Prayer Requests

I have a couple quick prayer requests if you wouldn't mind praying. First for the people of Manila right now. I don't know how much The US has gotten the news of the flooding but it is extremely bad. There are hundreds of thousands of people who have had to be evacuated from there houses. People are separated from their homes, their possessions and in some cases their families.
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/monsoons-pummel-philippines-slideshow/residents-wade-floodwaters-return-submerged-houses-marikina-city-photo-063356805.html

I don't know if the link will work or not, but it is an article with some pictures of what is going on in Manila. If you could please pray for all the people who have been affected and have lost so much, as well as for the people who are still trying to make it out. Pray for the resources such as food and water, shelter and dry clothing, that people would be able to have their needs met and their would be enough help to go around. Also pray for the spread of disease that can happen so much easier with flooding and so many people having to be placed in shelters and everything else that goes with it.

Another prayer request comes from the school. We have a few muslim students at the school. The muslim community is very tight on the island and last week we had two of our children's mothers die on the same night. They were both freak things, one was supposedly a stroke or heart attack and the other mother they are unsure of. The muslim community is an extreme state of shock and mourning as the events were so unexpected and multiplied by so much happening on the same night. The two students whose mothers died are both named Abubakar, and we have another student who is a cousin to one of them, but I'm not sure his name. They are very confused and a state of shock and disbelief, as is expected after losing their mother. They were out of school last week, but have come back this week. They are both dealing with a lot of pain and having a hard time. The younger Abubakar had a meltdown today and went into a very aggressive rage. The other students knew what was going on so that lessened the situation but he got mad all of a sudden and started yelling and hitting whatever or whoever was in his way. I took a while for the teachers to get him settled down. The older Abubakar left his class today and went and sat in the library and just sat there by himself instead of going back to class. I can't imagine what they are going through but please pray for their comfort and pray that what they have learned about Jesus can help provide them with the comfort they need. We are praying that the school can help them at this time by really being able to show the love that God has for us all and the comfort he gives.
We also were able to have the counselor at the school and the Filipino teachers of the students invited into the muslim community which is a huge deal, because you don't go there without an invitation. They may not see our religion as the answer to their mourning, but they can see how much the school means to those kids and they trust the school to be able to help and that is such a huge step to be able to influence this community. We know that God works in strange ways and ways that we can't understand, and so please pray that out of this terrible situation God would be able to use it as a way for the school and what we stand for be able to help this community get through the mourning and be a light to the truth and love of God.

Thank you so much for your prayer, it is appreciated so much.

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.

