Right now I'm sitting in a house in Manila, a quick look around the room and I feel as if I am back at home, inside a nice two story house with TV and wireless internet, I'm still not sure what to think about how this month will turn out, all I know is that this is definitely not Africa.
The ministry we are working with this month is called KIM International Ministries, based in Manila, Philippines. The original plan for the month was to be serving in Thailand, however due to all the flooding plans were changed last minute. I'm still unsure of what this month is going to look like, but I can sense that being intentional about being together as a team, in the midst of being with three other teams, will be vital to create unity among this new team.
As a lot of changes have been taking place for me the past few weeks, one of the biggest is the fact that not only I have an entire new team of people that I will be serving and living with, but that I am the leader of the team. On my team are 5 women and only 1 other guy, I'm really excited to be working with this new team of people, and excited for the challenge of stepping into this leadership position.
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Our trip to arrive here in Manila was an rather interesting one, last week we spent Thursday Oct. 27 through Sunday Oct. 30 in Kigali, Rwanda. We stayed with another team that had been in Kigali all month, and it was a great change to get a glimpse into another teams experience for the month. Kigali is a very modern city, that in many ways felt as if it was not part of the same country that I spent a month serving in. With super markets, shopping malls, and high end hotels, this was not what most people think of when they think of Africa. We stopped by the hotel that has been made famous by the film Hotel Rwanda, and in many ways it is hard to believe that the horrific genocide that plagued Rwanda was a mere 15 years ago.
After leaving Kigali we headed to Entebee, Uganda, and camped out on lake Victoria, while there all the teams were switched up, and that is when I found out that I would become a team leader to an entire new team. This was a great time to be back together with the entire 44 group of men and women from our squad, telling stories of our experiences in Rwanda, worshiping together, and having a awesome dance party for Halloween(which by the way had a dance off which I won!).
Soon after coming to grips with our new teams, we packed up on Wednesday morning and headed to the airport in Entebee, and began what would be a 51 hour trek across the globe, starting with a 6 hour flight from Uganda to Doha, Qatar, then a 24 hour layover in Bangkok, eventually ending up here in Manila where we will be staying the next 6 weeks.
