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"!)

Our Church Couple's Fellowship

Recently we participated with our church in the couple's fellowship. We thought you'd like to get a few pictures of our church here in the Philippines. It is a great place for worship and fellowship. The people are so friendly and welcoming.

Nate and I have actually been taking some dance lessons this summer from a couple locals. They have been teaching us the native indigenous dances of the peoples on our island. One of them includes the use of this "malong" material you see. It was fun to practice our new dance, but kind of intimidating for us white people to do it for the Filipinos! They were all so gracious and said we inspired them as city people to learn more about the indigenous people!

At the end of the evening one of the small groups sang a song, "I will be here," only they changed it to "Will you be there?" and sang it to each other. It was very fun to see! Thank you, Lord, for a wonderful church family, both in the U.S. and here in the Philippines! Here we are enjoying dinner with our friends, the worship leaders.

The Mark of the Anay

Yes, folks, pictured here is the mark of the anay. It is a very specific design and looks almost like a Chinese character. We got struck at our house with this mark.

What is the anay, you ask? Do I have any guesses? Yes, my friends, this is the word for "termites." Oh, folks, do you know how I feel about having these crawling all over our house? Thankfully, they have not made it to our books yet! (Our friends read a good book and they said, "We really liked it...the termites liked it too, which is why we can't loan it to you).

I've been staring up at the corner of our bedroom for quite some time now. As you can see, this is the view from my bed. I lay and look up at this growing brown line in the corner of the room by the ceiling. I've been wondering....wondering...what that thing is. However, I had my suspicions, and today they were confirmed by the guy who came to assess the mark of the anay. How would you sleep at night after a guy told you these little termites were circling the moulding around your room, around and around?
This is all the damage done that we can see from the outside. I wonder what is happening on the inside!!

So much destruction!

Now, the preacher in me has to make a lesson out of this amazing illustration. Please listen.

When I first discovered the anay I was cleaning the upper shelf of the closet for some guests that would be staying with us. I had the closet organized and tidy. I had everything put where it was supposed to be. From all appearances my whole house was in order.

Then I decided to move the cardboard box that was on the top shelf to see what was in it. I was thinking, "Maybe there are some decorations or candles I can use for the guests...", but instead I found it crawling with little bugs (now known to me as anay). I screamed and got sick inside.

You see, this anay is like sin in our lives. We may have everything together on the outside and may appear to everyone opening the closet door that things are tidy and in order. But inside, deep inside where no one can even see, there may be some unchecked sin that we have not even ventured near to touch or move or discover. In fact, just like the anay, we may not even WANT to discover such icky things in our closets!!

However, let me teach you a lesson about the anay in our lives....the same lesson God taught me! I didn't have time to deal with the little bugs that day. I sprayed the closet and aired it out because my guests were coming in a couple days!! (I didn't tell them what I found in their closet--of course!). I did a quick surface cover up, thinking maybe the problem went away. Yet, as you can see from the pictures, the unresolved anay in my closet ended up spreading through the entire upstairs.....around the frames of the doors....on the moulding by the baseboard...behind the desk in my office....and circling the entire circumfrence of our bedroom.

Yes, even though the problem of "anay" or sin in our lives may be icky and we don't even want to think of opening that door in our hearts, it is better to treat it properly to the depths or else it will spread and become more destructive and will spread to every other room in our lives.

"If you keep yourself pure, you will be a utensil God can use for his purpose. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work." 2 Timothy 2.21NLT

OT Chronological Puzzle

Journal entry 07.23.07M

Yesterday I began work on the OT Chronological puzzle! What a task--so good for me to do myself. There is no chart I can find that has put together the OT in the order I'd like to teach it. So I work hard.

I began today just before 9am and worked for hours on the Divided Kingdom puzzle! Piecing together Kings and Chronicles with Joel, Jonah, Amos, Micah, Hosea and Isaiah. Then I came to the problem of Isaiah, which I still can't solve (do you break at ch. 9 or 10 before the time of Hezekiah?...should I teach chapter 11-66 all in one chunk?). I compared sources to get a good teaching order--correct dates and a message flow that makes sense.

Now I've worked just as many hours (only to break for lunch) on the puzzle of Judah standing alone. Zephaniah and Jeremiah go together at first, but only during Josiah's reigh. Then you have the question of Nahum and Habakkuk --when also to teach it. We go back and forth between 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles and match prophecies with Jeremiah.

I've got my Guenter prophets notes and keep going on marking trails through my Bible doing more study on the prophets like I've always wanted to. I'm eating it up like a banquet, and I have the luxury of a whole entire day alone at home. It's like a monestary.

Then after flipping and reading and marking and studying, trying to figure out Jeremiah--I finally laugh with relief when I read from the EBC:
"No commentator, ancient or modern, has seriously posited a chronological arrangement of [Jeremiah's] prophecies."
I laughed at that statement! Ha! So, we go through a maze?
It continues:
"It is too much, however, to conclude that the book is a hopeless maze."

