Week #4: God's Perfect Timing

Hi guys! I'm really sorry it's been so long since I updated this, but I've been a little busy recently! You'll see why as you read on...

So last Tuesday was my first 'normal' Tuesday I think! 'Normal' being that what happened was what was meant to happen, according to my schedule. One thing I love about being here is that you can guarantee that things are definitely not going to go according to plan! Especially at the moment because it's rainy season, so the weather frequently disrupts our plans. Some people get frustrated by it, but I just love the uncertainty of it, and the perfect timing of it. By that, I mean that plans have always been cancelled when I've been behind on stuff (sleep, emails etc.) but when I've felt on top of things, everything has been on. I don't like the fact that the activities have been cancelled, and I would prefer them to be on, but every time I have thought that it was actually quite providential, and it reminds me again that God is looking after me and His timing is perfect!

Anyway, so back to Tuesday. After a lovely morning off, Maureen and I went to Tondo to meet Brenda and EJ to go on Home Visitations. Here are a few pictures:

Brenda, EJ and Maureen

One of the stores on the dump

First we visited the home of a girl who hasn't been to anything at the church recently, and then we visited a young woman (16) who had given birth to a baby son just last month. It was a great eye opener to the realities of life here – although there have been less teenage pregnancies each year than before PCF church started their ministry here, they still do happen. And it is heartbreaking each time!

Here's a picture of the baby (Jericho, “Jero”) with Maureen:

After that I went to Navotas for my weekly teaching there. As usual, I had a great time and the girls learnt a lot. They are very talented and love to learn – it's such a joy teaching them!

Sorry to go off on a side note again, but here is a video of Cristine (one of the Navotas students) and EJ dancing to Who Am I by Casting Crowns (choreographed by EJ). I think you'll agree with me that it is very good and they are extremely talented young people! http://www.youtube.com/user/treasuresintrash#p/u/11/q4SkA1IRhRQ And it is even more moving when you know where they've come from and their background, yet the joy they have within them, and I just love their smiles as they are dancing for God's glory! There are other videos of the youth on the PCF church channel if you wish to look through them. I'd highly recommend it!

On Wednesday I was a bit more homesick, which was the first time I've felt even a little homesick for quite a long time, but I still had a lovely day. We again had the morning off, and then we arrived in Tondo for the women's group at 4. However, for some reason they'd started at 3 and not let us know, so they were just finishing! As we didn't have anything really to do until 6, I sat down and read LOTR while Maureen went to go and get some more petrol and the women started to cook the dinner.

Then in the evening it was Sinag youth service, during which I was playing the piano and giving my testimony! I had written a rough outline of what I was going to say that morning, however I was still a little nervous about having to be translated - it's a very different experience to just speaking! I mentioned in last week's post that I was worried that I'd lose my thought track, but as soon as I stood up to speak, it was like all my nervousness just fell away, and I felt completely confident that I could do it. And the testimony went very well and I hardly looked at my paper with my prompts on it. Thank you to everyone who prayed for that!

Playing the piano...

You can't help but smile!

On Thursday I was helping in the school during the day, and fortunately it was a much calmer day than the previous week! I was helping in Marilyn's class in the morning, and then Jenny's in the afternoon - both of them kindergarten classes. In Marilyn's class I did the marking for her (which I thoroughly enjoyed!) and then she had a whole load of new toys which had arrived on a container van from UK the previous night, which the children were just allowed to have time to play with. My immediate reaction was 'why are the children coming to school if all they're going to do is play with toys, which they could do at home...??!' But then I realised that they don't. They don't have toys at home...any toys they have are ones they've found in the trash and cleaned up themselves. And they don't have time to just play and be children! Often the kids on the dumpsites and in the cemetery grow up way too quickly, and are usually expected to help their parents/relatives with the chores and even waste-picking from a very early age. I've walked through the dumpsite and seen very young children, who look no more than 5 or 6, scavenging for things that they can then sell on to earn the tiniest amount of money. It's heartbreaking! So it was such a pleasure being able to watch them play and just enjoy themselves, and be able to join in and play with them as well! I took many photos, but I won't bombard you with them all, so here are just a few:

After lunch, as I mentioned before, I was helping in Jenny's class. She gave me the task of covering the last few text books with plastic covering, so while I was being helpful, I was also able to watch the lesson. They started the afternoon with a prayer, and then Jenny led them in some songs. Here's a video:

Then she told them a bible story before an English lesson.

