Last Day In Taguig

Today was our last day working in Taguig, our second Habitat site. We have been working at this site for two weeks now and it was hard to leave because we bonded with the workers so much. Most of them are right around are age and are always down to joke around or teach us some tagalog (or admire the only 3 females on site, i.e. Jenn, Holly, and Korina : ) This site was different from our last because we were making concrete interlocking blocks (CIB..see pics from the previous post) that fit together like Legos to make three story townhouses. The work was definitely harder than our first site, but the friendships we developed easily off-set soar muscles in the morning. Since today was our last day, we threw a little party for the workers and even did a skit for them: we sang "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" in tagalog, then acted out a Filipino joke, and ended the show with a little dance. It was fun for them to witness our obvious lack of talent : ) And then we played volleyball with them, Filipinos vs. Americanos. We are all going to miss those guys dearly.

Oh, the team finally ate BALUT (the 17-day old aborted duck embryo featured on Fear Factor)!! This is how it happened: last Friday we went to visited the Mayor of Taguig, a stand up guy, and it came up in conversation that we wanted to try Balut before we leave the Philippines. He raised his eyebrow and ten minutes later an aid brought a bowl of eggs to the table. We cringed as a group. Korina was first to go and gagged, then Poyang and Holly who took it down like champs, then myself gagging almost the whole time, and finally Jenn, who liked it! If you can get over the whole eating an aborted duck embryo with potentially a beak and feathers, it really does just taste like egg : )

We have one last site to work at as our trip is coming to end all too soon. We appreciate all of your prayers and can see their effects everyday. Our hearts and prayers go out to the DR team, we think of you often.

God Bless,

Paul , Poyang, Jenn, Korina, & Holly

(the picture is of Korina eating the Balut!)

Turkey Update

Our trip to Cappadocia the weekend before last was AMAZING despite my
Freudian slip foreshadowing possible "Crapadocia". The 9-hour
overnight bus ride was indeed brutal and to the delight of my
teammates I had a beautiful wipe-out while attempting to disembark
from the bus at a rest stop around 3am. The only word that escaped my
lips was a high-pitched "OY!" and it has become the butt of many
jokes. But it certainly was not as bad as leaving a fellow teammate
behind… we won't name names. (IRELAND)

In Cappadocia we shared a tour van with a few others, including four
young Turks and a hung-over Brazilian woman. We also met a wonderful
couple in their 70's named Lee and Marlene. They were the most joyful
people, totally in love, and never hesitant to lay a nice wet kiss on
your forehead. We had the best time with them exploring the "ancient"
Christian caves, getting pictures of the amazing rock formations, and
visiting a ceramics business. The next day we got a tour guide all to
ourselves and he took us on a fantastic hike through Red Valley where
there are old Christian chapels carved into the stone and caves that
are now pigeon houses. There were also families who still live in the
caves there and have cultivated beautiful orchards amidst all of the
rocks and historical sites. As we walked along the guide would pluck
fruit from the surrounding trees and we would munch on perfectly ripe
plums and apricots. We couldn't stop thinking this must have been
what Eden was like. Perfect temperature, perfect atmosphere and yummy
FOOD.

The underground cities were our last stop. These were chiseled out
over the course of hundreds of years in response to Arab and Muslim
attacks and some Christian communities would hide in them and not come
out for up to four years! Imagine never seeing the light of day for
that long. I'd be pretty white. We had to hunch our shoulders and
practically crawl through some of the passageways. Besides feeling a
wee bit claustrophobic we all enjoyed it a lot, particularly the
living quarters and kitchen. One of the coolest things were the doors
so I included a picture of us lifting one. They are enormous round
stones with a hole in them for poking your lance through and stabbing
your enemies on the other side! That was their only line of defense
so if that didn't work they had to book it to the next underground
city through their 9-kilometer escape tunnel!