Getting Adjusted and Getting Started

I have been on the island for 18 days now, and am really starting to adjust in so many different to my new life. There is a 15 hour time difference between Boracay and California, which I thought was going to be hard to adjust to, but it never really was. I was able to adjust very easily to the time difference and managed to get sleep at night and stay awake during the days. I am going to sleep when most Californians are waking up, it is a weird feeling being done with my day when everyone else is just starting.
Unfortunately I wasn't able to adjust to the food and water nearly as easily as the time. As soon as I got to the island I lost all of my appetite to eat for some reason. The first three days I had a lot of trouble eating a full meal and was skipping meals sometimes because I just couldn't eat anything. The fourth day I woke up and wasn't feeling well at all. My stomach was hurting from not eating but yet I still didn't have an appetite at all. It was Monday so I went to the school to observe my class and see the school. When I was done I went to try to get something to eat but I couldn't get myself to eat it. I was so frustrated with everything because I hadn't eaten much of anything for 4 days and I still couldn't even get something to go down even trying to force myself. I went home and really had a breakdown about why things were so hard. I was so frustrated and was scared about my health and about the fact that I hadn't found anything appetizing on the island. Things just didn't taste good and were not appetizing in any way. I really started worrying about how I was going to make it 2 years when I was having so much trouble after 4 days. Day 5 hit and I decided to stay home because I wasn't feeling good still and my body was starting to feel the effects of not eating. Then all of a sudden it hit and I started getting really sick. I was getting sick all day and night. Day 6 came and I was in the same situation, I was constantly trying to drink water and gatorade because I couldn't keep any food down. I was so blessed by the missionary staying in the room next store to me who kept bringing me more water and gatorade and trying to bring me some foods I could eat. On day 7 I was still in the same situation and things weren't getting much better. I started taking medicine that was supposed to help with the things that I could have that were making me sick. I started trying to think positive and hoping that things were going to be over soon. I was also starting to wonder how my body was still functioning with out food for a week. I knew God was taking care of me and things were at least going to get better. On day 8, which was my fourth day of not leaving my bed or bathroom, I was starting to worry about myself because it seemed like it was a lot longer than it should be and I had lost probably over ten pounds and I could start to really see it and feel it. At the same time though my mood really started to change from what it was before. Two days before I was questioning if I was strong enough to do this, but by now I had gotten to the point of believing that if I could make it out of this than there was nothing that I couldn't do. Day 9 hit and I was still getting sick here and there but I started feeling a lot better. It may have just been the medicine, I'm not sure, but I started to have some energy and didn't feel near as sick. I started to try to eat some little things like granola bars to try to get some food in me. By night time I was out of my room and standing outside. It felt so good to be out and feel the air. I was so tired of being stuck in my room. I was able to hang out and talk to people that night and tings were looking up. Day 10 came, which was Sunday. I went to breakfast with one of the missionaries and was so happy to be able to eat a whole pancake. I was feeling so much better and surprisingly had so much energy. I hung out that day and relaxed but still had some energy stored up. I didn't have lunch, but I was able to eat a meal for dinner and was so happy to have 2 meals in the same day because it was more than I had had in the last week. I was also blessed that there wasn't school on Monday, so I had another day to rest and recover and prepare to start teaching on Tuesday.
I had hoped to be able to observe the school and my classes a little bit to help me see what I was doing and who I was teaching. Unfortunately that didn't really happen much because I was sick. So Tuesday I was starting to teach a 2nd grade class English and Science and a 5th grade class Math and Science. The school had to move some of the teachers around because they were short a teacher so that's why I was placed with 2 different classes. I had my lessons planned for what I was planning on doing but in reality knew that I had no clue what to expect. Amazingly though, things went really well and I was able to fit right in and start teaching what I wanted to teach. I have a partner teacher with me for my second grade class to be able to help translate and handle different language barriers that come up. She has been a huge help for me as a lot of my second graders are still trying to grasp English and have trouble understanding some of what I am trying to get across.

These pictures are of my second grade class. I have 16 students which is really nice because it gives me so much more time to spend helping my students individually. Ms. Castillo is such a huge help with the students an helping me communicate with them.
My fifth grade class I teach by myself with out a partner teacher because the Filipino teacher for 5th grade has to go over to the 6th grade class. It works out alright though because the 5th grade class is at a much higher level and I am able to work with them without communication problems. I hope to have a picture of my 5th grade class up to once I can get someone to take a picture for me.
I have taught for a week now and things are going really well. My second graders are pretty crazy but they are so much fun. They are full of so much joy and happiness. They have so much energy and get so excited about things. It has been fun to introduce a lot of interactive activities in class to get them involved and excited about learning. We are also working at the school on trying to get the classes more organized and structured. Trying to have the students act and behave how they should in a classroom. That has been a big focus with my second graders.
My fifth grade class has been a lot of fun to teach. They are so well behaved and have a desire to learn. They make it so easy on me to be able to teach. I am able to teach them and challenge them with new ways of learning and interacting in class. I really enjoy working with them and being able to help students who so eagerly want to learn.
I was also able to go to 2 feedings this week. Every Tuesday we have a feeding in the neighborhood behind the Jungle Barn where I am staying. We had a feeding on Tuesday and it was a lot of fun to be a part of. We lead the kids in songs and games, read stories to them, do arts or crafts, and then feed them dinner as well. The kids have a great time and it's a lot of fun being able to hang out with them and build relationships with them since they are our neighbors.
We also feed at one of the Ati villages on the other island on Fridays. They put up a school in the village and are able to feed the students lunch every day, which is awesome because lunch isn't always available to a lot of them. We went Friday after school and brought a lot of spaghetti to feed them dinner. We spent the afternoon hanging out with the kids and some of the women from the village cooked the spaghetti. I was a human jungle gym all afternoon and definitely got my workout for the week as all the kids wanted to be lifted up and spun around and climb on my back, and just about anything they could think of.

The boat ride over to the other island for the feeding. It takes about 10 minutes to get across, and then we catch a trike up to the village.

Rice fields on the way to the village.

The view from inside the Ati church, over the rice fields and ocean with Boracay in the distance.

The Ati school, this is the 1st and 2nd grade classroom. There will be more classrooms continually built as the funds and volunteers come in to provide a school for preschool through high school.

The Ati preschool.

