Since they had half days, for the other half of the day I helped build the two new buildings with the Australian team. One building is going to be a medical clinic, and the other one is an addition to the school building which they can use as a teachers lounge or a larger room for projects. I had a lot of fun building up walls and clipping wires, as I had never helped build a building before.
The Australian team has done a phenomenal job, and I am truly impressed with how well they work together and get the job done efficiently for they short amount of time they are here, two weeks. What I thought was cool about the team is that they didn't all know each other. Many of them came from different churches but came with the organization of World Harvest. Two of the guys on the team have been coming every year for over 15 years.
In addition to building, the Australian team brought food and toys to make gift pack to hand out to families at two different churches. So the kids came in the gym and together we all helped make the food packs with bags of rice, fish, ect. And another night we put together gift packs for girls and boys.
Saturday afternoon we loaded up in Jeepneys and went to the first church which was about 30-40 minutes away right on the beach. Last year the World Harvest Australian team had helped remodel this church. So after some of the world harvest team spoke to the people of the church, they lined up outside so that the World Harvest team could hand out the gift packs.
Here's the kids helping us make the food packages.
Out on the beach out in front of the church.
Here's the church!
Here's the team handing out gifts to families and kids.
Some of the Sankey kids out on the beach!
Tom doing some of his basketball tricks after.
Some of the Filipinos of the beach
Nathan doing some tricks of his own.
On the way back, Tom told Nate and I to ride on the top of the Jeepney with him. Which was awesome. At one point Nathan and I stood up while we were driving. It was pretty awesome.
On our way home, we passed by some Filipino boys playing basketball and tom stopped our Jeepney and took Nathan and some of the high school boys and played a game against the team that was playing. It was really awesome.
On Sunday afternoon we went to Bethel Church, which is the church we all attend on Sundays, and The World Harvest team handed out more gift pack to the people there.
Ian is the pastors son... Here he took my camera and took some photos haha
Every morning we get up at at 7:30 is the school's flag raising. And then 3-6th grade goes into a room where Nathan does our daily devotion in the morning. Wednesday he was teaching them how to sing How He Loves
Here's some pictures of me teaching
First, I don't even know how to spell Jeepney. Its pronounced Jeep-Knee. and here's a picture of one:
People take them everywhere here for transportation, along with tricycles and motorcycles.
A tricycle.
Tom playing 2 Chess games against 2 of the High school boys.
A couple of the Sankey kids performing at church with Ben, an Australian, on the keyboard.
Here's Ben, the Australian, eating what they call Ballot(sp?) It's an egg that has part part of a duck in it.
He was the only one brave enough to eat one.
Nathan caught a fly... hahaha
Here's just some random pictures
One day last week we walked down the street with all the Cugley school kids and went to another elementary school to participate in the feeding program. All of our Cugley school kids performed songs and dances and then we handed out food to all the kids. It was cool to watch our Cugley kids helping out and giving performances for the other kids.
and unfortunately I forgot my camera, but I'll be getting pictures of this later. I think they do this every month.
On Friday after lunch, Principal Alice let me leave school after lunch to go with Tom to see him do his "half time show" and give a talk about Jesus to one of the Police academys in the area. It was really cool to watch around 400 student police officers respond to Tom's talk. I also enjoyed watching Tom on his unicycle playing basketball with MakMak and Randy, 2 of the sankey boys in college. Here's some pictues:
Yesterday Tom, Karen, and the Australians left. So the night before we had a big party in the gym and some Fireworks and a live band from the police academy! Some of the kids gave performances, and I got to be an honorary Ozzy and since a song with the Australians.
The Australian team! They were missing two people in this picture though.
I am definitely going to miss them and their accents and saying "rubbish" instead of garbage :] As they left they all said really encouraging things to me, and I hope to one day go to Australia and visit them all!
And there were many tears and Tom and Karen left, my apartment feels so empty now! I am glad I got to be here and spend some time with both of them.
Here's some pictures during P.E. yesterday
As of today it has been 3 weeks already, which is crazy to me! So far I haven't gotten home sick, and Megan made a good point as I was talking to her the other day. She said that was good because it means I'm right where God wants me to be. And I totally agree, he has helped me settle in quickly and get adjusted to life out here, and I am completely content and enjoying every minute I get to spend with these kids.
God has blessed me with an amazing time so far and I'm looking forward to seeing what he has in store in the next 9 weeks.
As Ryan wrote to the leadership team the other day, he quoted one of my favorite parts in scripture.
John 15: Jesus is the True Vine
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
“I am the vine; you are the branches. If you abide in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples."
Abide in Jesus, without him we will bear no fruit. And that is my prayer is that these girls and I would learn how to Abide in Jesus and grow closer to him so that we can bear fruit for the Lord.
Prayer requests:
- Safe travels for the Austrailia team, and Tom and Karen.
- Safety as the Filipino workers continue to work on the 2 buildings.
- This morning I woke up with a cold, so prayers I would recover quickly as I feel like I've been hit by a truck.
Love and miss you all,
Amanda
