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.

Do you have a compassion child in the Philippines? It’s possible that his/her letter passed through our fingertips today.

Today we made our way to the main Compassion office for the Philippines. This is where all the letters that are written by all the compassion kids from all over the country end up to be sorted and reviewed. For about 5 hours we helped sort about a thousand letters written by the kids, it was pretty intense but we didn’t even make a dent in the amount of letters that they still to had to go through! Of course Lynnette turned it into a competition and somehow finished her basket of letters before me (she even paper clipped, rubber band, and put it in country alpha order). Lynnette felt bad for me and ended up working on mine.

We have an even greater appreciation for this organization after seeing the behind the scenes effort that goes into the quality control of the massive amounts of letters that are processed each month. It comes out to over 250,000 letters a month, just from the kids alone, from all the different projects across the Philippines!

Earlier in the morning we had a chance to visit my Uncle who lives here. He just had brain surgery a couple of days ago. He is doing really well, it didn’t even seem like he had any surgery. But we’re still praying for a full recovery for him. On a side note, the hospital they were in was a brand new one that felt more like a trendy hotel than a hospital! It was easily the nicest hospital I have ever stepped foot into (St. Luke’s in Global City).

There was supposed to be a Typhoon that was swinging by, but it just caused some heavy rain for a few hours and stopped. I guess this really is the beginning of the rainy season, at least it is cooler than I had expected it to be.

We went back to the church today to visit Compassions Child Survival Program, which helps new and pregnant mothers. Lynnette encouraged the mothers by sharing her testimony with them, while I helped watch the preschoolers. I thought this one little girl was ticked off at me the whole time I sat next to her, but it turned out that’s just the way she looks (see attached picture if you don’t believe me). After I realized it was nothing personal, I quickly became attached to her. Despite how cute the kids were I have definitely confirmed that I am not gifted with this age group. I think one of the pastors noticed this and decided to rescue me...we ended up talking story outside instead.

It was awesome to see God working through Lynnette and the story that she has lived. I could tell these mothers where really encouraged by her sincerity and vulnerability. They even made gifts for Lynnette. One of the ladies had been making a bag for her, which she had started a month ago when she found out we were coming.

We had some time afterward to eat some Filipino style spaghetti with them (imagine regular spaghetti but much sweeter) . It was just a snack, but for us it was a meal. It was great to just hang out and talk story with them. Even though we’ve only been at this church for 3 short days, they already feel like family to us and it was sad to say goodbye to them...for now.