MONDAY
On monday morning we spent time with the whole staff team at IN and Liz G brought devotions and then spent a bit of time praying. Then we had a lot of spare time which we just spent sitting round trying to keep cool, had lunch with the staff, then in the afternoon went shopping at a gigantic mall. Played cards after tea and went to bed.
TUESDAY
Got up at 4am for our flight. Spent the morning flying and the afternoon at Sentosa Island where we just wandered around, went on a few rides etc, had tea, watched the light show, laughed a LOT reminiscing about all our funny moments, and then headed back to the hotel for bed!
WEDNESDAY
Met together for debrief time and then went shopping. Now we are in gate A9 in Singapore airport waiting to fly out!! See you tomorrow lunch time, Dunedin!!!
We have seen Liz B off as she flies to Melbourne.
OTHER THINGS
Forgot to mention that we saw the world's biggest pair of shoes in Manila - big enough to fit the statue of liberty) and that all the beds in Asia are too short for me....looking forward to sleeping without my feet hanging off the end of the bed lol :)
Overall we have all had an absolutely fantastic time, laughed a lot, cried a bit, learnt stuff, stretched ourselves, got to know each other, and come away with lots of photos and memories. It has been an amazing privilege and we'll look forward to sharing all our stories with you!!
Looking forward to seeing you all soon hopefully :)
Lots of love,
Liz, Merridee, Janette, Liz, Kirsten, and Rebecca :) xx
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Monday, September 20, 2010
Sunday
Hi once again, and sorry that you are getting these posts days after we actually do these things...bit tricky getting internet time!!
On Sunday mornign the team split and went to two different churches...the Liz, Liz, Janette, and Merridee went to Olandes with Pastor Nestor and spoke there...Liz B did her testimony and Liz G preached. Sounded like it went really well, although they were SUPER hot...crammed into the preschool that we had visited the other day, which was packed full of people and no air con!!!
Becs and I on the other hand went with Beth to Marikina Christian Fellowship which was airconditioned hehehe. We just sat in on the church service but afterwards led a discussion at their "growth fellowship" (I think it was called) for university aged students - pretty much like life group really. Actually pretty much like having life group in the bathroom, the room was quite small!!! But we had electric fans so all good :)
Afterwards we met up with the other group for lunch which was amazing, and then in the afternoon we went to a youth convergence (again in the Balubad covered basketball court) - for kids/teenagers - mostly sponsor kids and their families once again. For me I think this was probably my favourite part of our whole trip...just hanging out and chatting with the kids, it was soooo much fun, some of those teenagers have fantastic english, so we were able to chat away just like normal, and they translated for the younger kids which was cool. The wee girl I sponsor, Norbelyn, and her mum came as well (just quietly I was RIDICULOUSLY excited to see her again!!!!) so I got to spend quite a bit of time with them and sat beside her through the whole thing as well, and had lots more cuddles and a couple more words out of her hehehe. She's really shy but REALLY cute :) They did worship and games and other stuff that we didn't have to do anything for, and then I spoke. Felt like it went quite well but the kids seemed a bit restless so not sure if it was a wee bit above their heads maybe. Really hot in there as well.
So that (in my opinion) was a fantastic afternoon :)
That night we had dinner at Pastor Nestor and Beth's home which was a lot of fun as well, and again some awesome food hehe :)
I think the rest of sunday was relatively uneventful...hopefully I've remembered everyuthing...better go now as I can see our group gathering from their shopping and money changing :)
Will update on monday as soon as I can. All we have done today is get up at 4am and fly to Singapore,...I am writing this from the airport. We have today and tomorrow in Singapore and then head home tomorrow night.
Adios!!
Kirsten :)
On Sunday mornign the team split and went to two different churches...the Liz, Liz, Janette, and Merridee went to Olandes with Pastor Nestor and spoke there...Liz B did her testimony and Liz G preached. Sounded like it went really well, although they were SUPER hot...crammed into the preschool that we had visited the other day, which was packed full of people and no air con!!!
Becs and I on the other hand went with Beth to Marikina Christian Fellowship which was airconditioned hehehe. We just sat in on the church service but afterwards led a discussion at their "growth fellowship" (I think it was called) for university aged students - pretty much like life group really. Actually pretty much like having life group in the bathroom, the room was quite small!!! But we had electric fans so all good :)
Afterwards we met up with the other group for lunch which was amazing, and then in the afternoon we went to a youth convergence (again in the Balubad covered basketball court) - for kids/teenagers - mostly sponsor kids and their families once again. For me I think this was probably my favourite part of our whole trip...just hanging out and chatting with the kids, it was soooo much fun, some of those teenagers have fantastic english, so we were able to chat away just like normal, and they translated for the younger kids which was cool. The wee girl I sponsor, Norbelyn, and her mum came as well (just quietly I was RIDICULOUSLY excited to see her again!!!!) so I got to spend quite a bit of time with them and sat beside her through the whole thing as well, and had lots more cuddles and a couple more words out of her hehehe. She's really shy but REALLY cute :) They did worship and games and other stuff that we didn't have to do anything for, and then I spoke. Felt like it went quite well but the kids seemed a bit restless so not sure if it was a wee bit above their heads maybe. Really hot in there as well.
So that (in my opinion) was a fantastic afternoon :)
That night we had dinner at Pastor Nestor and Beth's home which was a lot of fun as well, and again some awesome food hehe :)
I think the rest of sunday was relatively uneventful...hopefully I've remembered everyuthing...better go now as I can see our group gathering from their shopping and money changing :)
Will update on monday as soon as I can. All we have done today is get up at 4am and fly to Singapore,...I am writing this from the airport. We have today and tomorrow in Singapore and then head home tomorrow night.
Adios!!
Kirsten :)
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday....the day we spent sitting in the van lol
Right, here I am back again!!
On saturday morning Liz woke up with terrible eyes again :( Not good at all...took her to the doctor and then to the pharmacy to get her drops etc. Then we went to the supermarket to get groceries for the kdis of the other sponsor kids that we were visiting that afternoon. FUN!!! I loved it!
