draft from may 9...

How can I be discreet, how can I be vague? I'm distraught to know that one of my friends, someone I truly love and care for, is living in a completely unsafe environment at home. How can I go home now knowing the situation she's in? I'm sick, and it's not just because of the MacDonalds sitting in my gut. Another girl, one of the sweetest I've ever known told me the story of how she came to be an orphan. She told me every detail of her mother's death and we cried together. Leaving her was harder than any autumn csr or greenbay goodbye. I hugged her and we both knew there was a chance we'd never see each other again- it was obvious in our uncertain smiles. I'm so, so sorry to her that she trusted me enough to tell me of her deepest heartache and then I left only a couple days later. It's in no way fair. I have three days left here but I'm already weeping. I don't know how to fly away from the Philippines and leave the first church family I've had in years. I've made friends in this time that I could trust my life to. They love me, they trust me. They welcome my opinion and give me responsibilities, believing that I'll do a good job or at least try my best. I really feel like I belong here.

27 days baby!

Don't get me wrong- I wouldn't trade this time to be home. I've been more impacted during these last three months than I even know. But I am really excited to go home soon. Lately I've been missing the comforts of home, and my family. I'm still happy to be here though, and I really need to stick with it and not get tired, distracted or lazy. Pray that my team will stay focused on the task at hand- sharing in the glory of God! Having the privelege to look like Jesus to these kids, loving them like he would. And pray for the hearts of the children in Gruar squatter village... the God will touch them in a way that will change their lives.


It was a sad day on wednesday. When we got to the orphanage, we learned that one of the babies, Armondo, had died in the middle of the night. He had been there for a few months, and several of the staff, and some of the team had grown attached to him. What's more, it was a complete surprise to find that he'd passed away, because no one saw it coming. Admittedly, Gentle Hands never knew the full extent of his health. It seems there must have been something wrong inside the guy that no one knew. The workers were obviously still somewhat in shock while we were there that day. A few Ate's came in to pick a last outfit for the baby to wear. Mondo had club foot, which he had just gotten surgery for. He also had a cleft pallet, so when he smiled his upper lip would spread out and we'd all smile. He was a very cute little baby and I didn't want to let his memory slip away without at the very least writing about him.

... may it be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear.

Basketball is huge at frontline! I've never met so many people in one place who love basketball so much. It was fun! We got to watch a lot of games and we ended up playing a lot of volleyball too.

Now that I'm home, (Cainta home) I regret not having written another blog while I was there, because of how much would happen in just one day. Now I feel like I couldn't possibly remember everything.

The highlights were visiting FTC, (face the children) which is a compound set aside specifically for kids who have lost their parents or been picked up off the streets and brought to safety. Some of their stories are really amazing, and heartbreaking. But God is good and he brings restoration. We also went to a prison in San Pablo city and I was blessed to take part in worship with a group of the convicts. They've been saved by God's grace, and in turn give their praise to him. Talk about inspiring... you can't know what that's like until you're there- listening to prisoners sing "how great is our God". I could cry right now just thinking about it. I can't wait to show my friends and family some of the photos I took and the video footage Dani and Matt got. Dani is putting together what's turning out to be almost a full length film haha. And it's wonderfully done, so I'm excited to show everyone. The day after the prison ministry we went to a hospital and prayed for the patients. We went to the third floor and mostly stuck with pediatrics. There was one baby there, born roughly 5 months premature. This baby had already been out of the womb for over a month but she looked... well. I can't explain how she looked. She was in an incubator or anything, she was just laid on a hospital bed with a blanket placed over her tiny little body so only her face showed. Her name is Angel, and her twin died only a week before we visited. I still pray for that baby, and for her poor Dad who sat so faithfully at her side. I can't imagine what thoughts and pleas are going through his mind. What is that like?

Perhaps one of the most impacting moments I've had during this whole trip was when we visited a dumpsite where a large group of people are living. They collect different things from the rubbish, like coils, or plastics, glass, whatever they can find of any value I guess. And even children will do this, which I don't need to say is incredibly dangerous. We visited some families that come to one of Frontline's churches. Our time of fellowship with them was really good. The pastor just goes in to check up on them and bring encouragement, and remind them to come on sunday. I still haven't sorted out exactly how terrible the living conditions were, especially with all the hazards. But again, it goes without saying that this is not an ideal way to live and bring up children. I've got some pictures that I look forward to sharing. Maybe I'll make up a slideshow or a video and show some churches. It needs to be known that our brothers and sisters are living this way. And that babies are growing up in trash. I can't talk more about that right now.

