Island Change

As we prepared this weekend to get away from metro manila for a few days, i found myself getting disproportionately excited. I realized, it has been more than 8 years since i have gone this long without getting on a plane to go somewhere. It has been almost 4months for me being in the same place without leaving. Sleeping in the same bed without change and i started to realize how much of a routine travel has been for me. Of course we are comforted by our routines but at the same time we are limited by them. If i always take the same route to work, the route is not something i have to think about (that comforts me) but if i never deviate from that route i will also miss a part of the city that is both worth knowing and accessible to me. i realize that my challenge has been to sit still. To stay put in one place and to serve and continue in one course, working at one set of tasks with one group of people. i have grown from it. it has been said that the one constant in life is change. And that is true. The change for me of late has been to embrace a life with less change. And i am learning to be content with that too. We took a short inter-island flight to the island of Boracay. It is everything the brochures said it would be, And this change has meant a respite from the pain and struggle of urban poverty. After a day and a half i am sunburned and revived. I enjoyed several hot showers, air conditioning in my room, and cable television, all for the first time in months. and i am content. Like paul, i think i can say that i am learning to be content in little and in much. Yesterday, i ate Japanese food as the sun went down with my feet in the sand of perhaps the most beautiful beach i have ever seen. I watched a Manchester united soccer match on television (satellite) and ate fresh pineapple for breakfast on the white sands of Boracay. What a contrast to the urban poverty and rush of living in metro manila. It occurs to me that each change, if it is in response to following Jesus, will bring its own beauty and its own pain. when we head back tomorrow i will be equally content to be back on my bamboo bed and severing alongside the people of God in the work of God in manila.
If you are interested i also wrote down some more of my thoughts on community this weekend. The paper is posted on our manila team website. Check it out on the link that says "papers".

manila.tampaunderground.com

Thinking of Home

The family is still thriving, but we are starting to see some signs of home sickness. Every couple of days Noah will say, “dad, I miss tweezer” (our dog). The other day Simeon was looking at a picture of our house in Tampa with Monica, and he pointed to the background and said excitedly, “I want to go there!” We do miss our home but we are still loving life and ministry here in the Philippines. Our relationships are deepening and we are all become integral parts to the ministry teams we are serving on. One of the challenges for ministries that work with so little financial resources and who are working with the poorest of the poor, is that simple things like printing prayer letters is often too costly. They have trouble raising money because they can not afford stamps to send a letter. I have been talking with MMP in particular about using more of a web based approach which will save them money and make communication easier for them. However, most of these pastors working in the slums do not even own a computer, and while internet cafes are now accessible everywhere many of them are intimidated to use them. So some of the training that I have been doing with the staff and pastors is how to use web based communication strategies. I have conducted a few workshops for them to demystify the process and I have been working on some tools that will help them. It has been challenging to learn together and to help them integrate new systems. One of the things that I have worked on are simple, clean websites for them that they can edit and use in the future.

Websites
The first is for MMP church planting. It is now up and running so you can take a look at it and learn more about MMP if you want. Check it out at:

http://www.mmphilippines.com/

On this site you will also see blogs that I set up for each church plant and they are starting to learn how to use.

The second is for MMP preschool division. I am still working with them on it but the basics are there. Check it out at:

www.intervarsity.faithweb.com/mmpreschool

The third site is for Samaritana. They recently built an amazing building that they also wanted to make available to the body of Christ for retreatants. We have been helping them organize that and I built a website to help them get the word out about their facility. You can see that one at:

www.samaritana.org/retreat


Thank You
We have been busy with lots of other ministries. The team is serving in three different church plants. Every weekend I am teaching as a part of a training program for Pastors in training to plant churches in the slums of Manila. So far I have done training on fund raising and leadership. This weekend I begin modules on Preaching and Hermeneutics (bible study). It is a lot and we are busy every day but I have adjusted the pace of life here, which in general just seems less frenetic. So I feel busy but not hurried. The days are full but not stressful. I guess I am getting a sabbatical after all.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support. Thank you for staying faithful to us while we are in Manila. It is such and honor to walk with you as we walk with the poor.