a day to enjoy beauty.

I had a wonderful day :)

Teaching was a pleasure, as always. For a change of scenery I brought both my classes to the church to read. They like it better because they can sit on the floor and get closer to the pictures... plus sitting in a desk isn't very comfortable, and you always want to be comfortable to hear a story! I don't know if I mentioned it before, but the church provides snack and lunch for the students and teachers. We had lunch, and I checked the notebooks of my grade 3 class to make sure they were copying everything down properly. Then I got a text from Ate Treesa, asking me if I'd be up for a trip to an art museum! Even though today is tuesday, and we usually go to Bagong Silang squatter village, I had no plans because the Korean Pastor Khan went back to Korea for a few weeks. So of course I said I'd love to come!

She picked me up just after 3:00 and we we drove straight to this stunning garden/museum called Pinto Art Museum. It's a private place, owned by a neurologist who practices in Makati. I guess he just has a huge passion for art, so two years ago he began building up this beautiful property where he could invite artists to come and enjoy a peaceful environment to be inspired. He succeeded! It's absolutely inspiring. The architecture is original and so.. 'other worldly'. Everywhere you look are angles and shapes, sculptures, lush gardens.. (the whole place is essentially build out of the jungle mountainside!) And then when you go inside, you see many different studios and displays for artwork. They even have a cafe in one garden, and in a separate garden, they have a restaurant and about than ten tables for patrons, so it's very intimate and quiet. The whole point is a serene environment and I really, thoroughly enjoyed it.

We went to go visit her best friend Linda after we left the museum. Linda works with the Zion bible school, a seminary that's moved locations a couple times. But they've just finished building their new school, and it's GORGEOUS! It was so nice, I thought maybe I'd like to become a pastor, just so I could attend haha. The whole place, including Lisa's house is build at the very top of a mountain, so you can look out over all of Manila and even out into the bay. Unfortunately it was a little foggy today so we couldn't see everything clearly, but I could see the bay and the water past the city.. so beautiful. After that we rushed back to Treesa's house for dinner with a lovely couple who just came back from Israel! They are Americans, the husband Scott runs a medical clinic in Antipolo (?) and his wife Cindy is a teacher. Chatting with his wife was really cool, she really seemed to understand my heart and why I didn't go to college right away, and why I'm here. She told me about the direction the clinic is going in- she has dreams and prayers to start a school. She and a couple of the ladies she disciples are already tutoring some students in a sort of summer school. It's really exciting to hear how God is supplying the resources for the needs that she sees in her midst. I'm blessed so much to talk with these different missionaries here who are really living the life that I've dreamed of... It's real for them, it's every day! I'm gaining insight and so much appreciation for them and for how difficult, but rewarding the missionary life is here in the Philippines. This is valuable time, and I feel more and more every day that God is teaching me. I don't know if he's preparing me for the challenges I'll face in my future as a missionary here, or if He's letting me know that I should continue seeking His will elsewhere. All I know, is that this is a time of seeking and finding, reaching and receiving, asking and listening. Something important is happening here in me personally, I can feel it.

After dinner, Treesa, her son Drew, her dog Oreo and I drove to the water tower in her subdivision and we climbed it! It was SO FUN! I think the first level was 70 feet, then we climbed to the very top, where we could stand on top, that must have been 80 to 90 feet! Oh my gosh, I loved it! If it had been daytime, we would have seen way into the mountains, but since it was night we could only see their shadows, and all the city traffic and lights. Still, super cool. I'd like to go back some time when the sun is shining :)

It was 31 degrees today, but felt hotter. The humidity was only 70%, which isn't really that high here. I think it was just the effect of the sun. It's a completely different sun from the one we see in Canada, in case you were wondering. I don't know how my mom is going to react to the heat haha. I hope she makes it out of here okay!!!

I am officially a Newhopian!

It has been such an exciting week already, and it's only tuesday! Life here is so wonderful.. God is so good to me.

I got my key to the church and the gate the other day, making me one of only a handful- something I'm very proud of. I know it's just a key, but to me it symbolizes this place being my home. That's why I say, I'm now officially a Newhopian! This morning after my first class I also received my teacher's uniform, which makes me feel like an official teacher! I'm so pleased. The shirts are a bit big for me, they were actually made for Teacher Jomel, but I think it's better too big than too small (which is usually my problem here haha.)

Yesterday after school I went with Marivic to go look at some clothes down the road and found a lovely pair of shoes for 250 pesos (about 5 bucks). They're an awesome find because I don't even have shoes that nice at home! I really like them. Then Ate Treesa (the white missionary I stayed with for my first 4 days here) picked me up at the church and we went for a massage together :) It was delightful! There was only time for a half hour massage, but it was so relaxing I felt like it could have been an hour. She got on my back and cracked it with her knees! It was awesome! We were at a beautiful spa, but it was really sad to think that within the walls of this spa, everything is bright and lovely and people are pampered, but just outside the walls there's nothing but squatters for miles. The difference is just so drastic, with the vast majority of the population living in that poverty. We went back to the Haus house (ha.) for dinner, and there I met a woman named Holly. She's in her mid-20's, a missionary from the states who taught at Faith Academy here, and is now church planting and discipling young Filipino women. She's obviously very passionate about these people, and I was so impressed by her fluent Tagalog. She's only been here 3 years, but is driving herself around and really finding a way to fit in here as a single white woman, which is not ever easy. So that was really cool to meet her and talk with her.

Richard and I went to the DVD store last night and I bought a disc of 24 great UFC fights, and also a 10 in 1 disc of disney movies. The quality on the 10 in 1's is actually pretty good. And for the price of 2 dollars, it's worth it! The man who runs the shop gave me a special discount, telling Richard in Tagalog that it's because I'm beautiful. Richard looked at him and said, "she understands you." hahahaha. Richard didn't think it was very funny but I was laughing.

So now I'm in between classes, about to start my grade 2 reading class in 40 minutes. I'm getting bored of reading picture books with them every day. Always a different story and different pictures, but essentially it's all the same. I'd like to find them a poem or something different to read. Maybe we can read song lyrics and discuss them. It's harder with the grade 2's because they're still pretty young, but I once had someone suggest to me that it's always better to aim too high and have something go over their heads, than to aim too low and give them nothing to reach for. I like that philosophy.

Oh, before I go, the most exciting part of my week so far was my mom deciding to come visit me here! She and my dad emailed me on saturday night their time to tell me that she was thinking she'd like to come, and to say that they'd found a seat sale with China Air. I phoned them sunday morning to discuss it, and by sunday evening they had bought the ticket! She will be here July 15, for 5 days? Or a week. She'll stay in my room since everything else is being used as classrooms for the school. I'm really excited! I'm so surprised at this risk she's taking, it takes a lot of courage to hop on a plane and fly to the Philippines by yourself! It will be the first time someone from my family will understand what I do here, and subsequently my heart for Filipinos, especially the small ones. Mama Guild is coming to Manila! Unbelievable!