I pick of me and dad from my time out there earlier this month…
I have been WAY behind in blogging…

I guess this does not really qualify as “getting back on the blog trail” - but it will have to do…

Well…
It is official…

J.Camden Feather has been graduated from Jefferson Elementary - Kindergarten Class of ‘09.

I love College Baseball…
And it does not get any better than the post season…
Go Noles!
This is not joke…
The Big Ten needs to stick with Football, but then again they are not that great at that either.

Took my long enough… but then again there was almost 2,600 pictures to go through…
I got that number cut by more then half, but there was still a lot to go through…
Does it sound like I am whining?
Cause I am!

Enough with that…. Grace College did the Philippines, and here is the proof!

Anyway….
To see the pictures, either click on the photo below or
Click here for this site to take you to the flickr slide show mode.

After going through all the pictures again and “re-living” the experience… I am once again in awe of God, who He is and how he protected us on this trip. Not only did He protect us, but opened our eyes and hearts to so many things.

God you are good!

Article today in the Warsaw Times Union about our trip to Manila

Grace College Students Serve In Philippines
5/29/2009 12:00:00 PM

Jennifer Peryam
Times-Union Staff Writer

WINONA LAKE - Grace College students recently visited the Philippines to reach out to orphans.The 16 students visited Manila, the capital city of the Philippines, May 10-23.
Students at the college are required to participate in a cross-cultural experience before they graduate.They volunteered with Kids International Ministries, an organization started by missionaries, that has an orphanage that assists 70 orphans.The students had the opportunity to participate in a program where they fed the orphans. They also performed programs and shared stories, singing, games and crafts.They also visited American Manila Cemetery in the Philippines.

The students went with Scott Feather, Grace College dean of the chapel and global ministries.Rachel Israel, a sophomore graphic design major, is half Filipino. She said she enjoyed learning about her heritage. It was Israel’s first time for visiting the Philippines. Israel’s mother was born in Manila, but moved to the United States before Israel was born.
“I always heard stories about Manila growing up when my mom told me the Philippines were industrialized, and if I visited that I would see American products, but I also would see poverty and overcrowding,” Israel said.Heidi Class, a senior elementary education major, said the trip encouraged her even more to want to work overseas with children as a missionary.
Brianne Pinkerton, a junior nursing major, said it was interesting to see destitute areas.”What stuck out to me most was that the children had so little, but they were still happy and joyful,” Pinkerton said. Kallie Holzhauser, a senior counseling and Bible studies major, said she enjoyed spending time with the children.”It was an eye-opening trip and made me appreciate the small things I take for granted,” Holzhauser said.

I am not even half way through with the pictures yet from our trip to Manila…
But I came across this video of Adam and Donna eating Balut…. (click on the link for “what” it is)
I had to post it…

We are in Taipei right now… I am such a US citizen, that I am not even sure I spelled that city correctly, of the country of Taiwan for that matter (sorry Amy Keith - just cause I do not know how to spell the country you love does not mean we can not still be friends… or does it?)

We left Manila at about 7am this morning, and boarded the plane there at about 11. We board in about an hour for our 13 hour flight to the US.

To travel is fun…
To come home, Divine…

God has filled our eyes, minds, and hearts… We should never be the same again. I think we are ready to come home and be different people. If we are not… shame on us!

See ya soon.

p.s. Camden lost his first tooth here at the airport.

We are back from the beach…
And now the internet does not work…

Wow, God’s creation is amazing! I have tried to blog about our experience at the beach and each time it was just “cheesy” – I am sure this will be cheesy as well, but the experience needs to be shared, our journey chronicled, so here we go.

We did not have internet at the beach, but I saved a document or two in word. But again, they just did not seem to capture the time. So here I am, back at the dorm… and now the internet does not work here. I will record our “happenings” and upload them as soon as I can.

Here was our beach trip, in no particular order:

Jonah’s Shakes…
Trike – rides…
9 of the 18 feeding stations…
Jimmer, and his songs…
Henna Tattoos…
Making birds out of Palm Frowns…
2 – 15 minute boat rides…
2 – 50 minute plane rides…
Singing Buhay, Buhay Hesus ay Buhay… Over and over again !
Para-sailing…
Banana Boat rides…
A sunset sail…
Snorkeling in the South China Sea…
Looking for see shells…
Eating lunch on the beach…
“A three hour tour… a three hour tour…”
Rachel and her love for children…
Noah and the ark…. Again!
The walls of Jericho… Again!
Twisting wire…
Shoveling Rock…
And more rock…
And more rock…
Bartering for “stuff”…
Shakes in the “Zest Air Lounge”…
Running in the rain…
Did in mention that it rained?
Mongolian Barbeque to die for…
The best pizza to be found anywhere…
Dan and Tori Beaver: their heart for the people…
Sleeping with Air Con…
Sharing the gospel at a table under an old tree…

There was so much more, those are just the things that come to mind. These 13 days have gone fast, yet in other respects it feels as though we have been here for months.