The plan was to take us to Santa Rosa, to see the relocation project, post flood, and in particular to see Sherwin's house. His family lost everything in the flood last year and had to be relocated, and they got split up because there are two different places they relocated them to, so that's a bit sad. But the government has built a whole lot of wee concrete houses that they can rent-to-buy for NZ$8 per month, for 25 years. Very cool to see. International Needs is involved as well, they have a ceiling project where they are putting plywood linings in the ceilings, because the ones the government built were too thin and so were freezing (!!!) overnight, and baking hot during the day. so that is fantastic, they are also lining the walls and sealing up the gaps etc so that rats and things can't get in. So all in all it was very clean and tidy and new looking, albeit very small and compact.
Forgot to say how we got there!!!! When we were within the region they dropped us off out of the van and we rode on a trolley car down the railway tracks....imagine 9 of us squeezed together onto a tiny little trolley, and pushed along the tracks by manpower alone!!! Pretty funny!!! Nice ride tho!
Delivered parcels to Mabel, Peter and Jan Sara's sponsor child.
Had lunch, then headed back to the covered basketball courts at Balubad, for the Women of Worth seminar (same thing, different location) which was supposed to start at 1.30 and run till 4. We got there at 3.55. Haha. Traffic was UNBELIEVABLE...so we spent a LOT of hours sitting in the van. All the ladies were still there when we got there, they had been filling in the time having a worship service or something, and we couldn't do our programme when we got there as somebody else needed the courts at 4!! So a wee bit of a disaster in NZ terms, but Filopinos seem to take everything in their stride!!! So Liz got to do a wee brief message which was actually great, and then we got to draw names out of boxes for people to win the prize of getting their house done up. They get 5000 pesos (NZ$160ish) to buy the materials with, and then they have to pay for the labour. So that was fantastic, they were sooooo excited, and they were all excited for their friends, so we could hardly tell who had won it cos everybody around them was all jumping and clapping and cheering, it was really awesome :)
Then we went to visit the sponsor children in Balubad....rode there in a pedicap - a wee sidecar on the side of a bicycle which was really fun (would like to point out that Liz B and I kicked butt in the race we were having that nobody else knew about hehehe I took photos of them as we zoomed past...but I should confess that our driver had a scooter instead of a pushbike :)
So we visited Marvin who is sponsored by Chris and Lesley, wee girl sponsored by the Scotts (her name escapes us at the moment sorry!!) and Norbelyn who is the wee girl I sponsor...honestly it was one of the best things I have ever done, I LOVED it sooo much!! She was super shy, and barely said two words to me the whole time I was there (her mother on the other hand talked nonstop!!!) but she had a HUGE smile on her face and I got about 27 hugs so that was really cool :) DEFINITELY a highlight!!!!!!
Then it got really dark and a massive storm was threatening so we got bundled into the van super fast and taken back to the IN base where we had dinner and a relaxing evening playing cards etc.
That was our Saturday!! Hard to believe in this heat that you are all freezing back home!!
Oh I keep forgetting to tell you about the incredible thunder and lightening storms we have here, almost every day!! It's pretty unbelievable, loud crashes, sounds like it's right on top of us!!!!
Alright, I'm off to bed! Last one again!!!!
Hope all's well back home.
Keep warm!!
Love all of us :)
On saturday morning Liz woke up with terrible eyes again :( Not good at all...took her to the doctor and then to the pharmacy to get her drops etc. Then we went to the supermarket to get groceries for the kdis of the other sponsor kids that we were visiting that afternoon. FUN!!! I loved it!
The plan was to take us to Santa Rosa, to see the relocation project, post flood, and in particular to see Sherwin's house. His family lost everything in the flood last year and had to be relocated, and they got split up because there are two different places they relocated them to, so that's a bit sad. But the government has built a whole lot of wee concrete houses that they can rent-to-buy for NZ$8 per month, for 25 years. Very cool to see. International Needs is involved as well, they have a ceiling project where they are putting plywood linings in the ceilings, because the ones the government built were too thin and so were freezing (!!!) overnight, and baking hot during the day. so that is fantastic, they are also lining the walls and sealing up the gaps etc so that rats and things can't get in. So all in all it was very clean and tidy and new looking, albeit very small and compact.
Forgot to say how we got there!!!! When we were within the region they dropped us off out of the van and we rode on a trolley car down the railway tracks....imagine 9 of us squeezed together onto a tiny little trolley, and pushed along the tracks by manpower alone!!! Pretty funny!!! Nice ride tho!
Delivered parcels to Mabel, Peter and Jan Sara's sponsor child.
Had lunch, then headed back to the covered basketball courts at Balubad, for the Women of Worth seminar (same thing, different location) which was supposed to start at 1.30 and run till 4. We got there at 3.55. Haha. Traffic was UNBELIEVABLE...so we spent a LOT of hours sitting in the van. All the ladies were still there when we got there, they had been filling in the time having a worship service or something, and we couldn't do our programme when we got there as somebody else needed the courts at 4!! So a wee bit of a disaster in NZ terms, but Filopinos seem to take everything in their stride!!! So Liz got to do a wee brief message which was actually great, and then we got to draw names out of boxes for people to win the prize of getting their house done up. They get 5000 pesos (NZ$160ish) to buy the materials with, and then they have to pay for the labour. So that was fantastic, they were sooooo excited, and they were all excited for their friends, so we could hardly tell who had won it cos everybody around them was all jumping and clapping and cheering, it was really awesome :)
Then we went to visit the sponsor children in Balubad....rode there in a pedicap - a wee sidecar on the side of a bicycle which was really fun (would like to point out that Liz B and I kicked butt in the race we were having that nobody else knew about hehehe I took photos of them as we zoomed past...but I should confess that our driver had a scooter instead of a pushbike :)
So we visited Marvin who is sponsored by Chris and Lesley, wee girl sponsored by the Scotts (her name escapes us at the moment sorry!!) and Norbelyn who is the wee girl I sponsor...honestly it was one of the best things I have ever done, I LOVED it sooo much!! She was super shy, and barely said two words to me the whole time I was there (her mother on the other hand talked nonstop!!!) but she had a HUGE smile on her face and I got about 27 hugs so that was really cool :) DEFINITELY a highlight!!!!!!