San Pablo was beautiful, but I'm glad to be back in Cainta too. I'm pretty sure that as a team we agree- it's good to be home. Anyway, it's time for me to find something productive to do lol. Maybe see if I can help make dinner or read some more bible. Right now I'm in Genesis, I'm in chapter 17 when God declares circumcision as a symbol of the covenant between Him and Abraham. How funny is our God that of all places he could have chosen to cut skin, it had to be the willy? Haha. I just find that humorous. But then He's also the God who made bunnies and sea horses so I can't really be too surprised can I? He does lots of crazy things lol.

Be strengthened and encouraged- take heart, for He has overcome the world! Amen!

love, ang (angle/little guy/naan bread/lobby the lobster)
haha, i've got a few nicknames these days.

my redeemer LIVES

These past few days have been hard to describe! I'll start at friday, which ended up being one of the craziest nights of my life.

Our schedule said to wake up at 6 for devotions, so we did- only to find that devotions were cancelled. So we had one of our own. We went through Romans 8 and though I didn't know it at the time, it was good preparation for the rest of the day. We went back to bed for a nap, had lunch, and got picked up in the afternoon for what we thought was an outreach to Palakpakin. Not the case. Everyone except us seemed to know that we were going to climb a mountain that day and enter into an intense spiritual atmosphere.

We quickly learned that during Holy Week (easter and all that), mass amounts of people flock to this one mountain in the Delores area of San Pablo. These people climb the mountain, some to a place called Little Jerusalem and take part in rituals, sacrifices, prayer and worship of all kinds of gods/religions. Basically it's a giant melting pot of spiritual forces that have existed in that place since long before our parents were thought of, let alone born. This is also a mountain where higher up, crucifixions still take place. So basically its crazy right.

We prayed before getting into the van and leaving the compound. At this point, I still really didn't know what was going on. We drove a ways, then walked for a bit, handing out flyers, if you can call them that. They are little sheets of paper with information on sin, confession, salvation, etc. Then we drove some more and finally, a couple hours later, started to climb this beautiful, beautiful mountain. The climb was FUN. Having grown up with ravine in my backyard I hiked a lot as a kid and since I've been here I never realized how much I miss it. We didn't get all the way to the top, because we'd spent too much time elsewhere. So with the sun about to set in two hours time, we gathered together at Little Jerusalem. A group of people (who wear catholic bracelets coupled with occult gowns) allowed us to hang out where they were camped for the week. We chatted with a few of them and prayed, then when the sun was pretty much down, we ate some bread and prepared for our program. This group of evangelists from Frontline are experienced in this business, where I was quite uncertain and out of my comfort bubble- the demon worship going on all around me didn't help either. Anyway, the Pastor introduced us and shared a bit of what we were doing there. Then Taylor and I gave our testimonies, followed by some clips from the Jesus movie. Right in the middle of our presentation we had to stop the movie, because at whatever time it was, the catholic-cult people had to have their prayer time. So they got around and literally worshipped the mountain. I probably don't need to say that everything about it felt wrong and weird and bad. Anyway, the program resumed and we finished our movie. Then we asked for people to come up and receive prayer if they were in need of healing or wished to be saved. I had the privlege of praying for three people and with the help of Jonah, led one man to be saved. It was awesome! Two of the cult women were healed that night as well, praise God. Haha... though, after they'd been healed they went right back to their demon worship. Oh well lol what can you do?

After all that, our other activities seem mundane to write about haha. But our worship this morning in church was fantastic! Filipinos can really teach North Americans a lot about praise. We woke up for breakfast at 5:00 and got to the church for 6:00- it was so early because every easter sunday they have a sunrise service. It was a sweet, sweet service with the ordaining of three new ministers and a sermon about what Jesus really meant when he said "it is finished." "Tapos na."

Okay now I'm finished with the blog. Time to watch some old men play basketball! Haha.

God bless, I love you guys!!

Angela.

frontline

with my right hnd i'm typng out a blog... with my left i'm scratching sampson, the first dog i've been able to pet in a loooong time! He's actually quite a distraction, when I need to be writing. Frontline has a few dogs which are safe to pet and it sounds crazy but it's such a blessing to me, especially in this time when I'm lonely for home. So there's sampson, who I just had to go yell at for knocking over a garbage can, and a mama dog named Panda and her two little puppies. They are adorable! They're three weeks old and even Dani, who dislikes animals, loves them. Especially the one she's named Chubs. And there's a few other mutts who come from outside the compound to hang around but I won't be petting those.

