a check off the bucket list

hello friends!


aaaaand nearly 2 more weeks are gone, in the past, crystallized forever in memory and, of course, my journal. life is good, but God is better.


if i thought life was busy before, i was wrong - NOW it is busy! last week, we ran a youth camp, and i was privileged to be able to direct the whole event! it was a great 3 days, full of fun, soccer, speakers, God, energy, and - of course - youth! i can now check that one off my bucket list!
the middle day of the retreat was logically our fullest, and so we tried to wear out the kids by taking them to camp john hay for most of the day. the plan sort of flopped, because they DEFINITELY had energy leftover after we returned home, but the day was definitely worth it and we had a lot of fun! we played a lot of soccer and "capture the flag", 2 of my favourites! we also made friendship bracelets, ate yummy food prepared by the wonderful ate evelyn, talked, and just enjoyed the beautiful day outside! that evening we also had a banquet for the kids, and they were so excited to dress up and eat good food! my team definitely fed off that enthusiasm, and a great night was had.

the resident ladies' man

youth being youth - notice the funny faces. classic.

a definite highlight of the retreat for me was the soccer, because i love soccer so much, and this was pretty much the first chance i've had while here in the philippines to play. jonas and i had a fun time trying to teach the youth the game, but the ended up getting pretty into it and we had a great time!

playing soccer after wayyy too long

ambushed.

i was also able to speak at the retreat, at our closing session ("practical tips to getting closer to Jesus"). this was also a huge blessing, as God is providing me opportunity after opportunity to teach, and i am being very affirmed in my dream to become a teacher! it was also very neat to be able to reflect on my growth since i was the youths' age (around 15-16, on average). now, i know that i am not exactly ancient, nor have i surpassed their age by much - in fact, i even have friends their age! - , but i do recognize that i have grown significantly since then, and it was definitely cool to look back a bit and see where and how God has been moving in my life.

gettin my teaching on... with translation, of course

the saturday after the retreat, we were able to be a part of the church's baptism day! in fact, brady and jonas were asked to baptize all 8 people who had decided to take the next step in their walk of faith and publicly declare that they want to live their lives for Christ. it was .. beautiful. truly. i remember my baptism so clearly, and it excites me to think about the things Jesus will continue to do in their lives! pray for the newly-baptized, that they would engage in the community here in order to grow in their faith, as well as walk with the rest of the believers already in the church.
another bonus to that day was the fact that we got to ride on top of the jeepney (like a truck) all the way to and from the pool! that's an hour on the highway, for the record. it was so sweet! my adventure-loving side was quite excited :) my mother probably won't be.

windblown excitement

now, we are preparing all day, every day for our evangelistic concert that will happen this coming saturday. which is tomorrow. ah! anyways, i am running sound for this event, (as in, i am the sound technician for the concert), so i have been more on the sidelines for this musical event than i normally would be. this has provided me with a good chance to reflect again on the parts of me that make me, me. brady is a talented guitarist, singer, and performer, which enables him to play a key role as lead singer in this event. ate cha is an incredible vocalist, which, paired with her directing skills and musical abilities, makes her the perfect director/planner for this event. while i am ABLE to play piano, i am not a performer, nor am i a talented singer, and i do not easily connect with God while performing. all these things make me a good person to be behind the scenes on this one, which surprised my team when i told them that. it is interesting how God puts such different characteristics in one person, and as i see that more and more in every person with whom i am developing a relationship here, i am beginning to appreciate God's creative genius much, much more.

charis and ashley, during one of the few breaks the band takes!

last night, we had our second girls/guys night! it was a good time of bonding, laughing, talking about girl things (ie boys), watching sound of music (best. movie. ever.) and having our nails done! one of the girls who comes regularly to youth, jhessica, is the daughter of an aesthetician who does home-service manicures and pedicures. we took advantage of this, and decided to treat the ladies we live with to some pampering! it was a great time, and i appreciated being able to just hang out as girls once more, seeing as we are leaving so soon! 