Our return home was not so happy. We learned that Isun, one of the
teachers at Kids Klub (who is only 21), wasn't at work because her
father had died in a horrible construction accident over the weekend.
Rebekka too learned that a family friend had passed away. Then she
woke up Tuesday feeling horribly ill with a fever. On Wednesday
morning I got sick with the same thing plus vomiting. Things have
calmed down and we've all regained our health but for a while it was
like a permanent case of the Monday's.

Now for a typical day at the Kid's Klub! We usually take a dolmish
(small dingey bus) around 9:30 and arrive around 9:45 to the smiling
faces of our students and usually desperate screams from the nurseries
upstairs (don't worry, it is really a nice place!). They all greet us
with hugs and the double kiss thing then we buckle down for a long
morning of craft rotations. We've made tissue butterflies, bead
lizards, collage candle holders, painted pots with flower seeds in
them, and a huge tree on the wall with glittery leaves and English
words written on it. All the kids in the school will come in at
different times to do the craft so it's really busy and stressful, but
fun! Then we'll have lunch upstairs at the kiddy tables with TINY
chairs that make us all feel enormous. Typical meal is rice and green
beans with slices of French bread.

We have two translators (besides the 14-year olds) who are helping us.
Ozi and Eileen. Ozi is at the Görem Center and has informed us that
all the people here really like us (we spend a lot of time in the
lobby where people gawk at us and talk amongst themselves but at least
now we know they are saying good things!). Ozi came with us and
Shafak to a concert last Friday and it was really fun even though we
were only there half an hour! Turkish music is crazy and has the
mystical power of making everyone wiggle their hips to the music.
That along with night swimming made for a fun night especially when we
were in the back of Shafak's truck and caught a man in the car behind
us picking his nose! Or when Shafak turned around and said that VZ's
arm "looks like a leg". Good memories, indeed.

God has continued to bless us in so many ways and we are all growing
in Him every day. We all report feeling more at peace than ever and
hope to bring that back with us to Seattle. We are still praying for
all the dep teams, particularly Katie in the DR and the Ethiopia team.
More than anything we pray that everyone will get back to Seattle in
the perfect state of mind to embrace their lives back home and use the
deputation experience to grow even more after their return.

Speaking of God… and things he created… VZ, Dayna, and I were
swimming in the cove when a German man standing on a rock yelled
something to me and stretched out his arms. I didn't know what he was
saying so he just yelled, "Big fish!" and disappeared. Moments later
there is no one in the water and the everyone at the beach club is
crowded at the top of the stairs to the water, pointing and taking
pictures of something between us and them.

We started to freak out because we thought it was a shark. We
screamed at Doj, "ARE WE OK?!!??! DOJ WHAT IS IN THE WATER?" but no
one would answer us. Finally a huge brown head emerged from the water
and we realized it was a gigantic seal. It swam within feet of the
shore then went on its way. It a gift from God to see such a
magnificent animal we were quite gleeful when we found out that it
wasn't a shark.

Our prayer requests continue to be for team unity but ESPECIALLY for
limitless energy and ideas to keep these small humans entertained. We
also would like prayer to be a good influence on our translators and
help them in any way that we can. Sorry this was so long!

TEAM TURKEY

P.S. The Ak Party dominated the election last night with 49% of the
vote. Although it is strongly Islamic Tanshule seems to think that
the next five years might be the last before Turkey is ready for
democracy. We shall see.

Ethiopia Update

Team Ethiopia Update
Week 4

Hello!

