Week One Reflections

Matthew 18:3-4


“Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”


Like children we came humbly to Christ …. And those earnest hearts we have to learn of God and to serve Him have led us here to Talisay, Cebu, Philippines. What a joyous blessing it has been to be here this past week. We have been welcomed and shown love by the many people of Talisay. This is my first time that I have ever traveled outside of the US and to be honest, I was completely nervous, but excited for the new journey. It was such a blessing from God when I walked off the plane and through the glass doors of the airport into the hands of a wonderful family. Mr. Wayne and Margie Pabillon and their three children Wayne, Dayne, and Shayne were there to greet us with open arms. They have made us part of their family for the next six weeks; I couldn’t be more thankful to God, than I am right now. Miss Margie has already cooked us delicious traditional Filipino breakfast filled with rice, corn beef, eggs, and Bihon(noodle dish). Last Thursday was our first full day to be here in the Philippines and the Pabillon family helped us get acquainted with the city and all it has to offer. We visited Shayne's school on Thursday as well, there were about twenty children all singing “The Greatest Love of All” in preparation for their festival on Saturday. It was very exciting to see the mothers there with their children. Here in the Philippines parents are very involved in their children’s education, and it is so beautiful to see:D. Jen and I woke up around five thirty on Friday morning (when it is broad daylight outside) and went walking along the beach which is about four hundred yards away from our home ( God's masterpiece if I must say so myself). It was a remarkable and humbling experience to see the many homes of the people of Talisay and realize that happiness doesn't come from what you have. It's finding the joy in the simple things like being with your family. As I could watch its seemed that at this early time in the morning most Filipino’s were awake and getting ready for another work day. Many of the homes we saw were cooking for their families and preparing the foods and other goods for selling at the market. Many homes have turned their front doors into small stores to make money for their families. The work ethic of this culture has definitely encouraged me and has been very edifying. Everything that we work for in life is of some value; here some of the value in working is having something to feed their children or to give them some sort of shelter. Friday, also was our first day of reading with our readers and I was very excited because I had a very full schedule. I was so excited with the opportunity to meet and get to know the people of Talisay. My morning started with meeting Paul, who is a 17 year old, going to be a freshman in college. He is very good at his English and has never read the book of Luke before. He is going to be studying Civil engineering and starts his first day of college in two weeks. I met next with Shaira a 13 year old Filipina girl who seems to be very shy, but she is extremely smart, and once you get her to open up she has a lot of wonderful things to say, I can’t wait to get to know her more. Trixie, Shaira’s sister, is 18 years old and is studying paralegal studies. She also is very smart and very good at her English. Trixie and I have gotten to have very in depth discussions and when talking about the type of women we want to be she simply replies “A God fearing Woman.” This exquisite, but simple and powerful answer gave me the chills. Trixie is very excited to study more and I will see her several times a week. In the evenings I have been able to sit down and read the book of Luke with Claire, Lavenmarie, and Merlinel. After we were finished reading through the lesson for that day we were able to all gather again for more discussion about God, His love and compassion, and how important it is that we serve him. Jen and Kendra also have readers at this time and we all finished around the same time and suddenly we found ourselves all praying together. The eight of us women that were in the room all reached out our hands together and prayed to our Lord and gave him thanks and praise. I can truly say that God has blessed my life with this opportunity not only to help others learn of God, his word, and his plan, but also, to learn myself.

Saturday, was another beautiful blessing from God as Jen, Kendra, and I got to read the Gospel of Luke again with our readers. The day ended with the wonderful blessing of being able to attend Shayne’s school festival. It was indescribable how beautiful it was to see so many in the community coming out to support the children of the Dumlog village area. Jen, Kendra, and I have been made part of a community. We have started getting to know our neighbors and the many children that live around us, and we can’t wait to learn about them more and more throughout the next six weeks.

Throughout the next six weeks we will be attending worship at the church in Talisay. The Lord’s Day was such a beautiful day to worship our wonderful maker. The sun was shining and when walking into the church building there was a sense of excitement of the gathering of Christians all there to worship our great God. Jovan, who is a member of the church led the singing, Mr. Wayne led the morning bible class, and Gerald led the sermon. I was so joyous to be worshiping with fellow brothers and sister in Christ on the other side of the world. It was the best way to start the week and I look forward to another week learning and growing with the people in Talisay.