It is beautiful beyond words to get out of the concrete jungle that is Manila, and into the real jungle where the air is clearer and the water coming from the pipes is mountain fresh. I just realized how cheesy that sounds but I don't even care, I'm loving this. I love Manila, but this break is just wonderful.

We got picked up yesterday morning from our house in Manila and arrived at Frontline in San Pablo city in the afternoon. We hung out and relaxed for a while, then went to a cell group meeting at one of Frontline's churches. Dani and I were in the same group with some women. All the groups were digging deeper into that sunday's message, which was finding value in people. Then we had dinner at the compound, and went to bed early.

Today we woke up, had breakfast, and went to work. There's a building project right now here at Frontline, they are building a dormitory for the FTC children- the one's they've rescued off the streets. So these kids will stay and sleep in the building and attend the school they already have built and running. (I hope all this makes sense, I'm distracted and at the end of my day haha.) Dani and I painted sheet upon sheet of plywood, Nathan and Taylor poured concrete, and Jordan and Matt dug a hole in the ground by hand. It was good work, and Dani and I were lucky enough to be under the shade of a tarp overhead. The morning passed really quick. Lunch was delicious, ad then I hung out at the Pessina's house (they run the show here). I talked with Rowena Pessina for a good couple hours until I really had to go and have a shower and clean upfrom the work that morning. After that we went out to Santisimo with Pastor Roel. He lives at the church, called the Green Box church and it's situated right in the middle of rice fields pretty much on all sides. It is gorgeous out there, and so cool to finally see rice fields up close! We went around to a few different life groups, with tenish people at each one, again we discussed the value of people. Then we had dinner, and headed back to the compound.

So now it's quarter after ten and I should get to bed since we have devotions with the workers at 6 in the morning. But I don't want to forget any of this and I really needed to be blogging more. God bless, be vigilant and pray for us and for the salvation of those we come across. Tomorrow is a big outreach opportunity at Palakpasan (which I can never say right) and we're really excited to see what will happen.

love angela.

ahh the smell of urine and hot garbage...

There's definitely a distinct smell to Manila. I can't speak for the rest of the Philippines, I'm not sure if it smells like this. There's a corner right down the street from our house that reeks every time I walk by haha. And now it just makes me laugh. I guess there's a sewer hidden among the grass there or something.

We've been involved in a volleyball tournament every weekend for the last couple of weeks, and it's been really fun! I was super embarrassed to play because I'm not good at all but after like 6 games I'm not as worried lol. My team has only won once, but when we did it was by a large margin so I can be proud of that! We play at the park near the church, called 'the oval'. There's a playground and a sheltered area for community events, etc. The best part of the oval is the woman who makes halo halo, or 'mix mix'. Its a Filipino favorite, and for good reason. You can throw anything into it- corn, beans, gellatin, bananas, mango, some kind of grain or something... and then ice and she pours canned milk overtop. Oh, it's delicious. And very refreshing.

We watched the US vs Canada game today from a really sweet cafe the next city over. When I say its another city, it sounds far away, but it only takes like 5 or 6 minutes to get there by bus or jeepney. Anyway it wasn't a happy finish so I don't want to talk about it much. But it was sweet to get a taste of home all the way from Asia.

After the game I went to the mall to buy a birthday present. On the way home, the jeepney stopped at a light and a little boy came on the back with a rag in his hand and started wiping every passenger's foot. He held out his hand for coins, to which I had to shake my head no. I still feel wounded even now just relating the story. We don't have any choice, we can't give money to any kids who come to beg. There's already an expectation that we have lots of money to give, because of our white skin and we don't want to fuel that. But also, if we give money to one child, the rest will come looking for money too, and it's not a responsible thing to do for them. I know all of that, and it is right, and it is true. But my heart still breaks when I think of how soft the rag was that he wiped my foot with and how hard it was to say no to him.

There's so much of this. So many kids begging. I'm grieved by it, especially because I haven't yet found my way to help or make a difference. We had a night of encouragement at the youth service last night (sunday night.) And that was really good, we got into groups of about six and went around the circle for each person, affirming them and letting them know the ways we see God in them. It was great for me to hear so many things, and I think it was very refreshing for my soul. So that helps a lot. I know that I am making an impact on people I'm fortunate enough to be friends with, they're such beautiful people. I just feel like I'm not doing enough. I wonder if missionaries every feel like they're doing enough.

Anyway it's late and I'm exhausted. I didn't get a nap before volleyball and even though it's not totally true, I feel like I've been going hard since this morning. So goodnight, god bless, miss you and love you.

ang.

jesus said, 'let the children come...the kingdom of heaven belongs to these.'