We arrived back from the beach about 8:30 last night (Thursday) and had a wonderful meal of Lasagna and salad prepared for us by the ladies… they have been so good to us! After dinner, it was laundry and getting settled back in.

This morning (Friday), we had team time for the first time in “forever”… it was good to once again sit around and sing with each other.
The time started out with “Sing to the King”, and then we went right into “How Great is our God”. Before the next song, we spent some time praying back to that Great God things that we were thankful for… so cool to listen to the students prayers change over the course of this trip! (thanks for your prayers… we can feel them here, God is doing a work here in the Philippines, but maybe even more so in the hearts of the students on this trip! – thanks for being a part of that!)

We then spent some time talking about what God has taught us about himself and us through this trip, along with specific changes we would like to make in our lives as a result of this trip. The time was special and specific! God is working… God is “becoming” alive to these students! The time was so good…

After prayer we sang three more songs: “Beautiful One”, “Give Us Clean Hands” and “If You Say Go”. After that, Kaitlyn shared for a little bit about how God brought her here, and how it has been so different than she expected and much harder than she expected, but God said GO! So she came. I did not know this part of her story, but it was 5 years ago at some conference where the speaker challenged them to go and follow him, then they sang the song we ended with!

After our “team meeting” – we were off. Dave Clinton from First Love Ministries came and took us to a feeding site here in Manila, Tanza actually… We drove 11 miles (it took 50 minutes) and the scenery and surroundings were TOTALLY different. If was like we were in the jungle or something…

We arrived and had about 60 kids (by the time the “program” was over, we fed over 110 kids) we sang some songs with them, did the Noah’s Ark story and then took them out to the road for the parachute game, red light / green light, and shark and minnows. After the games, it was back to the “house” for food. Words cannot describe what it was like to line these kids up and give them food. This program feeds them 3 times a week – and I think many have not eaten since Wednesday when the program was there last. To watch the faces of the students as they helped and watched the kids – PRICELESS!

I cannot wait to get the pictures up of all these experiences! You will love them… We have now taken about 2,500 – so It may take a while for me to go through them and get them online… but I will work as fast as I can.

We were going to hand out bracelets today, but we did not have enough, that means that since we have been here, we have handed out around 1,300 bracelets – in which the gospel message was shared every time… and on three occasions it was done by my kids… so cool!

Sorry that I have not been able to stay connected lately…
And sorry this post is so short and not very descriptive…
You deserve more…

Thanks for praying anyway!

Tomorrow we all leave…
Would you please pray for safety!

God is good… All the time!

I told you you would hear from our church experience…
here we go.

Jessica will talk about the group that went to the church at the Arthur Center:

Mangandang hapon po! Kumusta Kayo?

This morning was the first time all of us were out in the community without Kaitlyn, Scott, or Jodi. Which meant that we didn’t have our wing men with us. I’m not going to lie-it was a little nerve racking. Even though I knew that everything would work out and I knew our driver, Robel, would get us to and from church safely and without a problem. It was just frightening going out alone.

Anyway, Church this morning was both similar and different from anything that I have ever experienced before. Before leaving the States, Scott had told us the Philippines was a highly evangelized country. So, going into this morning I knew that it would be similar to Church back at home. And it was. It was almost the exact “routine” that church goers in the United States experience. But, here something was different. I’ll try to put it into words for you but nothing beats experiencing it for yourself.

Like I said, it was like an American church.

We arrived [safely-thanks to Robel].
Waited for eveyone to get settled [they are highly event oriented Kels ;)].
Sang.
Announcements were made.
Preaching occurred.
Singing wrapped the morning up.
People left the building.
Church was over.

