What's for breakfast???

How about some Quail eggs? They are tiny and good and surprisingly taste like....chicken, well chicken eggs anyway.




The kids love them

Lord I stand in the midst of a multitude

Lord I stand in the midst of a multitude
Of those from every tribe and tongue

We are Your people redeemed by Your blood

Rescued from death by Your love

There are no words

Good enough to thank You

There are no words to express my praise

But I will lift up my voice

And sing from my heart

With all of my strength

Yesterday. as we sang the chorus above, a parade of 15 flags decended fom the balcony of our sanctuary. Most of them unfamiliar flags from the nations of Myanmar, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Turkey, Pakistan, Thailand, Sri Lanka. The flag bearers, dressed in traditional attire, came across the podium where they stopped and shouted words of praise to the Lord in the national language. I've witnessed similar scenes at missions conferences in America as churches celebrate the different places they are involved in missions, but this one was different. These 15 flags were from countries all in Asia, all in the 10/40 window, most predominately muslim, and all resistent to the gospel. All of these flag bearers were from these countries. They have come here to the Philippines to go to Seminary. Our church is working in conjunction with Campus Crusade for Christ to provide training for Christian leaders from all over Asia, particularty from countries where this type of schooling would be illegal. During the past month of mission emphasis at church, many have shared of their salvation and God's faithfulness through persecution in their home countries. Rejected by family and friends, loss of jobs, governmental persecution, and fear for personal safety have filled their lives since choosing to follow Christ. It is something most American Christians have never experienced. They have come here to study and learn, to then return and be Christian leaders in places where it is hard to be a Christian. They know the risks in returning, yet they have a passion for their fellow countrymen to come to Christ. It was quite inspiring to see these fellow Christians as we praised the Lord together, one congregation from many nations lifting up the name of God. The above chorus continues:

Hallelujah hallelujah

hallelujah To the Lamb

Hallelujah hallelujah

By the blood of Christ we stand

Every tongue, every tribe

Every people, every land

Giving glory giving honor

Giving praise unto the Lamb of God

If you are unfamiliar with this song you can hear a 30 second sample at: http://www.audiblefaith.com/music/realclips/sample.ram?song=200879

***By the way a prize goes to the first person who can email me with the correct names to the flags on this page. (all of the coutries are named above)

Wal Mart of the Philippines

Well, not quite... but you get the picture (pun intended):
Some of these pictures were taken by our recent guests when we took them to the local market for a shopping/sightseeing/cultural adaptation trip.

This would be the housewares section.













And the produce section.

The Health and Beauty Aisle- notice everything comes in a single use size

The Bakery: sticky rice anyone?

Poulty: No need to worry about freshness

New class begins

This February we began a new Healthcare Workers Training class. This class is unusual in that it contains all expatriates serving as missionaries here in the Philippines. Most are from New Tribes Mission and plan to work in some of the most remote areas of the Philippines. This class was fortunate to have Dr. Jim Davis begin their training with an introduction to dentistry, including discussion about proper anesthesia and dental extractions. Before and after the lecture, the students had the opportunity to put their skills use with hands-on training in dental care.

One of the interesting points that Jim made during his talk was the comparison of proper anesthesia to the love of Christ. He commented that often times when medical care is provided to those lacking in either routine medical care or lacking in money, shortcuts are often taken by the medical professionals (often with a rationalization about why the shortcuts are taken). However, we as Christ's ambassadors, should seek to love the person as Christ does, which in his work, means providing a completely numb tooth prior to repair or extraction. The Bible states it likes this, "And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." Col 3:17 NIV

Dentistry Again

Once again we have a dentist working in our clinic. A longtime friend of the Nelsen's has been here for the last week taking care of some of the many rotten teeth that need to be pulled in our patients. Since 1998, Dr. Davis and his family have come to the Philippines and worked in our clinic 7 times. He was actually supposed to be teaching at a CMDA(Christian Medical Dental Association) conference in Kenya, but due to political unrest it was canceled. While we grieve with the turmoil currently continuing in Kenya, we are thankful to have Jim and his daughter Bethany here with us. Last Wednesday over 125 people showed up for dental care. We will try to take care as many as possible during the rest of this week. Tomorrow, Jim will be teaching some basic dentistry to our current Health Training Class. (our new class began last week. I am sure a blog about them is coming) Maybe one of them will be able to take care of some minor dentistry in the coming weeks.

