruit and shark eyes right until the fruit smoothie was set down in front of us!, eating fruit salad in coconut milk topped with shaved ice and one raw egg cracked over top, Jack Fruit, Twice Baked Frog on a Stick, Tarantula Legs
Thailand: New Fruits: Dragon Fruit, Longon, Rambutan, Eating sheep we slaughtered at the farm skinned butchered and bbqd that night, pig intestine soup, sleeping in a tree house, planting a pineapple field, using a hoe to mow the front lawn, eating fried frog, using a machete to make sticks to plant in the front yard which will grow into a fence, surfing at a lake, eating a whole fish, Bananas boiled in coconut milk (best dessert ever), bright pink taxicabs, tuktuks