 Some of the kids from the village. They had so much energy and excitement. They loved turning me into a jungle gym.

They love being able to see themselves in the camera after taking a picture.

 We brought all the kids in to the church before dinner and one of the missionaries read them a bible story in Tagalog. They listened to the story and then we had pictures for them to color. They are doing the fruits of the spirits right now and so this week was on patience or pagtitiyaga in Tagalog.

We fed between 60-70 people from the village a spaghetti dinner. They were so truly thankful for the food and let us know how thankful they were.

Because I'm new to the island I've been taken around the island a lot and got to see and experience some of the cool things around the island. Dan Beaver took me to a fish spa, although he didn't tell me where we were going. We walked in and there were boxes of water full of different size fish. I thought it was pretty fancy but I still didn't know what it was. So we took our shoes off and I realized oh were going to put our feet in there. My first thought was I wonder if those fish bite, but then I thought well obvoiusly they don't bite or else people wouldn't stick their feet in there. When I got closer I saw 2 rock things on the bottom where your feet would be so I thought oh it must be a foot massage and they have fish swimming around too, fancy fancy. Well I stuck my feet in and within 3 seconds I had 100 fish nibbling on me. It was definitely a scary feeling at first because I definitely wasn't thinking they were going to be doing that, but then scary quickly turned into ticklish. It was a really weird feeling. After a couple minutes the ticklish factor wore off and it became somewhat relaxing I guess. Overall it was worth it because now I can say I had hundreds of fish eating the dead flesh off of my feet, I don't know when that would come up in conversation but who knows.
I also went to the mini zoo on Mt. Luho, which is basically like one of the highest hills on the island. That was pretty fun. The zoo was kind of sketchy though. They had an eagle which would com sit on your shoulder which was really awesome, except for when you try to get him to go off and he doesn't want to, but still pretty cool. They had a big sign that said Tasmanian Devil and I got really excited, until I saw the small print (a relative). It was like a weasel or something, not nearly as cool as a tasmanian devil. They had a bunch of crazy little monkeys around, who look cute, until you get close to them.

Good monkey.

Bad monkey!

According to the sign this is a purple heron, but it looked more like a grey heron with a little bit of spray paint.

There were some more animals like kingfishers and bearcats, which were actually pretty cool to see, and also a snake which I think may have possibly been dead. But it was a fun time none the less and the best part was the view point from on top of the hill.

It has been stormy most of the time I have been here. It's rainy season right now and it's raining all the time. It'll be sunny and hot and then all of a sudden out of nowhere it'll be pouring down rain. The rain is nice at sometimes because it cools down the weather a little bit and it is always so hot. The storms do make some things difficult though. The drainage system on the island isn't very good and so everything gets flooded when it rains a lot. When your primary mode of transportation is walking, it makes it tough when everything is flooded. The electricity and internet also goes out really often, which is hard because even though it's stormy it's still super hot and my room without a fan because of not having electricity is so hard to be in. I've been trying to do this blog for the last 3 days but it is taking me a long time because of the internet going out so often.
The biggest problem is when the storms get really bad. We are in the middle of a typhoon right now and it is doing a lot of damage. Part of the roof of the jungle barn where I am staying flew off and there's not much they can do to fix it until the storm stops because the wind is too strong to get on the roof. They tried tarping it but it's not exactly waterproof. The storm got so bad today that they cancelled school. I'm really hoping the typhoon clears up so that we can fix the roof and we can get school started back up again.

 They put a tarp up but as you can see it's not very waterproof.

Barricading the doors with everything possible to try to keep the storm out.


It is really easy to take pretty pictures and put them up here. There are a lot of beautiful things on the island. It is a lot harder to take pictures of the things that aren't so pretty. There is so much poverty here and in the Ati villages. There are so many things that go on that no one takes pictures of, so no one knows about, but that doesn't mean they aren't still happening. The organization here is doing so much work on so many different levels and in so many different places. People's lives are being changed because of what is happening through this mission organization. The biggest reason I felt like this is where I should be is because I could see how much was going on here and how much they were able to help people. It wasn't just a place to come and teach but a place to come make a difference in people's lives. The support that has gotten me here has been so impactful already and will continue to make a difference in so many people's lives. So many things are being done all because of the support that comes in from people. Thank you so much for all your support, and it truly is making an impact.