Here is a quote from an email Jim sent out last week. I thought it was a good glimpse into our patients mouths....... "Today (Wed) we had a busy day at clinic. I set up both chairs and had them both going at the same time with Edna as translator and assistant. Bethany and one of the students helped keep up with the sterilization of instruments. We saw about 30 pts and took out a lot of really bad teeth, some of the worse I have seen. Had a number of repeat customers who remembered me from past trips. Ling had not told anyone we were coming, and hadn't made out a "schedule" because of the last minute plans we made, yet we had a steady stream of pts and had to tell a lot of folks to come back next week. Some of the extractions were very tough, but all went well and the pts were wonderful to work with. Much more tolerant than pts I see in the states. Thanks for your prayers, they made a big difference. They were very appreciative of the care, especially being numb for the extractions. Inspite of a full clinic, we were able to pray with each pt and show them Christ's love thought the dental care."

I love the second picture above. For those of you who haven't seen her, the lady in the middle is our nurse Ling Ling. She is the one who keeps everything running for us here. Without her our life would be a lot tougher. The masked lady next to her is Edna. She is a Filipina midwife who volunteers in our clinic once a week. She is such a blessing to our ministry.

Kung Hei Fat Choi

or Happy Chinese New Year! The streets of Manila are once again festooned with red Chinese paper lanterns. With a large Chinese population in the Philippines, this is a day for celebrating. Today we begin the Year of the Rat! When we lived in the US, I couldn't have told you what time of year Chinese New Year occured. Now I not only know the date each year (it moves by the way), but also the yearly animal. So I will pass along to you the greeting given here in the PI "Kung hei Fat Choi!"
On a personal note- Em and I were out at the store yesterday and one of the salemen said this greeting to me. I didn't understand what he said and asked him to repeat himself. Again not understanding him, I repeated back..."I have a choice?? of what?" His response..."No, Happy Chinese New Year! Kung Hei Fat Choi!" How embarrassing!

Grocery stores and markets have out boxes of Tikoy (Chinese New Year pudding) This is a standard delicacy for Filipinos during the celebration of Chinese New Year.

Will's 11th Birthday!

For Will's 11th Birthday we decided to take a little sightseeing trip. We spent 2 days on the island of Corregidor in Manila Bay. As any self-respecting homeschooling Mom would, we prepared beforehand for this adventure by learning about it's history. Corregidor was a key pacific battle site during WW2. It is the place MacArthur left when he gave his famous "I shall return" speech. It was a crushing blow to the American Army in 1941 and a great victory when MacArthur fulfilled his promise of return in 1945. During the war, this small island was bombed so heavily that it was left desolate. No building escaped being hit and all suffered major damage, including the 1000 bed hospital.

The kids (and Al and I) had a great time stomping around the ruins and making history come alive. Our favorite part of the trip though had to be our expedition into the recesses of Malinta tunnel, a huge set of tunnels carved under a mountain to be used as a bomb shelter. The kids liked crawling through these tight spaces with hard hats and flashlights. This is only open to those visitors who spend the night on the island. Since most visitors just take a day trip, we were alone in our adventure. We had a great Filipino guide, who really taught us a lot of history.

While the kids loved Malinta tunnel, they weren't crazy about all caves. They have always loved exploring and I thought they would jump at the chance to explore other caves, but they decided they don't really like bats and therefore were hesitant to go too deep into "Bat Cave". We did enjoy hiking the 300 stair shortcut. (We chose to hike down) Our eyes were peeled for bomb craters, fallen structures, and monkeys.

In the afternoons we enjoyed strolling the coastline picking up shells. There were more beautiful, unbroken shells than anyone person could ever collect. The search wasn't for a perfect unblemished shell, but for which perfect shell was the most unique. We have brought home 2 bags full and we didn't even make a dent on the shell-filled shore.

We arrived home after 2 days of scampering over and through ruins, batteries, tunnels, mountains, and coastlines tired, but thrilled with all we were able to do. It is a birthday gift Will will long remember.

Halo Halo

I know I have blogged about halo halo in the past, but I thought I would share a picture of the kids eating some. Recently we went to the pool after dinner and stopped for a treat on the way home. The kids kind of debate whether this was a treat or not. They would have rather stopped for milkshakes, but that's not an option. For those of you who didn't read the earlier blog or don't remember, halo halo is kind of the national dessert for the Philippines. While there isn't one particular way to make halo halo, it is basically a mixture of crushed ice topped with milk or coconut milk, sweet beans, coconut, jackfruit, other various tropical fruits, pinipig (pounded dried rice), ube (a purple colored sweet yam), cream flan (leche flan), shreds of sweetened plantain, and jello cubes. Sometimes the whole thing is then topped off with a scoop of ice cream. Halo halo literally means mix mix and I think it accurately describes this dessert. I was a little skeptical about a dessert with beans, but they are actually not bad.