Then it got really dark and a massive storm was threatening so we got bundled into the van super fast and taken back to the IN base where we had dinner and a relaxing evening playing cards etc.
That was our Saturday!! Hard to believe in this heat that you are all freezing back home!!
Oh I keep forgetting to tell you about the incredible thunder and lightening storms we have here, almost every day!! It's pretty unbelievable, loud crashes, sounds like it's right on top of us!!!!
Alright, I'm off to bed! Last one again!!!!
Hope all's well back home.
Keep warm!!
Love all of us :)
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Friday in Marikina
Hey all!
Yesterday morning we visited an internet cafe that is a project of these guys here...the main purpose of it is that it is an intensive computer course, for 5 weeks, to equip people who want to have computer skills, and it is a registered course, so they have a qualification for when they apply for jobs etc. At the same time they teach them English and have christian teaching as well. There are 6 people in the class, a very wide range of ages and backgrounds. We had a GREA time talking to them, and Liz got put on the spot to share something and did a FANTASTIC job and had everybody in tears lol. Wanted to put about three exclamation marks after that sentence but it is not working on this computer....argh this is going to be hard for me exclamation mark x6.
After that we went to a covered basketball court where we did a "medical mission", paid for by our church. Ok all the numbers buttons and punctuation marks are not working so I can't even do smiley faces argh. Oh maybe like this... :D yup, yay :D
The medical mission was fantastic. We had 4 doctors and an optometrist there, doing checkups for families in the sponsorship programme, and then a "pharmacy" so they could pick up their drugs for free as well. Sooo fantastic to be part of :D We weighed people, gave out drugs, talked to mums, and entertained kids. One of the things we did with the kids was gave them coloured pencils and paper to draw pictures on, and they were all showing us their pictures, and they had all written their names on the top, and I glanced over at one wee girl and recognised the name on her picture - lo and behold it was Bena's sponsor child. You have no idea how frustrating it is for me to not be able to do exclamation marks. Right here there would normally be about ten. It was seriously the highlight of my day, to just come across her like that...soooooo cool :D
So we had a really great time all round :D
We spent the afternoon shopping a wee bit and relaxing a big bit...it was a pretty nice afternoon which was good cos it had been a pretty hectic morning.
That's pretty much Friday covered :D
Might have to change computers to write about the next day cos I can't handle not being able to express my enthusiasm with punctuation.
Over and out,
Kirsten x
Yesterday morning we visited an internet cafe that is a project of these guys here...the main purpose of it is that it is an intensive computer course, for 5 weeks, to equip people who want to have computer skills, and it is a registered course, so they have a qualification for when they apply for jobs etc. At the same time they teach them English and have christian teaching as well. There are 6 people in the class, a very wide range of ages and backgrounds. We had a GREA time talking to them, and Liz got put on the spot to share something and did a FANTASTIC job and had everybody in tears lol. Wanted to put about three exclamation marks after that sentence but it is not working on this computer....argh this is going to be hard for me exclamation mark x6.
After that we went to a covered basketball court where we did a "medical mission", paid for by our church. Ok all the numbers buttons and punctuation marks are not working so I can't even do smiley faces argh. Oh maybe like this... :D yup, yay :D
The medical mission was fantastic. We had 4 doctors and an optometrist there, doing checkups for families in the sponsorship programme, and then a "pharmacy" so they could pick up their drugs for free as well. Sooo fantastic to be part of :D We weighed people, gave out drugs, talked to mums, and entertained kids. One of the things we did with the kids was gave them coloured pencils and paper to draw pictures on, and they were all showing us their pictures, and they had all written their names on the top, and I glanced over at one wee girl and recognised the name on her picture - lo and behold it was Bena's sponsor child. You have no idea how frustrating it is for me to not be able to do exclamation marks. Right here there would normally be about ten. It was seriously the highlight of my day, to just come across her like that...soooooo cool :D
So we had a really great time all round :D
We spent the afternoon shopping a wee bit and relaxing a big bit...it was a pretty nice afternoon which was good cos it had been a pretty hectic morning.
That's pretty much Friday covered :D
Might have to change computers to write about the next day cos I can't handle not being able to express my enthusiasm with punctuation.
Over and out,
Kirsten x
Friday, September 17, 2010
Thursday 16th - Marikina
On Thursday morning we went to visit Olandes. We are slightly confused about how these areas work but I think Olandes and Balubad are like suburbs of Marikina, and Marikina is a city, but is within the greater city of Metro Manila...."Manila" is also a city within Metro Manila, but usually when people refer to Manila they are meaning Metro Manila which contains...um...16(??) cities....I THINK that is right-ish!!!!
So we went to visit a preschool (here they call them playschools) in Olandes which is a very poor (slum) area. There were about 15 kids there, all 3 years old. SUPER cute!! very shy of us tho. They LOVED it when Merridee read a story to them, and went CRAZY over the bubbles we blew so that was pretty fun :)
Then we went to visit the child Janette sponsors, a wee girl called Vanessa who is about to turn 15. She was VERY shy but I think they enjoyed meeting each other!!! SOOO interesting seeing their house...it honestly looked like they'd found a wee gap between two other buildings, and made their wee tiny house there out of pieces of wood and tin. TINY wee house, with a downstairs (one tiny room) and upstairs (2 VERY tiny rooms up a VERY steep staircase). There wasn't enough room for all of us in there so only Janette, Liz G, and Merridee went in to visit with them. Apparently there were gigantic rats running around in the rafters right above their heads...so sad that people have to live like that :(
Anyway....after that visit we had lunch and then we presented a seminar for the women of Olandes (mostly mothers of sponsored children) called "Women of Worth". Janette gave her testimony about influential women in her life, Merridee spoke as well, about her mother, Liz B spoke about Naomi (from the book of Ruth in the bible) and then Liz G spoke about being a godly woman/the proverbs 31 woman, and the Ezer/helper aspect of woman to man. All really good, tied together really well, and got great responses from the women there. about 150 women there I think, of a very wide range of ages, and they responded really well, discussed things together in groups and then shared their own stories about influential women in their lives which was really lovely, and then at the end we had the opportunity to pray with any of them who wanted us to, which was quite a lot :) Mostly prayer for sickness, to get jobs, and for resolving family conflicts.
