bring on the rain!

I had a first this weekend! Most sundays I like to make myself a coffee and drink it during the service. Well, the heavens were pouring down rain this sunday, which brought the temperature down. For the first time ever, here in the Philippines, I experienced my coffee going cold on me! It was totally shocking! It's been raining a lot this week, which I love. I take great pleasure in standing outside becoming drenched in the heavy downpour, and according to some friends, this is just a light rain! It's going to get a heck of a lot heavier, so I'm excited to see what that's like :)

Pastor Ding continued his message from last week about prayer. Last week was more specifically on the question of whether lack of prayer is weakness, or sinful. It was so intriguing to me, as I've never even considered it. This week was more about prayer itself. Why do we pray? What happens when we pray? One thing he said that stuck with me was, "you can trace every big thing that God has done, to a prayer." ...which is so mind boggling. If that's true, then it proves that even though God can do whatever he wants, he choses to work with, and through us. He chooses to partner with us. Something I still don't understand... But it's refreshing to hear about prayer- why do we actually pray? God reminded me this past week that because he calls me child, I have a right and privilege to approach him with my requests and petitions. So why should I delay? What could stop me, if he is waiting? An area in my life I really wish to see growth is in my prayer.

Of course, tonight, when I'd really like it to be raining, there's none to be had. Our pipes have been broken since last night so we find ourselves without flushing toilets, tap water, showers, drinking water, everything. If it was raining even a little I'd go outside to brush my teeth! Argie is working on fixing it right now, I hope and pray that he's able to get our water back... We're constantly so hot and sticky- especially during rainy season with so much humidity in the air! You should see what's happening to my hair... If I leave it wet, it curls. But as soon as it dries and I brush it, my head turns into a big fluff ball!

I went to Greenhills today with Lisa, which was so fun! The prices were a little discouraging, not quite as low as we would have liked them to be. Such beautiful clothes... but not for the right price. We couldn't find any tops we liked for less than 200 pesos! Of course, by Canadian standards that's still really cheap- only 4 bucks, but I'm trying to live on a Filipino budget. 200 is not easy to justify spending on a t-shirt. I still managed to get a couple really nice gifts for people at home, a couple scarves, and one shirt. I also got a pair of shoes for church, since the only footwear I've had are my islander sandals, which aren't very classy and don't match my pretty skirts haha.

Tomorrow is back to school. My first class is with the grade 3's. We're starting a book called Danger Ahead, it's a Focus on the Family book. It's not too long, and I think they'll be interested once they get into the plot line. My grade 2 class is so much easier, because I can fill up a whole 50 minutes by reading to them and having them interact with the story as we go along. That class always ends up going by faster, and they're so much more responsive to me than the grade 3's. I don't know why.

I would like to take this opportunity to mention that my dinner tonight was a burger with cheese and egg from one of the shops along the road. I spent a whole 22 peso's on my dinner. Guess how many Canadian dollars that is? ZERO dollars! It's only 50 cents! And it was delicious. Who knew that throwing a fried egg on a cheeseburger would taste so good? Masarap!

Sige po, magandang gabi, pagpalain ka ng Diyos!