I can't believe it's been 6 weeks! I have been having a great time and enjoying life here a lot. And I know the next six weeks will go by so fast as the Westgate team comes in 2 weeks (holler!) and then by the time they leave, school will be over and it'll be graduations and then a week of summer before I board a plane back to America. It's going to come almost TOO fast.
The past couple weeks have been great!
Had exams last week, and now the kids are in the final stretch of school. Only 4 more weeks till summer!
Thursday was valentines day so we through our own Single Awareness party and I made cookies and 7-layer dessert bars and we brought the projector into my apt and watched a movie. It was Barbara, Nathan, and I. And somehow Queen snuck in for a little bit, even though she has a boyfriend.
This last weekend was great, as Friday was a half day at school because of exams. So a couple of us young adults, Barbara, Queen, Nathan, Jake, and I went out to the Rizal resort after school on Friday. We just got to hang out, relax, and play some intense Uno and Volleyball before heading to bed early because we were getting up and leaving at 5am to hike a mountain the next morning, Tayak Hill. Which was awesome. It was a fairly large hill, and took us 3 hours to finally get to the top. But it was so beautiful the whole way up and on the top there are 2 crosses, and I just loved being able to get out and be in nature for a while. So that was great, we ended up driving the way home though, we didn't hike back down. So we got back had breakfast and relaxed. Then after lunch we packed up and headed home. On our way home we stopped at like this street with a bunch of shoe shops! Which was awesome, I was mainly looking for high heels to wear in Karens wedding, but had no luck. I had a lot of fun though going in all the shops and seeing all the shoes!
It was a great weekend.
It's Monday now, and I'm excited for Friday as we are having a Cugley School field trip to Manila!!!! Woo hoo!
We will be taking the kids to some museums and then ending the day at Mall of Asia, which a couple of years ago was the biggest mall in the world. So I'm real excited to go and see that! And also at like 5pm, my little brother is meeting me at the mall and going to drive back up here with us to stay with me for the weekend!
If you know anything about my family history it's a little complicated. Ha. But my fathers last wife and him had a son, Jeremiah, my younger brother. Whom I have not had the chance to meet yet given that my fathers last wife was a Philippine woman, and they live here in the Philippines. So I'm pretty excited to get a chance to spend time with him! So he'll be here through Monday. :)
God has been teaching me a lot about myself since I've been here. One being as I have been listening to Awakenings podcast of their series Dreaming Wide Awake- finding your God sized vision. And through listening to the series, God has been really revealing to me my passions and a direction of which path to take. And I'm excited to start pursuing those as I get home.
Prayer Requests
-Safe trip to Manila on Friday
-Time with my brother this weekend
-My tiredness, as lately I have felt like I am always tired, not matter how much I sleep.
Here's some pictures from the past couple weeks:
Sometimes on Saturdays we go to a little town village called "America" where we do games and sing songs with the younger kids, and teacher Barbara does a bible study with the high school kids.
The pathway to get into "America" there is no road.
Teacher Barbara with the kids
Nathan about to throw a top
In the van on the way home
On our way home from America, there was a youth night with a bunch of different churches, we stopped by to sing some songs and play some games.
Carolyn singing a special number at church!
SOFTBALL TIME! Nathan has been teaching the kids to play softball during P.E. on Fridays.
Week 2 In America, Mak Mak and I taught the younger kids.
Nathan leads devotion every morning for grades 3-6. And this week instead of teaching on love for Valentines Day, he took the kids and each morning they did acts of love.
Tuesday: Showing love for the guards. So they lined up and each gave them a hug and said thank you for protecting us.
Wednesday: The kids wrote letters of thanks and love to their teachers
Thursday: The kids sang a song and gave chocolate to the office staff
Friday: we went around the circle and said something we appreciate/love about the person on our left and ended in a GROUP HUG!
So fun!
One day, I went with Alex, Barbara, and Queen to take some of the kids from the school home. And we got to stop at the beach and the "Haunted House" WHICH WAS AWESOME! So much fun, i just wanted to run around and explore.
Yes, that is me with Bob Marley. Don't ask what face I'm making, I don't know. And I have no idea what I'm doing with my arm either... It was VERY windy.
On Valentines Day we had a single awareness party.
Pictures from Rizal, Joe Mauk does a Top Show that relates to our life in Jesus, which was awesome. And of course we ended the night with Ice Cream <3
Fellowship game night at Bethel Church
Once a month the Cugley Christian school, the school I teach at does a feeding program. So at 3, after school is out, all the kids gather and we walk down the street to another public school and bring food for the kids. And our Cugley kids sign and put on a performance and then we hand out the food to the kids. So here are some pictures from that:
