Philippines

We've been pretty busy over here in the Philippines. We are usually up around 6am and are getting ready to go out to various ministries in the morning. On Monday we visited the women's group that they call the "Deborahs." Today we visited the Men's group called "Barnabas." These small groups of people are the future of the ministry. The goal at Lambat is to train and equip leaders for the communities to preach the gospel. In the afternoons we've been doing alot of tourist-e things. We went into old Manilla and experienced the craziness that is the capital city. The ministry we were planning on going to tomorrow is being discontinued so instead we are going hiking on the Taal Volcano. I've been shooting between 500-1000 photos a day and I'm pretty busy in trying to keep my head above editing them all. The Philippines is super Americanized and their malls are unbelievably huge with about 15 {no lie} workers per department of the store. You're constantly followed by a worker and they're super friendly. We'll probably write out each day with pictures when we get home.

The flight over here to the Philippines wasn't so bad. They constantly feed you and the movies they had playing were just barely interesting enough to watch. We didn't even start the books we brought along to read. We might of slept two of the twenty-two hour flight. We lucked out as our row of four seats only had three people sitting in them. Both our lay overs in Detroit and Japan were less than an hour long which was great. In Japan; Ashley was talking to a filippino woman who was worried Ashley wasn't going to be safe and was asking her all kinds of questions about where we were going and why on earth would you go to the philippines.
Our first stop on our way home from the airport is of course the 24 hour McDonalds. We got fries which tasted better then back home. I'd like go to back sometime this week and get some rice and fried chicken.  We went to bed around three am and got up around 7 to meet Lori Ann. She is the executive director of Lambat and is the one that I am teaching photography to. We went out and did some sight seeing touristy things after going over photography basics.

Today we went and visited the kids bible classes. They teach a 10 and under class that meets in somebodies driveway and they feed the kids, too. To some of the kids this maybe the only meal they eat for the day. While the kids were still in class we left and went and visited the riverside, which is where they live... in shoddy, make shift huts down an embankment next to the river. They also do one on one bible studies with the parents in their homes. We will upload pictures when we get back to the states. It took over a half hour just to upload the one of the volcano above.
Tomorrow night we will be going to a bamboo festival http://www.bambooman.com/bamboo_organ.php

A Ticket Out of Here

Tomorrow early afternoon we are leaving for the Philippines.  Tonight, we are staying over night in LaGuardia near the airport so we don't have to worry about fighting traffic and risk missing our flight tomorrow.  Not to mention how early we would have to get up in the morning to get to the airport by 10:30am.  We will be traveling for a total of 21 hours.  We will have internet access when in the Philippines so be on the look out for some updates. 

Thanks for your prayers for safe travels.

Two Weeks Ago

As I reflect back on two weeks ago today I remember walking into CHOP on the morning of Coles open heart surgery.  I was carrying Cole into the hospital and he had a huge smile on his face and was kicking his legs, he was so excited.  I thought to myself "Oh buddy if only you knew..."  I have to believe that he was probably thinking to hisself "Oh mommy if only you knew that I am going to go be with Jesus and Owen today..." 

Oh Cole, Momma misses you dearly sweet boy.

Missions Trip

We have been invited by Lambat Ministries to go to the Philippines from February 22-March 5th.
We will be photographing different aspects of their ministry, for use on a new website, for promo shots, publications, etc. We will also be giving the executive director a crash course in photography with the purpose of her being able to keep updating things as time goes on. We both are really excited about this opportunity. The 23 hour flight...not so much.
Below is a summary of Lambat Ministries:

We (Lambat), teach, train and equip pastors and teachers there with
free teaching/training seminars and free Biblically based materials to
participating churches. We reach about 15,000 or so people. It's
huge. It's expanded so much that our materials are now getting into
public schools and local governments cause there's no separation of
church and state there.
We have materials from pre-K through 12 grade. We have courses
specifically for pastors and teachers. And for pastors, seminary type
courses.
We promote Bible clubs,which are weekly, or twice a week 'sunday school' type things in the
community.

Thankyou

Thanks to all who have been so supportive of us in the last weeks. Helping get Cole's service together in such little time, food, financial support, food, emotional support, food, cards, food, flowers, and more food...
Special thanks to the William Penn Inn and Village Caterers for providing the luncheon and planning it before we even thought about it!
Suess and Sadler Funeral Homes for providing their exceptional services totally free. Preplan your funerals with them.{seriously}
And thankyou to the random person who gave the funeral home an extremely generous tip. Thankyou.