Earlier on in the day, I had been to the sponsorship department to ask about visiting our sponsor children while we are here (Mum and I sponsor children within the same family), and I was told the really sad news that their father had passed away aged 39 the previous month. They have no idea what caused it – they just woke up one morning and he was dead. And of course they had no money for an investigation into how he died. Following his death, the whole family (Mother and 4 children) had moved away from the dumpsite to a place that was 2 hours away from the school, so it was going to be slightly more tricky to visit them! However, I was told that the Mum works in the school in the livelihood department, and they were going to try and find her for me so I could meet her and talk with her.

So during the middle of the English class, Loos (one of the staff at the school) took me to meet her. Her English wasn't very good, but we were able to converse a little bit, and she was very glad to be able to meet me – as I was to meet her! We are hoping to still be able to visit the family even though it is 2 hours away, but nothing has been arranged just yet. Please pray it will all come together smoothly. Thank you :-)

Julia (the mother) and I

I used to sponsor another girl in this family, Angelika, but unfortunately she also passed away a few years ago – of Leukaemia. The mother was in tears as she told me that Angelika had always longed to meet me, and when she knew that she was going to die, she gave the picture of me that I had sent her to her Mum, and asked that her Mum would one day be able to meet me. It really touched me because I don't think I had realised just how much it means to the families over here that someone somewhere else cares enough to pay for them/their children to go to school and be educated. When I first started sponsoring Angelika I used to write to her frequently and send her pictures of me and my family etc. But as I grew busier and busier, it became something that I never had time to do, or just forgot to do. My sponsorship has now moved over to Angelika's sister, Julienne, and I regret not prioritising sending her photos and sending letters to her. And as soon as I get home I will remedy that. I think it becomes too easy to just see it as another lot of money that comes out of your bank account every month, and you forget just what the money is going towards. I know that is certainly what happened with me! So for those reading this who have sponsor children with PCF or other charity organisations, I'd like to really encourage you to contact your child regularly and build a relationship with him/her – unless you've lived in the depths of poverty, you will never know just how much it means to them!! And for those reading this who don't yet sponsor a child, I can't encourage you enough to find out more about sponsoring! It costs £18 a month, and if that at first seems a big commitment each month, think about what the £18 is giving. With that, you are giving a child a life, and a future. They will have the security of education, and the increased likelihood of escaping the poverty trap, and if you really think about it, you can spare that £18! So I've made it very easy for you by pasting the link here: http://p-c-f.org/sponsor-a-child.php. What are you waiting for! :-)

Anyway, apologies I keep going off at tangents this evening. I'm writing this fairly late at night (well, technically fairly early in the morning!) so that's the excuse I'm giving for my brain's inability to stay focused on what I'm meant to be writing :-)

After meeting Julia, I went back to the classroom only to discover that the children had been sent home early. The next day was a parade and presentation for 'Nutrition Month' and so the teachers were needed to help decorate a display board for that. We helped them until it was time for us to leave and go back home.