I'm so intrigued by Jeremiah and after reading about how he is the unique, significant, historical prophet who is so closely paralleled to Jesus, I can't wait to learn more!

Before and After

Yesterday was my friend, Jeannie's birthday, so we decided to get our hair cut together. I've always loved magazines where they pose so sad and serious for the before and then all happy for the "after" pose. It's the smile that really makes all the difference--and I guess the hair too. What do you think?




After Nate saw me he said, "Wow, you look hot!", so he decided to get his hair cut too. He walked into the same place just a couple hours after I had just been there. We had fun last night picking out his "before" picture. Of course Nate is so handsome, he could not really have a "before" picture, but perhaps just a "look #1" photo. We thought we would compare hair style, glasses, and facial hair (don't let the expression throw you off, now!). What do you think?

2nd Anniversary!

Yesterday we celebrated two wonderful years of marriage! We praise God for our relationship and for His faithfulness.

Nate woke up early and biked to the market to buy some red and white roses for me--our wedding flowers! How sweet. I gave him this nice new outfit and planned the whole thing to coordinate with me for our photo shoot. It turned out great!

We have night class on Tuesday nights, so we planned for a lunch date. We went to the "Swiss Deli", a European restaurant with delicious selections. After enjoying a lovely meal and sharing our honeymoon scrapbook together, we stepped outside to catch a taxi. It was so sad to discover it was raining!

I was really disappointed that we would not be able to do the photo shoot, but Nate was sweet and flexible and was willing to do one anyway in the carport. After taking a few shots, it stopped raining!! I was SO excited! It turned out AMAZING after all because the lighting was perfect and everything was fresh and vibrant. The pictures were SO good that I am going to keep them mostly private and only post a couple here, because I'm afraid they are too good--someone out there might steal them and sell them! Anyway, we got some romantic pictures in some very Philipino scenes, and we will enjoy those pictures for many years to come.

Thank you, Lord, for this covenant of marriage ordained by You. Thank you for your grace and faithfulness to us. Thank you for pouring your love to us so we can pour our love to each other. May we have many more wonderful years together serving you, Lord!

P.S. And a very happy 64th wedding anniversary to my Grandparents! You are a godly example to us.

Sunsets We Saw--God's Creation!

I love sunsets. Thankfully we were able to enjoy two on our way back home by land and sea. I love the sunset camera setting on my new FujiFinePix.

Prior Pics

Here are some pics from our trip a month ago. After one month I finally got my camera back out (this is a long time for me!). Here in Manila we found a store named after me!
The Filipino kids were walking to school on the first day carrying their flags with them. What a busy road to be walking to school on! The Filipino school year goes from June to March.
A famous beach destination with lots of sand! Lovely! I thankfully had enough strength during my sickness to come to the ocean to enjoy some sun.
Nate had fun running down the beach like Eric Liddel of "Chariots of Fire."

Practice Parenting

I finally got over my one-month photo/camera fast. I was so sad, I couldn't get out my camera for a month. Now we are back in business here with the photos!

Saturday morning, Nate and I got a chance to practice parenting. We had four girls come over at 9am until 1p.m. Their parents needed a "packing date" so we helped them out. We had absolutely no kids stuff there, so I went around borrowing books, games, toys and making copies of coloring book pages.

We had a blast together and got along great--praise the Lord! Nate is going to be a great dad someday--look at him helping out with lunch! We served one of their favorite meals: mac and cheese, apples and chips. Yum! They said our milk tasted funny.

Nate and I had so many laughs once they left as we reviewed all their funny comments of the day. Kids have a way of being so blunt. Like on our tour of the home we took them to the guest room, which is normally shut, and Laura said, "This room is really stinky!" Normally you might take offense like, "Oh! How could it be?!" but I had to laugh and admit it was true. On the other hand this same girl said sweetly, "You have a really pretty house!" How sweet!

Nate and I had the biggest laugh when we were remembering the Monopoly game he played with the two oldest. Of course he went third, so the girls were getting ahead and buying properties. His first few turns were, 1. Income tax, 2. Visiting jail and 3. landing on one of their properties. When the oldest looked at his money and how few cards he had, she said bluntly "You're a loser!" Of course it meant that "You're kind of behind right now..." Nate later told me if he had been playing with guys he would have said, "Oh yeah, well watch out, buddy!" and then once he got ahead he would have said, "Now, who's the loser! Ha!" We were just joking, of course, with ourselves, but it was so funny to think how kids just say comments like that and we just suck it up with our own judgments on the situation. Too funny!

I think after that four-hour fun Saturday, that I am not yet ready to be a mom! They are so sweet, but I loved reading in bed alone once they left. On the other hand, their mom was tired and she had them for the rest of the day! Praise the Lord for loving mothers and fathers!!