On another food related issue--while we were at the missions conference a couple weeks ago, Em went fishing with some girls. She has always loved to fish, but mostly just throws back what she catches. Here the fished were cleaned and cooked by the staff and served to her for dinner. She had caught quite a few and so we shared them with some friends. Em decided she really likes talapia. It's amazing how much better something tastes that you have caught yourself. The week before conference she had eaten part of a fish head (OK so we bribed her with cold hard cash to try the head). That night I talked her into trying the fish eye. She wasn't wowed by it and probably wouldn't eat it again anytime soon. In our ministry here, people always laugh about the Holmes twins fighting over the fish eyes. Em would gladly give them her share. I guess she is truly an MK now that she has eaten fish heads and eyes. By the way, I'm not sure I've ever seen a fish here served headless.

Sights along the way

I took this picture when we stopped for gas on the way home today. This is a carabo plowing a rice paddy. I love getting out of the city and seeing some of the beauty of the Philippines.

Time to head home

Well, it is time for us to head home. The kids have had a great time running around playing and swimming with all the other MKs. They have had a children's conference run by a church from Hemet, CA. Here is Em gettting into the van this morning with 3 shirts on. A t-shirt, a thin sweat shirt, and her conference t-shirt. When we get home, I am going to have to call my Mom and Sister-in-law and ask them to buy up some sweat shirts and sweaters on clearance for the kids or they will never survive furlough.

Em and Will sitting in the back of the van.

Coconut Croquet

They have a fun game here called coconut croquet. Instead of a ball you use a coconut. It's not as easy as it looks. Here is Will giving the ball a good smack.

"I won!"

DR. AL

One of the reasons we are at this conference is for Allan to do some medical consulting and teaching. Most of the missionaries here work in remote tribal areas of the PI. It doesn't matter what their background, they often become the medical expert of their area. Allan spoke this year about TB--a common illness here. One of the most common things he seems to do each year at conference is look in people's ears.

Coconut Trees!

We are really enjoying our trip to the country. The weather has been very cool here. The kids have worn a sweat shirt every morning and evening. It has been great to be able to sleep under a blanket without a fan. Tonight at dinner the temp was 70 degrees. I can't wait to see how cold the night feels.

The camp where we are is in a coconut grove. I love the look of coconut trees. Here are a few pictures:

A baby coconut tree

A Trip to the Province

Each year, just after New Year's we leave home to take a trip out to Laguna for a missions conference. It is great to get out of the city and see some of the beauty of the Philippines. Today, we stopped for lunch along the way at a restaurant called Exotic. It was quite an exotic experience for some of us. Allan ordered Kambing Caldereta. Kambing is the Tagalog word for goat. It was quite delicious, although with the sauce, Al was a little skeptical of what all was in it. I ordered a something semi-safe-Korean Bulgogi and then I split an order of sawa with Scott. Sawa is the Tagalog word for Python. It was actually pretty good. Too many little bones though. I was quite proud of my adventurous self, but I am still not ready to eat balut (a half formed duck egg).

The kids would not be quite so adventurous as their parents. Will ordered his standard cheeseburger and Em ordered a club sandwich. Oh well, I was young once and I definitely wouldn't have eaten snake or goat. Actually, I really disliked rice unil I was in college. Who would have thought that it would play such a vital role in my adult diet.

Python cooked in coconut milk

About to take my first bite!

Happy New Year!

It is officially 2008 in our part of the world. We are just about to head to bed, but I thought first I would share just a glimpse into New Year's Eve in Manila. (It's late so please excuse any typos or strange wording) This town loves this night. It is indescribable what it is like to be here on News Year's Eve. The sky is filled with fireworks for 2+ hours until the city completely diasappears in the smoke. Our ears ring with what sounds like a major battle. It is an amazing thing to see fireworks spread across the whole skyline as far as you can see. These aren't just cheapo bottlerockets either, although we do have our share of those. It is an impressive display of huge explosions filling the night sky. So here is 40 seconds or so of the city taken about 8 minutes before midnight. My digital camera doesn't capture the true spectacular expanse of it.

