This is the post from the first week on Camotes:
We're in a little town called San Francisco, Camotes. It's a part of the province of Cebu and is about a two-hour boat ride from Cebu City. There is no, I repeat no, American food here except peanut butter, which is actually much better than American peanut butter. So we're dealing with that the best we can and eating pineapples like it's our job. People are having a surprisingly enthusiastic response to the Gospel and we're just trying to assess how much of it is authentic. I anticipate the majority of the summer to be spent really trying to edify the church here in San Francisco (and the neighboring town, Poro - where last summer's Nehemiah Team based their ministry) and establishing Bible studies among community members. As far as True Love Waits goes, Matt, SFBC's pastor's daughter Liza, and I went to Cebu City to see the superintendent of schools and ask permission to conduct the seminar in San Francisco. She turned us down for doing it on school days, but said it would be fine to do it on Saturdays. So the plan is to conduct five of them on the next five Saturdays, beginning the twenty-first. We'll be in three schools in Poro and two schools here in San Fran. The town is really laidback and the people are really friendly. This past Thursday was their independence day and there was a parade with about 8 drums and 5 bugles!! It was classic! There were also some pretty awesome dance moves. My team is really cool and we're having a great time. We're still trying to get on our feet and establish a steady schedule. We're finding, however, that it's useless to make a schedule most of the time. God is bringing out the best in each of us, I believe. I know we're all being pushed to the extremes of our comfort zones and are letting God use us in completely new ways. It's eye-opening and exhausting! I'm teaching Sunday school tomorrow to highschoolers and we're each responsible for a part of the True Love Waits seminar as well as the intermittent testimonies and Bible stories we're asked to share, so we're all growing!!
I love you guys and I'll talk to you later,
Leah
Our first True Love Waits seminar didn't happen because of the typhoon, but we'll have our first one this Saturday at a REALLY big school, so pray I can get my act together before then.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Nehemiah Teams blog
You should now be able to click on the title of this posting and see the Nehemiah Teams blog site that the media teams maintain. If not, the website is nehemiahteams.blogspot.com
Week 2 in the Philippines
**I meant to put up another posting before this, but I've somehow deleted it. So, that will be coming shortly. It explains where we are, what we're doing, etc. in further detail.
Hello!
We've been in San Francisco, Camotes, for a little over a week now and we definitely hit the ground running. God is moving in unexpected ways, as He always does. The team is really coming together and partnering with church members here to share the Word in many different ways. We've each had chances to share our testimonies and lead Bible studies with non-believers, new believers, and established believers here in San Francisco and the neighboring communities. One group is particularly special to me. They are the neighbors of one of San Francisco Baptist Church's members that meet on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 a.m. Three have accepted Christ since our arrival and we just had our third meeting this morning. Whenever we arrive, they are eager to hear what God has been speaking to us about and eager to pray with us as well. If you would, pray at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays (which will be the time of the group's meeting here) that this group would be truly experience the love of God and begin to grow in their faith.
There are many Filipinos whose lives have become intertwined with ours, but we've also encountered a few American men here who we're beginning to befriend. It's strange that God would bring a bunch of American kids halfway around the world to meet other Americans, but God's never been one to meet our expectations. We're hoping to show God's love to them in a new and powerful way and perhaps move them to seek His face. I'm learning, as silly as it sounds, that America is not all there is. There isn't an equivalent or even a comparison for everything America has here. It's been a challenge for our team to overcome the massive cultural barrier and be relevant in the lives of Filipinos. We've discussed and prayed as a team about finding a way to build real relationships with people and be faithful witnesses to God's grace in our lives. We are being led to serve people in somewhat more practical, physical ways in an effort to show our love for them. Please pray that God will receive the glory for the way He is moving here and that people will be undeniably confronted with His love through His body.
Leah
Hello!
We've been in San Francisco, Camotes, for a little over a week now and we definitely hit the ground running. God is moving in unexpected ways, as He always does. The team is really coming together and partnering with church members here to share the Word in many different ways. We've each had chances to share our testimonies and lead Bible studies with non-believers, new believers, and established believers here in San Francisco and the neighboring communities. One group is particularly special to me. They are the neighbors of one of San Francisco Baptist Church's members that meet on Wednesday mornings at 9:00 a.m. Three have accepted Christ since our arrival and we just had our third meeting this morning. Whenever we arrive, they are eager to hear what God has been speaking to us about and eager to pray with us as well. If you would, pray at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesdays (which will be the time of the group's meeting here) that this group would be truly experience the love of God and begin to grow in their faith.
There are many Filipinos whose lives have become intertwined with ours, but we've also encountered a few American men here who we're beginning to befriend. It's strange that God would bring a bunch of American kids halfway around the world to meet other Americans, but God's never been one to meet our expectations. We're hoping to show God's love to them in a new and powerful way and perhaps move them to seek His face. I'm learning, as silly as it sounds, that America is not all there is. There isn't an equivalent or even a comparison for everything America has here. It's been a challenge for our team to overcome the massive cultural barrier and be relevant in the lives of Filipinos. We've discussed and prayed as a team about finding a way to build real relationships with people and be faithful witnesses to God's grace in our lives. We are being led to serve people in somewhat more practical, physical ways in an effort to show our love for them. Please pray that God will receive the glory for the way He is moving here and that people will be undeniably confronted with His love through His body.
