Here I am to Worship

Last week, I had the opportunity to teach 6 year olds at a conference for homeschooling families living in Asia. So, I left Allan and the kids behind and traveled with 5 other ladies from Manila to Chiang Mai, Thailand. We had the weekend before the conference started to get prepared and do a little sightseeing. Chiang Mai is beautiful and there are wonderful things to see and do there.
For those of you who are not familiar with Thailand and the Thai people, they have been a kingdom since the 13th century and are proud of the fact that they have never been ruled by a western power. Chiang Mai itself is a 700 year old city complete with a moat around the old city with portions of the old city wall still intact. The architecture is ornate and the temples are golden. To be Thai is to be Buddhist and there has been great resistance to the gospel. Only 1.62% of the population is Christian. In a country of 65 million that is less than 1 million Christians. Often those who chose to follow Christ risk rejection, abandonment and ridicule from their families.
The Sunday we were in Chiang Mai, we had the privilege of worshipping at a Christian orphanage. The purpose of this orphanage is not to adopt out the kids, but...... "to provide spiritual development based on the Bible, basic education, primary health care and the utmost moral guidance as they grow. We believe the Lord has called us to raise up an army for His Kingdom in Thailand, and to be a beacon for the Lord wherever we are. We are committed to establish the careers of these children by creating jobs and micro enterprises and to train them into "tentmakers" and full-time servants for the ministry." This orphanage houses nearly 100 kids, many of whom have accepted Jesus as their Savior. We had a wonderful time of praise as we joined in the singing of many familiar choruses. It was very cool to be singing in English along with the children and teenagers singing in Thai.

It soon became obvious that the women I was with were taken with the worship of one 8 year old girl. She had her arms lifted in praise as she sang the words from her heart. We had the joy of hearing her share her testimony later in the service. Her mother had died when she was 4, her father, sick himself, left her with her grandmother before they too both died. She had come to the orphanage when she was 6. She was thankful that God had brought her here, for it was here that she learned of His love. When she finished her emotional story, there wasn't a dry eye among us. There are more Christians in this humble place than in a nearby city of 100,000. I Pray that these kids and teenagers will rise up and change Thailand for Christ. I know my relationship with the Lord was deepen that day through their honest, heartfelt worship.

Wish You Were Here!

Today was an almost perfect day in the Philippine Islands! There was a great breeze with temps in the upper 70s, and the sun sparkling all around. The air was so clear and free of pollution that we could see the mountains on the other side of Manila. It felt like a day in mid May in Georgia. We decided to spend the afternoon at the new pool at the kids school. A Korean businessman donated the money for the pool and it just opened up this week. I know we will enjoy it in the months to come! So while you are bundled up tight against winter's chill, we are enjoying the great outdoors. As wonderful as today was, summer is coming--well actually it's always here and it is just soon going to get worse. So, we won't want to hear about your weather come April and May--that is hot season.

A view of Metro Manila from the pool at Faith Academy.
These buildings can actually disappear some days due to smog.

Eating out

Sunday as we were leaving church, a woman handed Will a red envelope filled with McDonald's coupons. In case you are thinking this is a strange thing to be handing out in church let me explain that our church building is not what you would consider a "church". Being a city of over 12 million people who live close together, land in Manila is not abundant. Therefore many churches meet in non-traditional (at least non-American traditional) buildings. It is not uncommon for churches to meet in a movie theatre, an open air building, the atrium of a mall, or an unused floor in a building. The church we attend meets on the unused 4th floor of a kind of mall. It is actually a tiangge (pronounced chan-gay) which is a bunch of small cubicles that sell different types of things from clothes, shoes, pearls(a Filipino specialty) and jewelry, to home decor, toys, and well just stuff. It kind of reminds me of walking through booths at the homeschool convention I went to in Atlanta a few years back. So if you have been to a convention or a fair where there are different people set up selling things then you have the idea. Each Sunday we hike up to the 4th floor for services. There is one elevator, but there is always a line so we choose to walk(Allan makes us) . "It's good for us!" When church is over the tiangge is just opening up and so we leave through the mall. So now you see why Will got McDonald's coupons at church.
The purpose in telling you all of this is not about the mall and churches though that may be interesting, but to tell you about some of the restaurants we have here. We have many chains from the US that you would know, like Mickey d's, but we also have some restaurants that flopped in the US, but are thriving abroad. Remember Kenny Rodger's Roasters? We had one of those in Atlanta about 10 years ago. Also Shakey's Pizza is alive and well here too. We had one of those in Virginia when I was a kid growing up. We do have restaurants that you might find yourself eating at in your hometown: Wendy's (Will's favorite), Pizza Hut, KFC, and of course McDonald's. Also there is an Outback, a TGIFridays, and a Chili's. The fast food joints tend to be cheaper here than in the US, while the others are comparable in price--making them expensive here. If you think you will walk into Wendy's and order your favorite combo meal from the States, you would be right, but there are also more choices to appeal to the Filipino taste. Every restaurant offers rice. You can even get some combos with rice as opposed to fries. At most restaurants you can get your pizza or burger with a side of Spaghetti. Some of the things we have tried and liked are--Shrimp sandwiches at Wendys and the Grilled shrimp and mango salad at Pizza Hut--while the taste of this salad is great we have since eliminated this from our diet. Twice it has caused a little stomach upset we think due to the washing of the salad greens. We actually choose to rarely eat salads out for this reason.
One big adjustment for us has been the lack of free refills at most places. Some restaurants will allow you to pay an extra fee for a "bottomless" drink, but most do not. Below you can see a few of the coupons in Will's package and also the Pizza Hut ad for Spam pizza. By the way on a humorous note, the phone # for Pizza Hut is 911-11-11. Will thinks it is truly an emergency #. It saves him from having to eat rice!


