the tagalog version of my own life

HELLO friends! 


SO SORRY about the incredible delay in posts. i just have not been wanting to battle this wifi to put up pictures. 


ANYWAYS so life here is good. i feel like we are finally settling into a sort of routine. it has definitely been a shift mentally recently, in that it has begun to feel like home. i no longer think about my actual home as much, and i feel good here - i have a very distinct sense that this is where God wants me, now. it's cool to have affirmation in life like that - because so often i feel like i don't fully know what God wants, and in this case it is different. while it is still hard to be away from home for so long, i have a lot more peace about being here and serving right now. i feel... CALLED, actually. i am very encouraged! 


in the past couple weeks, we also went on what is known as "home visitations". pretty much, this is when we go to the homes of different members of the church and visit them. we ask how they are doing, hang out for a bit, share a small devotional with them, and pray with them! sometimes they will give us a small snack - coffee and bread, or that sort of thing. i was really interested in these home visits, and it led me to a lot thought as well. i was thinking about home, and why we don't do this sort of thing. i mean, of course, if someone is sick or a relative died, etc, the pastor will come visit you, but why not on a regular basis? the whole purpose of these visits is to encourage and strengthen the members of the body... so why not do this? 

members of the balacbac congregation we visited

on monday the 26th, we had the chance to go to a water park called "riverview waterpark" with the entire arcano family - at least, those who live with us! it was very cool to be able to hang out with our hosts in a non-stressful, non-work-related environment. we spent the day hanging out in the pools, on the waterslides, eating bbq-ed pork, and talking! we had a lot of fun, and we managed to avoid burnt skin all around. what a great day!

FLYING out of the waterslide - it was SO fast!!

on friday the 30th of march, we held an all-day event for all the youth involved in any of the ministries that pastor sam and his family run. we hung out at camp john hay, singing, listening to 2 speakers (one was brady, actually!), and playing games. it was really cool to be able to do this because many of the students in the ALS (alternative learning school, kind of a GED-equivalent program here in the philippines) program aren't believers and often haven't even heard of Jesus before entering the program. it was cool to be able to minister to all the youth we know, all together, and have a great day outside! we now are just praying that a seed was planted in their minds and hearts and that one day, they will meet Jesus. please pray for these students and that we would be able to follow up with them!

jerome, our other speaker, preaching during the rain - hence the shelter!

i also gave my testimony during the day, in tagalog! which is crazy. pastor sam had previously translated all our testimonies into tagalog for this exact reason - to give the story of our walk with Jesus in a language the people here can understand more easily than english. it was definitely a new experience for me, because i've never given a speech where i didn't even understand what i was saying! have you?

stumbling through the tagalog version of my own life

two days ago, my team CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN. no big deal or anything. ;) 
it was actually spectacular though. we woke up at 4:45am (URGH, i know. and we even did this voluntarily :P), got dressed, packed a little bit of food, and off we went! it took us about an hour and half to get to the top, and we actually walked up the road that goes to the top of said mountain. this makes it sound a lot less intense than it actually was. it was intense, believe me! 
at one point, brady, charis, sean (one of the youth in the church who is actually living with us!) and i took a short cut that pretty much involved climbing STRAIGHT up the mountain through the brush, instead of taking the more-gently sloped road. that was cool! real hiking right there. 
the view at the top was INCREDIBLE. we were actually above the clouds at more than one point, though they seemed to rise as we climbed... ? it pretty much looked like we were in an airplane part of the time, because all we could see was sky above us and clouds below - what an interesting experience!
anyways, it was a great way to start a day, and a good opportunity to hang out with sean more. it was actually his birthday that day too, so that was fun to celebrate with him :)

charis and i at the top. look at that view!

another cute team picture. we love each other a lot :)

tonight we are going to a church called the bibak Bible church for supper. ashley's grandparents knew people at this church, so they invited us to hang out for an evening. it will be a lot of fun! it also makes me a bit nervous, because they want to treat us to a "exotic, filipino supper" - which may involve all sorts of ... INTERESTING  food. prayer is welcomed. i think we are all nervous. i think we are all excited more than nervous, though, and it is still really cool to connect with other christians. 


and life continues. God is good. He is risen (... tomorrow morning. close enough!)


soon (sooner than this last gap, hopefully!),
tejal :)