Unfortunately, in America, we can make church an outlet where people perform instead of it’s real purpose [at least that is how I felt about the churches I attended before I went to college]. This is the first thing I noticed about these people that was different. Church to them, seemed to be a little more pure-if that makes sense-than in America. The room was tiny. To be honest, it wasn’t anything to write home about. In fact, they had no air conditioning, plastic yard seats, a terrible keyboard that sounded like it might have been ran over by a Jeepney, 2 really ugly fake orchid plants hanging on the wall, and 1 lizard crawling all over the walls. There were only about 20-25 people there this morning (excluding our brood of 8), not 1,500. Nevertheless (that was just for you Ab), each one was excited to worship God in a 30 x 30 room! They didn’t realize their numbers stunk. They didn’t notice their wall decorations were crazy ugly. They didn’t care about the lizard. All they cared about was the Word of God. Like I said, church seems pure here. The people were in the room to give praise, glory and honor to God Almighty. Now, I can’t read people’s hearts or motives. But, I can tell you what I saw. I saw the people there intently listening to Pastor Better preach on the things grace can do for a believer. I never once saw a Filipino look at the clock to hurry up the pastor’s sermon. I never once saw a Filipino lean over and talk to their neighbor about anything. It was nice.

It was nice to sing “Hingi Ka Magbadago.” I have NO idea what the words were, what they meant, and I am pretty sure I was just mumbling syllables the whole time. But, all I could think was this NOISE, this mumbling, this crazy keyboard, is making God smile. It’s making Him think-those are my children and look at how they are honoring me. How cool. To see God in a different culture is amazing. To see others struggling and learning just like my culture-is comforting. And I don’t know if this is making sense right now, but it is in my head. Although, that can be a scary place sometimes.

I’ll sum up everything with the verse from this morning. Ephesians 2:8-9, “Sapagkat dahil sa kaganhang loob ng Diyos kayo ay maligtas sa pamamamagitan; at ang kaligtasang ito’y kaloob ng Diyos at hin dia sa pamamagitan ng inyong sarili; a hindi ito bunga ng inyong mga gawa kayat walang dapat impagmalaki ang sinuman.”

Hi mom. dad. moofe.

Now Katie will talk about the church service at Tagumpay Evangelical Baptist Church (Cuatro Christian Church)

Going into Sunday morning, I was really excited to experience a Philippine church service. Before heading over to church, we first stopped by the Children’s home. We met up with the children and their caretakers and walked over to church. Cuatro Christian Church is a community church, like many places here it is not very big but this morning it was packed. Once we entered the church the Pastor greeted us and we all took our seats (folding chairs) amongst the kids.

Like Jessica, I also noted that the order of service was quite similar to that of churches in the United States.

The church service went as follows:
- Call to Worship - Opening Prayer - Song - Scripture Reading from Acts - Prayer - Worship Songs - The Message - Offertory - Prayer - Benediction - Closing Remarks and Announcements (during this time, our group was announced by name and stood up)

Through much of the service, Pastor Quimboy spoke both Tagalog and English. (This was quite helpful.) The songs we sang were all in English, except for the Benediction, and some of the songs were pretty familiar to me. The message today was from Acts 9 and Pastor Quimboy went through the church’s missions statement. In summary, the statement talked about the importance of having a church “without walls” and as children of God we need to learn how to go “beyond these walls”. The pastor mentioned that we (people) are the greatest Bible that anyone can find. He also talked about the importance of being Bibles to others as we spread the Gospel, and following the great commission as we serve others.

Just like every other day, today was no exception…it was hot this morning! As we were walking to the church this morning I realized the sweat rolling down my face and found myself wishing to be in an air conditioned room drinking cold lemonade. This was far from the case as we walked into a non-air conditioned, cramped room with a very dry throat. Although, we did have the luxury of some running fans. Again, the heat took a toll on my body as all of the kids were leaning on me and hugging me/holding my hand. I quickly realized that this is what these families go through every Sunday. The heat here is just a fact of life…you can’t change it, you can simply deal with it and move on with life. Once I got past the heat and my own comfort-ability level I let God have this time and He taught me something. I realized that even though the service was in partial Tagalog and I didn’t understand everything…God was praised today. I realized that even though we didn’t sing out of hymnals….that God was praised today. I learned that even though I may not have known all of the songs, they were passionate about singing them…and God was praised today. It’s amazing to see God be praised on the other end of the world. Today I realized that worship goes beyond my little corner of the world in Indiana.

I guess it is my turn to talk about Pasig…
But, the pizza is arriving soon, and I have some chores to do before it comes…
Opps!

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Just found Kaitlyn’s Blog… and she has a picture up of our team… and a LITTLE information.
Check it out! Click HERE!

——————————-

Yesterday was Saturday, our 5th day in the country… seems like we have been here forever. That is not a bad thing, but it is really hard to believe it has only been 5 days. The trip will start to get faster at this point, I know in a few days we will look back and wonder where the time went.