What better way to gain appreciation for life than to cradle in your arms a baby orphan? I had the best day of my trip yesterday. We went to an orphanage called Gentle Hands which rescues and takes in abandoned, malnourished, and abused children, mostly from a squatter village nearby. www.gentlehands.typepad.com They take photos of the children when they come in for their file and when you look at pictures, then at the kids now you can hardly recognize them. We took out all the children to a park near the orphanage. A woman who lives next door pointed at a little girl Taylor was holding. She was shocked to see this little girl now, because she had seen her when she first came in. She said the girl was so skinny before, but now she has a chubby belly, praise God! Gentle Hands is an incredible place. There are so many kids there to hold and love and play with. One little boy in particular got attached to me. He would cry every time I put him down, and eventually I didn't want to put him down at all. When I did so that he could eat, as soon as he was finished he sat there on the floor and looked for me. So when he found me he came crawling over and reached up to be held. Ugh it just melted my heart! When I was holding the babies, I kept thinking how natural it felt, and how easy it was for me in those moments to show love to some really special kids. It is one thing for me to say "this child has no parents", but when I'm holding him in my arms and he lays his head down on my chest, it hits me that he has no mommy, and he has no daddy. I don't know what to think, but all I can do is just hug him and kiss him. I hope we go back soon.

We were all tired after the long day. It was the best work I've ever done, but it was draining. This morning we woke up with plans to go over to a garbage dump where people live, and kind of observe what it's like there. But after talking with our Filipino friends it turns out it's too dangerous for the team to go, partially because we're white so we stand out, but also because of Dani and I being women. It was disappointing, but it makes sense. And there wouldn't be a whole lot we could do that's beneficial anyway. So instead we went to Greenhills! We got on an airconditioned bus that took us straight there. It's a big, huge mall with some stores but mostly a ton of market stalls. I can't describe how many there are haha but basically there's a lot of stuff. I got lost a couple times in the maze of stalls and booths. I bargained for everything I bought. I got a big, beautiful pinkish pearl necklace (genuine pearls) for 400 pesos, ten dollars! It was supposed to be 800 so I was pretty pleased with myself :) You can tell if the pearls are real or not by rubbing them on your teeth. If it feels smooth, they are imitation. You want it to feel like sand against your tooth, and then you know it's real. I got a few other pearly goods and some t shirts and shorts. I was only there for a few hours but I really enjoyed myself.

So now it's 7:30 in the evening and I think I might go over to the church and see what's going on over there. Tomorrow is my fasting day (every friday) so you can keep me in your prayers! God bless, love you!

ang.

you can't enjoy those fresh baked buns without eating chicken intestine and pig liver too!

Guess who came in third place in the singing competition!? (No thanks to me!) Milet sang beautifully and I, lucky to be her partner, got to share in the winnings with her. Our prize was a box of chocolates, a little stuffed panda bear and 150 pesos each! I would have been content with just the chocolates haha. It's really really different here, not all of it tastes very good but these were lovely. I was doing well up until we had to get on the stage and then I just turned into a nervous wreck lol. It's a good thing I wore a long skirt, I don't think anyone saw my knees shaking but I'm pretty sure it was obvious that I wasn't entirely comfortable up there haha. Anyway, much to our surprise we won top three so it turned out all right in the end.

Today hasn't been incredibly eventful, but the spice of it thus far was eating liver. Oh my. It's almost 4:00 pm here and like I said, it's been a fairly lazy day. We cleaned the house this morning after breakfast and then went our separate ways, most of us to our beds. I walked over to the church to grab my toothpaste which I left there last night, and was invited to stay for lunch ("kain na!" ....'eat now!') The church puts out a free lunch mondays and wednesdays for students and any of the kids who hang around. So, according to culture, I had to sit and eat what was offered or else I would be offending everyone. I'm happy to do it for the sake of the Kingdom, but it wasn't easy by any means! I held back a gag twice lol and finally I got through it. It could be worse. Here they eat blood mixed with gelatin and fry it up. If that is ever offered to us we'll have to eat it. I will confess that I'm praying that day will never come.

A couple people on the team ate some balut, which is hard boiled goose egg. The fetus is a couple weeks old when you eat it. You break open a little hole in the top of the egg, suck out the juices (yes, the juices), then break off more of the shell and just gobble the whole thing down. Every now and then you get some crunchy bits (beak or bones), and the occasional feather (yes, feather). I dare you to look it up on wikipedia. Thank God I didn't have to eat the balut. I don't think I'll ever try it if I don't have to.

