Day 3

Hey Everyone!

Today was yet another exciting day in Filipino land. We luckily got a Beacham sleep in (7am).  Well the girls did anyway. The boys on the other hand, due to their need to make sure they were all gwapo (beautiful) and that their makeup was flawless, chose to wake up mostly at 6:30 except for Nic Dawson who woke up at 5:30 just to make sure his makeup was especially flawless for all the Filipino ladies (and it worked). So watch out parents, it looks like all the boys are coming back with Filipino girlfriends.

For breakfast we had were given a delicious meal of scrambled eggs, French toast, spam (which was interesting for most) and of course rice. It was amazing. Everyone ate heaps and we left ready for a busy day.

At 8:30 we had church down the road. It was a massive service with over 1000 people and we were all made to feel very welcome. We all introduced ourselves on stage and Evan shared his testimony. We tried our best with our very limited local language experience. They were obviously enjoying themselves laughing at our attempts to copy their greetings. The service was very good. We were given the opportunity to meet so many amazing people. There were many selfies and group photos taken with the locals. It was heaps of fun.

After church we came back to ‘The White House’ (The place that we are staying at) for a lunch of fried chicken, chow mein and rice. Then we had a desert halo-halo (Filipino fruit salad). It was AMAZING!! After lunch we had a rest time. We were all relaxing in our rooms and on the balconies enjoying the breeze and the views.

We then went down the road to the IRC and went to our second church service. We got to meet a lot of the community members and children. They were all very welcoming. Ps Pete preached the sermon on thankfulness being a superpower from God while Ps Steve translated for him. It was a great word. During the sermon some of the girls helped out in the Sunday school.  After the sermon our team made balloon animals for the children who attended the service.

 Then we all climbed back onto the bus and made our way back to the first church that we attended and packed bags of supplies that could feed a family for a week or two. These bags consisted of rice, sardines and noodles. The whole group and some volunteer’s from the local church who helped us pack these bags. Between us we made enough packs for 800 families who will often travel a couple of days to receive the gracious food that we are giving them.  

After quickly finishing all the bags we hopped back on to the bus and went higher in to the mountains to a smaller city called La Castenella. On the way to the city we saw the most beautiful sunset over the rice paddies. Once we arrived in the city Mr Beacham allowed us to spend 60 Peso in a small store where we were allowed to buy some food and drink as an afternoon snack.

Once we had got a little something to eat and drink  we once again hopped back on to the bus and headed back to “the white house”, where we enjoyed a delicious dinner of spaghetti, chicken cordon bleu, Filipino style coleslaw,  sour  bread and  for dessert we had a mango cream dessert.  

After we had finished we sat down and wrote in our journals about how our days went, once we had finished our journals we went for showers (in our case we are writing the blog!)

Once we had finished shower time we started debrief, as we sit here and listen to debrief we are still writing the blog…

Tomorrow we start our first full rotation in our work groups, building an orphanage, working in a bakery or working in the chicken coups. We can’t wait to get started and show our hosts how hard Australians can work (hey we have Mr Beacham as a leader, of course we can work hard!!!!)

Love Micaela and Chenoah xx

Micaela – Hey Everyone! Missing you all heaps. This place is absolutely amazing :D Can’t wait to tell you about all the memories we are making. Js; Haven’t even lost a thing! Love you heaps!! xx

Chenoah – Hey, Hey J Missing you all heaps. This place is amazing, can’t wait to get back to and tell you all the stories that I have to tell. Miss you all xxx