Week 3

After getting adjusted and getting used to how things work and what I'm doing here, I have really started to move toward trying how to figure out my patterns and everyday living here. I have been able to do so much more and learn so much more about my surroundings now that I'm healthy. Thank you everyone for your prayers for health, it feels so much better to be feeling well. I have been on the island for three and a half weeks now, and it seems like it's been so much longer. I think part of it is because I have been through so much and have seen so many drastic changes, it seems like it's been a long time since I had the normalcy of home. I am currently trying to find what normal looks like here. I am finding out my sleep pattern, my eating pattern, and figuring out how to fit everything I need to do in the time I have available to do it. I am still on the hunt for an apartment. Once I get an apartment it will help a lot with finding out my routines and living patterns.
After getting the daily routines established, I have been doing a lot this work of trying to figure out the things in the future. I am trying to find ways to help the people here, ways to do more for my students, ways to serve. The more I learn and the more I see, the more I am able to see the need and what can be done to help it. It will take time to continue to learn the culture and how to best communicate and serve people and ways that they will be responsive to a young American on their island. People are starting to recognize me as a missionary which is an awesome step up from being recognized as a dumb American tourist. The community near where I am staying knows all the missionaries that stay here and keep an eye on both for safety and to see what we're doing. Being known as a missionary an a teacher is a big responsibility because everyone watches your every move. I was blessed with the ability to serve a youth group for five years and live in a way knowing that so many kids were looking up to what I was doing and saw me as a role model. Everything I did was watched, specially in such a small town, so I knew I had to live a life that was representing Jesus. Having the same responsibility here hasn't been an issue because of that. A lot of the waiters and waitresses at the places I go know me and so I'll here them call out my name as I go by. I see people in stores and certain places that I see everyday as I walk by and so we have moved to the hello stage or the good morning/ good afternoon stage. Hopefully the next step is being able to get to the stage of having meaningful conversations with people.
I have been trying to collect a list of supplies for the school that we could use because we have a very small amount of supplies to use. I have been going through my curriculum finding things i could use as visuals or ways I can use supplies to make things easier for my classes to learn. It is hard to teach without any supplies and it makes it a lot harder, especially for visual learners. I will relay the list to my mom and she has a box that she will be sending full of the school supplies we are in need of. If you would like to contribute some school supplies or check the list for things you might have that you could donate that would be a huge gift to the school. You can check with my mom, or I will probably have things posted on my next blog post.
A lot has been going on with the organization recently. We have a small group from Ohio here for 2 weeks right now. They are doing construction on the school as well as the Ati school on the other island. They are also doing feedings at the different feeding sites everyday. It's nice having a team here and seeing the work that is being done, and how much can be done when there are volunteers to do it. The church also had a big evangelism event that ended up bringing over 50 people to Christ. They are setting up Bible studies to try to give the people a way to learn and grow in their faith. They also had an event at the local high school that also had a huge number of high schoolers respond. It is amazing to see how much work is being done here and how many people are being reached through this ministry and organization. It is also amazing to see the timing of things. The missionaries here have a Bible study together every week and at our last study we all had the same desire to try to reach out to the high school age kids of the island. We all can see how much foundation we are building in the children at the school, but there isn't a lot of opportunities for teenagers to be discipled. It was amazing that we all had this same feeling at the same time that we really needed to do something, and then we here at church how much response there was from the local high school to the church. I think there is a huge mission field of teenagers that can be reached and I feel like God is calling all of the missionaries here to reach out to them. I am so excited to see what happens as we plan to start a program for them and what it will lead to.
The typhoon has passed? I am pretty sure the typhoon is done and over with but I am really not sure. There has been thunderstorms pretty much every night, including right now. It is absolutely pouring down rain. The rain drops are so big it makes you wish it was only raining cats and dogs. I am absolutely shocked that my room is as waterproof as it is, the place is made out bamboo. They were able to fix the roof yesterday which was a huge blessing. The hardest part for them was that it was always so windy that it was impossible to try to put the roof up. The typhoon was so crazy that it literally took our beach away.

I don't have a before picture but what you see here is piles of sandbags, then about 4 feet of a wall above that. The beach is missing about six feet of sand. We didn't even know that there was a wall there, the beach just came all the way up to the steps that are a little bit higher in the picture. Apparently this has happened before and they claim that we will wake up and the beach will all be back. Which is just as believable as waking up and the sand being all gone, which happened, so I guess it's possible. There was a coconut tree that fell near us, but I am amazed that more haven't fallen because there's six feet of roots above the sand now. They look like they're about to fall,and then you add the crazy amounts of wind and I don't know how they're still standing.
Here are some random pictures I have taken of random things. Sorry I don't have more pictures, I have a "waterproof" camera but I really don't want to carry it around in the rain and have it turn out to be not as waterproof as advertised.