So I don't know what else I'll be up to today, probably capitalize on some time to read my bible. I'm going to make an effort to update more often, even with the boring and mundane. At least my folks will know I'm still kicking that way lol.

God bless!

happy valentines day!

Wow, it has been a long time since my last blog, sorry about that. Mom and Dad, I'm still okay! I think it's been since we moved into our house, I'm just busy doing other things.

Things are still great here, even better than before. I'm settled in and comfortable here, so much that I've been seriously thinking about coming back again for a while. But it's all in His hands, I'm not worried about what I'll end up doing. God's got it all under control, I'm kind of going along for the ride haha... He'll show me what I'm supposed to do when it's the right time.

Work at the church it going well and I'm making some really wonderful friends. As today is Valentines Day, the church is putting on a bit of a show, where anyone who wants to can grab a partner and sing a love song to God on stage :) Milet and I are going to be singing Only Hope, the song from A Walk To Remember. It's a step out of my comfort zone lol but I'm among friends so I guess I don't have to be too nervous. I'm going to head to the church in a couple hours to practice.

In the last couple weeks I got to do lots of sweet stuff. We had to go renew our passports which is done pretty far away, so after that we went as a team to Divisoria, which is a huge (HUGE) market. Maybe when we have to go back to renew yet again, we can do some more shopping. I only bought some tops. I tried to bring down a pair of shoes to 200 pesos (5ish bucks) but the woman selling them wouldn't agree haha. I should have just bought them since they were nice and really cheap, but I was just too uncomfortable lol I wanted to get out of there. It turns out I'm not a very good bargainer.

Last week Mona and I took Dani to Fresh, the salon near by. I got a foot treatment and pedicure, Dani got a hair treatment, and Mona got a haircut. It's so bizzare in this place haha. There's only two women working in there, the rest are Baclas (cross dressers.) Not only are these men wearing women's clothes, but they even have bras with fake boobs in them and they've got makeup on. Oh, it is so weird. The guy doing my foot treatment actually looked like a woman. Not a very pretty one, but a woman just the same. There's a weird spirit over a lot of men here. Outside of the church they seem to care way more than women about how they look, and you see a lot of Baclas at the mall. Most of the time I don't notice but the guys on the team pick them out pretty easily. Normally I wouldn't go and get salon treatments done, but it's so cheap here it's hard to resist. You can get 4 treatments done for only 500 pesos! That's 11 Canadian dollars! And to get my underarms waxed took like 10 minutes and only cost me 150 pesos, 3 dollars. I'm going to go back to Fresh and get a hair treatment and a facial lol. I had no idea missionaries could enjoy things like this.

Don't think we're not working though! It just happens to be very enjoyable work :) Yesterday at Super Kids I was sitting in the middle of a group of the kids listening to the story or whatever was going on (sometimes its hard to tell because the majority is in Tagalog) and I noticed this little boy behind me laying face down on the ground fast asleep! Some kids were walking around him but he was getting stepped on a little bit and I didn't like seeing the little guy sleeping on the floor like that, so I scooped him up. He was maybe 3 years old and soooo cute. He only opened his eyes for a second and looked at my face, then went right back to sleep in my arms haha. And he stayed there for the next hour and a half. I don't know HOW he slept through all the noise but he did. There's a little girl named Nicole who I held too. She's a little older, probably 4, maybe 5 years old. For the past couple weeks she had a really bad cough, so I prayed for her and this week she was way better :) her eyes were bright and she was giggling and happy.

It's hard to describe what super kids is like when your in the church with 400 kids. There's a shocking amount of violence... most of the boys are just play fighting and wrestling. But it seems like the girls get really scrappy. Dani watched one girl smack a little guy in the face with a dust pan. I saw another girl punching a smaller boy over and over in the face too. Nicole's bigger brother had to come to her defense a few times when she wandered away, because each time, some other kid would push her around or hit her. There's fighting and crying kids everywhere. It's hard to scold anyone because a lot of the time you don't catch what happened, you only see someone crying. You know what happened but what can you do if you don't see it? Not to mention that sometimes you see something happen from across the room and you can't even make your way over there to stop it. There's so many kids, sometimes it feels like a mad house in there. We know that these kids are hitting because its what they see at home. It's hard cause I know there's really not a lot I can do about it except pray and try to step in when and where its possible.

