Building a firm foundation

During our last week in El Nido, we worked with Pastor Abus in beginning the construction of a new Zion Church in Danat. Those few days were probably my favorite!

For a while now, Pastor Abus had been trying to get this church started. Danat is a really small town, but it's residents are hungry to know God. Though it's only a 20 minute trike-ride from El Nido, it would be far to walk, and the people of Danat cannot afford to take a trike into El Nido every week for church.

It wasn't until our last week in town that Pastor Abus was able to gather all the materials (they don't need to buy anything! All materials are collected from the jungle), and so our work began!

This is the work site before we began:

After it was cleared, we were put in charge of readying the support poles by removing the bark:

Holes were dug, posts were placed, and clay was dug up and transported to created an even floor for the church

While we were working, some witchdoctors came out and helped us. We asked the pastor why they would come out to help, and he said that their wives were now Christians, and had told their husbands to go out and help build the new church! lol.

There's a lot more I could say about those 3 days, and what a blessing they were! Pastor Abus and his family are amazing people, filled with God's love! You can tell just by talking with him that the power of the Holy Spirit is alive and active in and through him! I look forward to visiting El Nido again someday and seeing his church fully built!! (yes, i will be back! =P )

You know what they say about assuming!

So you'd think, after all the priming Adventures in Missions put us through to NOT have expectations, that we'd be over all that.

It turns out, most expectations are subconscious, and aren't discovered until disappointments reveal them. Go figure. Honestly, I don't think there will ever be a time where we are completely expectation-free. Last week's unfulfilled expectation took me a while to get over...

Since 2006 I have been reading blogs from World Racers all around the globe - blogs filled with all the touching, fun, hilarious, miraculous, and thought provoking moments of their journey. Somehow, without realizing it, an impression formed in my mind that the World Race was filled with moments like these - that every day would be an adventure! What their blogs failed to reveal (or maybe I just missed it...) are all the day-in, day-out living-around-the-world moments...you know, the ones where there's nothing to do, you've finished ministry for the day, and there's suddenly a lot of down time to fill. Because of the rain, this past week was filled with those moments, and I really struggled with it. Boredom is not a feeling I expected to have on the World Race. I also wrestled with thoughts like, "are we really making a difference here?" and, "I could be doing this at home".

In reality, we are making a difference...it just took going through that week to realize it. When we're not building houses - when there's seemingly nothing to do - the opportunity to meet your neighbors and get to know the community suddenly opens up. We've had so many opportunities just walking around town, and stopping at our regular hangouts, to talk to people about what we're doing, and get to know them. So many people we run into remember our names, and are excited to see us and talk with us some more. Our presence in El Nido is touching people!

I love how God works in ways that are not always readily apparent. Though we may never see the full results, I know, through conversations, that God has moved through us in El Nido. He is doing great things in that little community, and I know even greater things are yet to come!

Filipino Matchmakers

Introductions in the Philippines are not limited to just giving your name. Here they also require your age and marital status! Here is an example -

This is a conversation between Erin and the pastor of a Baptist Church we went to today:

Pastor: "How old are you?"

Erin: "24"

Pastor: "Are you single?"

Erin: "yes"

Pastor: "You want to marry Filipino man?"

Erin: "I'm too tall..."

Pastor: "No, you're not too tall! Stand up!"

Erin stands to her full 6-foot height

Pastor: "oooh...yes we Filipinos are short."

At one preschool we went to, the children introduced themselves by name and age. At another one, they gave their name and gender. When asked to introduce ourselves, we followed suit:

"Hello! My name is Keri, I'm 24 years old, and I'm a girl!"