Thanksgiving

Let us enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise!

This week has been American Thanksgiving. Now I’ve watched a fair few friends episodes when they have thanksgiving and often wondered what all the fuss was about. To me it just looked like an excuse to have another Christmas dinner a month before Christmas.

Being here in the Philippines with real Americans and understanding the reason for the celebration has changed my opinion of this holiday. Unlike Christmas there are no gifts to be distracted by and so the real focus in on looking to God and thanking him for all her has given us. I've been working in first grade this week and it's been so cool to hear the children say what they are really thankful to God for. And I think so often we can forget to be thankful because we have so much and do not realise how blessed we really are. At the OMF prayer meeting we wrote down a list of all the things we were thankful for from the past year, this might sound excessive but was a really good exercise; once I’d started I just couldn't stop.

So I’ve decided to make a list of the 10 things I am most thankful for since being here in the Philippines...

1. Great friends to hang out with- before I came I thought I’d really struggle to fit in
2. My amazing roommate Meg
3. A great place to live close to school
4. A car to get around in so I don't have to rely on public transport
5. Work for me to do at school which is satisfying and enjoyable
6. Good relationships with the staff and children at school
7. Financial provision while I’ve been here
8. Internet access which now works at home!
9. The chance to visit other places in the beautiful Philippines
10. My sister Keren got engaged on Sunday (just had to slip that one in!)

I really am thankful to God for the way he has brought me here and walked with me when it's been easy and difficult. My prayer is that I will not forget to look to him and say thank you for all he has done in my life and the rich blessings he has given me.

Ok serious part over. On a side note, the thanksgiving food is pretty good although I’m not sure it can beat a good Christmas dinner UK stylie. They have the usual turkey, mashed potato, corn, stuffing, gravy, with some interesting additions including sweet potato baked with marshmallows and sugar on top. You would think it wouldn't work but somehow it just does!!!

Sweet potato with marshmellows and sugar!!

Filipiniana Week

Hi everybody

I hope you have all had a great few weeks. Life here at Faith Academy has been really busy over the last week or so.

We had a special themed week at school last week called Filipiniana week. This is basically a week where the school goes off timetable and does a range of activities in where the children find out about and celebrate Filipino culture. This was an enjoyable but VERY tiring week.

We started the week with pot smashing. This is a Filipino tradition at children’s birthday parties. A clay pot filled with sweets is suspended by a rope and you have to try and smash the pot with a stick while you are blindfolded. (I’d say it’s a more hardcore version of a Piñata!) All the new staff (including me) got to smash a pot. This was a lot of fun for the kids but hard work for the adults as the head teacher had control of the rope and kept moving the pot away!

Me pot smashing!

The pot; it was harder to break than it looks!

Wack, smash, scream!



Me being disorientated by Mr Taylor



Monday was also a ministry day. Local children from a Filipino school came up to Faith for the afternoon and the Faith kids shared their lunches with the Filipino’s. It was great to see the Faith kids sharing what they had. Some who did not have enough simply gave their lunches away without complaining. This was awesome and made me feel really proud of the Faith kids.

The Faith Kids sharing lunch with the Filipino kids



The kids from the Quatro Filipino school



Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of going on one of the most bizarre field trips ever. We visited 5 places in all during the day. This included a bird show at an Aviary, An eco centre which seemed to be more like a zoo/shell museum, a church, a market and a home for the disabled (locally know as the house without any steps). It was a strange mix of places to visit and the kids found it hard work, the weather was very hot and many of the kids didn’t bring a lot of water so got kind of de-hydrated. Needless to say by the end of Wednesday I was VERY tired, especially as I did the same thing 2 days in a row.

My field trip van

Friday was party day, the kids moved round a carousel of 6 activities including local Filipino games, a dunk tank (with water not gunge) and a food station. The kids had a really great time but I was very tired as I ran a tag game called paintentaira. Playing tag for 2 hours in 30 degrees and 80% humidity really takes it out for you! Needless to say by the end of the week I was exhausted but happy.

The dunk tank! The kids went crazy for this!

Refreshments: we had popcorn, cheese flavoured ice-cream, fish balls and babingk (sticky sweet rice)

Tinikling- a traditional Filipino dance game where the kids jump over moving bamboo poles

babingk



The entrance to school with a special Filipinina week banner!



Me playing paintentaira with grade 3

This week I’ve begun the last part of my work here at Faith. I’ll be supply teaching for most of the class teachers at some point over the next 4 weeks while they have time to do reading assessments and write reports. I’m really glad to be the classroom every day teaching; however I will be teaching a different class nearly everyday so I would really appreciate your prayers for grace and patience particularly with their behavior. It doesn’t matter how good I am; the kids are always going to be worse behaved for a supply teachers than their actual teacher.

Now I am well into November I only have 5 weeks left here. I’ve really enjoyed the last few weeks since break and have felt much more settled and content with day to day life. I have been thinking about coming home, and while I am looking forward to coming back I think that I’m going to find it hard to leave Faith, the children and especially all the great friends I have made. I would really value your prayers regarding my transition back into the UK, my home and my work. I think the nature of short term mission is that the transition part is tough. I found it difficult to adjust when I got here and now I think I’m going to find it hard to adjust back. Please pray that I will know God’s hand with me as I say goodbyes and hellos and that I will know him as my home when all around me I go through changes again.

