i’m currently in thailand (some amazing stuff has been happening here; report to come soon) but here are some final mental photos & notes from the philippines last month. i’m adopting two styles in writing these blogs. this one, like “the abundant life” post, is more casual and jocular at times.
– rereading c.s. lewis’ “screwtape letters.” i’m probably doing something wrong 😉 read screwtape if you haven’t and you’ll understand. brilliant piece of writing.
– discovering the native expression “nosebleed,” which describes the sensation a filipino experiences when struggling to speak english to a foreigner. “permanent sinus damage” is a term i’ve coined for what I might experience if i were to attempt to hold a conversation in tagalog.
– our host family’s daughter who is a veritable angel telling us that on her recent sweet 16 birthday, her friends broke an egg on her head. she recalls having an egg broken on her head on each of her previous birthdays as well.
note to self: don’t ever celebrate my birthday in the philippines.
– jeepney driver blasting christmas music followed by the beatles as we teeter and totter through muddy jungle roads.
– lansones! a delicious small fruit unique to this region of the world.
– “there is power in the name of jesus” playing at the internet shop.
– washing kids’ feet in a remote village in the jungle of mindoro and squeezing their heels into a brand-new pair of toms.
– “65 days until christmas” sign outside of a shopping mall near manila.
– jumping & dancing with 60 youth at a local worship fest!!!!!!
– singing out the lyrics to “god’s not dead” with a hundred filipinos when the speakers failed at a different worship event
– “game of thrones” jeepney. i’ve never seen an episode but the jeepney exterior was class.
– random donated shirts that kids are wearing while most likely being oblivious to their meaning:
– a 10-year-old girl wearing a “world’s best father” t-shirt
– a 7 or 8-year-old filipino girl with a shirt which reads “to the jews first.” (romans 1:16 reference)
– a teenage girl in a remote village that doesn’t speak english wearing a shirt that says, “fart…now loading” with an image of a loading bar at 40%. let’s be selective with our donating, america.
– snorkeling and getting to see the coral reef for less than 10 dollars
– going to a small, poor village and meeting victor whose dad ricardo lay sick in bed with prostate cancer. getting to pray for him and look into his kind eyes.
– the ecstatic looks on the kids’ faces in one of the poorest communities of manila as they imitate me in stretching their arms out to the sky and proclaiming, “jesus, i love you!”
it was a wonderful month! i’ll be reporting about thailand in a week : )