Prayer requests:
- The weather. We are in the middle of a typhoon and it has blown part of the roof off of the place I'm living, and has caused the school to cancel class today and possibly even more if the storm doesn't get better. Also there are so many people here that don't live in places nearly as safe and weatherproof as I do. These storms are so hard on so many people because of their housing, or their lack of housing.
- A few of my students really struggle with their English, and therefore have a hard time with most subjects. One of my fifth graders doesn't understand English at all really. He has a hard time in class because I don't have a translator in that class and because my other students at are such a high level. He really struggles in math though which is tough because that's usually the subject the students who don't have great English skills still do well in. He doesn't get the basic concepts of it and that makes it really tough. I spend a huge amount of time working with him one on one but it hasn't helped his performance. I am trying to get him a Filipino tutor who he can understand and can focus on getting him to learn the basics of what we're doing. I also have a second grade student who I'm pretty certain has dyslexia. That makes it so much harder for him to learn a second language and so I'm hoping to be able to help him with that.
- I am looking for an apartment to move into and am searching for the best place. I ma trying to find something close by the school and the jungle barn so that i can still be close to everything. I am also trying to find somewhere in a safe neighborhood that I feel safe in and comfortable having all of my possessions in. I have looked at a couple places that look pretty good but are a little bit more money than I had hoped for. So I have one that is on the top of the list that is close to the jungle barn and close to the school, in a safe looking apartment complex for a price that is a little bit less. I'm continuing to look around to find the best possible place though.

Midweek Prayer

I wish that I could tell you how awesome this week has been and that I had started at the school and things were going great. However, I have been sick the past three days and don't have much to write about that you would want to know. So I'll share a prayer I wrote instead.

Lord, I thank You for today,
even if it didn't go my way.
I thank You for my life,
I thank You for Your love,
I thank You for Your light
You shine down from above.
I cant stand up,
so I lay here as I pray,
Lord restore my health,
and take this pain away.
Tomorrow's another day,
let me do what You want me to do,
cuz this was never about me,
Lord, it was always about you.

Lord, help my body heal,
and take away this frown,
Lord, help me eat a meal,
and help me keep it down.
Lord, take the lead,
I lift my prayers to you,
I will just follow,
cuz you always know what to do.
I don't know tomorrow,
what my body's gonna do,
but I do know,
I'll still be praising You.

Amen.

If you would, please pray for my health and that I would get over this sickness quickly and begin to reenergize and get back out into things. I'm so anxious to start working at the school, and start doing things again. Thank you so much for all your prayer and support, and I hope next time I can post something a lot more exciting for you.

Lesson's Learned

God has a plan even if I don't understand it.

Be patient and wait to do things in God's time rather than trying to do things in my time.

Montezuma's not a big fan of me, and I'm not a big fan of him either.

I made it!

The Journey
- The trip over was an experience in itself. We arrived at the airport at around 8:00 pm for my flight which was scheduled to leave at 10:30. When we got there we realized it was delayed until 1:30am. Which originally seemed really unfortunate and I thought it would be in issue to catch my next flight in Manila. It ended up being really nice though because it was changed from a 16 hour flight with a stop in Guam to a 12 hour flight straight to Manila. Definitely a blessing in disguise, because the 12 hour flight was a really long time to be on a plane, 16 would be crazy. It also gave me a few extra hours to spend with my family before I flew off which was really nice.

I sleep really easily on planes which made it nice, the only problem I realized was that needing to get a full night's sleep on a plane is a little different. Finding positions for your legs, and finding ways to move around when you get sore from being in one position can be tough. My neck was very sore the next day. I managed to make it through though and was very glad it wasn't 16 hours. I talked a little bit to the guy sitting next to me on the plane about what I was doing and just about some different things. I'm so glad that I did because he helped me tremendously when I got to Manila.

When I arrived in the Manila airport I had a very hard time figuring out where to go. The signs were not helpful at all and the people working weren't much help either. I tried to follow people but was just hoping they were going the right way. I got to a split and had no clue which way to go and out of nowhere the man I was sitting by popped up right next to me and told me which way to go. I passed through immigration and went to get my baggage. All of the flights were listed with which baggage claim to go to, except for my flight of course. It wasn't listed anywhere and so I started to look for the people from my flight, but realized most of them were as confused as I was and at all of the baggage claims. So then I saw at baggage claim 4 the guy I sat next to on the plane. I went and asked him if that was the right one and he said it was, they just didn't have our flight listed on it. So I ended up waiting there for a while trying to get my bags and he was asking me about my next flight. He asked me where I needed to go and I told him I wasn't sure exactly, which was another way of saying I have no idea where I'm going. The workers hadn't been very helpful to me at the airport, they could speak English but they didn't seem like they wanted to help me much. So the guy asked for my ticket and he went over to one of the workers and asked them where I needed to go. He came back and told me exactly where I needed to go to get through customs, go up the elevator to the third floor and find my terminal. He helped me so much, and I was so thankful for him. I made it through customs and went up to the third floor and ended up outside.