Yesterday we had our first volleyball game of a long tournament. It's a new ministry the church just started to try and get some of the unbelievers who stop by for food involved in the church community. There's a group of boys who come a couple times a week and we'd like to see them get connected with the youth.

I would also like to announce that my good friends We Are The City won the Peak Performance Project in Vancouver! The prize is 150 000 dollars and a huge amount of exposure! I'm so proud to see how far they've come since we were all 14 years old and they were kids practicing their instruments in Cayne's basement. I cried when I found out haha. I only wish I could congratulate them in person and give them all, especially Cayne and Dolby a big hug. But since I can't, maybe you can. They're touring Canada right now so go and find out when their coming to you and go see them for me. If you don't know them already, they're super personable young men, and they'd be happy to meet you. So go shake their hands and tell them Angela misses them and says hi! www.wearethecity.ca

It's almost 3 here and I gotta go grab some lunch and shower. The cold water was hard to get used to at first but now I'm loving it. The key is to shower during the day lol. If I shower first thing in the morning it's too much of a shock for my liking haha.

happy balemtimes everyone, love you!

...for i was hungry, and you fed me.

What can I say about the last couple days? Let alone the last couple weeks... There's a few things that I've come across, from day to day, that don't phase me in the moment. Its when I look back and think of what I saw that I'm hit with the reality.

For example, walking back from a mall one night, we stopped on the sidewalk to wait for a jeepney to pick us up. Just feet away, under a bench, three people were sleeping. One woman, the one I could see most clearly, was laying face down, covered by a thin scarf, spread out over her body. There were more people sleeping under a tarp, just under the bridge to our left. I'm at a loss when I try and think of anything to say about it. Just like Elie Wiesel, describing his experiences before, during, and after Auschwitz. In the book Night, he tells of what happened, not so much how he feels about it. The little that I've seen so far in Manila is hard to compare to a Holocaust, I realise that. They are too different to contrast. But I think right now, it's easier for me to describe what I see, rather than how I feel about what I see. My focus right now needs to be on my responsibility. What is my responsibility today, what can I do right now, from where I am in the world, to bring God's kingdom down to earth? I can feed a child rice. But he's still going to die eventually, from starvation or disease, or from old age when he's 80 years old. Either way, he's going to die, just like me. So if I feed him rice one saturday, and fill his belly, but never share with him the love of God, what favor have I done him? The rice will pass through his system and he'll be hungry again in a few hours. If, however, I offer him the bread of life, salvation and victory in Jesus, he will never need to be hungry again. Yes, it is GOOD to feed the children! Very good, in fact, it's commanded. (Matthew 25:35-40) But if I leave it at rice then I'm doing little for them. Anyway, thats what I've been realising lately. As Nathan always says, it's all about Jesus.

But that's a whole other post haha. Right now I have a hankering to go for a walk along these broken sidewalks and go see a lovely woman who sells me orange pop :) There's something special about a person who sells you a cold pop in this heat! Almost as much as a coffee in the middle of Edmonton's January.

Mall of Asia tomorrow afternoon, and the burned down mosque. Remember to pray for us and for God's work to be done, love to be shown, and miracles to be the cherry on top.

no time!!

I have only ten minutes to write but so much to say!

We've moved into our new house. The team leaders are getting beds and some sheets and stuff. We're going to be living simply, and I'm very excited. It's two stories, with 4 bedrooms but really three, since one of them is just a bed in a corner for a maid lol. It's sad, but funny. It looks totally pathetic to be honest, but it might make for a beautiful prayer closet. Two bathrooms, and a kitchen. I think its really lovely, in a rugged sort of way. Nothing like what we're used to back home, but thats what i love about it. I'm really learning things!

We finished reading matthew, now we're on to mark. I really liked reading it. The sermon on the mount is so encouraging. For anyone who says the bible doesn't give clear instructions, I would recommend them to read that passage. Anyways it was really good.

We're going to head downtown to the Mall of Asia on thursday now, round two. I can't think of any reason why we won't get there this time, but it's all in God's hands. Whatever he wants to happen, we're cool with! So be thinking and praying for us as we go down there. Personally, I feel that I'll be challenged in spiritual warfare while we're ministering and sharing at the burned down mosque, so please be praying. And we'll all remember that all things are possible through Christ who strengthens us. And there is no need to fear, because the victory is mine when I'm walking with Him. It's just a matter of fighting it out until he comes again :)

The people here at the church are incredible. They have such beautiful, servant hearts. I'm so blessed when I see them doing dishes, or sweeping and mopping, not because anybody asked or even brought it up, but just because it needed to be done.

love you all!

angela.