Well, it’s a good feeling to say this but I think I can speak for our whole team in saying that Ethiopia has finally begun to feel like home. Except for a few things, we have become familiar with the environment and the culture here. Health has not been completely up to par, but so far the death count is at zero and the sickest any of us has gotten has been the common cold. Amazing for being in a place that is so bacteria ridden.
Right now we are waiting on the arrival of six new interns who will be staying with us in Mekelle for 10 days. At the same time, there are three wonderful Canadian team members who we have been working with at the youth center ever since we got here, and two of them leave at the end of this week. People are coming and going so it will be exciting seeing some new faces and gaining new friendships with staff members. So far the people that we have been working with have been awesome, and are a huge help in our ability to get in tune with how everything works over here.
While we have been at the youth center, our daily routine has typically consisted of doing outdoor games/relay races with the younger kids as well as younger kid English classes in the morning, followed by a two hour lunch break, then either song time or health and fitness, followed by outdoor games with the older boys and arts/crafts with the girls until the day ends. Days have been starting at the youth center at about 8 or 830 in the morning and ending at around 6 at night. I would say we are doing well at getting good rests every night and being able to put as much energy as possible for the eight or so hours we are at the youth center.
Unfortunately, life in this culture has been much harder for the girls than for the guys. The man is very dominant in this culture, meaning that there is a lack of respect for girls here. We have been holding a discussion group once a week, and during our last session the girls’ comments received no feedback from any of the guys, and no Ethiopian girls were even there. It is also really hard just being an American in this culture. Everywhere we walk we will be getting remarks from people yelling “Forengi! Forengi! (foreigner)” and recently we have noticed taxi drivers and merchants selling us cheap things at much higher prices, just because they know we are American and they have the perception that we are all filthy rich. As Karla mentioned, “it is really exhausting.” Even so, it has been getting easier than it used to be and we are finally being able to laugh at most of the things that frustrated us before.
Apart from feeling so singled out in this culture, we have been given opportunities to blend in well. Just a few nights ago Daniel and I were given the chance to have four Ethiopians over for dinner, and the next night were able to learn from one of the teenagers from the youth center how to make Shiro, a popular Ethiopian dish. Violet and Karla had a slumber party on the same night with several Ethiopian girls from the youth center. There are so many fascinating things about the Ethiopian culture, such as there being a traditional ceremony whenever you have people over to drink coffee. We’re all coffee lovers so I think that works out pretty well. Alongside of getting more in depth with the culture here, all of us have started to grow deep relationships with multiple teenagers at the youth center.
Last week it was one of the Canadian team member’s birthdays, so we all went to one of the missionary’s house for an American food barbeque. It had been at least two or three weeks since I had seen a hamburger, so it was refreshing to eat one again, even though the food here is amazing.
Oh, and praise Jesus, but our bags finally made it! Thank you for all of your prayers for that, and I am really happy to let you guys know that they are here and they are safe. Keep, however, praying for Karla’s craft bag, for it still has yet to arrive. WE WANT THOSE CRAFTS!
Violet and Karla have been in charge of a girls bible study that is going really well. All of the girls have been asking a lot of good, deep questions, and the two of them are feeling like God’s work is in use.
Even outside of the bible study we have all been seeing God’s work in these children. A valuable lesson we learned is that giving our all at the youth center cannot be measured, and even through just seeing a kid learn how to behave correctly in English class is showing that God is at work here. On top of that it is very, very rare to see a kid without a smile when they are around us. Just holding a child’s hand seems to make their day, and it seems that they will do anything just to get some kind of contact with us. As far as a direct example of this goes, there is a young cross-eyed girl who at any moment when she sees you will open her arms with the biggest smile and run at you expecting to give you the biggest hug ever. I don’t know if I have ever seen a child smile so big, and it happens when she just sees you. No lie, there is a lot of love here at the youth center.
Be praying for perseverance. We came across a verse in 1 Corinthians (15:58) that says “Therefore, my brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Put all of your focus into doing the Lord’s work, for you can then be sure he working in you.” There are many things that have pushed us, and now coming into our last four weeks at the youth center, our main concern is that we keep pushing as hard as we have been.

Love,
Team Ethiopia

India Update

SO...yet another great week! school is going going going and although i cannot speak fully for the team...i feel like school days just fly by and FOR SURELY just feel like i want more time with the children! OH, they are just so great, well most of them...of course you have your little troublemakers here and there:).