The following day, Friday, started fairly early with a 6am start, and getting to the school for 7.40am. The parade and presentation was meant to be from 8-10am, and then the children had the rest of the day off. But this is the Philippines, and the parade didn't start until getting on for 9.30, so unfortunately we weren't able to see much of it before we had to leave. Here are some pictures:

After going to the school, Maureen was going on to Ortigas for a meeting with Ron and Joanna, so I had the condo to myself for a few hours. Then at 4pm I left to pick Mum up from the airport. It all went smoothly, and we met fairly quickly and had no trouble getting a taxi home. So thank you to everyone who was praying for that! Mum has been writing her own little blog while she's been here, so do check it out here: http://www.freedomcounselling.net/category/philippines/

Saturday was a very long day for me, but I felt renewed after more time off than usual on the Friday, so it was fine. Again, I think it was the first Saturday that has been 'normal' according to my schedule!

I started the day by helping with the Tondo feeding, and then I was teaching a couple of the Tondo girls – Jovelyn and Rosemae. Because so many Saturdays have been messed up for various reasons, although I've been here 4 weeks now, it was only Rosemae's second lesson and Jovelyn's third. They are both doing well - Jovelyn in particular because she's had that extra lesson. In fact, she was doing so well that I suggested she played in the Sunday service the following morning instead of me, to get the practice at playing in a Worship Team. She wasn't confident she would be able to do it, but she did, and she did so very well! I wasn't able to be there, but Ron was there and he said she had played well.

So after teaching I went to the other church in Malabon for the youth service there. It was the first time I'd been there, so it was lovely seeing a new place! It's quite a small church, but it was very nice, even though the study was all in Tagalog so I couldn't understand a word! :-)

After the service I went back to Tondo to help Jovelyn at the Worship Group practice for the following morning. The first half was spent writing out the chords for her, because the guitarists all play by memory here with no music, and of course she wouldn't know what the chords were! (And neither did I, especially seeing as I didn't actually know most of the songs full stop! :P). That finished at 8pm and then I came home to the condo. The traffic was amazingly clear and I got home by 8.15! Once I got home, I went out for a frozen yoghurt with Mum as we had ran out of time to get one the previous night!

And that reminds me, I now have the photo of my frozen yoghurt that I had had the previous weekend:

I think I'm going to finish this blog post here because it is getting very long and also very late for me! But one final thought.

I've titled this post 'God's Perfect Timing', and I think this is one of things that constantly amazes me. Everything about this trip has been 'perfectly timed' and I know that God has everything to do with that! The time away from home has been just the right length – not too long, but long enough that I've got a feel of it and settled into the culture properly. And Mum came out here at just the right time – I had the perfect amount of time on my own, and now I've got just enough time with Mum to show her everything and to do the things with her that I wanted to do with her. I could carry on forever with a list of things that have been 'perfectly timed', but it's probably simpler and quicker to say that at least once a day I think 'Wow. That was perfectly timed!'. We often talk about the influence of 'Filipino Time' on our schedule here, but whether Filipino Timing or Western Timing, I've found it such a comfort to know that God plans for things to happen just when they do happen, and His plans are absolutely perfect!

Once again, I hope you've enjoyed reading about my adventures over here, and please feedback with any comments or questions! I will be writing another blog post as soon as I have time, although I can not foresee when that will be :-)


UPDATE: Since writing this on Wednesday evening, we have now arranged to visit our children tomorrow afternoon.


And since there were complaints at no food to guess last week, here are some frozen yoghurt flavours! :-)

Baguio

Hello Everyone!


Just a quick note. I'm afraid there won't be a new blog post on Monday because I am leaving tomorrow to go away for a few days. Mum and I will be taking a bus up to Baguio (about 6 hours north of Manila) to visit the other PCF sites that are up there, as well as take a little break. We'll be staying there until Tuesday morning when we'll catch a bus back in time for my teaching in Navotas. It'll be a chance to see something more of the work PCF do, as well as see another part of the Philippines!


So, I will try and write something on Wednesday morning for you all! And I've been taking lots of pictures of weird foods for you to guess :-)

Half Way!

Hello Everyone! It's me again! :-) this last week has been really good and I've really enjoyed everything – although the work is still very tiring and I am very grateful for these days off! If anything else, it gives me time to reply to emails and messages, as well as write a new blog post for all you lovely people who are faithfully reading this and praying for me! But it also gives me time to recuperate and charge my batteries for the week ahead, as well as reflect on the previous week.