holy: to be set apart

Well, going to the Mall of Asia today didn't work out. I guess there's a color/number system, certain vehicles can't go downtown on certain days. This vehicle we were taking isn't allowed downtown on fridays, so instead we sang alternate lyrics to "I've got a feeling" and made the best of it. After that I mostly read, prayed, and napped. Frank Peretti's 'This Present Darknss', its extremely good, I'm totally wrapped up in it. And now we're going to go out for dinner as team, so I'm off. Goodnight!

angela.

fresh baked buns... mmm

It's been a couple days! I've been reading a lot lately, so heading to the internet cafe hasn't been high on my list of priorities. As a team, we're reading through Matthew. We are to have it read by sunday and then I guess we'll discuss and seek some revelation from what we've read. We'll move on to mark after and so on through the gospels. I'm also stuck on my second book about Amy Carmichael. (not sure how to spell her last name) She's this amazing Irish missionary who completely devoted her life to God and to loving on Hindu's especially in India. Wow, her story is inspiring.

Dani and I taught Jonah to the kids yesterday. It was so much fun. I played Jonah while Dani explained the story and one of the instructors interpreted. I got thrown into the water and had a sheet thrown over me to represent getting swallowed by the whale, which this kids thought was pretty funny. Then we all got under the sheet and prayed together, that we would all listen to God's voice (even when he calls us to Ninevah's) Dani did a really good job with them and with the story. They colored pictures of a big fish and a man in the belly after that.

Sooo tomorrow is friday, we are going to the Mall of Asia. Pray for us! We are going to look for an old, run down mosque. We are expecting big things to happen. Pray for us! That we will be bold enough to speak out and lay hands on people and pray. We're asking the Lord for signs and wonders, as well as the salvation of many people! No more putting God in a box. We know his desire is to see 1000 people come to a saving relationship with him tomorrow, and so we're going to ask for it. Why wouldn't we? No more thinking small! We're asking for big things. Ask with us!

You couldn't tell to look at me, but I'm getting darker! Yup, it's true. And I'm not even burned! I got my legs waxed today, which was a huge relief. (mom will be amused haha) It only cost 250 pesos! That's like, a little more than 5 dollars! And she did a great job. I even got a glass of juice out of it :) and it was TASTY!

Well thats all for now... keep praying for me and the team!

love angela

super kids saturday!

There's this dog that hangs out around the corner from our church, and he's there every day. He's always either laying down or wandering around every time I walk by. Honestly, I know it sounds crazy, but my heart breaks for the poor thing. He's so scrawny, he's got sores all over his body, infections around his eyes, and he just looks so miserable. He's hot, and thirsty, and hungry. Yesterday me and my team mate went to buy some cokes and I got a bag of chips and gave some to this poor dog. Probably not the best of ideas, I don't want to encourage him to look to people for food, but I couldn't help myself. He came to super kids today to get some eats which I was very happy about.

Even more important than that, we were about to feed close to 600 hungry kids! The volume of sound in the church is crazy haha. 600 children yelling out bible verses and singing songs. I loved it! There were so many of them, and they loved us! Many of them were pretty shy, hiding their faces from us, but others wanted to touch us and play. When I sat down, there were probably 8 kids all touching my skin! They rubbed my legs, my arms, hands, and one girl kept touching my face. Please try for a moment to understand how odd this felt hahaha. They have this adoration for white skin that I just don't understand. Back home, we all want to have a tan and have dark skin, but here they even use "whitening soap" and walk around with umbrellas to protect themselves from the sun. It's so polar opposite. Here, to have white skin is a sign of wealth, because it means you don't have to labor outdoors. There were a lot of girls who really liked my hair, it was in a french braid and they liked pulling on the tail of it lol. One girl stayed really close to me the whole time, she was about 9 or 10 and she spoke really good english, she was sort of a translator for the kids around who wanted to ask me questions. They asked about my family, my name, (everyone asks "whats your name" in this cute accent), how old I am, where I live, who my siblings are, where's my mom, etc. I love these kids, oh man, they are so incredibly adorable. The feeding time was a little bit stressful haha. There was so many kids! And the heat was hard to handle. They would ask for "sabaw" which is the chicken broth that we poured over their rice. So I had all these kids yelling Sabaw, sabaw! at the same time! Haha it was crazy. I love it though. What an amazing experience. A lot of them are street kids from squatter villages nearby, so you know you are giving some of them their only full meal for who knows how long. It's a really strange feeling. Good though.