That was the main stuff we did yesterday!!! I'm pretty tired now and everybody else has gone to bed (even though it's only 9.20pm!!) so I will sign off for now and write about what we did today at some other time, hopefully tomorrow :)
Hope you are all well!!!
Oh yes on a more personal note because I have only been reporting factual stuff, whoops....we are all well, Liz B's eyes are back to normal finally....no other health problems...all our bowels are ringing Merridee says!!! hehehehe!! So yup, all good, very happy and well, and having a wonderful time with lots of interesting experiences. It is VERY hot and that is a wee bit of a struggle at times, but we are coping :) My hair is RIDICULOUSLY fluffy but I am also coping. Lol. We have eaten red banana sauce (looks like tomato sauce, and is savoury) and cheese flavoured ice cream (!!!) and lamb liver...that is actually the first thing I've eaten on this whole trip that I didn't like hehe. Things in the Philippines are sooo cheap, I just can't get over it. e.g. we could get a haircut here for NZ$1.50. Today I had a 30c icecream. And Becs and I went for a (hair-raising) ride on a rollercoaster in the mall that only cost 30c too....gosh it was scary lol Becs was cracking up the whole way round and I was praying that it would stay on the tracks!!!! hahahaha it didn't occur to me until I was already belted in that a rollercoaster in a MALL in the PHILIPPINES might not exactly be the safest of rides....it's not exactly DisneyLand!!
So that's about all for now :) We are thinking about you guys...chch with all your earthquakes and devastation, and the deep south with your crazy snow storms etc..hope you are all staying bundled up inside!!! Won't complain about how hot we all are!!!!
Love from all of us :)
Kirsten
So we went to visit a preschool (here they call them playschools) in Olandes which is a very poor (slum) area. There were about 15 kids there, all 3 years old. SUPER cute!! very shy of us tho. They LOVED it when Merridee read a story to them, and went CRAZY over the bubbles we blew so that was pretty fun :)
Then we went to visit the child Janette sponsors, a wee girl called Vanessa who is about to turn 15. She was VERY shy but I think they enjoyed meeting each other!!! SOOO interesting seeing their house...it honestly looked like they'd found a wee gap between two other buildings, and made their wee tiny house there out of pieces of wood and tin. TINY wee house, with a downstairs (one tiny room) and upstairs (2 VERY tiny rooms up a VERY steep staircase). There wasn't enough room for all of us in there so only Janette, Liz G, and Merridee went in to visit with them. Apparently there were gigantic rats running around in the rafters right above their heads...so sad that people have to live like that :(
Anyway....after that visit we had lunch and then we presented a seminar for the women of Olandes (mostly mothers of sponsored children) called "Women of Worth". Janette gave her testimony about influential women in her life, Merridee spoke as well, about her mother, Liz B spoke about Naomi (from the book of Ruth in the bible) and then Liz G spoke about being a godly woman/the proverbs 31 woman, and the Ezer/helper aspect of woman to man. All really good, tied together really well, and got great responses from the women there. about 150 women there I think, of a very wide range of ages, and they responded really well, discussed things together in groups and then shared their own stories about influential women in their lives which was really lovely, and then at the end we had the opportunity to pray with any of them who wanted us to, which was quite a lot :) Mostly prayer for sickness, to get jobs, and for resolving family conflicts.
That was the main stuff we did yesterday!!! I'm pretty tired now and everybody else has gone to bed (even though it's only 9.20pm!!) so I will sign off for now and write about what we did today at some other time, hopefully tomorrow :)
Hope you are all well!!!
Oh yes on a more personal note because I have only been reporting factual stuff, whoops....we are all well, Liz B's eyes are back to normal finally....no other health problems...all our bowels are ringing Merridee says!!! hehehehe!! So yup, all good, very happy and well, and having a wonderful time with lots of interesting experiences. It is VERY hot and that is a wee bit of a struggle at times, but we are coping :) My hair is RIDICULOUSLY fluffy but I am also coping. Lol. We have eaten red banana sauce (looks like tomato sauce, and is savoury) and cheese flavoured ice cream (!!!) and lamb liver...that is actually the first thing I've eaten on this whole trip that I didn't like hehe. Things in the Philippines are sooo cheap, I just can't get over it. e.g. we could get a haircut here for NZ$1.50. Today I had a 30c icecream. And Becs and I went for a (hair-raising) ride on a rollercoaster in the mall that only cost 30c too....gosh it was scary lol Becs was cracking up the whole way round and I was praying that it would stay on the tracks!!!! hahahaha it didn't occur to me until I was already belted in that a rollercoaster in a MALL in the PHILIPPINES might not exactly be the safest of rides....it's not exactly DisneyLand!!
So that's about all for now :) We are thinking about you guys...chch with all your earthquakes and devastation, and the deep south with your crazy snow storms etc..hope you are all staying bundled up inside!!! Won't complain about how hot we all are!!!!
Love from all of us :)
Kirsten
Mon, Tues, & Wed...I've got a bit to catch up on!!!!
Hi there,
sorry I have got a bit behind...finally have some time to catch this up whle the others are playing cards!!