I realized I had no clue where to go so I asked a worker and they pointed to my right. So I went to my right and after finding nowhere to go asked another worker, who pointed back to my left.  I realized I probably was going to need to find it on my own. I saw that on the other side of where I was there was a place to go back inside so I walked out and around over to there and went up to the person at the gate. I showed him my ticket and he told me I needed to go to terminal 3. Finally some solid advice! I asked him where terminal 3 was and he pointed down the road and said to get a taxi over to there. So I figured if its just down the road I can walk, I don't need a taxi. As I was thinking this a taxi driver grabbed one of my bags and took off across the street to his car. So i figured this guy has my bag I have to go get it from  him, or go with him. He put it in his trunk and so I decided that I guess I would take the taxi. I'm riding along in the taxi and thinking it would be a minute or two over to the terminal. After about 5 minutes of going through the city I started to wonder if he was actually taking me to the airport. Another 5 minutes went by and I really was starting to think about what the best way to get out of certain situations would be. Long story short my first flight was with Philippine Air, my second flight was with Air Phillippines, which are two seperate airlines, and fly out of two seperate airports across town. Who knew? I saw the aiport and the terminal 3 sign and was so relieved that I was actually there. The guy charged me way too much but at that point I was just so overjoyed that I ended up at an airport, and not at one of the many other situations that go through your head in a 15 minute mystery taxi ride.

So I ended up at the airport and was waiting for my flight to be posted on the board. After about half an hour it came up and said it was cancelled. Of course it was, why would it go as planned. It was the only flight on the board that was cancelled or changed in anyway, all the other flights were on time. So I tried to figure out where to go and realized the people here were way more helpful. They pointed me to the place to go. I went up and showed the girl at the desk my confirmation ticket. She looked at it like she had never seen anythig like it before and had no clue what to do with it. So she went back and talked to the head guy and they were looking at it and on the computer for about 5 minutes, which is a long time when you are in panic mode thinking about all the bad things that could happen. Then they printed me another confrimation paper and told me to go to number 17 to get my ticket. I got my ticket and was shown where to go to get on my next flight. I made it over there and waited. I knew I boarded at 10:00 but there were no clocks anywhere, so I just waited hoping I was in the right spot. I was and got bussed out to my plane. The plane ride was really awesome and I got to see so much as we flew over the Philippines and to Caticlan, on the island next to Boracay.

Some shots of Manila over the airport. The city is HUGE. There were houses everywhere and you could see sections of big houses, sections of smaller houses, and sections of shacks. There was smog everywhere and the higher we got in the air  over the city you could barely see anything.

 Flying over the different islands was beautiful. We flew over Boracay right before we landed which was really awesome to see.

When I landed at Caticlan one of the hosts at the jungle barn where I am staying was there with a "Welcome Anderson" sign, I felt like a celebrity or something for a minute. She got me onto a trike and we went over to the jetty port to take a boat over to Boracay.

 The view from the boat. I didn't take anymore pictures because I didn't want to look too much like a tourist. It's about a 5-10 minute ride over to Boracay. I will be making the trip back and forth every week to serve at the feeding sites on the other island.

We made it to Boracay and took another trike over to the jungle barn where I got my room and moved everything in. It's a cozy little room with everything I need including several gecko friends, that love hanging out in my room. They're all over the place and aren't that big of a deal except for night when they are super noisy. The hosts and the other missionaries here have been so awesome and have done so much to help me get adjusted to all the new things and have made it feel as much like home as possible on the other side of the world.

Lessons learned:
Having faith in the midst of uncertainty.
Trusting the path is laid out, even when you can't see it.
Even when you don't know where you are, you know God's is there with you, and he's never lost.
Never jump into a taxi with a guy that stole your bag.

Thank you so much everyone for your prayer and support. There is so much need on this island and I wouldn't be here without all of your support. Thank you for all of the prayer for safe travel, it came in very handy and is appreciated so much.

Getting Ready

Thank you for all the donations - I'm getting ready to go.