We're Here!

Asalamo Alaikom! (Peace be unto you)

            That’s the first phrase that we’ve learned in Marinao, the language of the Marinao people whom are the Muslims on this island. We arrived here Thursday night and I think today is the first day I actually am waking up feeling refreshed. The 25 hours of flying over a three day period really wiped us out, along with being on a completely opposite schedule. So here is a recap of the last few days:

Tuesday (1/18)- left Dallas at 10am, arrived in LA and visited Santa Monica beach for a few hours before returning to the airport for our midnight flight.

Wednesday- we lost this day when we went over the International Date Line, but it was practically spent flying

Thursday- arrived in Seoul, South Korea, continued on to Manila, and then on to Cagayan De Oro, Philippines where we met up with our host missionary, Tom. He drove us back to his house, another 2 hour drive from the airport. After a quick call to our parents, we went to bed immediately!

Friday- we went on our first ministry outing, visiting a village with Muslims and beginning our language training. We also were able to meet the team that we’ll be spending most of our time with and see the house we’ll be moving to today. Friday night was a party which we almost slept through but it was great to meet different team members here in the Philippines.

Saturday- A day off to go shopping for some food and out to eat, along with catching up with the homework I had to do and for Tommy to relax a bit and we were able to TALK!! We had been so tired or with people up until then, I think this was the first day that we were able to talk together of what we had been experiencing. A much needed conversation.

Sunday- Another ministry outing with the LRF students. The LRF is the Life Resources Foundation, a Bible school along with a training center on how to reach Muslims. This time we went to two villages. The first I was able to share my testimony to an older Muslim woman, then we played with the children on the beach. At the second village, Tommy was able to share his testimony with a household there. Afterwards we visited with different people.

Monday- Today we are moving to our permanent location, the “white house” as they call it. More pictures forthcoming.

As far as other details, the weather is hot and humid! It’s cool enough at night to sleep comfortably with a fan blowing on us and a light sheet, but it’s the cooler rainy season right now and it will only be getting warmer from here on out. The main concern with sleeping is the loud rooster who finds it his job to cockledoodledoo at 3am and the pig that responds with an even louder squeeling! It only lasts about 10 minutes though so we’re able to fall back asleep.

The people are so welcoming and friendly here, always giving snacks to the “Americans”. One man said that we looked like movie stars haha! Another child was practicing her English while pointing to the features and saying, “blue eyes, white skin, sharp nose” and then the last one caught me off guard, “orange hair”! We were laughing. At another house we were sitting there and the family was very interested in the fact that we were married. They asked how much Tommy paid for my dowry and laughed when they heard that in the US the girl’s parents pay for the wedding. Everyone asks us when we’ll be having our first baby too. That’s very important to this culture. The man who was asking Tommy these questions had four wives, 19 children and over 80 grandchildren!!

So far the food has been normal, lots of rice and some type of meet, either chicken or beef in a sauce. We even ate BBQ ribs with vegetables and rice for the equivalent of only 4 dollars! Try that in the states! So far the food has been delicious! Sorry there aren’t many pictures. With moving today, we are all packed up so my camera is in the suitcase. We’ll post more later.

Lastly, we are hoping to get some sort of schedule where we’ll be able to come into town and use the internet once a week. We’ll have more stories to share then!