So on Tuesday, as I posted, I went to Divisoria (a VERY large market – it just goes on and on and on!) with a couple of the women and Maureen to buy some knitting needles and wool. As should probably have been expected though, none of the stall/shop owners knew what they were and we got offered many crochet needles and sewing needles, but no knitting needles. It was a great experience though, and was like nothing else I've ever seen!

We then caught a jeepney back to Tondo to meet Brenda and EJ to go on the home visitations and prayer walk. It wasn't quite what I expected (we only visited one home for example! But that might have been due to our getting back late from Divisoria...) or what I imagined it would be, but I did enjoy it. Then we went to Navotas where I taught some of the girls there (pictures were in last week's blog post) which I always enjoy doing!

Wednesday was a really good day also – we had the morning off so I wrote some letters, and then in the afternoon we went to Tondo where I was meant to be teaching piano for the first few hours while Maureen went to a women's group. However, the keyboard didn't work! So I just went and joined the end of the women's group and then joined some of the women as they went to the hypermarket to get the groceries. When we got back it was time to help with feeding again, but I accidentally fell asleep on the table! Whoops. :-)

In the evening it was Sinag – a youth service plus feeding for 13+. It was very enjoyable – here's a few videos of the worship and some photos of the feeding.

Rafy handing out food!

The worship team - sorry it's not such a great pic!

On Thursday we were helping at the school again, and this week I was helping in a class. At first I was sticking labels onto their new school books, but then the teacher had to leave the class to go and do something else outside of the school, and the replacement teacher for the afternoon session took a long time to turn up, so I was left with the 5-8yr olds on my own! I'd have been fine, apart from they didn't really understand much of what I was saying, and I definitely didn't understand a word they were saying! So it was a very interesting experience. Most of my time was caught up trying to get them to stay sat down and not running about the classroom hitting each other! Then the teacher came and took them down to the library to watch a film, however they had no interest at all in watching the film, and preferred to pull all the books off the shelf. Again I was left on my own with them, so it was quite a crazy day overall! I did enjoy it though. :-)

In the evening we went out to the mall and I tried some 'frozen yoghurt' for the first time! The place we went to was set out so that you get a tub and then fill it up with different flavours of the frozen yoghurt (it looks just like icecream!) and then there are many sauces and toppings you can put on the top. You then have it weighed and you pay for it by the ounce. Unfortunately I didn't have the camera on me, but next time I will definitely get a picture of it as it is quite a sight once I've finished putting all my toppings on! :-)

On Friday there were no lessons in the school; all the pupils were coming in to help with covering their new text books (plastic covering) and then just going home. We went in to help as well, but there wasn't much we could do, so after lunch we came home. I then slept for a couple of hours in the afternoon (I was very tired!!) before we left to go to the youth drop in Tondo church. I really enjoyed it, although only about 4 people came.

Here were the activities that were on offer:

Art table - there were also various games tables though I didn't photograph them

Piano lessons! I had just finished teaching these two boys -  Brenda was our music stand as
the music kept flying away  because of the fan. That's one problem I never have in England! :)

A gecko! He was a tiny little guy.

The boys I had just finished teaching

Some sort of game/playstation thing. 

And Christian Karaoke! I absolutely loved this! It's such a great idea.
(apologies for the poor lighting in these photos - it was very dark anyway and this camera's flash isn't very powerful!)

On Saturday I had a completely different day! I went, with Ron and Joanna, to a Hillsong Music Publishing Conference that wasn't too far from their house. There were 3 sessions in total: Worship Leading, Copyright and then Song Writing. They were all very interesting and I definitely learnt a lot! The conference was led by Steve McPherson, who's the head of Hillsong Publishing, and he really knew what he was talking about. And it was nice to hear something in English for once!

