... 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.