Today is a strange day to say the least. I’m packing and cleaning once again. However, this time, packing up and cleaning is a dreadful thing. I have lived in a place that I have grown to love and call home for the past 2 months. Let’s be honest, any place you celebrate Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Years has to be home, right? I walk around this place as if I’ve lived here forever. Starbucks’ runs are the usual, going to the grocery story, watching the girls at their basketball games, living in our own little house, cooking, cleaning, working out, going in and out of the village with joy, hanging out and goofing off with 36 other Filipino sisters, jumping on the trampoline with little friends from the village, playing spades like it’s our job and movie nights…this has been my life. And I have grown to love it. Not only that, but, this has also been the place where overcoming is essential. It’s been a place of deep rooted faith and joy that says Yes to God despite any outcomes. This is a place of seeking and pursuing Jesus despite feelings and chasing the more. Our time here as a team has been pivotal. The Lord offering to take us even deeper if we want it and choosing to fight for each other. The Philippines has been like home: living and doing everyday life with its ups and downs.
I’m sad to clean up the house and property we’ve lived on…this place that has been a safe haven and resting place. This place that has my tears, laughter, anguish, and joy…it even has a lot of my sweat haha. It is a place I have found more of myself and way more of God. Even looking around the room right now, it feels like I’m not supposed to leave because, well, this is home. It makes me sad to leave the place and people that I have grown to love deeply.
Don’t you worry one bit, we are still in the Philippines for the next month…praise the Lord! However, we will just be in a different location for 2 weeks and then off to debrief where we will unwind, release and celebrate the past 3 months and get ready for Africa..Botswana, Africa by the way.
So, tomorrow our squad is leaving for Toclaban, the place where the worlds largest disaster took place here in the Philippines. We will be leaving at some point on Saturday, all 52, piling in the back of a large truck-bed ready to face a 30 hour ride. Thankfully, we’ve already been prepared for such long journeys through our travels to and from Honduras. Once we get their we will be setting up our tents in, near and around a church. There will be no electricity, so please do not freak out on me…it is only 2 weeks.
Even though this super typhoon hit in November, there is still much to be done. More than the physical relief, there’s much healing within hearts that needs to be NOTICED. We are going to listen to their stories and help in whatever way they need help. That may consist of cooking food for feedings, construction, helping pastors, building relationships, who knows…we are available and willing.
Us going to Tacloban is all and only because of God. He is the one who permitted and allowed us the opportunity to go. As teams we each prayed about whether this is where we should go and every team got “yes.” The decision was not easy considering this place here in Manila has become so like a home and normal life. With faith in God, we opened our hands…and said yes. Here we are, getting ready to leave tomorrow, with not much to expect, yet willing and expectant hearts for all the Father has in store for each of us. Please be praying for our squad as a whole as we head out tomorrow. Just like Guatemala, Tacloban has always been Plan A. The Lord just had so much he wanted to do in us before we go. He wanted to put this passion and hunger for more in each person. Like always, he has set us up perfectly and we are excited for the next season…to go even deeper than our feet could ever wander.