Leah
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Greetings from the Philippines!
Maayong buntag! (Good morning)
I'm in Cebu City right now awaiting my boat to Camotes this afternoon. We're in this huge mall at an internet cafe. It's almost time for the kids to start back to school here, so there are little kids all over the place. Yesterday was our last day of orientation and we spent the better part of the day on a ropes course (obstacle course with bungee cords and harnesses and such). So that mainly meant rolling in the mud for me due to my abundance of grace. We're all SUPER tired, but we've had a great time and learned a lot. Part of my team's assignment is to teach True Love Waits seminars for high school juniors and seniors (15 and 16-year-olds here), so we've been in training for that for a few days and it's been a really neat experience. I think teaching about God's plan for us when it comes to love and talking about what true love is will be really eye-opening and surprising, like everything else here. My team members are Bobby (from Kentucky), Matt (from Mississippi), Kaylee (from Florida), Carly (from Alabama) and Lauryn (from Mississippi). Our Filipino counterparts are Sally and Jetter. They've been struggling to teach me some Cebuano words, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Quick story: there were floods in Davao City (where we did orientation) our first two nights. Nearly everything I brought got wet and a good bit of it is still wet. We woke up in our tent with streams of water flowing under us and everything! It was really ridiculous. That part of the Philippines is very mountainous and there are rocks everywhere. Before the rain, when we were walking around the camp, it was easier for us to avoid the hard rocks and walk on the dirt. But after the floods, you had to stay on the rocks or you'd be sitting in the mud. I found a spiritual equivalent, I believe: My baptism (as represented by the flood), or my salvation, causes everything in my life to change. After the flood, I had to hang everything out to dry, keep all my things in a different place, and other things that wouldn't normally concern me did once it rained. I had to seek out the hard things (the rocks) to stand on. They were the only things that offered any stability. When our salvation is true, when it is like something that floods through us, it absolutely must change everything about the way we live. It turns everything upside down. The things that were to be avoided before are now the things we seek out and the places that were easiest to walk in before are now the quickest ways to failure.
I hope this finds you well and that you're seeking to do the hard things God calls us to. They truly make a difference!
God bless,
Leah
P.S. There will be a blog about our team run by one of the media team members if I'm not mistaken. I don't really know anything about it, but you can probably find more information on the Nehemiah Teams website.
I'm in Cebu City right now awaiting my boat to Camotes this afternoon. We're in this huge mall at an internet cafe. It's almost time for the kids to start back to school here, so there are little kids all over the place. Yesterday was our last day of orientation and we spent the better part of the day on a ropes course (obstacle course with bungee cords and harnesses and such). So that mainly meant rolling in the mud for me due to my abundance of grace. We're all SUPER tired, but we've had a great time and learned a lot. Part of my team's assignment is to teach True Love Waits seminars for high school juniors and seniors (15 and 16-year-olds here), so we've been in training for that for a few days and it's been a really neat experience. I think teaching about God's plan for us when it comes to love and talking about what true love is will be really eye-opening and surprising, like everything else here. My team members are Bobby (from Kentucky), Matt (from Mississippi), Kaylee (from Florida), Carly (from Alabama) and Lauryn (from Mississippi). Our Filipino counterparts are Sally and Jetter. They've been struggling to teach me some Cebuano words, but I'm getting the hang of it.
Quick story: there were floods in Davao City (where we did orientation) our first two nights. Nearly everything I brought got wet and a good bit of it is still wet. We woke up in our tent with streams of water flowing under us and everything! It was really ridiculous. That part of the Philippines is very mountainous and there are rocks everywhere. Before the rain, when we were walking around the camp, it was easier for us to avoid the hard rocks and walk on the dirt. But after the floods, you had to stay on the rocks or you'd be sitting in the mud. I found a spiritual equivalent, I believe: My baptism (as represented by the flood), or my salvation, causes everything in my life to change. After the flood, I had to hang everything out to dry, keep all my things in a different place, and other things that wouldn't normally concern me did once it rained. I had to seek out the hard things (the rocks) to stand on. They were the only things that offered any stability. When our salvation is true, when it is like something that floods through us, it absolutely must change everything about the way we live. It turns everything upside down. The things that were to be avoided before are now the things we seek out and the places that were easiest to walk in before are now the quickest ways to failure.
I hope this finds you well and that you're seeking to do the hard things God calls us to. They truly make a difference!
God bless,
Leah
P.S. There will be a blog about our team run by one of the media team members if I'm not mistaken. I don't really know anything about it, but you can probably find more information on the Nehemiah Teams website.
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