Just had my very first tofu burger, whole wheat taco...
Surprisingly it wasn't that bad...at least that's what I have to keep telling myself.
dj unplugged
reflections while traveling or whatever...
Watching Selina & Gary get hitched on the beach...
I love the casual atmosphere here at camp erdman, what a great idea!
Happy New Year...almost...I'm going to bed already...
Celebrated New Year's at the annual Kusumoto New Year's Eve party...actually we only lasted until 9:00pm because we're still exhausted from all the traveling today. At least we had a chance to hang out with friends and eat some good food, a lot of good food!
Happy New Year everyone...it's only 10pm, but we gonna celebrate it with our eyes closed...good night.Finally made it back home to Hawaii from the Philippines, 19hrs later...
Actually the flight was only about 10hrs long, but when you add in the 5 hours that we came early to the airport prior to our flight (which was a good thing that we did because of the 3hr long line we waited in), plus the 2.5hr delay and then immigration, customs, baggage, etc., it all adds up.
I'm already missing the Philippines but it also feels good to be in the comfort of your own home...and in time to celebrate the New Year in Hawaii!Halo halo heaven, and now standing in the long airport line...
I'd been wanting to eat some halo halo from chow king since we got here and finally on our last day I devoured it. It was worth the 8 brain freezes that endured while eating it.
Even though we arrived 5 hours early to the airport we still found ourselves at the end of a long long line to check into Hawaiian airlines. They haven't even opened the counter yet! Thanks to Chris Kanemura, we were prepared for this!More Filipino food and forced facial masks, our last days in Manila...
OUR LAST DAYS/NIGHTS IN MANILA
In our last two nights in Manila, Jay's mom and sister were kind enough to bless us with some good old Filipino home cooking! There was even fresh mango to end each meal! There is something about the mangos here that are strangely addictive. Today we also had our team debrief meeting where we each had a chance to share how God spoke to us during the trip. It was encouraging to hear how God is moving in all of us, especially in regards to serving the people here.
Unfortunately, our night also included the guys being forced to get facial skin masks...I think this was just to amuse Lynnette.
Our mini family reunion in Manila...
Delicious food at my Aunty's house and meeting up with other relatives
MINI-REUNION
Today Lynnette and I had a chance to visit my Aunty and cousin who lives here Quezon City, we had a delicious lunch with all the stuff I love, lumpia, longanisa from Baguio and of course lechon! Afterwords we drove down to meet my other Uncle Richard, Aunty Jane and my cousin Anthony in their new condo. I haven't seen them in over 10 years! It was great to reminisce and catch up with everyone!
Visiting possible church plant locations - check out the TechnoHub...
Possible church plant location: "TechnoHub" - near the Universities and in midst of where young adults work
PASTOR NOEL & ALOT
Today we met up with Pastor Noel and his wife, Alot, again. They were kind of enough to take us around to see some possible church plant locations and also to take us to a great massage joint. We ended up at their house for dinner, and were blessed by their incredibly hospitable hearts.
TECHNOHUB
We visited a place called the "TechnoHub", this is a campus of technology related businesses including call centers where many young professionals work. It is only a year old and is located across the street from the University of the Philippines and not far from a few other major colleges. There is no church currently located in the TechnoHub, but it would be a great place to pioneer a ministry. This will certainly be a place to be praying for!
Our experience visiting Victory Church in Metro Manila...
Walking into the sanctuary of Victory Church before service started
A GREAT SERVICE
Since it was Sunday, we decided to attend Victory church, a large church with many campuses around metro Manila that doing a great job in reaching a lot of young professional and college students. The service was much like our home church (Hope Chapel West Oahu), people packed air conditioned auditorium, awesome energetic worship, incredible video element, and a great message. On top of all this, it appears they have a strong emphasis on discipleship and growing deep Christians not just large congregations. God is definitely doing great things through this church.
EXCITED FOR THE FUTURE
But as great a job that this church is doing there is still a huge harvest out there in this densely populated city of young people. I was encouraged to see how this church seems to have a similar ministry DNA as Hope Chapel's and that it is successful in reaching people! However, Nolan's vision is even more exciting to me than this because I believe it adds another dimension of discipleship and relationship building with the implementation of a Coffee Shop/Church model!
Christmas day at the Mall of Asia & Visiting some Pastors the day after
CHRISTMAS DAY HAPPENINGS
On Christmas day, we decided to make our way to the Mall of Asia, a giant shopping mall that is also home to the IMAX theatre where we watched Avatar in 3D (IMAX movie tickets here are less than half the price of cost in Hawaii!), good flick, I would recommend it. Unfortunately, it seemed like entire nation gathered in this one mall on this day with the sole purpose of getting in my way and to watch the same movie as us, so we had to wait about 6 hours until the next open show. Also unfortunate was that Lynnette had gotten a stomach infection and had to deal with vomiting, diarrhea and a sore stomach the entire day. But because I was so excited to watch Avatar, I encouraged her that watching a giant IMAX screen from the 4th row with 3D glasses would make her feel less nauseous...I was wrong.
The next day Lynnette stayed home to rest her body and to try to recover. While her and Jay (also not feeling to well) stayed at home to rest, Nolan, David, Kryz, Joe and myself were picked up by Pastor Ray, who is the the Foursquare District Supervisor. We had a chance to meet a couple smaller churches to hear their hearts and to continue to find out what the spiritual needs are in this city. God continued to confirm the need to minister to the young professionals in Manila. We also drove through the Makati business district (upper scale neighborhood), which is the only area that Foursquare does not have a church, AND on top of that it where a lot of young professionals live and work, AND it was one of the initial places that Nolan had a vision for. We'll see how God continues to direct us. PRAYERS
Please pray for our health, especially for Lynnette, Jay and Nolan who either are sick or are starting to feel sick.