Today is Sunday, and we will be headed to 3 different churches… there is not a church big enough around here to hold us all. 8 students will be going to church with the kids from the children’s home, 8 students will be going with Pastor Better and the church located at the Arthur Center, and my family and I will be going to Pastor Adan’s church in Pasig. This is the second and last time that my family is separating from the group. This is a spot that I must MAKE. I have been to this church on my 3 previous visits to this country. My dad and mom support the ministry there very heavily and I love Pastor Adan and his family. The last 2 times I was there, our families Christmas letter and picture were hanging on the bulletin board right next to the electric bills that needed to be paid. After church we will all gather at Tiendesitas for lunch where the whole team can be back together again.

I will try to have some students blog about their experiences at church so you can get a “flavor” of the different church experiences. Today is a bit of a down day… after church and lunch, it is back to the “dorm” to pack a bit and get ready for our trip to Boracay and the children’s feeding stations we will be working at. Okay, truth be told… we will enjoy the beach there as well, but it sounds more spiritual to talk about ministry! Click here to see pictures of the beach… named one of the top 10 in the world… but remember, we are doing ministry.

Last night was our trip to Greenhills for shopping and food. What a blast, that place is like not other shopping experience. Wait till you see some of the “stuff” we got there… (Jason, I even exposed them to the Barrel man!) After shopping we ate at Chili’s… good stuff. Camden and I ate as fast as possible, when we both realized that he needed the Garnett jersey too. While in the shopping area we saw NBA jerseys, and when he said the Nuggets one, he got so excited… though at first he was going to get the Garnett one. So after eating as quickly as possible, he and I ran back to get the Celtics jersey as well… now he is sporting two sweet NBA jerseys all for about 13 dollars.

Yesterday started out pretty much like all the other days… I am a man of routine! Team time was sweet as we spent time singing: Blessed be Your Name / Amazing Grace / Once Again… after this I asked for students to share with the group what God has taught them about himself on this trip, or what He is revealing about themselves on this trip. Here are the answers:

Worrier, I am such a worrier… But being here has taught me that many of the things that I worry about are just trivial and light.

Money…. Money can be used so effectively here, it is hard for me to decide how much I really need to keep and how much I should give away to help ministries like the ones that are here.

God’s creativity is amazing - I am learning in new ways just how amazing he really is.

I am realizing how “self-reliant” I really am - I thought that my whole life I lived dependent on God, but being here has revealed how shallow I am, and that I live my life on my terms and not God’s terms.

Hard to see kids that are raising themselves… I am finding myself loving the even “hard to love kids” here.

God uses the littlest things in our life sometimes for his glory… I learned that God can use my love for learning (Tagalog words) as a door for ministry with the kids.

God is in control of everything… everything is in his hands.

I am learning that it is hard for me to remain teachable sometimes… I have got to learn to be a better listener.

I am learning that my world is too small. I am constantly asking and crying out for God’s help minute by minute here… and it reminds me that I do not do it that often back home. Here I am stretched every minute, back home I live a “small” life… one that does not require reliance on God as much.

After sharing we sang Enough:
“You are my supply, my breath of life…
Still more awesome that I know…
You are my reward, worth living for…
Still more awesome that I know…”

Then the version of that song that we were singing ended with the repeating line…. “You’re enough for me… You’re enough for me… You’re enough me…” Very repetitive… but SO POWERFUL… what a great reminder that He is all we need.

Donna then shared with us from the word. Taking us to I John 5:14 and talked to us about the fact that our very lives are to be expressions of worship to our God. Even the small things in our lives are to be expressions of our worship and adoration. We need to put into practices the things that we know… for his glory and his worship.

We then went around and shared cultural observations that we have made so far: (Go Global Perspectives… that is a class that students have to take, excuse me… GET to take at Grace College and this trip is partial fulfillment of)

They are constantly saying… “Good morning” to us, but they do not do it to each other.

The handicapped seemed to be brushed off in this society.

Every time you try to “back out” of a parking spot… some one is there hitting the side of the vehicle letting you know where you are before you hit something.

Women work very hard here… Seems to be a Matriarchal society. Even the president is a woman. Men seem to just sit around and smoke.

Kids seem to be raising themselves. They almost have a gang mentality.

Every house, no matter how small or poor, has a TV.

They are a very tight knit community - they seem to look out for each other. The kids do this a lot.

They listen to American music all the time.

They love American movies.

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We ended with singing This Day by Todd Proctor again… just as a reminder that we need to give this day all that we have!

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Wow, just realized that if I do not get going… the church train will be held up by me.
Got to go!

Thanks again for your prayers!
Thanks again for caring about us and our adventure!
Thanks!

For more info and a different perspective… remember to check out Kyla’s Blog