Isaiah 33:6 "He is your constant source of stability; he abundantly provides safety and great wisdom; he gives all this to those who fear him."
Wow. I was looking for another verse with a completely different message when I found this one, but it exactly describes who God is to me right now. In the last week, our team has spent 4 days at an orphanage in Bataan (a province in the Philippines), a day traveling, and 2 days in Surabaya (a city in Indonesia). I've discovered through the past few weeks that it doesn't matter where I am, what I'm doing, or who I'm with, God is the only One who will remain constant. He's the only one I can count on no matter what. He won't fail me even when I'm in a completely unfamiliar place. He is my stability. Knowing this in my head and experiencing it in real life are two completely different things.
That's the lesson God's been teaching me but I'm sure you're interested in what's been going on here. We spent most of last week working with Angela Hughes and His Heart Ministries in Baguio. We helped teens with homework, read with elementary students, prayed for the street vendors, and really got to see what living life with the people you're ministering to is like. Angela's whole ministry is based on loving the people. They do everything they do because they truly love the people. While my life time calling isn't to the street people of Baguio, I learned a lot from the people at His Heart. Their motivation is pure; wherever I am, I want to show Jesus' love like they do. I want to be the hands and feet of Jesus like they are.
Last Friday, we drove to King's Garden Children's Home, the orphanage in Bataan. When we left for the orphanage, I was excited. I love kids, they love me, and I've always dreamed of serving at an orphanage. It didn't take long for me to discover that it wasn't all I thought it was going to be. The first 2 days there were definitely the hardest of this trip so far. We had left the mountain city of Baguio, so the heat was overwhelming. The water pressure was awful so we had to flush toilets with buckets of water and there were more flies than children. None of those things really bothered me though. Yes, they were annoying at moments but I could learn to live with them. Communicating with the kids is what really got me. They were immediately clingy, but it took time for them to open up and talk at all. At first, I didn't want to be there, but I asked God to change my attitude. On Monday, I really began to see the kids in a different light. I helped 7-year-old Rose with her homework during study hour and that's when I realized the greatest love I could show those children was just being with them. I didn't need to understand them; I just needed to be there.
On Tuesday, I took a bus to Manilla with one of the team members who needed to see a doctor and made my biggest mistake of traveling - left a bag on the bus. Oops.
Seeing how the Filipinos do medicine was really neat. The doctors office was in a tall tower. We took the elevator up to a hallway of wood doors and found the right room number. We entered a waiting room and sat down. We saw the doctor in an office type room. He sat at a desk the whole time and the patient sat on a stool by the desk. They didn't take her weight, pulse, blood pressure, etc. I'm glad I got to experience a different way of doing medicine.
We met a new team member in Manilla and the other girls came from the orphanage the next day. That evening, we flew to Jakarta, Indonesia. We left the airport around 2am and stayed with a friend of our host for a few hours. 10 of us "slept" in one small room. That morning, we flew an hour to Surabaya, Indonesia. We arrived here 2 days ago and have been relaxing since then - our mid-trip R&R. In a few hours, we start training and on Tuesday, we leave to minister at a youth camp. We'll be ministering in several places throughout Indo until July 23rd when we fly back to the Philippines.
Prayer requests -
- Culture shock. Indo is extremely different from anything the team has ever experienced.
- homesickness. Several of us have been experiencing it off and on.
- health. The food here is very different, Dengue fever and Malaria are common as well.
- God-moments. The language barrier makes life and ministry difficult, but we know God can work around it.
- unity. Several of us on the team feel as if we're constantly being stretched in this trip and Indo is going to be tough. Also, our main contact is changing in the next few days. Through all of this, conflict would be easy. We don't want that to happen. Unity is our greatest need.
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