Progress

Progress Progress Progress

Day 6 is underway on the house and it is looking like a real home! :) Praise the Lord!

God is so good. When we started this whole project, I had budgeted for $350 based on Mimay's house we just completed (which already had a foundation set). Money came in and in and I ended up with $1,100 for the house! I even emailed some people back and told them we didn't need any more money- but God knew better than me. We are already up to $845.87 on the house and still going to look into electricity. God is so good and He provides regardless of my intentions ;) So thank you all!!

Good and bad news:

Bad News: baby Elroy (the son of my filipino momma- Alma) is in the hospital with an amoeba! :(

Good news: Ate Alma and her husband asked me to be Elroy's godmother :)

End of day 4

Putting up the bamboo weave walls (amakan)

My favorite job :)

Shaving down the bamboo flooring (kawayan)

Preparing the bamboo flooring... 5 blisters from this job!

Dont' look too close or you will notice how i'm still very american in that i sweat so bad here ;)

Teamwork all around :)

Upcoming Events

Mass wedding is today! Been running around like crazy today- bt the whole town is pulling together ot help! we will get to celebrate the marriage of 11 couples today! five pigs were killed and roasted last night (til 3 am- i could still hear them squealing- it was awful).

Dagoldol Family Party: The Dagoldol's are a family here in Pandan that have really taken me in. They make up about half of this town ;) They are so precious. They have taken me in as a daughter (even refer to me as whithney binder dagoldol ;)) Yes, they spell my name like that too ;) Anyways, they planned a going away party for me today. It is so formal! They made a program for it and are preforming dances and singing songs for me! Then they all are giving testimonies about my time here- and i have to give a short talk. how incredibly precious is that?! I am definitely leaving part of my heart in Pandan! 

A Good Catch & Only in the Phlippines

A Good Catch

We had another day with a good catch of fish this week! I always know when these days hit because I am awakened at 5am with kids yelling and laughing, women chattering, men yelling commands at each other and oversized trucks trying to fit in our small Pandan "roads." I love it! I grab my coffee and head down to the waiting shed to participate in the excitement! 

The wives dehead and clean the fish (called "tamban")

Cleaning out the net for the catch.. notice all the fish on the sand below!

I didn't realize they were about to shake the net.. i got sprayed with fish juice and i screamed :) gave the whole town a good laugh! These guys are completely covered in scales and other grossness when they are done

Everyone helps with the collecting of the fish! 

A Panorama view of the boxes for a good catch. the waiting shed is on the right and the boats are slowly coming in!

Only in the Philippines

A pig in the kitchen.. actually right next to the stove

tons of naked brown kids making sand balls as entertainment

never been more proud of a perfect sand ball :) who needs snowmen?!

One guitar for 25 boys singing super off key at the top of their lungs "Feliz na-bo-dai" at our Saturday night bonfire. i love when they don't know the english but think they do :) i guess that's not english, but you get what i mean :) 

Using a machete to handle the fire :) 

15 kids in one bamboo living room playing with toys.. none of their parents know where they are.. but that just isn't a question around here

When you find a snail the size of your hand, why not let it crawl on your foot?

Look mom, no hands!!

Who doesn't enjoy a nice hard boiled egg on the floor of a bamboo hut right in front of the fan to cool down because it is cultural to wear jean in the tropic weather ;) 

I made my first ever mango float to enjoy with this Dagoldol family! :) They are the ones teaching me visaya! 

Building the House!

I am so sorry that i have not done an update on the new house building project!!! God heard our cries, and provided for the building of a house for this family from the mountain!!!! He spoke to me so much last week, and made it very apparent to me that I am going to get to be a vessel for His plans for this family! The money came in, the building crew was hired (will also help give people jobs :)), wood has been purchased and the house is going up!!! I am continually having to remind myself that this money is not mine, nor are these plans.. I even write on my hand every morning, "This is not yours." So that anytime a problem comes up in the building or logistics, i look at my hand and realize that this is God's thing and i need to trust Him.

