A lot has happened in the past few days, so I'll try and bring you all up to speed. I've successfully finished my first week of teaching speech class. I'm still learning how to teach these kids speech, but I really love being with them. They are hilarious, and full of smiles. Some of the Cugley kids speak ok english, and they help translate to the others who are just beginning to learn. I am getting a crash coarse in Tagalog as well. On Friday I showed them the video of The 3 Stooges teaching the alphabet. The funniest part was some of the kids acted like it was a serious lesson, and if you've seen the clip you realize how ridiculous it is. It was great seeing them really trying to learn the song.

I bought a new ping pong net for the Sankey kids, and since its been up it has been in use constantly. Some of the kids are REALLY good, so I've got to work on my skills so I can beat them. It's super hot here all the time, and needless to say by the end of two or three games I'm dripping sweat. It's been a great way to get to know the kids and their different personalities.

(Quick little story)  I come into the gym where the ping pong table is,and I see this little old Filipino playing with some of the kids. He was beating all the kids pretty bad so I decided to give it a try. After a quick warm up we started playing. I went up 5 nothing, and was super pumped. Then he smiles and switches paddle hands. I felt like I was in the Princess Bride movie. I wasn't able to score another point on him! We played to 25! He was by far the best ping pong player I've ever seen in person. It was crazy!

The Bible studies with the boys have been great.  They are starting to get more involved with the discussions, and that's huge. I've also challenged them to read the whole new testament by reading 3 chapters everyday. I told them it really only takes about 10 minutes a day. I explained how important it is to have God's word in their hearts, and how important for a Christian to know what the Bible says! Hopefully this develops into a lifelong habit in order to enhance their relationship with their real Father.

I had quite a Robinson Crusoe day today. I helped kill and slaughter a pig. Which was awesome! I learned how to skin and de-bone a pig as well as get the ribs out. It's also amazing that they use the entire pig for something. (other than the teeth, and hooves) It's really helped feed my wild side, and now I can't wait to go hunting when I get back to the states. Also today, I helped get coconuts from the trees right outside Toto's house, and proceed to cut them open and drink/eat the insides. The one thing that surprised me is that they only eat the coconut meat when its very thin and has the consistency of jelly. They say when the meat of the coconut gets thick it's too hard to eat. I couldn't believe it cause that's all I've ever eaten, and they won't eat it.

Everything has been great hear so far! Thank you all so much for your prayers! I have no doubt God has heard them and honored them. I have definitely learned to trust God in all things especially in my new surroundings. Love you all, and God bless you all!

Awesome day!

Today after school we went with our kids down the road to another elementary school to feed them. It was such a great time! It was great to see more of the kids from around the area. The school was a very poor school, and the kids were so cute. It reminded me a lot of my past visit to the Philippines. I was able to get the kids laughing through a couple funny faces, and messing with their hats. The kids just seem to love when adults (or in my case big kids) come and play with them. Some of our kids put on a little show. It was just like the program they put on at our school. Only this time is was for these other kids.

Once our kids saw me playing with some of the kids they also came, but before that they were very standoffish. After the program they all got in line with various types of bowls and we proceeded to scoop soup into their bowl. We had about 5 big pots of chicken, rice, and vegetable soup. It was such a joy to see their faces coming to get fed. I'm able to make a couple funny faces, and they love it. It was funny to basically reenact the Oliver Twist scene over and over. The kids did come back for more. I was able to say "You want some more?!?" in an English accent, and then actually give it to them. I only took a few pictures cause I was having too much fun, but hopefully the picture will give you a sense of what was going on.

I've heard that we do this once a month, so I'm super pumped! It reminded me of Lowe Lane, which is a street our church has adopted. Through our church we are able to feed kids in the Roswell community. I really miss not being there, but this has definitely helped me cope. This was definitely one of the most memorable times I've had here, and I praise God for the opportunity to bring some food/joy into some of these kids lives!

The Lord is good all the time!

