Introductions and Corrections

Woo hoo…at long last…a photo of the team!!

Drum roll please…introducing from left to right, seated on the front row - Marilyn and Kathy; standing in the back row - Nancy, Kim, Scott, Chuck and me. Kathy and Chuck are our leaders and 2 of their kids, along with 2 of their friends will also be joining us. But they are now scattered in parts far and wide and weren’t around for this picture. I’m sure we’ll be posting shots of them once we get to the PI.

Scott’s the one with all the construction experience and he will be leading us in our project work once we get over there. But recently I’ve come to see that both Kim and Marilyn are pretty darn good with their own construction skills and knowledge. But more about that later!

Kim and Scott are our newlyweds…and I’ve never told them, but…they got married on my birthday!! August 18. Guess now I don’t have any excuse to not remember their anniversary.

And two Nancys…we’re still trying to figure out the name dilemma…

OK, now for the corrections…forget what I said earlier about our itinerary! We are leaving Philly on Friday, Dec. 29 at 10:45 a.m. But we’ll be getting in to Hong Kong on Dec. 30 around 8:00 p.m. And I’m so confused at this point I’m not sure if those times are local times (Hong Kong) or U.S. times! :) Then we’ll leave Hong Kong at 4:40 p.m. on Jan. 1 and will arrive in Manila around 6:40 p.m. If any of you want more info, just drop me a note to let me know.

More soon…

You Ate WHAT for Dinner?!?!?

Magandang gabi! (That's "good evening!")

Well, I'm overdue for this update...so much has been going on since my first note! Our team had dinner together at Manila Bay two weeks ago...that would be the restaurant in Northeast Philly...not the city in the Philippines!



I knew the moment we walked in the door that we were in the right place. It is owned and operated by Filipinos and that night all the customers (well, other than our group!) were also Filipino! Of course we were excited about being able to talk to them about the Philippine Islands (PI), but once they found out we were going there, they were excited to talk to us, too! If they are any taste of what the Filipino people are like (no pun intended!), we are going to be so blessed by the people there! Below is a photo of our waiter, the cook and the hostess.


Anyway, in the restaurant they serve all traditional Filipino fare and to get a good sampling we ordered about 7 different dishes and then passed them around the table so we could all get a taste. How about a little adobo sa-gata or pork inihaw or lechon kawali?? Forget my trying to explain the dishes...let's just say that we had a variety of chicken and pork dishes (and pork parts!) cooked any number of different ways. For dessert all of us ordered flan...that's pretty safe...except for Scott who ordered halo halo. I believe I read someplace that means "mix" and that is an understatement. The dish is served in a large sundae-type glass and has layers of different types of beans (yes, I did say dessert!), mango, coconut jellies (think large gummy bears!) all served in a sweetened iced milk. Well, he hated the dish and it started making the rounds around the table. No one really liked it...except me...I LOVED it!!! ("Let Nancy eat it...she'll eat anything!") I was joking that how often can you say you got your day's worth of fiber from your dessert! Here's a look at me with my halo halo...
Don't know if I've mentioned, but on the way over to the PI, we'll be doing our R&R in Hong Kong...yes, I realize we're doing this backward! Anyway, I'd volunteered to take on the task and what a task it was! I had no idea how expensive Hong Kong was! And imagine the challenge of trying to line up rooms for 12 people (figuring out how many to put in a room, who gets to be with who, etc.). But thank goodness for to Kim and Scott for the Frommer's Travel Guide!! After sending out a bunch of emails asking for quotes, I found what looks to be a marvelous place in the Causeway Bay area of Hong Kong. If any of you want to take a look, here's a link to the hotel (our dormitory accommodations in PI will be nothing like this!) http://www.rosedale.com.hk/en/home/index.php And the price was GREAT...easily within our budget! It's right across the street from Victoria Park and Victoria Peak. Frommer's says the evening views from the Peak are among the best in the world...so I'm sure hoping we can take a tram car up there and do a bit of exploring. We'll be spending New Year's Eve in Hong Kong...don't know what they do for our new year's eve, but our hotel's location will be perfect if they do have fireworks or anything.

We've also had 2 training sessions since my last note. One of the sessions was related to cultural sensitivity and understanding how Americans are perceived by other cultures and how Americans often view cultures in poorer countries. For example, we learned that other cultures view Americans as loud and a couple of people in our group shared how when they've traveled overseas you can often tell who the Americans are because you can hear them! Not that it's a bad thing...that's how our culture is. And we learned how other cultures value relationships as the most important thing...not that we also don't, but that they will sacrifice honesty to protect a relationship. One of our leaders, Kathy, shared a story of a building project they were working on in Thailand where they asked their Thai leader if the construction method they were using was correct. Out of respect for Kathy and her team, the Thai leader said the method was fine, but she and their group went to lunch the Thai leader had his crew redo their work the way that he wanted it done. So as you can see, understanding where we're each coming from can be very important!