MONDAY
So monday was our last full day at Tawangmangu. Liz G spoke in the morning to the bible college students (in their lessons) about small groups - esp our life group structure and the background to setting all that up. Went really well and the students had a lot of questions which was great.
We saw the muppet house where they make muppets that they sell for fundraising and Merridee sewed some of the clothes for them hehe :)
After lunch Carol took us down to the markets which was pretty fun. Lots of kids you could tell they were daring each other to talk to us, and then they would get all brave and say something to us in English (like "good morning") and then they'd all giggle together! Pretty funny. Then they took us for a drive up the mountain above the bible college where there are great views and a lot of really fancy holiday houses so that was pretty interesting to see.
Later in the afternoon we had a lovely chat with Carol, sitting round the table drinking coffee and eating jaffas...really nice fellowship time with her. She has sooo many interesting stories!! What an incredible woman.
Can't remember what we did that night...probably ate more lol and then went to bed as we had an early flight out.
TUESDAY
Fera, Stefanie, and Lely came to see us off at the airport, then we flew back to Singapore, arrived in about lunch time I think. REALLY lovely hotel this time. Spent the afternoon shopping or swimming (fantastic weather) and then washed up, dressed up, and went out for dinner. First time on this whole trip we didn't need an early night cos we had a cruisy morning ahead of us!
WEDNESDAY
VERY relaxed morning...went out for breakfast and then spent some time worshiping and praying for each other in one of the hotel rooms. Had to go to airport at 12ish.
Arrived in Manila at 5.45 I think it was, and met by Sherwin and Jemima from International Needs (Jemima is Pastor Nestor and Beth's daughter) and Rebecca who is an Australian girl who has been with them for 15 months so far, as a volunteer, setting up preschools in different areas around Marikina, primarily for sponsored children and wee kids whose families cannot afford to send them to another preschool.
The trip from the airport to the IN base took 3 hours!!!! Crazy traffic. I think they expected it to take an hour or so. So didn't get in till almost 9 I think. Met Pastor Nestor and Beth who are REALLY lovely, and talked with them about our programme for the next few days we are here.
On Thursday we started into our real work here, so I will start a new post!!
Kirsten :)
sorry I have got a bit behind...finally have some time to catch this up whle the others are playing cards!!
MONDAY
So monday was our last full day at Tawangmangu. Liz G spoke in the morning to the bible college students (in their lessons) about small groups - esp our life group structure and the background to setting all that up. Went really well and the students had a lot of questions which was great.
We saw the muppet house where they make muppets that they sell for fundraising and Merridee sewed some of the clothes for them hehe :)
After lunch Carol took us down to the markets which was pretty fun. Lots of kids you could tell they were daring each other to talk to us, and then they would get all brave and say something to us in English (like "good morning") and then they'd all giggle together! Pretty funny. Then they took us for a drive up the mountain above the bible college where there are great views and a lot of really fancy holiday houses so that was pretty interesting to see.
Later in the afternoon we had a lovely chat with Carol, sitting round the table drinking coffee and eating jaffas...really nice fellowship time with her. She has sooo many interesting stories!! What an incredible woman.
Can't remember what we did that night...probably ate more lol and then went to bed as we had an early flight out.
TUESDAY
Fera, Stefanie, and Lely came to see us off at the airport, then we flew back to Singapore, arrived in about lunch time I think. REALLY lovely hotel this time. Spent the afternoon shopping or swimming (fantastic weather) and then washed up, dressed up, and went out for dinner. First time on this whole trip we didn't need an early night cos we had a cruisy morning ahead of us!
WEDNESDAY
VERY relaxed morning...went out for breakfast and then spent some time worshiping and praying for each other in one of the hotel rooms. Had to go to airport at 12ish.
Arrived in Manila at 5.45 I think it was, and met by Sherwin and Jemima from International Needs (Jemima is Pastor Nestor and Beth's daughter) and Rebecca who is an Australian girl who has been with them for 15 months so far, as a volunteer, setting up preschools in different areas around Marikina, primarily for sponsored children and wee kids whose families cannot afford to send them to another preschool.
The trip from the airport to the IN base took 3 hours!!!! Crazy traffic. I think they expected it to take an hour or so. So didn't get in till almost 9 I think. Met Pastor Nestor and Beth who are REALLY lovely, and talked with them about our programme for the next few days we are here.
On Thursday we started into our real work here, so I will start a new post!!
Kirsten :)
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Team of Three in Gardingan
Hey Guys, Liz here to tell you about time in Gardingan.
Saturday night Janette, Rebecca and me stayed with Fera and the girls at the church. Quite hot and lots of mozzie bites but we enjoyed the experience. You would have laughed at us trying to put up the mozzie nets we got them stuck in the fan, lots of laughing but got there eventually. Fera's 4am prayer meeting was great, beautiful presence of God. 5.30am service started at 6 and was outdoors in the new building. The sun was as present and the Holy Spirit. We had a great time with Janette and Becs doing testimonies, me preaching, good time of ministry and then rice wrapped in banana leaves for breakfast. I even recognised a couple of people from when I came in 1993 - Amazing.
Back to main church building for kids service, they sang us songs Bena had taught them so we had to quickly change songs we were going to teach them. You taught them well Bena. You are a legend here.....
At the 5.30am service I talked from Matthew 5 v13 about being Salt and Light, so Fera took me around the neighbourhood visiting and praying for families (practical application from the morning message). We had an awesome time praying for a mother on a walking frame and son in a wheelchair, a man with gout who was a new convert, his wife had been a part of the church with Fera since the beginning and families where gambling was a problem. Most Excellent Time. That night we had a meeting with Fera's leaders, I shared on Faith and then we had Q & A. It is amazing that although we live in different countries and different conditions that same questions and concerns come up. God was good and used all of us to speak into solutions.