Sunday's schedule was very similar to my first Sunday here, although not as tiring! I was playing the flute in the service in the morning, and then helping in a Sunday School and then helping with the feeding program. Once again I got to Navotas a lot earlier than is on my schedule, but again they fed me (although I had already eaten in Tondo, so I only ate a little bit...) and welcomed me in. Unfortunately, one of my students for that afternoon's piano teaching was ill with a fever, so I was only teaching Christine. She could already play a bit before I started teaching her, and she has learnt incredibly fast! It was really good to just have 2 hours straight with her, and we were able to do loads of other things that I never planned on being able to do. Here is a video of her playing, although this was a while ago and she has improved a lot since this was taken:

And while I'm at it, here are some other videos of the teaching I'm doing for those interested:

(Well, it seems like the other videos won't upload! I think this post is getting too big. I'll do them on a separate post...)

After teaching, I helped at the kids church before having a rather interesting journey home! I was meant to be picked up by Fernando, but he was unable to pick me up so I had to take a taxi home. I only had 190 pesos in my purse (I had forgotten to put more money in that morning!), and we often have to pay at least that if not a lot more for a taxi, especially from Navotas. So I was praying that the taxi driver we found would put his meter on, because it would then not cost as much as 190. And then I discovered we had to get a jeepney to find a taxi! For two of us that cost 16 pesos (Brenda was taking me to get the taxi because I had no idea where to go to get one) so I was left with 174. We found a taxi as soon as we got off the jeepney and praise God it was a really nice driver who put his meter on! I still wasn't sure it would come to less than 174 pesos though – it would depend on traffic. But I wouldn't look at the meter as it climbed upwards because I knew God would look after me!

However, although the driver was very nice, he didn't understand me very well and took me to the wrong end of Adriatico Street (where the condo is). The meter was already on 166 pesos so I couldn't afford for him to drive around to get to the other end as it is a one way street. So I walked down the road that had 'Adriatico Street' written on it, although I didn't recognise it. Bad mistake. It wasn't Adriatico Street! So I was completely lost :-) I only had 8 pesos left, which is not enough for a pedicab, but I told a pedicab driver where I was staying and asked for instructions of how to get there. He told me to get in, and was very happy to take me there for only 8 pesos, which was really nice of him! It was quite a way to get to the condo, so I obviously had walked a bit too far! :-) I paid him everything I had in my purse (8pesos and 50cents!) and was very glad to be home. It was a very exciting journey though – a lot more exciting than if I had been picked up by Fernando which is how we get around every other day! And it helped me put into practice complete trust of God, even if our human logic doesn't make sense of it. I started with less than we would expect to pay for a taxi alone, yet it lasted for all three transport vehicles I needed to use.

Once I got back I needed to go to the mall to get my phone fixed because it had stopped receiving texts the previous Monday (yes it had taken me that long to realise that there was something wrong with my phone – it wasn't that everyone had stopped texting me! ;-)). I ended up having to buy a new phone, but it only cost around £15 – I got the cheapest one they had there! It is a very old Nokia model – a lot like one we had years and years ago! But it works and I love it :-)

Today has been my day off so I've just been catching up with emails etc. I've also thought about what I'm going to say on Wednesday when I've been asked to give my testimony at the youth service. I'd appreciate prayer for that, especially as it will have to be translated as I speak, and I'm very likely to lose my train of thought! Thank you!

On Friday Mum will be arriving here which will be exciting. Please pray she has a safe journey and everything goes well! I look forward to showing her everything here – videos and pictures can't really show what it is truly like.

On that note, here is a video of our walk up to the Tondo church:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5zLvERLZDs&feature=channel_video_title

It doesn't really convey it very well, but hopefully you can get the picture.


And now, finally, the yoghurts from last week! Here's the picture again:

I said that two were 'normal' flavours, and they were the ones on the bottom row - strawberry and raspberry. The other two were mango and ube! All very nice.