Playing with the cousins

This summer in the states, our kids were introduced to a fad sweeping the American tween population. Just 3 days after arriving in the US, we traveled from Pine Mountain to Greenwood, SC. We stopped off at a mall in Atlanta to look at computers and eat at Chick-fil-a. During lunch this hurried looking woman with 2 kids stopped by our table and asked.."Are you from here? Do you know where we can find Web___?" We said no and after she left, I asked Allan, "Did she say webcams? Weblings? What is that?" If you have a kid between the ages of 6-14 you will probably know exactly what she was asking about....that online craze called Webkinz. Our kids learned the very next day from their friends the Hollisters who took them out and purchased them each one (Thanks Susan). It seems everywhere we went this summer, kids were obsessed by these webkinz. For those of you uninitiated to the world of Webkinz, these are stuffed animals that have codes for an online website where they live and play. While we have tried to keep their addiction to a bare minimum, there has been an upside to this fad. It has been a way to spend time with their cousins 9000 mile away. Most Saturday mornings you can find our early riser, Will, up and at the computer with the Vonage phone in front of him turned on speaker phone. On the other end of the line, it is Friday night and his cousins Laura and Beth are in the same position. Each of them is logged into Webkinz World where they are playing games against each other and visiting each other's houses. Emily, our slug-a-bed, joins in after she gets up. Often they play until the cousins have to go to bed. (thankfully my brother has a new landline phone plan with free long distance) There is lots of giggling and laughing and a good time is had by all. This Fri/Sat time seems to be the one constant time they are all up and free at the same time. School, bedtimes, and church tend to fill in the other times. For Christmas, Mimi sent Emily and Will each a new Webkinz because you certainly can't have just one!? They have enjoyed the days of vacation which has meant some extra mornings and also a couple evenings visiting with their cousins.
The Webkinz trend is beginning to spread through the missions community as well. We obviously weren't the only ones to be introduced to them last summer.

Maligayang Pasko!

Merry Christmas from the Gilmers!

Capiz shell Parol-

the official Christmas decoration of the PI

It has been a really nice day in the Gilmer house. Allan and I really love tradition and this year was spent like so many before, whether here or in the US. We ate the same breakfast cassarole I have had every Christmas morning since I was a child. We took turns opening our gifts and spent time with family as we talked to them on the Vonage phone. One of our new traditions in the PI is to eat a Crown Pork Roast for Christmas dinner. We really like this. It makes an impressive show and tastes so yummy. Mags likes it too since she gets some bones, fat and a little meat.

Hope you are spending the day with those closest to you--even if, like us, it is just by telephone.

So as we say here...Maligayang Pasko Po!

Allan, Ginger, Emily, & Will

The Children are nestled all snug... on the floor???

I have blogged so much in the last 2 days, but I want to be the first to wish you a Merry Christmas. It is officially 12:01 AM on Dec 25th. There are fireworks exploding all around us. This is when the Filipinos celebrate Christmas. They will eat a big meal in the next little while, visit grandparents and godparents for gifts and money before finally hitting the hay in the wee hours. Their celebration will be over before most of the US even goes to bed on Christmas Eve. Actually before most people even eat dinner.

We have had a nice evening together as a family. We ate the leftovers from the meal we had yesterday with our partners. They left this morning to spend Christmas in the province at the New Tribes base camp in northern Luzon. After dinner, the kids put on their new Christmas pjs. Most years I make them new ones. Afterwards, each of them opened 1 present from their Nana and Gramps. Will and I then played the new PS2 game he received while Al and Em watched a movie.

We ended our evening around the Advent wreath with a devotion, singing and prayer. The kids were able to strike a match and light the candles on the wreath this year. They have gotten so old. This is the first time we haven't had the traditional colored candles in our wreath. I have imported them in the past. Not this year though. They are all white because that is what is available.

Things in the house are quiet now. Emily and Will are off in dreamland; dreaming of gifts they will open tomorrow. They are sleeping out on our lanai under the Christmas tree with Maggie. I am sure they will be up early, but have been told not to wake Al and I before 7.

So until tomorrow.... Merry Christmas to all and to all a goodnight!

Just for you Billie!

Here is a Christmas treat from the Philippines. It is a favorite of our friend Billie Holmes. It is called Puto Bumbong. It is a common food sold on the street often after the misa de gallo, the dawn mass on the 9 days leading up to Christmas. An online Filipino cook book describes it as "a dish made from purpled-colored ground rice cooked in bamboo tubes that are placed on a special steamer-cooker. Then, they are removed from the bamboo tubes, spread with butter and sprinkled with sugar and niyog (grated coconut). They are then wrapped in wilted banana leaves which will keep them warm and moist until ready to be eaten."
To me it's just OK. We actually haven't even had any this year. (sorry Billie)

Here's their picture of it:

Christmas Carolers

Each year in the Philippines, children Christmas carol from house to house each night beginning on the 16th through Christmas day. They carry homemade drums and bells and anything else that will make a nice sound to accompany them. They sing a mixture of Tagalog and English Christmas songs. In return, they receive a Christmas treat. It is similar to American trick or treating I guess. Emily loves to run to the gate and pass out little goodie bags. The songs they sing at the beginning may vary, but they usually end with the same thank you song that is sung in English to the tune of "Someone's in the Kitchen with Dina". This year we filled little bags with cookies, p-nuts, a sucker, and a kiat kiat.

Kiat kiats are tiny little minature oranges available at this time of year. We love them. They are so sweet and just the right size for eating.

Here are 3 little guys who have come by every night this week.