We had originally planned for a house that would be 20ft x 20ft including the dirty kitchen (where they cook). Because this family is from the mountain, they do not own the land that their house is currently on so we had to get permission from the owner of the land to build them a new house in a new area. like i said before, their neighbors were not christians and would yell profanities and drink and gamble to excess. not a great surrounding for their kids. so we got the permission to build the new house, and started digging holes. the next day the owner of the land saw our holes and told us the house was too big. so we had a whole new discussion over sizes of the house. he originally said it coudln't be bigger than 10 x 10. this would mean two 5x5 rooms and one 5x10 room for 6 people!!! i was obviously a little confused so i asked him to draw it out on the sand.. after 15 minutes of discussion, we finally realized that he meant "meters" and not "feet." HAHAHA. wow! what a relief!

Okay, i'm going to try to let the pictures speak for themselves.. but sometimes i might need to add comments because i just want everyone to get to partake in this adventure!!!

BIG SIDE NOTE: REMEMBER THAT THIS WHOLE THING WILL BE BUILT BY HAND WITH NO ELECTRIC TOOL. HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!

This is the original house. 

Original house- size of some of our walk-in closets 

the location of the new house : ) 

Yes, it takes 15 of us :) 

Helping to build a table for them

This is our main builder (ate mimay's husband). I gave him those flip flops because he was building with no shoes on the first day. Also- notice he is spreading the concrete with his hands.. professional :) 

Mixing the cement. I love that everything here is entertainment for the community

My building crew! It's all about teamwork... the posts weren't lining up, so standing on it to force it down was the only viable option ;) 

The framework is finished! 

notice how much i am helping... just giving high fives to kids ;)

oh wait, i can help a little :)

ate Juning is on left- she is the momma of the mountain family. ate grace is on the right (my filipino sister ;))

Tomorrow we put down the floor and add the roof :) we will be adding a front deck as a porch and a side deck for washing clothes and the kitchen will be added on the back of the house!

Open the eyes of my heart Lord

So far I have been blogging my experiences without really asking for more financially- I actually hate to ask for money. Even going through college, I felt so apologetic asking my dad for money for groceries even though I knew he would love to provide for me. Well, I am stepping far out of my comfort zone and going to ask you to examine your financial positions and hearts in the meantime.

Most of Pandan and the surrounding neighborhoods are filled with needs. Everyone could use something. So I have daily asked God to open my eyes to see and ears to hear where He desires. Well, today I was introduced to a family who has grabbed my heart to the point of tears. They are a family of six. The father was actually a pastor in their hometown in the mountains but because of their son’s severe breathing condition, they had to move closer to town for the medical care. Now the father works in a plywood company and only makes money for whatever work they can get in a day. The momma sells fish. The four boys are all supposed to be in school, but cannot afford it due to the medical bills for the one son. This son has breathing attacks once a week and usually comes to Miss Patti to use the nebulizer. However, sometimes they are more severe and he has to go to the hospital. He is eleven years old and he is fully aware of how his medical condition affects the whole family. He has even said that he wishes he would die so that he wouldn’t be a burden to his family! The family currently lives in a one room shack that is literally the size of some of our walk-in closets (no exaggeration!). The house is actually starting to lean because it was built with whatever they could find. Also, high tide comes up so high that it shifts the house as the water comes into the flooring. This family loves the Lord. I was told by Grace (my adopted Filipino sister ;)) that they have never complained nor do they ever ask for anything.

I do not want anyone to act out of guilt or out of following rules with no heart (so please examine your heart and pray about it), but  God says in:

James 1:27 “Religion that is pure and undefiled before god, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their afflictions, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.” Not that these are widows or orphans, but I think they fall in the same category of those who need help.

Matthew 25:40 "And the King will say, 'I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!'

Therefore, I am asking to fundraise to build them a house that is sturdy and will fit them all. It will be nothing fancy, but it will be amazing for them. The cost will be around $350. The house will be made fully of bamboo from the siding to the floor to the framework. Please let me know if you would be willing to donate to this cause so I can begin to see if this could be possible.