The past few days have been very full. I’ve been able to get to know almost all of the boys now. I’m really starting to make some good connections with them so that’s very exciting! I’ve gotten my first taste of Pilipino pick up basketball. It a lot of fun, but I’m trying to get the boys to play man to man defense because playing zone defense in a pick up game is just ridiculous. They have people from the community come and play Friday and Saturday night. It’s a good time to get to know the people from the surrounding community a little even if it is just a nod and grunt here and there. I’m pretty sure I left my ultra competitive side back in Georgia, so thank goodness none of you have to pray for me about not getting into a fight!

            On Monday I’m going to start teaching so pray that I’m ready. Even though it’s just little kids I’m still nervous. I’m teaching them the sounds of the vowels tomorrow so I might revert to the honorable Dr. Moe Howard and his method of teaching the vowels. The big thing this past week at the school was the nutrition presentation. The kids put on a great show and each grade made a different healthy dish. I’ve got some picture of the festivities.

            I missed the actual feeding of the snakes! So I’m going to have to wait until next week. I did get a picture of the snakes after they swallowed the chickens, but hopefully next time I’ll get a video of it.

            The church service this morning was a great message. Even though I can only pick up the title of the message and the scripture verses I can still get a lot out of it. The title of the message was Are You Ready? Being ready to stand up for the Gospel was the main point of the sermon. It was a great rallying cry for any people sitting on the fence in their own Christian walk to get off and get into the battle. On a similar note how great is technology that I can’t listen to sermons from my own home church in Roswell, GA, and get some teaching that really feeds my soul! Amazing!

            I’m almost done reading a book by Charles Swindoll on the Apostle Paul. If you haven’t read it I highly recommend it. It has given me some much needed strength and advice as I’m going through this adventure. It has been such a good book for so many different topics in life. It really has become a book that I will be able to read and reread for the rest of my life.

 Bear with the camera. It goes back to the way it should!

I'm really starting to get a hang of things here. Though this week will be different from all my upcoming weeks, it has been invaluable just to observe how life works here. I'm really starting to get to know the kids both at the school and in the orphanage. The names are starting to come with all these familiar faces, and that is a blessing cause nobody likes to be known as hey. the kids and staff here are really amazing and they have helped me so much during my short time here. I'm still trying to pick up bits and pieces of the language, and I hoping to have the basics down in a month or two. The language barrier has been surprising okay. Most of the people here speak at least a little English, and all the other know enough so that we can have a small conversation. My favorite thing about the Philippines so far has definitely been how joyful the people are. Though they are people who go through hard times, they seem to go through them with a constant smile on their faces. to be clear it's not a fake smile either it is a genuine joyful smile. Christ is ever present in their minds, and you can really see that.

I started my small group Bible study with the Sankey boys last night. I'm super pumped about this, cause the older I have gotten the more I realize how important it is to talk about the Lord and His Word. I'm hoping to get as much out of this time with the boys as they do. We are going to be going over the book "The Measure of the Man" by Gene Getz. It's about twenty different characteristics Paul uses in the letters to Timothy and Titus. The book seems to be a great one, and I hope the kids will be able to connect.

Today I got my first practice in with a unicycle. For those of you that don't know when we go on basketball missions trips to the surrounding areas Uncle Tom has developed a halftime show to get the crowds interest peaked. These shows involve juggling, spinning the ball on your finger, dribbling tricks, and the grand finale involves a unicycle. After the show one of the team members gets up and shares the Gospel with the village. I'll put a video of a past show so you guys can see what I'm trying to describe. Anyways, today I've started trying to learn, and I'm now able to stay on for the full length of a basketball court with the help of the wall! So I was pretty pumped.

My prayer request is for these kids, both in the school and at the orphanage. That the Lord will use this place as a safe haven where they can grow in wisdom and strength, especially in their faith in Jesus. I've been able to ride around a little to see the surrounding area, and at times it's pretty rough. So I'm asking if you are praying for me please remember to pray for these kids as well.