5 beautiful women i have come to love very much

it is actually insane how soon we are leaving the philippines. 8 days. just over 186 hours. our team is looking forward to spending a day in manila next friday, right before we leave. this means we have only 5 days left with this beautiful family! so, so bittersweet. it finally does feel like 3 months have passed, though, and i know God has been moving during our time here, and will continue to after we leave. this is definitely comforting, knowing that He was, is, and will be here even if i cannot. 


off we go to practice for the concert, again! please pray for it. our aim is to glorify God, and, hopefully, draw people in to His heart. pray for good weather, that people would come, that the band would play well, and that all the details would work out.


love to all, 
tejal :)

new fellowship begins

hello once again!


the last 11 days since i blogged have been very busy! we have started our last month here, which is crazy! as of today (may 15), we have 18 days left in the philippines, then we are headed back to canada! it seems like it hasn't been long enough to be nearly time to go home. our time here has been an incredible blessing to my life and i have learned so much.


two weeks ago yesterday, my team headed out to the beach! it is about a 2-3hr drive away from our house, and we left for the beach at - just wait for it! - FOUR THIRTY AM. yes. really. this is because in tropical countries like the philippines, it is simply too hot to be outside around noon while at the beach. we got to the beach just after 7am, and proceeded to enjoy every bit of the beautiful ocean, beach, and sun. it really was hot though, with temperatures reaching around 40 degrees celsius WITHOUT humidity. it was nuts.
the day was a lot of fun though, and we just enjoyed relaxing in the sun (and under a canopy sort of deal, to avoid major sunburns!) with pastor sam, ate evelyn, heart, and zach. the ocean was beautiful, and we topped off our day with a few jellyfish stings - kind of unavoidable! all in all, it was a great day, all stings and burns aside!

zach and heart playing in the sand. look at that ocean behind them!!

on saturday the 5th, our team was left alone in our house. pastor sam and ate evelyn drove heart back to her house in manila, taking zach with them, and the other people who live here were still at their leadership camp. we had a fun day trying to figure out things around here without ate evelyn, because she is essentially a mother to all of us... which makes us a bit lost without her! we also had the amazing opportunity to lead prayer fellowship on our own. i think we were all a bit nervous about it at the start, due to our language barrier with the balacbac women (they have the poorest english of all the people with whom we interact), but God is good, and He provided us with not one, but two, women who knew enough english to translate. jonas spoke, and it ended up being one of the best prayer fellowships to which we've been! it was cool to see that we have established a relationship with the women that does not depend upon ate evelyn or pastor sam.
the women here continue to inspire me with their joy and persistent attitudes of dependence upon Jesus. i'm definitely learning more and more how to look to God for everything that i need, because He is ultimately the source of all i have, do, and experience. such a good reminder for this north american girl!

the kids here LOVE jonas! and he loves them back :)

it has also been party time around here lately! we threw a joint party for ate cha, kuya ralph, grace, and shown last saturday - ate cha's belated birthday, a goodbye to kuya ralph (he left to visit his family in saudi arabia),  grace's early birthday, and "conGRADulations" to shown. we bought them gifts, decorated the house, and got them cakes - and totally surprised them! it was super cool to be able to do this for them, because they have all taught us so much, and we wanted to celebrate who they are, and, in shown's case, what they've accomplished! it was definitely sad to say goodbye to kuya ralph, but i am resting in the hope that i will see him in person again someday!

singing "happy early-belated,-we-will-miss-you,-conGRADulations-birthday to you"
(i know, it confused me too!)

i think one of the most exciting things i have ever experience occurred this past week - planting a church! we ran a vbs in our area, which was a first for the arcano family, and also the reason they moved to this area - to start a new church! we advertised the week prior to the vbs, and prayed hard for God to move and to lead kids to our vbs. we ended up with 52 kids the first day, and that only increased as the week went on! we definitely rejoiced in the number of kids who came, and were even more encouraged by the number of mums who hung around during every day of vbs to talk with ate evelyn. she invited them to our house for a Bible study this past sunday, or to at least send their kids over here for a sunday school lesson. sure enough, yesterday morning, 5 kids showed up for sunday school. thus began the dontogan church of baguio city. it seems to me that it should be more complicated to start a church, but maybe that's just my north american mindset. here, all it takes is some effort and a lot of love, prayer, and trust in the Lord Jesus. it is incredible to see people who love Him so much step out in so much faith. people here have virtually no idea who the arcanos are, yet the arcanos invite the community into their home regularly, and people respond! new fellowship begins, and so does a church! incredible!

the kids watching us teach them the vbs theme song & its dance

the kids love seeing their teachers look silly when they dance! ;)

a couple things any of you could pray for are:
1) the new church here in dontogan - we hope to see more and more people out every week to establish a real congregation. pray for hope and strength for pastor sam and ate evelyn as they work out of a genuine belief that God wants them to start a church here - as do i!
2) i am directing a youth camp this coming wednesday through friday. it is pretty stressful, seeing as not all the details have fallen into place yet, and the start of the camp is less than 24 hours away! pray that kids would sign up, that we would be able to teach relevant and important lessons, and that the retreat would run smoothly.