I have the most amazing team and I am greatful to God for the giftings and personalities in our group.... God surely set this up. God bless you guys, please keep praying as it is making a difference. Love Liz
Saturday night Janette, Rebecca and me stayed with Fera and the girls at the church. Quite hot and lots of mozzie bites but we enjoyed the experience. You would have laughed at us trying to put up the mozzie nets we got them stuck in the fan, lots of laughing but got there eventually. Fera's 4am prayer meeting was great, beautiful presence of God. 5.30am service started at 6 and was outdoors in the new building. The sun was as present and the Holy Spirit. We had a great time with Janette and Becs doing testimonies, me preaching, good time of ministry and then rice wrapped in banana leaves for breakfast. I even recognised a couple of people from when I came in 1993 - Amazing.
Back to main church building for kids service, they sang us songs Bena had taught them so we had to quickly change songs we were going to teach them. You taught them well Bena. You are a legend here.....
At the 5.30am service I talked from Matthew 5 v13 about being Salt and Light, so Fera took me around the neighbourhood visiting and praying for families (practical application from the morning message). We had an awesome time praying for a mother on a walking frame and son in a wheelchair, a man with gout who was a new convert, his wife had been a part of the church with Fera since the beginning and families where gambling was a problem. Most Excellent Time. That night we had a meeting with Fera's leaders, I shared on Faith and then we had Q & A. It is amazing that although we live in different countries and different conditions that same questions and concerns come up. God was good and used all of us to speak into solutions.
I have the most amazing team and I am greatful to God for the giftings and personalities in our group.... God surely set this up. God bless you guys, please keep praying as it is making a difference. Love Liz
Sunday, September 12, 2010
Sunday Sept 12
The plan for today was that Liz B, Merridee and I would be at the meeting in Tawangmangu, then have lunch with Sam and Carol, and then head down to Gardingan to join the others at 1. But as you know if you have been here, plans can change at the drop of a hat, and ours have certainly changed a few times!!!
Our morning meeting went well, Merridee did her testimony and I spoke - the same message I did last night in Gardingan but stepped up a bit for the bible college students (as opposed to the teenagers in Fera's church) - plus I had a MUCH better translator so it didn't need to be quite so simple :)
Lunch was amazing, as per usual, but we had to eat without Sam, as he had gone to a town near solo to preach this morning, and left at 11am but what should have been a 40 minute trip ended up taking him 4 hours, the traffic is CRAZY because it is the last day of their public holiday. On top of that our driver went to visit family in another village and a different driver turned up, who spoke no English, and had no idea where Fera lived. Hmm. So things were a wee bit interesting there!! so in the end we decided we'd be silly to try to go, so we have ended up stuck at Tawangmangu for the afternoon with nothing to do...the students are out for the afternoon so we are sitting around the table drinking coffee and eating crackers and avocado and wondering what the real missionaries are doing!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently they had a 5.30am prayer meeting and then a 9am kids programme to do. Then the afternoon looked to be free until their 7pm meeting tonight, but not sure what will happen now...they may have to leave early if it's going to take more than 4 hours to get home!!!! It will be very interesting to see how their day has been. Not sure what we will do tonight...I don't know if they have an evening meeting here or not.
So that's pretty much covered everything up to now I think!!! I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but never mind, might think of it later. And I'll try to get one of the others to write on here about their experience in Gardingan last night and today.
Hope all's well back home!!!
See ya,
Kirsten :)
Our morning meeting went well, Merridee did her testimony and I spoke - the same message I did last night in Gardingan but stepped up a bit for the bible college students (as opposed to the teenagers in Fera's church) - plus I had a MUCH better translator so it didn't need to be quite so simple :)
Lunch was amazing, as per usual, but we had to eat without Sam, as he had gone to a town near solo to preach this morning, and left at 11am but what should have been a 40 minute trip ended up taking him 4 hours, the traffic is CRAZY because it is the last day of their public holiday. On top of that our driver went to visit family in another village and a different driver turned up, who spoke no English, and had no idea where Fera lived. Hmm. So things were a wee bit interesting there!! so in the end we decided we'd be silly to try to go, so we have ended up stuck at Tawangmangu for the afternoon with nothing to do...the students are out for the afternoon so we are sitting around the table drinking coffee and eating crackers and avocado and wondering what the real missionaries are doing!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently they had a 5.30am prayer meeting and then a 9am kids programme to do. Then the afternoon looked to be free until their 7pm meeting tonight, but not sure what will happen now...they may have to leave early if it's going to take more than 4 hours to get home!!!! It will be very interesting to see how their day has been. Not sure what we will do tonight...I don't know if they have an evening meeting here or not.
So that's pretty much covered everything up to now I think!!! I'm sure I've forgotten stuff, but never mind, might think of it later. And I'll try to get one of the others to write on here about their experience in Gardingan last night and today.
Hope all's well back home!!!
See ya,
Kirsten :)
House of Sinai and Gardingan - Sat Sept 11
On Saturday we went down to Solo in the morning (met Fera there) and visited the House of Sinai. What an incredible place, and an unbelievable ministry that couple has - taking in the most mentally ill people around, and through simply love, prayer, and worship they all leave perfectly healed and go on to live very normal lives with jobs and marriages etc. Takes an average of 6 months before they are healed, but some as short as two months. When we were visiting with the ladies in their dorm they asked if Liz Griffiths was Princess Diana!!!! And Fera told them yes!!!!! hahaha!!!!
Went to Indonesian McDonalds for lunch, complete with rice and McSoup, and then to Gardingan where Fera and Debbie showed us around the church and the community, and told us about their projects etc. Very cool, and soooo lovely meeting the local people and seeing the way they live. I LOVE that I am here...can't quite get over the fact that I am cruising the streets of Indonesia, where the painted lines on the roads are purely decorative, and walking with these people through their villages, just seeing them go about their day to day lives, spraying their rice paddies, tiny little old ladies carrying big bundles of sticks on their backs, children running around the streets, it is seriously amazing and I am loving it so much!!!