In our last training session we learned more about what we'll actually be doing in the PI. Initially we'll be spending about 2 days in Manila getting inter-cultural training and visiting the Dump. From Manila we will travel to Mindoro Island where we will be working on rehabilitating the meeting facility that was donated to ISACC. We saw pictures of the facility and if we're able to line up the materials we need, we think our main goal will be to replace the roof of their chapel which must have blown off at some point. But there's so much that needs to be done...we'll be praying about it and what we do will be largely dependent on supplies.

Now some of you might be wondering why ISACC needs us to do the building rehab...why do we need to go halfway around the world to do it for them? I can only answer that by saying that it's God's plan! Six of us had signed up for this trip because of what we thought was going to be the opportunity to minister in the Dump area outside Manila. But God obviously has other plans for us! And beyond this, ISACC does not have the financial resources to rehab this facility, which is so important to their organization being able to grow. Part of our trip money goes to purchase the needed supplies, etc. We are all very excited to see where God leads us on this trip.

Please continue praying for our team. Please pray for Bill's knee and that the troubles he's been having do not prevent him from being able to go along. Please pray for relationships among the team members; that we continue to get to know each other and grow together. And please pray that we all remain open to God's leading and direction on this journey.

Well, I guess you're up-to-date! Now I'm going to sign off and see about getting a blog spot set up...looks like we should have internet access everywhere we're going to be.

Thanks again to you all for your love, support and encouragement. Each one of you will be coming along with me on this trip!

Love,
Nancy
Matthew 25:35-40

10/28 - Philippines Here We Come!

Greetings all! Kamusta pô kayo? (that's "how are you" in Tagalog, the principle language in the area around Manila)

Well, it's official...we're really going to the Philippines! We purchased our plane tickets last week!! Our itinerary has us leaving the U.S. on December 29 and returning on January 13.

I've gotten my hepatitis A vaccine and will begin taking my typhoid vaccine this week. It's only 4 doses (pills), but it will immunize me for 2 years...good in case I want to take another one of these trips! I'll take along a prescription of anti-malarial medication, which I will take while I'm there. I opted for the more expensive of the two options, even though it's not covered by insurance. My physician was explaining to me that the inexpensive version, the one our government gives our soldiers, has a very common side effect of nighttime hallucinations!! No thanks!

For those of you curious about the details of our itinerary, we'll be flying out of Philly to JFK. From there we'll be flying directly to Hong Kong, where we'll be staying until January 1 when we'll be flying on to Manila. Interesting side note...we'll leave here around noon on the 29th...and get to Hong Kong around noon on the 29th...that's what happens when you go halfway around the world! Anyway, that means we'll be doing our R&R at the front end of our visit instead of at the end. We're doing it this way primarily because our host organization in the Philippines is expecting us to be able to really hit the ground running when we get there (as in...no time to recover from jet lag!).

The exact plans for what we'll be doing in the Philippines are still being developed by our host organization, the Institute for Studies in Asian Church and Culture (ISACC) along with our church's group leader. One of ISACC's main objectives is training pastors and mission organizations to be more effective witnesses in Asia. Someone has donated a building (in need of repair of course!) to ISACC for this purpose and since they presently have no training facilities, the need to rehab this building is a priority. From what we understand at this point, this building is not on Luzon (the largest Philippine island, where Manila is located), but on one of the other islands. Hopefully by my next update I'll have more information.

We're all somewhat disappointed in that it doesn't seem as if we'll be able to spend as much time working and ministering in the Dump area of Quezon City as we'd hoped. Building a community center there is in the infancy stages for ISACC and it looks like not enough of the pieces will be in place for us to get underway on that project. Maybe on my next trip to the Philippines??!!

Our group has had two training sessions so far. The first was a hoot...imagine having to find out from someone what their favorite food is, how many siblings they have and what their favorite sport is...without speaking!!! We're learning common phrases in Tagalog and are spending time in prayer, considering God's plans for us on this trip.

We've all offered to take on various duties for the trip and provided we can find an internet connection where we'll be, I've offered to post a blog, along with photos. Stay tuned on that one! Don't you just love this amazing technological world we live in?!

Well, I think that's about it for now. I cannot thank all of you enough for your support, love, encouragement and prayers. And speaking of prayers...would you be praying for the health of all the team members? Also, that we all will be open to God's leading on this trip, whatever it may be? Finally, would you please pray that God lay the foundation for our visit?

Again, thank you all for partnering with me and our team on this trip. Till next time...paalam! (good-bye!)

Blessings,
Nancy
James 1:14-17