thanks for the prayers! we appreciate them.

charis and i on a rock at the top of the mountain
which is at the end of our road. the view is incredible!

love to you all,
tejal :)

the strongest bond

hello friends!

yet another week has ticked on by, bringing me 10 sleeps closer to home. this is crazy! we are officially over halfway through our assignment phase. on saturday, we had been here exactly 8 weeks, leaving only 5 more to experienced, lived in, and loved. this is definitely a bittersweet thought!

just so you all know, i'm posting about my life from my last blog post until sunday the 29th. the things that have happened and will happen this week will come up in my next post.

last week was mostly spent in a town called banaue, which is a 190km drive from baguio. ashley's grandparents started a clinic called "good news clinic" there many years ago, while they were missionaries here in the philippines. we decided to go check out the town and clinic for our mid-term retreat. it was an added bonus that banaue also happens to be the location of some of the world's most spectacular rice terraces. to give you an idea beyond the pictures that will follow in this post, google "rice terraces" and the pictures that will come up are literally where i was not more than a week ago. amazing!

the famed rice terraces.
more beautiful than pictures do them justice.

on the way to banaue, we passed the highest point in the
philippine highway system!  a touristy picture right here.

our time in banaue was meant to be relaxing and refreshing, to give us energy for the second half of assignment - and it was just that! we spent time hanging out as a team (we watched a lot of a documentary series called "human planet" by b.b.c.), swam in the pool at the banaue hotel, ate delicious food, slept in, did puzzles, had girls/guys time (separately i mean), and shopped at the outdoor markets! it was a great retreat :)

we love those rice terraces :)

you need only look at it to be refreshed

the generosity of the filipino people continues to astound me. in banaue, we stayed in a guest house on the property of the good news clinic for free. people repeatedly invited us into their homes for meals and/or coffee simply because they remembered ashley's grandfather. people gave us tours of banaue, using their time and energy on 5 virtual strangers. a 64-year-old man named chester took brady and jonas on a 6 hour hike through the rice terraces. the examples go on and on, but all in all, i was very blessed by the outpouring of love we received from these people. God is good!

brady on the hike the boys took with chester.
chester didn't make it into any pictures, unfortunately!

recently i have been reflecting on family - and how important family is to me! i think we all take our families for granted at some point, myself definitely included, but now that i have been away for what feels like a long time and talking about boys with my sister or making nachos with my brother aren't an every-day option, i am realizing just how blessed i am to have the best family ever. even though i'm halfway across the world, i can still email my mum any time for help with a problem, or to send me chocolate, or just to vent about something, and she's always there for me. my dad will always answer my questions about faith or help me to see the truth for myself, and he continues to be one of my greatest role models. they are the greatest support i could have, the strongest bond, and i love them a lot! so, thanks famjam, for being awesome!
to all you reading this, i encourage you to take time today to appreciate YOUR family - even just by hugging your mum or hanging out with your siblings. they're worth it!

ignore bad lighting/picture quality - but these be
my beloved parents right here. love you famjams :)

last weekend, my team was in charge of both youth groups (balacbac and ambiong) because many of the young people in both churches are away at a leadership training camp. i volunteered to teach the Bible study at ambiong, and am i ever glad i did! i realized yet again how much i love teaching and hanging out with youth. God has definitely given me a heart for both, and it excites me to think that i could spend a large portion of my life doing just that. it doesn't need to be at a youth group, and i know that God can use me in any teaching situation, because He is bigger than and beyond the walls of the church building. teaching also runs in my blood, as my dad and both his parents are/were teachers. it's cool to see how families are linked by common passions and/or gifts, because i can learn from my grandma and my dad about how to be a good teacher, and then possibly pass that on to my own children! 

pastor sam and ate evelyn's second daughter, hope, has her own daughter, heart, who is here with us this week! heart is 7, and she is probably the cutest little girl ever. she is sweet, well behaved, and always wants to have fun with us! last night, charis, ash, heart, and i had a sleepover! it was a really fun time :) we painted nails, talked, coloured, and then - surprise! - slept! it was fun to just be girls and hang out, especially because charis, ash and i are so much older than she - yet the bonds of simply being female transcend age! so great :) heart and i have also had a couple dance parties - which are probably the best thing ever. if you don't believe me, go dance with an innocent, 7-year=old and then try to tell me you didn't have a good time!
(i would post a picture with heart - but we sadly have not taken one yet :P next post maybe?)

well, that's not the longest post, i know, but that's what's been going on in my life recently.
talk to you all soon!

blessings, 
tejal :)