So this week we went to Puna to visit the mukti mission. this is the coolest place really....in as few words as possible this wonderful woman started this orphanage for women on top of being a christian and translating the bible (while standing for reasons of respect) into something like, well i don't remember how many to be totally honest but like A TOTAL WOW AMOUNT of different languages. she was truly amazing. she has since passed but the mukti mission has flourished and includes now day care centers, medical care, an old age home, a special needs school, care for the visually handicapped, education for primary, secondary and vocational training, computer training, nursery and adoption. it is a HUGE places and the schools include some students from mukti and some who live in the surrounding villages. it was truely a treat to go and visit these women and children and see how talented they are. We were able to visit all of the classrooms which showered us with cards and flowers and even chat a little with some of the older residents. it was wonderful!

that is just so brief....i do apologize. yesterday was zoo day. now i'm not much of a fan for zoos but we went on a safari and got to see bears and lions and tigers and ride an elephant and i will admit it was preeeeetttttyyyy cool. the children from the hostel (those who live on campus at the school) came as well. these are some of my favorite times becuse you can really bond with the kids. when you're in class you can only do so much and connect so much...there are of course things to be done. speaking of school natalie is still doing work for rita...little to dos here and there which rita QUITE OBVIOUSLY appreciates. jason is a walking talking camera taking pictures for the school's new brochure, power point presentation and other various needs, and carl has officially been named the "if anyone needs help man" which i fully appreciate in the art room because honestly having class after class is just not a job built for one...really. it is so nice to have an extra set of hands.

Prem and Rita are doing well as are our new teammates. They (dean the 30 year old irish man and sylva the 45+ german woman) are planning on going on most of the rest of our trips with us and although they most of the time do their own thing, are interesting to have around...quite a new dynamic:] we leave on friday for goa...which is going to be such a treat. we're praying for hot hot hot weather so we can hit the beach! hooray! other than that life is good and the days are just going. i'm pretty sure we all feel truly blessed to be doing what we do here in india.

Malawi Update

Hello again!

Team Malawi is alive and well! We are back from a week at Chiwengo Village where we worked with the other interns doing chores and helping the aunties. Our separate village ministries are going well, we can see God working in each area! Jen’s classes are going well, and many students are preparing for their exams. The widows ministry that Chenee is working with just opened up their store where they are selling the products they hand make. Myself and Caitlin are continuing to teach 1st and 2nd grade in the Mgoyi (sp?) village. COTN attempted to show the Jesus video but it did not work, we were all upset about that. In a couple minutes we are off to our mid-summer retreat, so I may have a longer update in a few days..

Team Malawi is asking for prayer as we travel to our time at Lake Malawi. We also ask for prayer as we seek God’s guidance through administrative details/issues that have occurred. We are all healthy FINALLY so thank you for prayers for that. Lastly, prayers that we will see God in our ministries, our relationships, and even in the midst of the basic daily life.

Sorry its so short..time to get BACK on the coaster!!!

Making Sand Castles

Jen and Korina talking to some of the workers at lunch time. They are so eager to teach us Tagalog and we love learning it!













Us girls showing off our new hard hats.



Jen making CIBs (concrete interlocking blocks).
The local workers can make more than twice as many blocks as we can in the same time!











Korina and Po-Po making the half blocks...not an easy task!





Paul helping Holly with the CIB machine.






Holly and Jen caring the blocks out in the HOT sun to bake.











All in a days work.

DR Update

7/17/07

This is just a quick update on the last week or so:

I doubt that this is a first in World Dep’s long history, but I’m officially the last deputee in the DR. Anna left on Tuesday and Amy left this last Saturday. Steph and Amy J. are still here, recovering, and taking special precautions against more mosquito bites. I’ve used the two bottles of repellent I brought-we’re hopefully getting more this week so we can coat ourselves morning, afternoon, and night. Please continue to pray for our health- Jeff gets his test results back this afternoon and very likely has Dengue as well. Another handful of us have “gripe,” a cold and fever combo. I’ve had a fever on and off for the last week and feel okay, just drained. I’m confused by the sickness here, but we continue to rely on something greater than ourselves, lifting one another up in prayer, and pushing through.

