Missing them

I will never forget those many little feet...

Sorry but I guess most of the post you will see on this blog is about our recent mission trip to Sabah, Malaysia. I told you I have loads of pictures but I am choosing the ones I could upload for everyone to see and enjoy.

The work out there is big, so many souls who haven't heard about God's amazing love for them. We need workers everywhere and I hope I can be one (full time) someday soon.

Friday is Sports and Feeding day-after playing games, they all lined up for a bowl of food prepared by Teacher Naty.

They were excited to have uniforms, I guess it makes them feel like they are really into school. I do hope this kids continue to go to that non formal school and learn the basics, you know read and write. It's amazing when you hear them count from 1 to 100 in English and the are happy to learn. They don't need to learn to do or analyze some insurance quotes, for them learning to converse in simple English is more than enough. Learning to write their names on their paper are more than enough.

They are simple kids, they don't ask much. In fact, they enjoy their life, they are enjoying their childhood. Swimming in the nearby river, playing in the woods.


I'm missing them.

I'm home

I’ve already said this in my other blog but I will say it again.

“It’s good to be back home”

After spending 26 nights outside this room of ours, indeed it’s good to be home.

Our stay in Sabah, Malaysia is a combination of all the statement below. It was

Sad
Beautiful
Scary
Happy
Tiring
Fulfilling
Laidback
Busy
Humbling
Blessed

I really can not describe it in one word. It was a learning experience for me. The kids without them knowing it taught me a lot of things, I learn a lot about their culture and their life there. It was one memorable experience that will be forever part of our life.

The next question is, do we have plans of going back there again in the future?

Honestly, we’ve had small talks about it but nothing is clear and solid at the moment. We will pray for God’s will and if it His will for us to serve there then definitely we will go back.

And yes, I think it won't hurt to prepare for the future just in case we heard the call, we already did some during our stay there, we inquired for the monthly rental, utilities, the visa process, the ongoing rate for jobs and the possibilities of us staying there. I do not know if they have a health plan that is similar to Blue Cross Blue Shield NC, not that we will be needing it but just in case. We also inquired of the prices of all the major household stuff we will be needing.

I know,it sounds like we are really planning to move but nope, not yet and again it doesn't hurt to prepare right? Right now, am back to normal life.

We will miss Sabah and the good people we met there but we’ll see them again someday!

Thankful Thursday

Our mission trip will soon be over, tomorrow will be our last day in the village and for that I am thankful for a lot of things.

1. I am thankful first and foremost for God's protection for the duration of our stay here.

2. For God's provision, we were blessed and I want to believe that we became a channel of blessings here also.

3. For the people who supported us, prayed for us and encouraged us for this exposure trip. For my bosses back home.I'm blessed with a good employer (allowing me to leave the workplace for a while) It's not as high paying job as those of jobs in Philadelphia but still I consider it one of my many blessings in life.

4. I am thankful for all the kids had encounter in our stay here, yes they are poor,uneducated but they are loved by the Lord.

5. Lastly, I want to thank God again and again for the opportunity to serve HIM here in Sabah, Malaysia.

TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY AND HONOR!!!

Some pictures

Just like what we are doing in Manila, we also did most of the things that we used to do there, we printed t-shirts that will serve as the kids uniform in the school. This way, they will really feel that they are going to school indeed and hopefully this will give them more enthusiasm in studying.

The picture below was taken at the village entrance. Carmel & Andrew just arrived the day before and this was supposed to be their first day in school but it was cancelled. I'm wearing a long sleeve top because it's really hot here. Temperature I think is 32 to 34 degrees everyday. And to think we are already in the highlands. Anyone wants to buy us an SPF 30 lotion there or an anti wrinkle cream? we need a lot of those here.


The above picture was when my dear husband led the worship in the local church here. We sang an all English songs and it was great!!!

Wherever we are, God can use your talents if you just let HIM.

Another village

Yesterday we went to another village. From our home based, we have to take the bus ( a 2 hour no traffic drive) and then we took another ride ( 5 to 10 minutes on a speeding speedboat without life jackets and with the scorching heat of the sun. Praise God we still don't need any natural acne pills despite our everyday exposure with the sun). It was not an easy travel but it's worth it.

We visited a family, the man of the house is called Katua (If I am not mistaken it means the chief of the village). We tutored his 11 year old girl who is such a darling. She's so nice to us and she's so welcoming, in fact she didn't even want us to go. We stayed there for one night and we hope to go back some other time.

It is still part of the ministry, establishing relationship with the cousins, showing then the love of the Lord in terms of teaching and reaching out to them.

I really am humbled by the heart of our missionary team leader here. He does a lot for the Lord and it's a shame for us who just sit and relax inside our beautiful churches every Sunday. You will really be challenged when you get to work with him.

Not that I mean anything bad about staying in the church but I believe you can do something to be able to help in bringing the gospel to the unreached people.

You just have to ask God how.

THankful

I've been missing my Thankful Thursday post since I came here, but that doesn't mean I don't have anything to be thankfuk for, as a matter of fact God has blessed me tremendously in this trip. Blessing in material, physical, spiritual and emotional terms.

And because I don't really have much time to sit down in the computer, I just want to list them down here in a shorter post.

So I am thankful for

1. God's protection for me and my husband and for our host family.

2. For the good health, I have opportunity to eat more vergetables here and more fruits so in a way we've been treated to some kind of colon cleanse because of the many fruits and veggies in our meal everyday. Totally no pork. That's great and sad at the same time. :)

3. For the opportunity to serve HIM and HIS beloved people.

4. For the time to read again (so far I'm on my 3rd book now)

5. For all the learning humbling experience I am getting here.

6. For the many people we meet, Pastors, missionaries, workers, non-christians, kids, adults and everyone. They are now a part of who I am.