Yummy Spam Pizza! Available with Chicken, and Spaghetti

















"Would you like some rice with that?"



Also the bottom one proves there are normal combo meals


Click on them to see them larger

Another Christmas Story

I know Christmas is long past, but I wanted to share this picture over the holidays and just never did. On Thursday mornings at the clinic, our Filipina nurse, Ling Ling leads a ladies bible study. She leads and disciples ladies from the nearby squatter settlement. Ling can minister to these women in ways I can never understand. She understands their culture, values and needs in a way a white American can not. The distance from their lives to mine is too great. They have a sister group though. One of the supporters of our ministry has a similar ladies Bible Study in Springfield, Il.--Ok so it's not composed of women from the local housing project, just ladies. This Springfield Bible Study has "adopted" the clinic ladies group and at Christmas they sent money to help make Christmas for these familes. Ling used the money to give each of them Christmas dinner. Each lady recieved a ham and other "fixin's" for their family. These are just a few of "Ling's Ladies" and their kids as they came to Ling's on Christmas Eve to celebrate the season.

New Tribes Conference!

The Holidays are over and we have settled back into normal routine. The weather is great though. We are having very cool evenings and mornings and the temps are not too hot during the afternoons with a nice breeze all day.
Last week we enjoyed a nice conference with New Tribes Mission in the Philippines. Allan and I led the conference for the Elementary School kids. We enjoyed getting to know the kids and other missionaries. New Tribes Missionaries are on the front lines of missions. The vision of New Tribes Mission is to plant tribal churches to reach people who have never had a single opportunity to hear the Gospel. These missionaries go to the far reaches of the world to live among and minister to unreached groups of people. They live out among the tribes in very basic conditions often with sporadic power and water. 12 of our 17 kids at the conference live out among tribal people and are homeschooled. I don't know what I expected from kids who live in the far reaches of the Philippines, but surprisingly they seemed to be well adapted to their environments.
Allan got to do a little doctoring and trouble shooting for some of the missionaries and even removed an ingrown toenail, performing before a crowd of missionaries who wanted to watch. These missionaries often have to take on the role of doctor out in the tribe just by the presence of their white skin. Scott and Larry Holmes and now Allan provide a valuable resource to the missionaries who need medical help and advice through email, phone and even in person.
During the week we heard many stories of what life is like out in the tribes and what ministry is going on there. Some places are harder to reach than others. Some groups are unreceptive to the gospel and conditions are dangerous, often due to Muslim influence. But we heard many stories where the people are embracing the gospel and communities are being changed. One couple we met have lived in the northern region on the island of Mindanao for the last 22 years. They moved there in 1983 and their partners moved there in '81. This was the first entrance of a white man into this culture. The religion there was animistic requiring frequent sacrifices of animals and even young children. Unwanted babies or those with birth defects were often buried alive. These 2 families, and later a 3rd, moved into this area and began learning the language. Relationships developed and after a few years they began to share the message of hope that we have in Christ. The church in this area is now self sufficient. The original 2 couples remain to finish the translation of the Bible and developing some Bible teaching. They hope to completely move out of this area in the next few years. That is the goal of church planting missionaries--to work themselves out of a job. To see the Church become self reliant and begin to stand on it's own. Our week was encouraging and relaxing and we loved it. If you would like to see more pictures of the kids we spent the week with you can go to a new page in our website and click on the New Tribes conference picture. We hope to be adding even more pictures there in the next few weeks of our life here.
The photos are at http://www.philippinemission.com/FamilyFun.html

Happy New Year!

New Years Eve is probably the biggest night of the year in the Philippines. There is a party everywhere. Fireworks have been for sale for the last month and have gone off here and there with loud pops, but this left us unprepared for what the night would bring. They must add something to the fireworks here to make them 3 times as loud as in the States. We have often wondered if we were caught in the middle of a gun fight. We knew this would escalate as New Years Eve drew near. We had been told that the place to be New Year's Eve was the kid's school-Faith Academy. Faith is about 15 minutes from our house and also outside the metro Manila area. Metro Manila is a city of 14 million people in an area smaller than Los Angeles county. It is the most densely populated city in the world. It is shaped somewhat like a basin surrounded by hills and "mountains". We live outside of the Metro area, up in the first set of hills. Our house looks over Laguna de Bay and the city of Alabang, but Faith looks out over Metro Manila.
Our view upon arrival was of a beautiful city at night. The lights of the buildings shimmered in the distance and there was the occasional firework to light up the sky. By 10 o'clock the sky was aglow with fireworks big and small filling the air here and there. Some as close as the soccer field below us and 1/4 mile away, and some tiny pinpricks in the distance. As we moved closer to midnight, the number of fireworks grew and grew. Explosions lighting up the night sky. By 11:45 the lights of the city had disappeared due to the smoke and all we were left with was an amazing display. You can not imagine this scene. There can be nothing like this in the states. Mainly because what densely populated US city would let people shoot off that many fireworks. The final 10 minutes of 2005 and the first few minutes of 2006 were welcomed with bright colors exploding all around us. Being first timers, we were amazed, but sales of fireworks this year was down and our Filipino friends have told us this was nothing compared to years past. Disappointing it may have been for them, but we were thrilled. Words cannot adequately describe this event so we would love for you to come experience this with us next year.

So we have begun a new year in a new country. Allan made the comment New Years Day that we will most likely not see the US during the year 2006. It was a depressing thought so we won't think about it. We will be leaving tomorrow to go to a conference for New Tribes Missionaries. Allan and I are leading the Elementary Children's program. We are excited for a few days away. We have spent everynight for the last 5 months in the same beds. I think that has to be a record for our family. It will be great to breathe some cleaner air.