So there was a really big butterfly there. You can't see it because it went behind the leaves. This is why I am in the Philippines as a teacher and not a National Geographic photographer.

Leaves the size of baby elephants. It doesn't look that big until you look at the bottles in the picture to get a reference. And I've seen bigger ones, just not while I had my camera.

There are all sorts of pathways and stairways that lead off into the jungle. I don't know where they go but I feel like if I had a camouflage suit I would like to find out sometime.

The local basketball court. The hoops are pretty nice, as you can see the court doesn't to well in the rain. I can imagine it would get pretty dusty when it's dry to, but i don't know. There are usually always kids playing here. Basketball is huge in the Philippines and everywhere you go you will see kids playing basketball on whatever kind of hoop they have and whatever kind of ball they can use.

One of my favorite restaurants called the Treehouse. It is literally built around a tree and has basically a second story and a third story. It is a nice place to eat and has great food for a cheap price. They have a live singer in there some night too, which is pretty cool. It is on the way to school so every time I walk by the main waiter there yells out hello Mr. Anderson.

The view from the roof of one of the missionary family's house. They have 9 kids so they have a pretty big house.

I was about to go to bed and went into my bathroom to brush my teeth. As I turned on my light I noticed a big cockroach just chilling in my bathroom. So obviously I had to go get my camera to take a picture of it. So I went and got my camera, ran back in and the cockroach was gone. So I spent the next 15 minutes searching for the cockroach because I was not going to bed with a cockroach on the loose in my room. I found him eventually and pushed him around with my water bottle to get into a spot where I could take a picture of him, he was a little camera shy. So I took a picture of him and my camera stunned him.  He started going crazy so I had to chase him down and I swatted him with my sandal.

And then I obviously took a picture of my victory. Andy 1- Cockroach 0.













 That last one was a picture of all the Olympics I have been watching. I don't have a tv, so that doesn't help, but even when I go somewhere with a tv the Philippines don't really care about the Olympics as much as we do. They televise things like 10m air rifle, archery, equestrian, and fencing. Not so much of things that I would actually normally watch. So that's been kind of a major bummer. So oh well I guess. I will have to wait until 2016 to see some Olympics.

I pass this sign everyday and it's a daily reminder to keep smiling no matter what the circumstances are. It's not always as easy as it sounds. There are a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and a lot of struggles and frustrations that just happen. Through it all though it is important to see the big picture and the joy that comes from serving God and knowing that so far outweighs the little frustrations and struggles.
One of the verses for our Bible study last week was Colossians 3:12, which says ¹² Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
And the word that stood out to me was clothe. Everyday I pass people on the street, walk by people, ride in trikes with people, eat at places, and do a lot of things where I am not sharing Christ with them by my words, but the things that they do see are whether I am compassionate, kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Whether they know me or not, whether I have a conversation with them or not they can see whether I am or am not these things. As an American on this island I stick out like a sore white thumb. Everything I do is watched, and as a missionary the easiest way for me to show that there is something different about me is for people to see these characteristics and ask the question why. Why is he different? Why is he compassionate and kind to strangers? Why is he so humble and not proud and boastful? Why is he so gentle and patient in situations where he could be mad and upset? Why is he always smiling? What does he have? If I can get that from someone walking down the street then I feel like is worth it. The word clothe was what stuck out to me because it is an action of putting those virtues on everyday, all the time. It isn't something to just hope shows up, because they show up easily in a good mood, but when you're in a bad mood they don't always come out. The importance comes in waking up and putting them on. Clothing yourself with virtues that everyone will be able to see whether you live with them, work with them, have a conversation with them, or casually pass them in everyday situations. 


Prayer requests:
Please continue to pray for the weather. It seems to be slightly better but it still rains really hard and there continues to be lightning and thunder. There are a lot of people without weatherproof housing, or housing at all who have really tough times in this weather. 
Also please continue to pray for my students who struggle in class. We are trying to work out tutoring situations and finding resources to be able to get the extra help that they need, but it is tough because they need the tutoring in Tagalog for the most part because they have so much trouble understanding English. 
Please pray for the Ohio team that is here, that they could stay healthy and not go what I went through on their short time here. They are doing a ton of work and helping get a lot of things done that need to be done.
My biggest request is that you would pray for all the needs that exist here and that me and the other missionaries would find ways to be able to meet those needs. We have a huge opportunity to be able to work with teenagers and start something that just isn't existent around here. There are so many kids who need to be reached and it would so amazing to be able to develop a program to be able to reach them. 
Thank you so much for all your prayers and all your support. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to do so much to be able to serve God and this island. I wish you could all be here to see the amazing things that are happening, but I hope that my blog can at least help you see them through my stories and pictures.