Went downtown to try to check out some live jazz at Hank's Cafe and The Dragon Upstairs, but it didn't work out. So instead we walked around the block to eat some delicious Chinese food over at Little Village.

Actually, it wasn't my field trip but Lynnette's and a couple of students from her 4th grade class. She's in charge of a schoolwide project to have students interview some of the candidates for Governor and Linda Lingle. She's pretty good at implementing technology in her class, and so the kids will be creating everthing in iMovie.

Back in Hawaii and into the routine of every day life, except for this particular night...

We did have a chance to go for a walk/jog in our neighborhood and came across a mini-carnival right here in Waipio! Lynnette was looking forward to some delicious $6 funnel cake, unfortunately I was a dollar short and no bank machines anywhere. But for $4 you can buy a delicious deep fried twinkie! It was our first one, and it was surprisingly good for something that really isn't considered food.

During the week 3G Ministries runs a preschool. Lynnette had the opportunity to do some activities with the kids.

Once again, thanks to Lynnette's connections to Manoa Elementary's Librarian, Imelda, she was able to bring books donated by the school. One of our mini-church friends (also a teacher) was also kind enough to donate some school supplies.

Serving in the preschool was a real blessing for Lynnette. She learned a lot from the teachers, especially since her upcoming 4th grade class that she'll be teaching is full of non-english speaking students from the Philippines! This must be God's way of preparing her for the PI!

At their Sunday service, I was honored by the opportunity to give the message with the help of Ate Alice translating. The service is held in the open air under the roof of the multi-purpose area right alongside the water. Despite the fact that a lot of people do understand english, I realized even more how important it is to know and speak the language here to effectively disciple others.

After service the church served lunch (delicious pancit) to everyone, even with the small budget they operate from. Many walk from far distances to come to church, and they never want to have them leave on empty stomachs. For hours people just hung out and enjoyed the fellowship. We had a chance to play another fast paced scrabble like game out here called "Take Two". Once again, even though english is their second (and in some cases third) language, they managed to defeat us over and over again!

The day ended with some delicious fresh squid and fish that was caught by local fisherman the night before.

3G Ministries are the ones who are hosting us here in Talaan. Becky was our main contact who is from Hawaii but has been living in the PI doing ministry for the past 6 years. She was the one who organized our stay out here and to whom we are very grateful! Ate Alice is the director and co-founder of the ministry and her heart for the local poor and the nearby displaced muslim tribes (called the 'Badjao' people from Mindanao) was inspiring. On the first full day we took a small boat to visit these villages  that they reach out to.

Living out in the province is much different from the city living we've been used to so far...

We've safely gone and come back from our 3 day excursion in Talaan, Sariaya! We didn't have internet until now, so we'll blog/reflect about our experiences over the next few days.

Today was a rest day and a chance to meet up with some old friends (from hawaii) who happened to be in the Philippines. Brad & Liz Barret and their three kids are in the PI for a month while Brad had some eye surgery over here. About 10 months ago, they left the US to be missionaries in Cambodia. It was really inspiring for us to see this young couple, with three small kids, step out in faith, trusting God and following Him to a foreign culture for God's purpose. Their boldness really touched our hearts, and we feel compelled to pray about moving to the Philippines earlier than our projected date of July 2011.

Tomorrow we decided to take the bus to Talaan (Sariaya) a day earlier, in order to spend a full day with 3G Ministries and the outreaches that they'll be doing on Saturday.

Please pray for a safe bus ride up there (3-5 hrs). We may not have internet connection while we are up there, so there might be a few days without a blog update.

Correction to my last blog: The typhoon actually did come late last night with heavy rains and crazy winds.

In fact the winds were so strong that it knocked out the power in most of metro Manila including our condo building. But when we woke up this morning the weather was calm and back to normal. My Aunty (who owns the condo) flew in from Cali last night and we were able to have breakfast with her this morning. She is such a huge blessing to us, and especially to Lynnette.

We were suppose to go to the Compassion office again today, but since they are without electricity too, they had to cancel the plans. So now we are hanging out at The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (which has power), trying to figure out what the rest of the day will look like for us.