Good morning, Asia!
For the past forty-eight (plus a few) hours, our squad has been traveling from Entebbe, Uganda, to Manila, Philippines. And we finally made it! It has been an adventure full of shenanigans, sleepless nights, and good food thrown in.
It all began on Wednesday, with a beautiful, breathtaking sunrise over Lake Victoria as a farewell present from Africa. We proceeded to pack up, then shove our larger than life backpacks onto a tiny bus, then cram ourselves in around them, true African style. We rode to the airport, and after a bit of waiting, boarded our first flight to Doha. Which, by the way, we were on the inaugural flight of Qatar Airlines out of Entebbe. Let me tell you, awesome! We got free portable speakers…what?!
After we ran through security in Doha, we waited for about thirty minutes before boarding our flight from Doha to Bangkok. Once we landed in Bangkok, life felt so surreal and full of so many new things to take in.
I don't think we're in Africa anymore, Toto.
All around us were bright colors, shrines, clean floors, normal toilets, American name restaurants like Burger King and Dairy Queen, plus a plethora of Asian restaurants. I was overwhelmed with excitement…much more than I ever thought I would be for Asia. I knew that Asia would be cool, but I honestly had no idea what to expect from Asia…but even in the airport I could feel my heart stirring with excitement.
But our adventure didn't stop there. As many of you know, we were supposed to spend this month in Thailand. And since our flight took us to Bangkok, perhaps you thought that's where we stopped. In fact, we are spending this month in…the Philippines! Due to the flooding in Thailand, we were rerouted to the Philippines this month, and Lord willing, go back to Thailand another month.
So, we went through customs and checked into…the Bangkok Airport for about twenty four hours. Those hours were full of charging electronics (which, with only about four or five plugs, used with about three power strips…ends up to be a hilarious picture that any fireman would cringe at), eating delicious Thai and American food, sleeping on the airport floor, playing on the “travelators.” Also known as, the flat escalators.
After those twenty four hours in the airport, we gathered our bags and belonging, and got in line to get our tickets to Manila. This proved to add some difficulty, but God would not be held back, and we all got our tickets and boarded that plane on time, and four hours later, we found ourselves standing on Philippine soil.
My excitement about this month continued to escalate as we drove to KIM (Kids International Ministry), and I saw CHRISTMAS LIGHTS and decorations glittering along the street. This of course, ended in a spontaneous outburst of Christmas carols from our squad. For those of you who may not know, Christmas is my ALL TIME favorite holiday, so my heart was just glowing and content in that moment.
We arrived to a warm welcome at KIM, and were fed a delicious dinner of spaghetti. We were full, content, happy. We are truly blessed.
This month, four of our teams will staying here in Manila at KIM, and two of our teams will fly south to Malaybalay. We will be here in the Philippines for six weeks total, instead of just four, which is exciting because of the possibilities of deepening relationships and investing our time even more.
My team will be one of those two heading to Malaybalay! We will also be working with KIM, just on this southern island. I am excited for all that we will get to pour into there, and what God has for us there.
So thank you for your prayers, and here's my greetings from the Philippines!