Oh yes, we did have a bit of concern about going to Gardingan on Saturday, sept 11, what with the whole koran burning crazy pastor and the unrest, but after a bit of communication back and forth everybody decided it would be fine, which it was, you wouldn't have known anything was up at all.
That night we had the youth meeting which I spoke at, and Becs did her testimony again. Think it all went well!! Then Liz B, Merridee and I headed back up to Tawangmangu, while Liz G, Rebecca, and Janette stayed down at Gardingan for the night (they both wanted us in two different places at the same time so we had to split). We got home just before 10. Not sure how the others would have slept - Gardingan is MUCH hotter, with some vicious mozzies which we don't have up here, and no aircon. Hopefully they were ok. Will write about today in a different post :)
Went to Indonesian McDonalds for lunch, complete with rice and McSoup, and then to Gardingan where Fera and Debbie showed us around the church and the community, and told us about their projects etc. Very cool, and soooo lovely meeting the local people and seeing the way they live. I LOVE that I am here...can't quite get over the fact that I am cruising the streets of Indonesia, where the painted lines on the roads are purely decorative, and walking with these people through their villages, just seeing them go about their day to day lives, spraying their rice paddies, tiny little old ladies carrying big bundles of sticks on their backs, children running around the streets, it is seriously amazing and I am loving it so much!!!
Oh yes, we did have a bit of concern about going to Gardingan on Saturday, sept 11, what with the whole koran burning crazy pastor and the unrest, but after a bit of communication back and forth everybody decided it would be fine, which it was, you wouldn't have known anything was up at all.
That night we had the youth meeting which I spoke at, and Becs did her testimony again. Think it all went well!! Then Liz B, Merridee and I headed back up to Tawangmangu, while Liz G, Rebecca, and Janette stayed down at Gardingan for the night (they both wanted us in two different places at the same time so we had to split). We got home just before 10. Not sure how the others would have slept - Gardingan is MUCH hotter, with some vicious mozzies which we don't have up here, and no aircon. Hopefully they were ok. Will write about today in a different post :)
Tawangmangu Bible College - Thurs and Fri
Hi!! Well I have a few days to catch up on!!! Last time I wrote we were about to board our flight to solo, on thursday morning.
We arrived in Solo about 10.30 local time i think, interesting airport, and Liz B almost had her malaria tablets taken off her! That would have been interesting! Couldn't get any money out because of the public holiday - it is the end of Ramandan (sp?) and so they are all on holiday thurs-sun. Which means....things are VERY quiet for us!!! We all felt a wee bit guilty for the first day or two, very relaxed, just lots of hanging out together and with Sam and Carol who run the college, and with the students...eventually...after they got over their shyness!!! Sooo interesting talking to Carol and Sam and hearing their stories...they are AMAZING people and are making an ENORMOUS difference in this nation. Thursday after dinner we had a bit of a tour of the college and met some of the students in their rooms etc. It's fun to talk to them but they are really embarrassed about their english so they are not very willing to try!!!
That night was the massive celebration for the muslims ending their fast etc so it was chanting and fireworks ALL NIGHT, but we managed to have a fairly decent sleep despite all the racket around us. Liz G and I are sleeping in Sam and Carol's house and the rest of them in the wee dorm rooms below. We are VERY comfortable here and feel like we are cheating a wee bit on this missionary thing!!! No reusing teabags here!! The food is incredible, the people are amazing, the climate is perfect (cooler cos we are up the mountain), and we are being very well looked after. :)
On friday morning we got up for their 5.30am prayer meeting which was great - an hour of prayer and worship, and some songs we knew, although it's pretty hard to remember the english words when everybody around you is singing in indonesian!!!!! When they have the words on the powerpoint we just sing it in indonesian, it's quite an easy language to read. After breakfast went down to the waterfall which was absolutely beautiful, and heaps of monkeys all around which was pretty exciting. One tried to grab Rebecca's water bottle out of her hand. We are like celebrities here, everybody wants their photo taken with the white people hahaha and strangers push their very shy little children towards us to take their pictures with us!! Pretty funny. That afternoon I think was just more hanging out...as far as I can remember. chatting to students etc. At night we had our first meeting, Becs did her testimony and Liz spoke, both did very well :)
I'm going to end this here and carry on in a seperate post cos otherwise it's gonna get ridiculously long and nobody will bother to read it!!!!
:)
We arrived in Solo about 10.30 local time i think, interesting airport, and Liz B almost had her malaria tablets taken off her! That would have been interesting! Couldn't get any money out because of the public holiday - it is the end of Ramandan (sp?) and so they are all on holiday thurs-sun. Which means....things are VERY quiet for us!!! We all felt a wee bit guilty for the first day or two, very relaxed, just lots of hanging out together and with Sam and Carol who run the college, and with the students...eventually...after they got over their shyness!!! Sooo interesting talking to Carol and Sam and hearing their stories...they are AMAZING people and are making an ENORMOUS difference in this nation. Thursday after dinner we had a bit of a tour of the college and met some of the students in their rooms etc. It's fun to talk to them but they are really embarrassed about their english so they are not very willing to try!!!
That night was the massive celebration for the muslims ending their fast etc so it was chanting and fireworks ALL NIGHT, but we managed to have a fairly decent sleep despite all the racket around us. Liz G and I are sleeping in Sam and Carol's house and the rest of them in the wee dorm rooms below. We are VERY comfortable here and feel like we are cheating a wee bit on this missionary thing!!! No reusing teabags here!! The food is incredible, the people are amazing, the climate is perfect (cooler cos we are up the mountain), and we are being very well looked after. :)
On friday morning we got up for their 5.30am prayer meeting which was great - an hour of prayer and worship, and some songs we knew, although it's pretty hard to remember the english words when everybody around you is singing in indonesian!!!!! When they have the words on the powerpoint we just sing it in indonesian, it's quite an easy language to read. After breakfast went down to the waterfall which was absolutely beautiful, and heaps of monkeys all around which was pretty exciting. One tried to grab Rebecca's water bottle out of her hand. We are like celebrities here, everybody wants their photo taken with the white people hahaha and strangers push their very shy little children towards us to take their pictures with us!! Pretty funny. That afternoon I think was just more hanging out...as far as I can remember. chatting to students etc. At night we had our first meeting, Becs did her testimony and Liz spoke, both did very well :)
I'm going to end this here and carry on in a seperate post cos otherwise it's gonna get ridiculously long and nobody will bother to read it!!!!