Sorry I don't have any new picture for you this week. I'll try to find something for next week! :)

Wednesday 13th July

Today's Itinery: Teaching at Tondo, followed by feeding at Tondo. It should have been the youth service, but rain once again changed our plans!

Tuesday 12th July

I just thought I'd let people know what I'm doing before I do it... does that sound a good idea? I know I post on Facebook what I'm doing on that day, but not everyone has Facebook!


So today I am leaving at 1, and going with the women to Divisoria - a very large market! After that I will be going on a prayer walk and doing home visitations with one of the youth workers, Brenda. And then I'll be teaching this evening!

Waiting

I don't quite know how to kick off this post, so I'll just jump straight in! The good news is that I am feeling a lot better than I did last week and definitely a lot less tired!! I last posted on Wednesday, when I said that I was going to be helping with the Tondo youth service that evening. However, it rained! And when it rains in Tondo, it means that the church and many of the homes get flooded, and a lot of things are unable to happen, including the youth service. It was a shame because I was really looking forward to going, but it did mean that in essence I got 3 days off last week which I definitely needed!

The church is still flooded, as you will see from pictures later on in the post.

Thursday was my first day of helping in the school so I didn't quite know what to expect! When I got there, Grace (the principal) asked me if I'd mind helping them sort the library so of course I said I didn't mind. Basically, the school is being inspected some time this week, and they will fail the inspection unless the library is put in order and classified! I don't think they'd had any sort of classification system beforehand so it was quite a big job. This is what it looked like when I started:

At first I was on my own, but soon some youth from the church of the librarian and her brother came to help.

At 11.30 it was lunch time (?!) so I went to the cantine and bought myself a portion of whatever the children were having. Today it happened to be rice (well it's rice every day!) with some sort of tuna/mungo bean based dish. Although it looks a fairly small portion of rice, believe me it's not!! At first I couldn't finish it all, but by the second day I could...

While I was just finishing, Jane Walker (the founder of PCF) happened to walk past my table so she stopped and said Hello. I was glad I was able to see her while I was here, and she even gave me a tour of the school after lunch, as I hadn't really seen much of it properly.

Livelihood - making the products that we sell in UK!

Grace with some of the children

Jane and Marilyn (one of the teachers)

After the tour, I had roughly 30mins left before I was being picked up, so I went back and helped in the library again.

On Friday I was volunteering at the school again, but this time I did spend all day in the library - mainly sitting down and sticking masking tape to the spines of the books! Oh, and lunch was rice with some chicken thing in a liquidy thing with leafy things! Here's a picture as I'm not sure my description is very accurate ;-):

And some lovely children who came and sat with me!

At 3pm I was meant to be picked up by Brenda to take me to Navotas to do the teaching I missed on Tuesday, however she got caught in traffic and didn't arrive until 4, by which time it had been decided that I would travel to Navotas in the school bus (nothing like what we know as 'school bus' here!) with Brenda's Mum. It was all a bit complicated, but, in the end, I did end up going by the school bus, and Maureen and Brenda went by jeepney or some other form of public transport! I arrived in Navotas by 4.40, and again had to wait again because Brenda wasn't there yet, and neither were the other two I was meant to be teaching! I'm getting better at this waiting without knowing how long people are going to be or things will take, but it is hard! I think I started teaching at around 5.30-7 and then we drove home to Malate.

Donna, with Brenda

Lisa demonstrating! (from the left: Rafelyn, Brenda, Donna)

Me teaching Rafee

Lesson finished so Maureen played Chopsticks!

One of my other two Navotas students - Christine

And the other one - Maryann!

On Saturday, the effect of the rain was very evident on my schedule! We were helping with the feeding in the morning, but instead of having the children come in and sing a few songs before sitting down to eat, we had to bag everything up and give it out at the gates. The church was under probably about 6” of water.

Some of the women dishing the food into the bags

Tess cooking the meat

The children waiting at the door!