Thanks again to everyone for all your support and prayers, you’re great! I can’t wait to see you all in the not to distant future.

Video

I've posted the video of the All in This Together dance on facebook so you guys can check it out there. Here is the link:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=266700772

Enjoy!

Dancing Queen!

Hi guys

Sorry it's been so long since my last update, life’s been pretty busy since we got back from break. The last couple of weeks have been really great so I thought I should fill you in.

Since getting back to school life has been really busy. I've been doing all my usual stuff in the mornings plus teaching 5th grade science every afternoon for 2 weeks. I've really enjoyed having a regular slot to plan and teach and getting to work with 5th grade has been nice, they are great kids! I've also been helping Meg with some songs for her class chapel which is coming up. I've played guitar for them in their practices and taught them a vineyard kids song along with corresponding dance routine. I'm really thankful to God that he has used me in this way, as most of you know I love dancing and singing and being able to use some of my skills has been great.

In 2 weeks we have a special week called Filipiniana week. During the week, classes go off timetable and focus on learning about life in the Philippines. They learn about cultures, and customs as well as taking a field trip. I'm looking forward to this week; I think it's going to be a lot of fun. After that I think I will be pretty much covering different people's classes until I go home. The teachers have a reading assessment to do so while they do that I can teach their kids. I'm really looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into a big chunk of teaching.

The last 2 weeks we had 3 day weekends. They seem to have a lot of public holidays here which the government can just declare whenever they want. I was feeling a little daunted about having lots of extra time off because I sometimes find the weekends pretty boring, having a lot of free time on my hands with not much to do I have the tendency to over think and then become homesick.

I decided I would go and visit one of the squatter areas, called Cogeo with my German friends. They work there every day and said it would be nice if I taught the youth some dances. This squatter area is quite unique. Unlike other places I’ve visited it's built up on a hillside amongst trees, the soil is dark red clay. To reach Cogeo you have to cross a suspended rope bridge with quite a few slats missing. This was quite scary, especially when a man carrying a pile of bricks tried to squeeze past me! We had a great time in Cogeo, the kids are super cute. We attended a bible study and then I taught the youth All in This Together from High School Musical and my friend Sharon taught the hoedown throwndown. I went back the next weekend and got to teach some more dance and play some games with the little kids.

Me and Sharon and the rope bridge into Cogeo

A man doing his washing in the river

Cogeo rope bridge

Me and Ellis (yes I do love him a little bit!)

Teaching All in this Together to the youth. They were really fast learners!

Some youth practicing guitar in the preschool

Cogeo River (It is usually soapy due to people cleaning and washing in it)

Me, Sharon and some of the Cogeo kids

It's Ellis again and my German friend Helena

Playing duck, duck, goose with the kids

Showing this girl how to play some basic chords

Beautiful faces

More guitar lessons

The 3 amigos. They look like butter wouldn't melt don't they!

I'm so grateful to God that he has given me this opportunity to visit the squatter areas. When I go there it reminds me that although I am here working in a western environment, most of the people here in the Philippines live in extreme poverty. It's great to spend some time with these guys and hopefully teach them something which they will enjoy. What's really challenging about going there is that all the leaders in the house churches are so young, usually in their late teens or early twenties and yet they have such a passion for Jesus and are really committed to serving him. Most of them lead bible studies, worship or Sunday school. I find this interesting when I think back to my own experiences as a young adult in the church, how much was I willing to get involved and serve?

Of course I am still in another culture so while I’m learning these great lessons there are also the inevitable randomly funny moments. We attended a choir practice where they were attempting to learn a Christmas song which no-one seemed to know the tune to but everyone sang very enthusiastically anyway! The funniest moment was every time we started there would be no counting us in with 5, 6. 7, 8 it was simply ready? Sing!

So I was worried about these long weekends without reason, this last weekend has been great, probably the best weekend here in the Philippines so far. I've had such a good time and I’m really grateful to God for giving me such great people to hang out with and have fun. On Sunday night we had a party for Halloween because that is really big in the States. We carved squash because you can't get pumpkins here, played the chocolate flour game and the strawberry lace game. I think the highlight though was playing spoons, in the dark, in the swimming pool. Instead of grabbing a spoon from the table you have to jump into the pool and dive for the spoons which on the on bottom, this is a must play game and was so much fun! Also I’ve just received my Gavin and Stacey box set so I’m busy educating my American friends on British culture and TV, they love it!

Me, Meg and Kelli before the squash carving began

Playing the flour game, luckily I didin't make the chocolate fall!

Squash carving fun!

Here are our finished squshes. Ours says "oh no". It's a Friends reference because me and Meg watch Friends way too much!

The flour pie before the carnage began!

I was feeling really down a couple of weekends ago and I’m really grateful to God for giving me these fun times here. He has been 100% faithful to me the whole time I’ve been here and I want to give him all the praise. I was looking back in my journal which I’ve been keeping since I got here and I was almost surprised to see all the things I’ve prayed about and all the answers to prayer I've seen in just 2 months. My time here has not always been easy but I know that when times are good or bad I can lean on the one who will never let me down.

Give thanks to the Lord our God and king, His love endures forever!

P.s. I have a video of me doing the all in this together dance with the youth. I've tried in vain to add this to my blog. I am currently seeking technical support so watch this space. If I can't add it here I may put it on facebook.