Longest Day of My Life

Hey everyone! Today I (Tommy) will be writing the blog! The past few days have been really busy, more so than any of the other days we’ve been here so far. Kim and I drove to a local training center in order to hang out with the kids there and help clean the facility. We stayed there overnight and got to experience our first warm shower since getting in the Philippines! However, that great feeling of comfort soon left as we had to wake up at 6am the next morning in order to get back to our house in time for outreach. One of the ladies at the training center kindly drove us back down the mountain, and showed us around the Iligan market, a place where you can buy local fruits, vegetables, fish, and clothes. As a guy, I’m always trying to keep an eye out for anyone suspicious to protect Kim and I the best I can, but after a while, it was hard because there were so many people there. And not only that, but everyone either just stares at Kim and I, or they yell out things like “Hello Friend!!” I think they just wanted us to spend our money at their kiosk. After buying onions, baking soda, mangoes, and papaya, we took public transportation back to our house. I was already tired! Nevertheless, as soon as we got back to the house, we met up with the team and took off in order to go to our afternoon outreach. When we arrived at the school that we were going to teach at that day, we found out that all of the classes were cancelled for a week-long regional sports competition. The 13 provinces of northern Mindanao all participate in sports ranging from track and field, to soccer, to basketball. Like the Olympics, they have this big opening ceremony that happened to be taking place in only a few hours! With a now open afternoon, all four of us traveled to the stadium which was about 45 minutes away. The stadium is huge in terms of Filipino architecture, so it was cool to see how they designed it all. We were told that we would be able to get back home around 3pm, but when we found out that the actual ceremony started at 2pm…and especially when we were still sitting in the stands at 3pm with the ceremony not even starting yet, we soon realized that we did not have time to stick around. Oh yeah! And whoever was DJ’ing up in the announcer’s box was the worst I have ever heard. No joke, they played the same song seven times in a row, seven times! That’s almost 30 minutes of the same song! Anyway, we exited the stadium and got on a bus near the highway, we were about to head home! …until all 13 of the marching bands slowly made their way across the road right in front of our bus. We were not going to be going anywhere for a long time. That night, I was going to be preaching at a local church’s prayer meeting, and it was right about when I saw the bands that I gave up on having a nap. After another hour of waiting, the bus driver soon began getting frustrated with waiting for all of the bands to cross. So, he backed up, tore up some of the grass, and soon cut right in between two of the bands! Now, we were finally heading home. I did not get my nap, but I did teach that night and I hope that everyone there was encouraged and challenged. The church wanted me to teach on prayer, so I focused on 2 Corinthians 12:7-10. It’s interesting, but I feel that sometimes I learn more my teachings than the audience does. We’ll see if it happens again, because I’m just about to start studying for my sermon on Sunday: Revelation 6.

One of the many bands that crossed the road.

Tommy teaching at the prayer meeting

Philippine's landscape. Picture taken last Friday on a trip up to the mountains.

Week 1

We’ve officially been in the country more than a week. The missionaries often call the first couple weeks of being in a new culture the “honeymoon stage”, meaning that everything is wonderful and new and vibrant! So here we are in the honeymoon stage, experiencing everything for the first time. We are meeting so many new people, starting to form our schedule, and beginning to teach classes. Tommy will be teaching at a prayer meeting on holiness and I will be teaching at a high school on Mark 1, both on Wednesday. We’ve also officially moved into the house we will be at for our entire stay. It has a toilet!! …But it does not flush ha! You have to pour water into it after business is done. And the shower situation is cold water in a bucket and a ladle-like bowl to pour with. This is not bad though since we can just boil water on the stove and pour it into the big bucket we ladle the water out of. We live here with 4 other people. Three of them are our team members. Everyone is great though and we’re able to play games like UNO at night and make dinners together… kind of like living in the dorms again! Speaking of food, so far we have had to throw away a bag of sugar, flour, rice, bread, powdered milk (there’s no fresh milk here) and cereal… all because there are ants that get into it! I would say this is the most annoying thing so far, no food is safe! Also, last night, Tommy and I walked out of the room to find 3 very large cockroaches in the kitchen and a mouse that was just climbing out of the window. (I would feel bad for anything, or anyone, that might stow away in the wine cabinets here!) Such are the joys of tropical living. However, I am relieved that we are no longer near the loud roosters and pigs, and Kelsey I never thought of a name for them, sorry! Another thing, to Tommy’s great joy, we are only a minute’s walk from a bakery and a 2 minute walk from the ocean! There’s not a nice beach here but there is a beautiful pier we can walk out on and dive off of. We have not gone swimming yet, but as soon as the weather gets warmer then we will. The weather here has been cloudy and comfortable most of the time. The Filipino’s find it “freezing cold” as one LRF student put it yesterday. On Friday the workers had a time of prayer and fasting and there was one woman who came bundled up in her winter jacket and another with her winter hat. Then again, if I was used to 100 degree temperatures and humid all the time, I would probably be cold too. As for the story referenced in the newsletter, there is a Mobile Clinic that goes around to different areas and performs minor surgeries, checkups, and dental cleanings. Tommy and I were asked who wanted to help with surgeries and I volunteered, figuring that with my nurse’s aide background it might be better than if Tommy were in there. Our first patient was actually the brother of a general in the MILF (Muslim Islamic Liberation Front) so we definitely had to do this one well! He had a small cyst on his forehead about the size of a marble. We started by numbing the area and I had the role of handing instruments to the person doing the procedure. All started out well but it was so hot in the large van that I got really dehydrated. I left to get water and they finished up the procedure. I was feeling better and went to help my team members do circumcisions on two boys. As soon as they put the needles in to numb the area, I started to feel woozy again! I realized I was not dehydrated at all but that I could NOT handle these surgeries and I was about to pass out! I certainly was humbled after feeling so confident that it wouldn’t be a problem haha! Next time, Tommy will be helping with the surgeries!

Some of many boats next to the ocean:

The Pier next to where we are living:

Houses on the ocean: