Conquered by Good: goodbyes and hellos

hello all!

so it has been a crazy, crazy period of time since i last blogged. time has been full and full of a lot of good things, as well as some very new experiences!

2 weekends ago, may 26-27, we were scheduled to have our evangelical concerts. unfortunately, on the morning of the 26th (more like the middle of the night), charis got sick and ended up being sick enough that she couldn't go to the concert on the 26th. i volunteered to stay home with her, as she was definitely too sick to stay home alone. when the rest of the team got home from concert #1, we decided to take charis in to the emergency room because she was most definitely NOT getting better. in the end, charis was admitted to a small clinic in town, staying there for 2 nights and nearly 2 days. i also stayed with her for the whole time, because all i knew was that if it was me who was seriously ill, i wouldn't want to be stranded in a foreign hospital on my own. they were also probably 40 of the most boring hours of my entire life, but they were worth it because it meant charis wasn't alone. we did get out, and she is feeling much better now. please pray for her full healing, as she isn't feeling 100% quite yet. praise God that she is definitely on the road to healing though!

the concert still went on even without charis and i.
it was a big success! praise God :)

a few days after the hospital experience, on wednesday, may 31st, the arcanos, along with the balacbac church, threw my team a very large, wonderful, good-bye party. we heard some songs they had prepared for us, a few speeches, and they showered us with so, so many gifts! it was actually really incredible to see how much work they had put into this, and how they had pooled all their resources to give gifts to us, even though we have known them for such a short time. it's kind of like if you or i met someone, and then, as they were leaving 3 months later, we pooled to buy them a top-of-the-line laptop, or something of that value. crying definitely happened at this party as well, and then a couple hours of being able to hang out with them for the last time. we definitely were blessed by the party and the people, and i know i will miss these newfound friends very much!

somehow smiles were all around, even at a goodbye party
(apologies for the bad quality picture!!)

the arcano family, my filipino family. i'm going to miss them!

we drove down to manila the day after the party to spend about 36 hours there before we flew out of the philippines on saturday morning. we spent some time touring the city, which was really neat, but also very hot! temperatures reached mid-thirties (celsius) for sure, plus humidity on top of that. on friday, our full day in manila, we were able to visit heart again (pastor sam's granddaughter who came to visit us about a month ago), which was a huge blessing! we spend the day first swimming with her at her condo complex, then taking her out for lunch, and finally buying her a new pair of dressy flip flops (we broke her old ones by accident!) before taking her home. it was sad to say goodbye to her, especially because we knew it was going to be harder on her than on us, but we all are hoping to see her again someday!

fun in the sun :)

we flew safely home on june 2nd, and are now officially in debrief. it was wonderful to see our friends on the ukraine team again, and the past few days have been very full of stories, laughter, and fun. debrief is more relaxed than training, schedule-wise, in the way that most of the activities in which we participate are more "fun stuff", instead of sessions. so far we've been able to go bowling, go to a small amusement park, have a bonfire supper, and go to see a waterfall called "bridal falls". all these activites have been very fun, and a great opportunity to relax as we adjust back into north american lifestyle. above all, they have provided me with excellent opportunities to reconnect with my friends who were in ukraine! please pray for all 9 of us here (bryan is still in paris and will be long past the end of debrief, so we won't see him again) as we experience these next 10 days, that we would learn to trust God fully with our past experiences and the future that lies ahead. please pray that we would engage fully in these last couple weeks of trek in order to have closure for the past and hope for the future as we walk out into whatever God has planned for us next.