We went to a beautiful river Friday afternoon. We went on a river hike up some waterfalls and swung from some vines. It was really great and one last surprise before Amy left. Saturday a group of us went to PlayaAzul for lunch and a beach day. I played in some tide pools and saw snails, fish, an eel, and urchins. It was a good restful and adventurous weekend amidst the craziness of this last week. I also had good times with my host family. I’m getting more of a hang of it and adjusting more each day to the funny quirks and challenges of my home. I’m playing a lot of chess, checkers, and teaching all my uncles and aunts English on Mondays and Fridays. They are very patient with me and I’m constantly amazed at how they always offer me the best and want me to be at home.

This week was our fist classes in the bateys. I’m teaching in Los Robles with Lisa, David, and Steph. Our first day we were supposed to have about 20 students that needed special help in reading, writing, and math. When we got there, we waited while the pastor rounded up about 50 kids. It was a disaster. I tried to administer an evaluation to see where they needed the most help, but didn’t have another forms and kids actually sitting in desks…and of course they would cheat on a basic eval! In the other room, the kids found scissors and started shredding books. All of us were bewildered and without a plan. We eventually kicked all the kids out of both classrooms and tried to regroup. We spent the rest of the afternoon planning lessons, devotionals, and setting up what Lisa called our “10-pronged plan” to teaching this kids. Pray that we do not get caught up in the details of the lessons and will love them well- whether they are brandishing scissors or not. We had our first English class today and it went well. We had Wanchi, our translator, with us and he helped keep the kids in line and teach. Next time, I’m going to pull out some of the older kids that have had some prior courses and teach a conversational group. It should be great.

We have one more day of classes tomorrow in Los Robles, my English class at the vocational school in the afternoon, and then we are heading for an undisclosed hotel for our midsummer retreat through Saturday. It should be a good time for us to recoup and spend some quality time together. It’s my birthday on Sunday, and although I’m excited to spend it with my new family and friends, I’m getting a more and more homesick. I’m fighting hard my tendency to have my thoughts and heart distracted by my life in Washington and trying to keep centered and focused here.

Okay, I’m off to work on curriculum for this week’s courses and wrap up some sponsorship forms. You are all in my thoughts and prayers.

Under the Mercy,

Katie

Bangalore Update

here is a quick update...it's late-ish and the internet cafe will close soon:]

SO! we just got back from hyderabad. we left on tue and returned on saturday. TWO long twelve hour train rides...it was fun, but strange. we were in the "sleeper-class" meaning we had little drop down bed to sleep on...well "sleep on" :] anywho, hyderabad was great, it was a bit newer than bangalore, and thus a tad cleaner. we went to three different ministries with prem which included BMI which was a center run for muslim women. it is very dangerous in this certain area in hyderabad to run a christian organization because muslims, well they don't quite agree with being christian. this married couple had to keep fairly hush hush but ran this awesome center which taught muslim women various different sorts of trade. they were learning everything from henna work (called mehndi here), stitching and computer work, to cloth paining and bead work. they were so happy to share their work with us and it was just such an awesome experience. they even offered to give natalie and i mehndi! which we gladly accepted:] also we went to IMA which is an organization that works with missions ALL over india, it's pretty awesome. and then a smaller organization called TENT. they had various different programs that included training various leaders in the thousands of different people groups in the word to spread the word to all of these numerous people groups that make up india (i hope that made sense:]). being a christian in india is not an easy life. many of these organizations keep sort of under wraps and somewhat quiet about what work they do in order to protect themselves as well as their work. i will admit it is so difficult for me personally to see the lord in india. BUT THEN when i do find Him, He's just so powerful. Christians in india are so devoted and so loving, it is refreshing and such a wonderful example. anyway, we came home, after a long train ride happy to be "home" which is what we've started calling prem and rita's.
SO we have new members to our team! sort of. a lovely German woman came to the house yesterday and today a nice man from northern Ireland. he's about 30 and she's about 50. they seem to be rather nice people...although we've only been around them for a few days, we're doing most of what is left of our traveling with them which should prove to be interesting/exciting. so i'm keeping this short b/c i've had such a busy week w/ traveling and then right back into school, which by the way is going so well! Although we do wish we had more time there i think. we all are enjoying our trips so much but we keep having half weeks (if even that) and it's hard to keep things going relationship and lesson wise with the kids when we're only at school a few days a week! craziness! anywho, we leave for pune on thur. we're going to visit the mukti mission with rita and we're all very excited about it. until we return, love from india!