I still have loads but I'm running out of time. I'll update again as soon as I can!!

Be blessed and be a blessing too!!!

Where there is no doctor

One of the most memorable and interesting thing happened during my stay here is using the "Where there is no doctor, a village health care handbook" by David Werner.

The village we are involved with has no doctor obviously and one of the student is terribly sick. I heard they already brought him to town and was already checked by a medical doctor twice. But the problem is the kid is not getting better, They said we was bitten by some insect or sort, he went to swim in the river one day and went home sick but they don't see any bite from the swollen feet.

We visited him once and from the looks of it, he really needs to be brought into the hospital. But our team leader visited them again yesterday and they said it's getting better, he has no fever anymore but the feet is still swollen.

So guess what, we search the said book on what to do with the swollen feet, Praise God for books like that, I browsed it and saw a lot of home remedies I think I even saw home remedies for blackheads well maybe about skin and everything. So what they did, they brought the book in the kid's house and show the parents what to do. (I guess most of the parent will believe if they see the book) and suggested to do the same with thier son.

I have yet to see the kid again, I am not a health worker and I don't have much knowldege about it, I do hope and pray that it get better but I also hope for him to be checked again by a professional doctor. But money is a big thing here and not just that.... security is the biggest thing.

I really do not know how they survive the tough life but they are surviving.

Please remember that sick boy in your prayers tonight. It would be a big help.

17 days

yes, it's been 17 days since we got here. How time flies indeed. A couple friend joined us here last Tuesday so we are now four in the team.

Right now we are on rest (3 days), we like to call it holiday althought it was not. We can not go to the village for security reasons but we are praying and hoping that the school will resume on Monday. We still have to do the mini olympic and the shuffle dance contest for the kids. The kids were all excited about this when we told them about it. There would be prices and carmel is planning to cook for them a special food next week. If you see the energy of these kids, they can be your source of natural testosterone, they boost your energy too somehow.

So far, I've already explored the town, this is just a small town where everyone seems to know everyone, we've gone to all the supermarkets and finally we've tried the famous "nasi goreng" tonight. A local worker treated us for dinner. Praise God for his life!!

I've learn a lot for the 17 days and I know I've still lot of things to learn in our remaining days. I'm still writing them on my journal and hopefully will be able to post them once I get back.

Be safe evryone!

An update

that's me- checking the work of a student, I assist the teacher in teaching them how to write

that's my dear husband-writing the lesson in a makeshift green board (which is a ping pong table)

Sorry if these are the only pictures I can show you for now because I am not sure if I can post pitcures of kids where we minister but I have so many pictures of their happy faces. They are all beuatiful!!

Anyways, to give you an update of what we do here..

Here's our evryday schedule from Monday to Thursday:

We wake up before 7 am, be in the village at 9 am then classes start immediately till 12 noon. I get so frustrated because I cannot communicate properly but am so proud I am learning the language well. I can now speak one or two sentences and the kids get what I mean.

Friday is "sports and feeding day".

On Sunday my husband will lead the worship service on a local church, I hope it won't be too much to ask for your continued prayers for us.

And so sorry for not updating too often.

Praising God for the opportunity of serving HIM!!!

Adjustments

Praise God I am on the internet again and updating. My heart is bursting with so many thoughts to tell but they are scattered right now. i need to gather them so I can give a decent and nice post for everyone to read.

For now, I just want to talk about adjustments. Since this is my first experience to be out on the mission field, I expected a lot of adjustments and I was right. Life is totally different here. You really will leave your comfort zone.

* WEATHER - is even warmer than the Philippine weather, meaning it's really hot here.

*FOOD - haven't tasted pork since I came here and that's one big adjustment, will go try to look somewhere later.

* TOILETS - theirs is not the American Standard toilets. it's different.

* LANGUAGE - I would like to say I've taken interest in the language and I'm learning, i know few words already and I'm hoping I'll be able to converse in simple sentence in a week from now.

There is a lot of adjustment but I am NOT COMPLAINING. I expected it and I welcome it with open arms. I am learning a lot through these adjustments and I know I will benefit from it.

Will post more soon.

First post in Malaysia

Hi everyone! I know it's been long since my last post.

I just want to make a quick update on our Malaysia trip. We are now here (Malaysia) we arrived last Wednesday afternoon around 6;30 pm and a good brother in Christ icked us up at the airport, treat us to dinner and gave us a place to stay overnight before we head to our home base which is 2 and a half hour away from KK. We only spent one night in the city so there's no time to go to malls and stores and see what's in store or even see some tv deals. But it is ok because that is not the reason why we are here. I am very much aware of that. We are here to do something for the Lord.

Today we started to help at the kids ministry, we have feeding and sports day today. It was fun seeing everone participating at the games. I'm sorry but I don't think I can mention the location for safety reasons. That is where we would help for the duration of our stay here. It's our first day in the village and I have loads of stories already. I hope I can tell and post it all here but then internet is limited so I guess I'll just write them down to my journal and post it when I get back to Manila. We also met one Pastor here and he brought us to a bible study in another village. I tell you I didn't understand any single word but I am surprisingly blessed. God is amazing!!

We are safe in God's hands. My prayer for this mission trip is for the Lord to open my heart and eyes on thing He wants me to see and that my life will never be the same again after this trip.

Please keep on praying for us. We need that.