The gates of the building - outside you can see the rubbish and where the kids live

On their way home from getting their food

In the afternoon, I went to Ortigas (Ron and Joanna's) to teach the Tondo girls – again because the church was too flooded to teach there.

Sunday started very similarly to Saturday, with helping with the feeding at the church and again having to bag it up and give it out at the door. At 11 however, I had the blessing of being able to visit baby Jemar. Almost a year ago, newborn Jemar was abandoned by his mother who was trying to sell him. Joanna asked in one of the PCF church newsletters if there would be anyone willing to sponsor him and pay for his milk every week. I couldn't bear to think of him being abandoned with nobody to care for him, so I offered to pay for his milk, although I could only afford half of it. My Mum pays the other half. It turned out in the end that his Mum did want him, she just couldn't think of having to feed another mouth. With someone paying for his feed, she gladly welcomed him back! So yesterday I was able to take them this month's milk and see them for myself. He is almost a year old now and a lot healthier looking! And it was a nice surprise to find out that his Mum is also called Lisa :-)

Lisa and baby Jemar!

They live in a part of the dumpsite where the air is always polluted from the smoke of  making charcoal

Jemar and his Mum!

To get to their 'house', we had to walk right across to the other side of the dumpsite – so I was able to see even more the huge mass of poverty that there is here. These people aren't poor. They're more than that – the poorest of the poor! And it is heartbreaking to see the squalor that they're living in. I really commend PCF and the PCF church for the work they're doing here – it's amazing. I know some of you reading this know a lot about the work they do, but some of you don't know much, if anything at all! So I really would urge you to look at the PCF website (www.p-c-f.org) and to find out more of what they're doing, and I am happy to answer any questions if you want to know more.

After visiting the dumpsite and seeing Jemar and his family, I went to Navotas to teach and help with the kids church. I arrived quite early however (12.15) and before they had had lunch. But being the lovely people they are, they welcomed me in and gave me some of what they were eating (rice and some pork dish called adobo! - very nice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adobo_(Filipino_cuisine)). That's one thing that I do like about this culture, everyone is so welcoming. When you go to the supermarket for example, they are so much more helpful than any shop assistant is in England! Maureen, when she first arrived here, had a lot of things to buy, and most of the shop assistants brought it all the way home for her, and even made up the things like the wardrobe and the fan in the condo!

After teaching I helped a little at the kids church before coming home and having a relaxing evening in the condo, as well as paying a visit to the mall to get a few things, and treating myself to a dinner at Burger King. Eating out over here is very cheap compared to home!

Today I have definitely needed my day off, and I have been quite tired today, but I feel ready to work again tomorrow and I am so grateful to God that I have more energy than last week! “Those who wait on the Lord will rise up on wings like eagles”. I feel like I have been doing a lot of waiting this last week, and the Filipino culture is very different to home – the word 'hurry' doesn't exist in their vocabulary! But, however much I get annoyed sometimes, I think it has been very good for me to stop and slow down. We can get into the 'quick quick quick' mindset so easily, that we can forget to take notice of the important things in life, and in fact I feel a lot closer to God when I am taking things at a slower pace. So that has definitely been my challenge this week!

And finally, the icecream from last week's post! Many people had a go at guessing, in many different places across the wide web, but I don't think anyone got all 4 correct! Here is what they are: chocolate with nuts and marshmallows (this was the .5 for those who just guessed chocolate ;-)), cheese, ube (some sort of purple root vegetable! Sorry this was a very hard one for those who've never heard of it ;-)) and strawberry! Surprisingly, the only one I didn't like was the chocolate!

Here's the picture again:

And a new challenge! These are yoghurts. And this time I'll give a clue - 2 of them are 'normal', 2 aren't!

So that's it from Lisa today! More will come later in the week...


EDIT: About the yoghurts, I meant they aren't normal FLAVOURS, for those who are getting confused!