Walking down the street is also a weird feeling. I'm really nothing special, in my eyes, and at home. But here, I just walk down the road to get some bread (sooo yummy), and I get stared at. People wave at me from across the street, and yell hello as they ride by on their trikes. Sometimes little kids point and ask their moms and dads about us lol. It's funny. I've never experienced this before and it feels odd.

Well it's 1:42 and my back is getting sore sitting in this little internet cafe. It's been a long day already, feeding and playing with all the kids, they are big fans of hanging off of me haha. Don't ask me why, I'm as tall as most of them lol.

God bless you all, much love.

-angela.

loving the philippino sun!

I may come home both a shopaholic and obese. The clothes and shoes are so inexpensive, and the food is incredible! Fresh pastries in the morning, just one minute's walk away.

We played gym games with the kids this morning, it was so much fun. We tried to lead "what time is it mister wolf?" and it was... somewhat a success. Haha. The kids (preschool and grade one) speak pretty good english, especially the older ones. But they just got so excited that our efforts to explain the game were practically useless lol. Still, it was a really fun time. The little girls are so precious, I especially love one little shy girl. She looks like she's 4 or 5, she's so small. I just love her to bits and carried her around for a while this morning. She would run in to play a game for 30 seconds but then she'd get scared and run off to the side haha. So I enjoyed holding her.

We also took a jeepney to a mall in Taytay. It was really big! I bought a few shirts and a pair of sandals. Apparently it's not a great idea to walk around on the streets wearing tank tops (even with thick straps) so it looks like I'll be wearing t shirts when I leave the church. Now all I need are some fake oakles to protect my eyes and a couple long skirts. As a team we got two cell phones so we can keep in contact, and also to call home now and then. I bought a calling card- 50 minutes for 100 peso's, which is a really, really good deal. Everything seems to be easy to get to so I'm not too concerned if I should need something. Time's up on the computer, love you all!

magadang gabi!

love ang

you've never had mango until you have Philippines mango

Here I am! At times it felt like I'd never get here, yet now I'm sitting in Cafe Manila writing to you. We've got a little internet cafe only about a minute's walk from the church we're staying at.

The flight wasn't bad at all, it was 13 hours from Vancouver to Taipei but it didn't feel like it. I slept a bit and actually enjoyed myself. I love trips. I read a lot of Isaiah on the plane, starting at chapter 57 and going to the end of the book. Try reading it, I got a lot of sweet revelation out of it. Taipei to Manila was only like an hour and a half, and as soon as we got through customs we all changed into our summer clothes, what a relief! I went to the bathroom, and there was no seat on the toilet, and a little hose next to it. It threw me off haha. I guess I'll have to learn how to squat, but for now I'm happy laying toilet paper down and sitting on it lol. Maybe thats too much information, but for those who'd be entertained by that, there you go.

There are a few rooms on the side of this church, and we're staying in those. I have a room to myself (lucky me), equipped with a fan, and its really comfortable. I have a large matress on the ground with sheets and pillows, and a bathroom on the side which I'm sharing with my team leaders. I'm so blessed, truly. We got our stuff settled, ate some mango with the directors of Super Kids, (a really cool ministry) and then headed off to a mall via jeepney. Haha look up a jeepney, you'll get a kick out of them. I've never heard Jason Mraz sound so brutal as I did riding in the back of this thing, listening to I'm Yours played LOUD over blown speakers.

We got to the mall and I made my first peso transaction (which was a success!). The rate right now is like 40 peso's to one canadian dollar. I got a pair of sandals there, really pretty, a nice little heel on them, for about ten canadian dollars. I LOVE shopping here haha. If you know me well, you know I'm very cheap, so this is exciting for me. I may find I'm coming home with 50 pounds more than what I left with lol.

I slept well, and woke up to the sound of a rooster at 6:20 this morning. Now it is noon and I have a happy belly full of rice and a spirit that is completely at peace, knowing that I am exactly where the Lord wants me to be. The smiles here are unlike any I think I've ever seen. I feel like when a little girl smiles up at me my heart changes a little. Anyway, my time here has been incredible so far, and I've been blessed more than I can say. I know this is where I've been called. There is so much goodness in that.

We're still looking for a house, so if you could pray that we find a cheap, furnished house, my whole team would really appreciate it. Also, we are looking to find God's heart for this city, and this collection of 7100 islands. We're praying to know what his will for our time here is. We don't want to act outside of that, so we're asking for discernment and a lot of wisdom. Thanks for you prayers everyone! It looks like internet is fairly available here, so you may here from me soon.

love your sister in christ, and free-will slave,

angela.