Wednesday, November 14, 2012

"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!

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