Case of the Missing Cell Phone

Wow, friends, nine days since I last wrote! Well, here's the latest story:

Nate's cell phone went missing a few days ago (that's how the Asians say things so that blame is not placed--ex. it is not: "Nate lost his phone"). He texted me at school and when he got home had no cell phone. It must be somewhere, but after a few days we were starting to think it was lost for good.

Last night at 10 p.m. a random co-worker called us and said, "A Filipino guy just called me on your phone! We talked for like 15 minutes and I'm not sure exactly what he said."

We were thinking "someone has the phone!" So we called Nate's number from my phone and a Filipino answered (yes we did try this before but it said the phone was disconnected).

Nate then had a very strange conversation with the man who basically spoke Tagalog, and Nate was trying to communicate with him in Cebuano. There were guys laughing in the background and it sounded strange. We think they were in "high spirits." However, Nate thought the guy agreed to meet him at the "lechon manok" stand near our house.

Nate went out at 10:30p.m in the dark (and soon the rain), to wait on the corner for this stranger to come with his cell phone. Nate made friends with the guys on the corner, but never did a guy show up with his phone.

Even more strange was that today Nate got another call at school from our worship pastor at church. The story began to unfold (I hope you can bear with these details!). It turns out two guys found the phone in the road. (You have to realize cell phones get stolen all the time here so they can sell them for money).

The two guys disagreed about the phone--one thought they should sell it and the other had a bad conscience. So the guy with the conscience took the SIM card out of the phone and put it in another phone, thus they were able to call Nate.

Why did the guy at church know this story? Because the two guys told their aunt what happened, and she happened to go to our church! It is quite a circle of people.

We are learning about the culture more and more. People can't go directly to someone to tell them they are returning the phone, but must go through a chain of people making contacts until at last the situation is resolved.

We're waiting to see if our pastor can meet with the lady at church who can then meet the two guys and then can find a way to get the phone back to us without us finding out who they were. We'll keep you updated!

My last comment is that as we told this story to our friend, Ryan, at lunch he told us he once lost his cell phone, the same thing happened with the in-direct confrontation, and of all places, the guys in his case wanted to meet at the "lechon manok" stand! There must be something about that corner--it is the happening place for returning (or not returning) cell phones!

Until next time, this is mystery news from the Philippines...signing off.

High School Beach Trip

I just got back from the high school beach trip. It's hard to capture in pictures, or even in words, but we PRAISE GOD for keeping everyone healthy and safe and for unity and spiritual growth!
We had a lot of fun games and bonding times as well as worship times and meetings with a spiritual emphasis.
Monday night I was excited to share a message about the greatness of God--"His greatness no one can fathom." I pray God will use it to cause students and staff alike to think more about how amazing God is--and to result in an even greater response of daily worship.
This morning we had the annual boat-building contest. Once teams made rafts out of random materials like bamboo, they needed to meet Miss Farlin and I down in the ocean and then head back to shore. Sadly, our boat tipped later and we got soaked--of course!
Here they are--racing out to us. It was funny to watch everyone come out to us like ants! Thank you, Lord, for a great trip!

Kadayawan Parade--Sunday

Sunday morning before church, Nate and I biked to the main street where the floral parade would pass by. They decorated vehicles with fruit and flowers to add to the festivities.
I found it most interesting because we could people-watch. It is so interesting to learn more about the culture and people during an event like this.
The people I noticed the most were the beggars. I saw little girls and kids walking around begging for whatever people would give. I was trying to learn more about them by watching them work their way through the crowd. It was also interesting to see how people responded to them.
The ladies who begged always looked the same. I could spot them in the crowd. They always carried a baby with them when they begged. It was interesting, though, from the high vantage-point I was standing on I was able to see them in the background and how they all met together and then sent one out at a time to beg.
A total contrast was to see the happy kids all dressed up in costume for the floats. Some kids even played in a band and were twirling batons.

Kadayawan Festival Dancing

The first week of school also fell during a major festival week--Kadayawan Festival. Saturday I biked to the city hall to just catch the last indigenous tribal dance.
I love to see the different costumes. I missed these women dancing.
The dance was representing harvesting and planting in their tribe.
Lots of vendors were selling things, kind of like a carnival. Need some shoes? Everyone wears these flip-flops called "tsinelas".
I love the local fruit!! In season now you can find mangosteen, rambhutan and lanzones. Yum!