Well I'm just starting to get a hang of things here. The day starts off around 7:30 with breakfast. then Jake and I head over to the school for the pledge of allegiance, and some dancing to wake the kids up. then we go into one of the classrooms and have devotions with the kids. I led it on Monday and talked to the kids about Samson and God's power. It was also an opportunity to see who could do the most push-ups in class. So they had fun. Then we started school, but they are doing all kinds of nutrition projects so I haven't had to teach anything yet. I found out I'm going to be teaching speech (in English) and computer. It will be very interesting since I'm far from computer savvy, and because I have used a Mac for the past 7 years.

The kids are awesome! The school is an elementary school so I'll only be teaching younger kids, but the orphanage is almost all high school and college kids. The little kids are so cute. They all have to wear uniforms, which you can see in the pictures.  I'm able to hang out with the older kids when they get back from high school and college (which sounds like a trade school) when they get back in the late afternoon. I've been able to play basketball with them, and it been fun to see how joyful they are when they play the game.

There are tons of animals here. There's a horse, cows, chickens, roosters, turkeys, parrots, dogs, two huge pythons, Koi fish, and a baby hedgehog. It's crazy to see all the farm animals walking around like they own the place. The snakes and parrots are in two separate cages. Toto told me they feed the snakes once a month. Both of them eat a whole chicken. So needless to say I can't wait to see that go down!
They also have a rice feed on the property, and I'll take a picture of that when I can. It's been raining today so I haven't been outside too much. I've been told there are two seasons here in the Philippines Summer and Rainy. Right now we are in the Rainy season. At night you can here the rain and it really sounds like you are under a waterfall. It gives me a whole new perspective on pouring rain.

The people here are so great! The language barrier will hopefully recede away with time, but for now they have been really helpful to me by talking in English. The young kids whom I'll be teaching mostly speak tagalog, so at times I really feel like I'm on an island here, but all it seems to take is a funny face and I've got the kids back.

 Toto has told me that I'll start doing Bible studies with the older kids soon, so I can't wait to get that going. It will be nice to get to know them better.

Below I've attached some pictues: My bed, the school, some of the school kids, some animals, the gym, and even a risky meal of catfish with head still attached (which was delicious).

All in all it's been a great start and I can't wait to see what God has in store!

I've decided to use this blog so that I can keep all my family and friends (you) up to date on how my missions trip in the Philippines is going. Now let me start off by saying I'm far from a good writer, but I do hope to become one. So, here goes...

My first day:

 

My day started in Park City, Utah where I had spent the night with Josh Morken. We woke up early, and he drove me to Salt Lake I was to catch my first of 3 flights on my way to Lucena City. SLC to LA then LA to Tokyo then finally Tokyo to Manila. I was met at the airport by Jake and Mak Mak. Jake is the son of the Toto who is the Filipino leader of Sankey. Mak Mak is one of the kids who lives at Sankey. I knew both of them from my first trip to the Philippines, so we had a nice time catching up. They then drove me 3 hours to Lucena City where the orphanage is located. We got in around 1:30. So all in all my first day had a ton of travel, and when we finally got to where I'm staying I flopped exhausted onto my bed and quickly fell asleep.

I woke up around 8 and had breakfast with the Luchavez family. I had a great time meeting everyone, and it didn't hurt that the breakfast of eggs meat and rice was delicious! After breakfast we went to church where I was able to meet most of the kids from Sankey Samaritan Home. It was such a blessing to be able to go to church and sing praises to the Lord. He has provided so much for me it is hard to comprehend. The service is conducted in a gym. They have a worship team that involves drums, guitar, bass, keyboard, and a couple singers. The sermon is given in Taglish which is a mixture of Tagalog and English, so I was able to follow some of it. 

The best part for me was the scripture reading. 1 Corinthians 15:58 "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." I think that is such a perfect message for me to have heard on my first day here. 

Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers. I 'm going to try and give myself fully to this work that the Lord has for me here. 

God Bless