This one's a long one! from Manila

First of all, if you want to see pictures from our tour of Mindanao, Rev. Villos set up a website: Villos' New Dawn Picasa Site

He also posted some videos of us: Videos of New Dawn

We are now back in Manila, staying at Gloria Dei Christian School and Church, where we stayed when we first arrived in the Philippines. Coming back here felt almost like coming home and it feels good to be somewhere familiar. So much has gone on since we were last here, but at the same time it’s crazy to think that we have been in the Philippines for a month tomorrow.
We really enjoyed our time on the island of Mindanao. So here’s a few random stories that have happened since the last time I blogged.

Dave and I both ended taking a trip to the hospital on Sunday, February 3. They did a malaria test on Dave and ran some urine tests on me. It turns out that Dave had a viral infection (thankfully it was not malaria) and I had a Urinary Tract Infection. We were both pretty miserable for a few days, but our team was so good about making sure we got our rest and covering for us when needed. Once Dave and I were feeling better, Jenny got sick. After resting that day she felt better, and we are all healthy now.

Our host family in Cagayan de Oro, the Gatela’s, took such good care of Jenny and me. They made us rice porridge for our upset stomachs and made us feel so comfortable. Pastor Villos, his wife Honey Mae, and Pastor Villos’ sister took great care of us as well, making sure we got the rest that we needed.
After Cagayan de Oro we got to ride overnight on a big ship, called the Princess of the South to the island of Cebu and then from there we rode on a smaller boat to the island of Leyte. There we stayed in Albuera with the Ladlad family. Arwin, Eileen, and their daughter Kaye had spent some time with us earlier and it was great to be able to spend more time with them. We stayed in their family’s home which is right near the beach.

One night all of us went swimming at sunset. It was so beautiful!

One day we got to go out on the banca’s (small boats with wooden floaty things on the sides) and we swam out in the middle of the water. It was lots of fun but I think all of us except Dave got pretty sunburned. This was really our first day where we were out in the sun a lot. Now we know how often we need to reapply the sunscreen!

We did a program for the students of Balugo Elementary School, which is just down the street from the Ladlad residence. There were so many kids and they were so excited to have us there. Later that day Pastor Villos informed us of a baptism that he was going to be doing and told us that the family had requested that the five of us be there as sponsors/godparents. So we got to watch as Justin Valarez was baptized and welcomed into the family of God. It was humbling to be asked to be his sponsors, seeing as we had not known Justin until a few days ago. It was so special to be his sponsors though, knowing that we now have that connection with a child in the Philippines, that he will grow up knowing that there are five people praying for him in the United States.

We did a program the same night as the baptism at Barangay Stage with Christ Lutheran Church and members of the community. The videos that Rev. Villos posted were from this program. The church had a bass guitar, so I got to play it for the program! I have really missed playing it, so that was so much fun! It was a five string bass guitar, so it has an added string compared to the one I normally play. So that was a little weird to get used to at first, but it worked out fine. Halfway through the program I realized that this was our last program with Rev. Villos and Honey Mae, Arwin, Eileen, and Kaye, which was sad to think about.

I met a little friend before the program. Her name is Diana Rose and she is seven years old. One of the lady’s at the church informed me that she has no parents. She was a little shy at first but during the program she would look up at me and grin. She sang along with “Ako Anak Sa Dios” and “Unify Us.” It was so neat to see a little girl like her singing about changing the world with such hope. On the walk back to the church, Diana Rose came running up to me and grabbed my hand and skipped back to the church with me. So cute!
The next day we had to say goodbye to Arwin, Eileen, and Kaye and later on in the day, Rev. Villos and Honey. We enjoyed having them along with us and we miss them so much already. They treated us like family and taken such good care of us. These are relationships that I hope we can continue throughout the years, even though we will be far away.
The ride on the boat from the island of Leyte to the island of Cebu, was very rough. As Ua put it, “We were tossed about in the sea.” I was a little scared at some points and none of us felt the greatest after that. There were quite a few times when if you looked out the window all you could see was water….no sky. In the other window if you look over the other way you would see just sky. They came around the boat passing out “motion discomfort bags” and I felt really bad for the pregnant lady behind us that had to use one.
After our fun boat ride we had to say goodbye to Rev. Villos and Honey. Rev. Villos was with us over 3 weeks, which is a majority of the time we spent on Mindanao and he became like a part of the team. We always joked about him joining our team and replacing Dave. It’s been weird not having him around with us these last few days. We will definitely miss them.
We flew back into Manila on Sunday morning. It was an early flight and we were all pretty tired after such an early morning. Straight from the airport we went to Faith Lutheran Church to attend worship and do a program after worship. We met Honey’s cousin, Pastor Chollo who is the pastor at Faith Lutheran. It was a wonderful welcome for our first morning back in Manila. After the service we went back to Gloria Dei Christian Church and School where we stayed when we first arrived in the Philippines. It felt oddly like coming home, to a place that was familiar to us. We will be here until Saturday and then we begin traveling around Luzon.
It’s hard to believe that our time on Mindanao is already over. We really enjoyed our time there and will really miss all the people that we met.