Ethiopia Update

Hey there,

This is the beginning of our third week now in Ethiopia. Just as we thought time was going by really slowly here, we are already a quarter of the way done with our trip! Overall things are still going pretty smoothly- we are pretty healthy, enjoying living on our own, and are absolutely loving this country- for the most part. Except for the dysfunctional airport system, Ethiopia is the place to be.
We can safely say that we are finally getting used to things down here at the youth center. It has been a great experience getting to know the older kids (as well as the younger kids), and we feel as though we finally have a foundation to work off of for the rest of the summer. There has been a mixed feel as to how successful things are going so far, mainly because it is hard to form space between the younger and older kids at the center. The problem is that even though there are SO many younger kids, and all of them are aching for so much attention, we have to focus a lot of our energy on the others, because one of our goals here is to instill a sense of good leadership in the older kids to take over when all of us are gone. We have tried so many times to separate the times between the two groups by having kid time in the morning and teenager time for the rest of the day, but whenever we try to play a game with the older kids the younger ones come out as Daniel mentioned, “like a swarm of bees.” This is no exaggeration, because it really looked like a nest had been destroyed the other day when we saw the kids burst out of the youth center doors to join an older kids Frisbee game outside. Of course, the result of this is that we get blunt with the younger ones and make them sit on the side, which is not a fun thing to have to do. We may be in good health, but we are without a doubt physically and mentally exhausted.
So far the only games we can play are ultimate Frisbee and handball.There is construction taking place on the basketball court, and until that is finished those are the only two games we were told were legitamite- even soccer is being outlawed until the construction is over. That is another challenge we have had to face, but we hope to be up and running by next week. Still, everything here is so unpredictable so we really have to just give everything to the Lord. Frisbee, in the meantime, is extremely chaotic to play with the little kids. None of us can be everywhere at once, which makes playing with the kids “fairly” an impossible thing to do. When one of us gets the Frisbee, about ten or so little ones will come up screaming for it, and when you pass it to one of them the other nine will come up and say “Jiff, give me… No Jiff, give me.” All we can do then is just smile and say OK!
Oh yeah, that’s another thing- the names. Apparently Jeff does not fly here so they say Jiff. Daniel told me I have become a peanut butter brand. Karla’s knife business is gaining in popularity and “Karra,” or in review from last weeks update “knife” is becoming the most popular name usage among the kids. Violet is now “Lilly” and Daniel “Donny.” Daniel noticed that during English class the kids could not pronounce the “a” in valley and instead kept saying “Volley.” OK NOW THE COMPUTER IS FLIPPING OUT ON ME SO EVERYTHING IS IN CAPS LOCK. DON’T THINK THAT I AM REALLY TRYING TO EMPHASIZE THE REST OF THIS UPDATE. ANYWAY….

KARLA SEEMS TO BE THE SEXUAL ATTRACTION OF THE GROUP AROUND THE YOUTH CENTER, BUT DON’T WORRY GREG, WE ARE KEEPING HER SAFE FROM THE PREDATORS. THE OTHER DAY SOME BOYS ASKED HER TO LIFT UP WHEN SHE WAS TALKING TO THEM IN THE WEIGHT ROOM.. AND THEY WEREN’T REFERING TO THE WEIGHTS. I BELIEVE THEIR EXACT WORDS WERE “SATISFY US!” POOR KARLA….