Staff Retreat

We took a lovely mountain road up to the staff retreat. What beautiful valleys! (Mom and Dad, you've been on this road before--on a bus---remember?)
We have a great staff with both returning and new teachers. It was fun to get to know each other through personality tests and then a human graph like this one.
Just a short hike down the hills and we were at this lovely waterfall. I love being in God's creation. The air was so fresh and cool!
The only down-side to the mountain is that there are lots of critters and creatures! Look at the size of this thing! (This is NOT my thumb!). That night we heard something eating our wall; a mouse? a rat? Who knows?
As we loaded the bus to leave the little local kids came up to us selling bracelets. How could you choose which one to buy from? So cute!

End of First Week

The end of the first week is over, and I can say it went GREAT!! I think this was the best first week of teaching ever! I feel like I finally know how to plan lessons and connect with every type of learner in my class. I LOVE my students and I am having a blast teaching them!! We both praise the Lord for the health and strength He gave us this week. Nate and I can feel your prayers!! God is filling us up and anointing us by His grace and power!
This weekend I will be a leader on the high school beach trip. The purpose of the trip is #1: to foster school unity among new and returning students and staff and #2: to focus our year on worshiping God together. I will be speaking on Monday night during one of our sessions. I'm so excited about the message God has given me! Please pray for me and for the students.

I am going to focus on Psalm 145.3 "Great is the Lord and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom." I am also going to head toward closing with the song "God of Wonders beyond our galaxy." I'm just heading off in a few minutes to print off several amazing photos of God's creation that I got from webshots.com. I'm going to start with things here on earth that show God's glory, and then move throughout our solar system to the sun and out to the farthest point (pictured here at pluto--the sun is still visible!). Then I am going to show pictures of the Milky way and then out to other galaxies. To think: "The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you." (1 Kings 8.27). Wow!! God is great and most worthy of praise!

"Cliff Notes"

This is one of the more busy weeks of the year so I will give brief notes for the moment:
--Staff retreat went GREAT! Unity, worship, prayer...cool mountain air
--First day of school, I was alive, excited and pumped for the year!
--I LOVE my students!
--Nate is the BEST Music teacher ever!--his students are learning lots!
--Spanish is coming back to me--I am practicing lots!
--Night classes three Mon., Tues., Thurs.--three hours each
--One free night, tonight, to buy groceries for the home
--This weekend is the high school beach trip--I'm speaking one night and also helping lead worship with two student leaders
--God is giving us health and strength and great joy
--Nate and I are unified and in love!

_praise the Lord for His grace and joy--pray for continued health and effectiveness

Our Boys

Maybe someday God will give us sons, but recently we have adopted several! One day as we were riding our bikes home we heard the sound of flip-flops slapping the street. Three boys were chasing Nate to the gate of our house. When we got there they said "Limpio?" We knew they were asking us if they could sweep or clean for us.

The boys were about 9 or 10 years old and were out to find jobs! I had just the job for them. Our back "yard" hasn't been cleaned for the whole time we have lived in the Philippines. It is basically a cement rectangle with a sink and a washing spinner machine. There was mold and green stuff in the cracks; dirt under the washer, it was all nasty. I didn't want to get down and scrub it, but these boys are used to getting dirty.

We gave them some tools and they set to work. They worked HARD! They were scraping and scrubbing, working together and cooperating. It was so fun to hear their language as they coordinated tasks together.
When they were all done I looked and saw three sets of eyes peering in the back screen. I wish I had a picture of that! It was precious. We invited them in for a nice snack while Nate read them a Bible story in their language. Then we paid them and sent them on their way with "take-out food" and some old treasures they found while cleaning that we didn't want. What a fun day watching our boys do their chores.

Shortly after that day we had 5 high school guys over for a night of "Settlers of Catan". Again a table full of sons. It was so fun to hear them trade and discuss good places on the board. They got loud! I couldn't believe how much they discussed during the game. Usually we are all intense and quiet. They ate dozens of my cookies and muffins, saying thank you of course. When they all stood up I felt like a midget! Tall sons and one tall husband and a little lady hosting the boys. Wow, that was fun! Thank you, Lord, for many adoptive sons! (The Filipinos always tell us they're praying for us to have one "made in the Philippines"!)