Thank you all for your faithfulness to pray for me while I am here. God is so good.

-W

"Be still..."

Good morning to all!

Start off with two verses of encouragement:

"The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.” Exodus 14:14
"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!" Psalm 46:10
To be silent or to be still means to let go, make yourself weak. Meaning- trust God to direct you and be your strength, do not rely on yourself! I love being here and I love the people i am surrounded by, but I still struggle with feeling tired or worn out or like I need to be doing so much more or figuring out everyone's problems. But I do not, I need to be still and be silent and rely on Him and trust that He will guide me. 

I have learned that the blessing with coming on a mission trip for a longer period of time is that I can do my mission by just living with the people. That means cooking, cleaning. shopping at the market, working out, playing, learning, worshipping, doing laundry, taking naps, walking in the roads can all be a part of my mission trip. And my goodness- I love it! 

Mimay's house is coming along great! One of my favorite parts of building the house is going to market with ate Mayang and Mimay to buy the supplies. People in market always ask them where I am from and they now say "She's filipina!" And they ask, "Is this your friend?" and they said "No, this is my sister." :) Ah- it makes me smile! I have taken them to grab a snack while we are in town, so one day they told me they were going to buy me a snack! How cute! 

Two guys named Michael and Sean invited me to go on a jog with them at 5am. I stupidly and pridefully said yes. Keep in mind, these are typical-super in shape and muscular filipinos. We ended up running for 2.5 hours!!!! They gave me a whole tour around Gingoog! It was really fun but man- I was so tired when we finally got back to Pandan. 

Last night I stayed at the Nehemiah House in Gingoog because they were short staffed. I got to teach a Bible study on what the Bible says about beauty vs what the world tells us beauty is. It was a nice reminder for myself as well!

Then this morning I went to have breakfast with the Dagoldol family! Kuya Nick (the father) realized that two of his boats hadn't come in from the night before, so we jumped in a boat to find them. The fishermen were having such a good catch where they were that they had kept fishing! When we found them i got to watch how they fish with their nets! It was so awesome!!! Then I went back to breakfast with the Dagoldols. Guess what we had? Fish, more fish, then some more fish and of course- rice. :) It was so much fun! 

Mass wedding is in two weeks! There are 11 couples getting married and we are estimating that 200 people come to the wedding. This means planning something big!! If you would like to sponsor a couple, we could really use some more sponsors- it's about $85-$100 (this includes the food, the dress, the guests for that couple, and the equipment). A job I took on is to make sure all the couple's have rings. I think I mentioned these rings in past blogs, but they are made from a 10 peso coin. They are beautiful rings!!! And hand made right here in Pandan! 

Anyways- that is all for now! I will be back in the States in 2.5 weeks and I cannot wait to wear a sweatshirt and scarf and boots!!! 

Making the wedding rings. Done by cutting a hole in the 10 peso and flattening it to creation! 

Kuya is making almost 30 rings in all! 

Ate alma- my filipino momma :)

Running buddies/Gingoog tour guides

Showing me the town plaza with the giant fruit

It amazes me the tricks the filipinos can do! 

After he did this, he took his shoes off and did it barefoot on the cement because his shoes were too heavy!!! hurt my feet to watch!!

Hard to not want to run with this backdrop!

The pier at 5:30am! It was so active with workout groups and fishermen!

Going out to see the fishermen at work. Love the hat right?

The engine wouldn't start so we make an assembly line to push the boat in :)

A morning bath in Pandan. Such a common site every day

My scenery for my morning run- could it get any better?

Fish for breakfast, fish for lunch, fish for dinner, hey how about fish for snack?! And yes, those are eyes and teeth- they are eaten too!!! 

The Dagoldol family :)

Notice you see 4 different plates with different kinds of fish on the table ;) and then rice. 

Guitar practice! 

Love you all!