KARLA AND VIOLET HAVE ALSO BEEN GETTING THEIR SHARE OF ADVENTURE IN MEKELE. THE OTHER DAY THEY WERE INVITED TO A GIRLS HOUSE TO EAT LUNCH, BUT WERE LED INTO A BARBER SHOP AND FORCED TO GET THEIR HAIR DONE FOR 30 BIRR. I MIGHT JUST WANT TO ADD THAT THEY LOOKED ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS WHEN THEY CAME BACK TO THE YOUTH CENTER. APPARENTLY THE WHOLE TEAM HAS BEEN INVITED TO THE SAME HOUSE FOR LUNCH ON SATURDAY, SO ME AND DANIEL WILL KNOW THAT WHEN THE SCISSORS COME OUT, WE RUN.

ASIDE FROM THE YOUTH CENTER, WE ARE REALLY SATISFIED AT HOW MUCH TIME WE HAVE SPENT TOGETHER AS A WHOLE TEAM, CONSIDERING THAT WE LIVE A GOOD HALF AN HOUR AWAY FROM EACH OTHER. EATING OUT AT RESTAURANTS IS A GREAT EXPERIENCE, BUT HAS ITS ODDSIDES TO IT. FIRST OF ALL, WE HAVE TO PRAY LIKE WE ARE HAVING A CONVERSATION, SO IT WAS WEIRD THE OTHER NIGHT LOOKING INTO KARLA’S EYES AS SHE WAS BLESSING THE MEAL. IT FEELS AS IF YOU ARE PRAYING TO EACH OTHER. ALSO, IT IS CULTURALLY WRONG TO EAT USING YOUR LEFT HAND. THE RIGHT HAND IS FOR EATING, WHERE THE LEFT HAND IS FOR…. WELL, IF YOU ARE EATING FOOD AS YOU READ THIS UPDATE I’LL JUST SPARE YOU OF WHAT THE LEFT HAND IS FOR.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

- BAGGAGE
- SENSE OF ACCOMPLISHMENT WITH SATISFYING BOTH LITTLE AND OLDER KIDS
- HEALTH
- ABILITY TO CONTINUE GETTING CLOSE WITH THE OLDER KIDS

WE ARE THINKING ABOUT YOU ALL AND ARE KEEPING YOU ALL IN OUR PRAYERS. WE WILL CONTINUE WITH OUR WEEKLY UPDATES NEXTG SUNDAY.

PEACE,
TEAM ETHIOPIA

Visiting Different Ministries

Contrary to popular belief, we have been working this week, just not building houses : ) This last week Habitat gave control of us over to Union Church of Manila and we have had the opportunity to visit different ministries that they financially support.

On Monday, we traveled to Cabuyao and spent the day at a ministry called the Institute for Foundational Learning (IFL). This ministry is truly amazing because they educate and house over a hundred local children from preschool through high school! In addition, they are almost completely self-sustaining: they grow their own rice and vegetables and raise their own pigs, chickens, ducks, and fish…quite impressive, especially from an ecological perspective. On Tuesday, we learned all about the history of the Philippines by visiting the Ayala Museum and taking a tour of Intramuros (the old walled city) with a hilarious tour guide named Carlos Celdran. Then on Wednesday we went to Tagaytay to stay over night at a ministry called Action International. This ministry also educates and houses Filipino children and teenagers, but focuses also on teaching trade skills such as auto mechanics, wood working, and sewing so their students can get jobs soon after they graduate. We visited the next ministry, Sumulong Baptist Church Feeding Program, on Friday in Antipolo. They feed 25 local children lunch and dinner four days a week. The parents of these children typically earn about 40 pesos a week (about one US dollar)! It has been such a treat to witness the different ministries that UCM sponsors in so many geographical areas and see how they are literally transforming the lives of so many children.

This week has been a nice change of pace, but we are excited to get back to work (building) next week in Taguig. We wish that you pray for the different ministries we visited this week so that they can continue to find the resources they need to continue spreading the love of Jesus Christ to the local children and also to pray for our team as it has been almost one month since we left and we are all starting to miss our friends and family.

God Bless,

Paul, Poyang, Jenn, Korina, and Holly

(the picture is of Holly helping some 3-4 year olds at the IFL)