:)
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Departing Singapore
Hi from Gate E6 at Singapore airport...we are boarding soon to Solo :)
A couple of things I forgot to report from yesterday, we also went to Raffles which was pretty fun to look around, and tried on $100,000 diamond rings in Tiffany's hahaha!!!
Also quote of the day from Janette: "It took us 45 minutes to cross that road". Lol this is actually true...it was CRAZY and we wandered all over the place trying to get to the other side of the road...however the ladies would like me to publish a disclaimer: they are setting up for the grand prix and there were barriers all along the roads separating the footpath from the road, so don't worry everybody, we are not a bunch of incompetent women, we are doing our best, it's just hard!!!! Runner up quote of the day from Liz: "I was a travel agent, not a tour guide". We had dinner at our hotel (the waitress was horrified that we had spent so many hours traipsing all over the city, she said "it's REALLY hard to get lost in Singapore!!!!) and then went to the night safari which was great and then home to bed for a VERY short sleep....alarms set for 3.45am aarrgghhh.
Hopefully we will be able to sleep on the plane, I think the flight is about 2.5 hours.
That's all!! We are all doing well!! Everybody says hi! :)
Over and out till I don't know when...
Kirsten on behalf of the team :)
A couple of things I forgot to report from yesterday, we also went to Raffles which was pretty fun to look around, and tried on $100,000 diamond rings in Tiffany's hahaha!!!
Also quote of the day from Janette: "It took us 45 minutes to cross that road". Lol this is actually true...it was CRAZY and we wandered all over the place trying to get to the other side of the road...however the ladies would like me to publish a disclaimer: they are setting up for the grand prix and there were barriers all along the roads separating the footpath from the road, so don't worry everybody, we are not a bunch of incompetent women, we are doing our best, it's just hard!!!! Runner up quote of the day from Liz: "I was a travel agent, not a tour guide". We had dinner at our hotel (the waitress was horrified that we had spent so many hours traipsing all over the city, she said "it's REALLY hard to get lost in Singapore!!!!) and then went to the night safari which was great and then home to bed for a VERY short sleep....alarms set for 3.45am aarrgghhh.
Hopefully we will be able to sleep on the plane, I think the flight is about 2.5 hours.
That's all!! We are all doing well!! Everybody says hi! :)
Over and out till I don't know when...
Kirsten on behalf of the team :)
Hi everybody
Very quick update from singapore!
Had a great flight over here, was weird doing longhaul during the day, haven't done that before and you feel like you should be trying to sleep but actually there is no need...I found it quite odd.
Everybody is happy!
We arrived at our hotel about hmm 6.30ish last night adn then wandered around a bit and ended up having tea at mcdonalds lol and then went to bed pretty early, just before 9 (1am in nz - can't believe how good i was feeling esp since i had been up since 4.30 and hardly had any sleep before that!!!!) - but I didn't get to sleep till about 10 and then woke up at 3.30 but managed to sleep again between about 6 and 7.15 so not too bad overall.
Today we have eaten heaps and it has all been awesome and cheap hahahah!!!!
It has been BUCKETING down all day which was pretty funny cos we got completely lost and ended up walking around for several hours...so pretty tired feet but no grumpy ppl thank goodness everybody considered it an adventure lol!!! So yup, I think we've pretty much seen singapore lol. Went on the Singapore flyer which is like the london eye, was quite good but would have been better if the weather was fine and clear, that would have3 been amazing!
Now back at hotel for about an hour and then we go to the Night Safari which apparently is amazing so looking forward to that.
Early start tomorrow - get picked up at 4.30 am (awesome) to go to the airport and then it's off to indonesia!!! the holiday part is over hahaha :)
So I probably won't have any internet access until we are back in singapore next tuesday (I think...altho our itinerary i'm pretty much taking one day at a time, I have no idea what we are doing lol. Should probabyl have a look at that :)
So yay, so far so good!!!! Hope everybody is well at home!!!
Love Kirsten xx
Very quick update from singapore!
Had a great flight over here, was weird doing longhaul during the day, haven't done that before and you feel like you should be trying to sleep but actually there is no need...I found it quite odd.
Everybody is happy!
We arrived at our hotel about hmm 6.30ish last night adn then wandered around a bit and ended up having tea at mcdonalds lol and then went to bed pretty early, just before 9 (1am in nz - can't believe how good i was feeling esp since i had been up since 4.30 and hardly had any sleep before that!!!!) - but I didn't get to sleep till about 10 and then woke up at 3.30 but managed to sleep again between about 6 and 7.15 so not too bad overall.
Today we have eaten heaps and it has all been awesome and cheap hahahah!!!!
It has been BUCKETING down all day which was pretty funny cos we got completely lost and ended up walking around for several hours...so pretty tired feet but no grumpy ppl thank goodness everybody considered it an adventure lol!!! So yup, I think we've pretty much seen singapore lol. Went on the Singapore flyer which is like the london eye, was quite good but would have been better if the weather was fine and clear, that would have3 been amazing!
Now back at hotel for about an hour and then we go to the Night Safari which apparently is amazing so looking forward to that.
Early start tomorrow - get picked up at 4.30 am (awesome) to go to the airport and then it's off to indonesia!!! the holiday part is over hahaha :)
So I probably won't have any internet access until we are back in singapore next tuesday (I think...altho our itinerary i'm pretty much taking one day at a time, I have no idea what we are doing lol. Should probabyl have a look at that :)
So yay, so far so good!!!! Hope everybody is well at home!!!
Love Kirsten xx
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