Shopping, APRC Fun Day, & Palm Sunday

22 – 28 March, 2010

At lunch on Monday, Greg was telling us about the small Cokes that seem to be a Filipino favorite – they're called sakto, because it's “exact-o” the right size! It's less than 7 ounces and a cute little bottle but, often, Americans like to have 2, not just one...

Evenings of fellowship and a Sunday Wedding

March 15 – 21, 2010

Not that I've been feeling anxious, but Judy's turn at staff devotions on Monday morning were calming, as we pored over 4 scriptures telling us not to be anxious or worried. “Cast all your cares...” It's a blessing to be part of this group of Christians who work hard, accept us as we are, and are willing to share their concerns with us and with each other. 

March 8 – 14, 2010

We already knew that this would be a busy week! Monday morning's staff devotions were my responsibility this week, having been “drafted” by Faith, who keeps asking others to take her turn! Anyway, since I was sharing my testimony, Faith said she'd choose and lead the music and bring a snack to share! We enjoyed suman, the Korean sticky-rice wrapped in leaf strips, sprinkling them with a little brown sugar (it's granulated sugar that's brown, not like the brown sugar in the States that includes molasses). God demonstrated his leading as all the songs Faith chose fit perfectly with the Scripture topic I used for my testimony.

MISSIONARY RETREAT!

Friday morning, we were scheduled to be on campus for only the morning, as Dan needed to be part of a conference call scheduled from the States about the national quiz to be held at Mt. Vernon Nazarene University in July.  The call ran a little long, so we arrived late for lunch in the canteen, and ate a quick lunch almost by ourselves!  We drove home to Camden to finish packing what we would need for a weekend at the beach and returned to APNTS.  The rest arrived in bunches for the next few minutes and soon were ready to leave in the Coaster Bus. Having left before the weekend rush of traffic and with Greg Taylor driving, we made good time down the C-5 and the SLEX; through Santa Rosa and Tagaytay, we recognized this path as the way we'd taken by ourselves a couple of weeks ago.  Past the sugar cane refinery, though, we turned left/southwest this time and continued, watching the sun set as we followed it to the west coast of this big island.  Twenty of us arrived at Coral Beach Club Resort after dark (2 more arrived the next morning) and checked into 8 rooms in record time.

March 1 – 7, 2010

Tuesday morning, during our morning devotions Dan noted that God had directly addressed a question he had been thinking about while in the shower a few minutes earlier.  It was the issue of questioning whether his work here was useful.  The devotional writer made it clear that the issue is the Lord's responsibility not ours.  We are simply to do be obedient. God is so good at answering our smallest prayer.

Devotions and another 'Adventure'

February 22 – 28, 2010

Our co-workers in the APRC listened silently as Dan led devotions Monday morning, shared one of the stories of how his son Derick was used by God while an inmate in a state prison. They were touched by how God worked in response to Derick's prayers, and how Dan's life was affected as well, even though not one of them is a parent yet. We continue to be amazed at how God is using these experiences to help others understand how He can work in unimaginable ways and places. So many illustrations are available from those difficult years, only Heaven knows the possible results as long as we are faithful in sharing.

February 15 – 21, 2010

Our devotion time, with our APRC coworkers on Monday, included a good discussion on things in our lives that are good, but that take too much of our time/money/attention from our relationship with God. It was led by Herald, who had arrived at work in the IT department with a cute girl's wig on! He left it on until we were finished with our singing, devotion, discussion and prayer, then whipped it off as we all said, “Amen!” – he'd had a haircut, shaved down to about 1/8”! Since Herald is a soft-spoken guy, it was twice as funny as if someone else had done it!  This was an added object lesson of reducing the stress in his life.

Mangadang umaga (beautiful morning)!

February 8 - 14, 2010

One of Dan’s coworkers, DJ, led devotions Monday morning. We all had a good laugh over his topic title because “Distraction” sounded, with soft Filipino vowels, like “destruction” to me and Dan! So DJ exaggerated his pronunciation so we’d be sure it was “DistRACtion” he was talking about. And Faith is so sweet! She remembered that I had mentioned last week that I love popcorn, so she brought some microwave popcorn and made it for the devotion time snack!

It's February already...

Monday, 1 February 2010

It’s February already?!

After a few days of trying to coordinate schedules, Olive and Faith and I finally found a time after lunch to just begin recreating the October financial records, but were stopped shortly into the process since all the basic lists are not ready for us to complete even 1 transaction. But it’s OK, really. Olive must now coordinate the necessary information so it can be loaded into our program. Now that we’re ready to begin is truly the right time to clarify this. We’ll try again in a few days once the developers know which things we need.

Second week in Manila

Monday, 25 January 2010

We’re starting our second work week at APRC, and continuing to get a handle on our duties and expectations. It was Judy’s turn to lead devotions so Bibles and hymnals were distributed around the large table in the conference room and we sang 2 familiar hymns. Judy did an excellent job of leading the music, the discussion, and the prayer requests. Filipinos know how important it is to spend time with each other and caring about each other’s needs!