January 2013

 

Happy New Year.  Seven months have passed since we began this mission experience.  We are beginning the year 2013.  December was a relatively slow month as Christmas is really celebrated here in the Philippines.  Everyone travels to see their families and takes time off work and school.  Fireworks and firecrackers are a constant from December 24th.  New Years Eve they were so loud it sounded like a war zone.  The skies were filled with smoke and the noise was louder than anything I have ever experienced.  The tradition is to scare all the bad spirits from the previous year away to bring on a better year.  I was woke out of a sound sleep at about 11:30 with the sound of explosions outside our bedroom window and smoke pouring by from all the celebrating.  We were invited to the home of the neighborhood association president and would have walked down to their house, but the street parallel to ours was full of exploding firecrackers and I was too frightened to walk down any street full of smoke and explosions.  What an experience!  From the news we have learned that the injuries suffered from firecrackers this year was down to only 800! Even the very poor enjoy the use of firecrackers and noise even though they are expensive.  It was an experience I will never forget.  We have been told we may be in for a similar experience come the Chinese New Year.  I hope not.

Our daughter Faith and her boyfriend Josh came to the Philippines to visit us for five glorious days from Dec 26-31.  I was so excited to see them, that it seemed like they were the last ones to get their bags and head out of the airport.  I tried not to cry but that was useless.  They brought a suitcase full of needed items for us from home including q-tips, tide pens, tortillas, razors, onion soup mix, Iron out, chilies, salt, lotion, and many more things. We traveled over the mountain to San Carlos to introduce them to our Perpetual Education Participants one day driving through the rice terraces, mountain fern grove, and past he water falls to the summit where you can see the ocean on the other side of the island.   Everyone was thrilled to meet Faith and touch her blond hair.  Of course most of the people just stared at her because she is so fair and has that light blond hair and blue eyes.  By the end of the trip Faith wished she had a black wig to wear! We also drove to the mountain resort called Mambukal.  It is beautiful there with hot water springs, a butterfly pavilion and beautiful running streams running throughout the rain forests.  The final day we traveled to see an accessorial sugar cane home and then to the beautiful ruins of another sugar plantation.  The second plantation was built by a plantation owner for his beautiful wife and thirteen children.  When WWII began they family burned the interior of the home so the Japanese could not use it as one of their headquarters.  The walls are covered in a cement stucco with and egg white mix to make the walls glow at sunset.  It is very beautiful.  The grounds are well kept gardens with a fountain and large grass area used for weddings.  Faith and Josh were amazed by the poverty, traffic, people and the way things transpire day to day.  That is not surprising as even thought we have been here seven months we are still caught off guard by many of the particularities we see every day. 

We were sorry to see Faith and Josh leave, but with the new year starting it was time for everyone to get back to work (especially us) .We  have a list of things we need to handle before the month passes including training new church service missionaries, renewing applications, interviewing those close to graduation and our regular monthly work.  We are also expecting to be assigned to another mission soon (the Cebu Mission) which will add two more islands to our area and open the calls and training of many more service missionary couples.  That is a vital part of our call as the participants then have local mature couples who live close to them to assist and serve them as they travel the education and career start paths.  The local couples called are angels and work miracles keeping the young students successful in their school work and their loan repayment commitment.  We could never do our calling without their support and service. 

We are so blessed to live in a beautiful home on the water's edge and enjoy the air conditioning, hot water and comforts of our home here in Bacolod.  It allows us the rest from our labors we need to keep going.  We have also been blessed with good health and strong bodies which enable us to continue to do the Lord's work here.  May the Lord bless you with a prosperous and Happy New Year.