How much time do i have left?!

So it's that time again. And i'm beginning to get confused. According to the blog, I should only have 4 weeks left, but according to the calendar, I have a little more the 5 weeks left. In any case, my time here is coming to an end.

This week a lot has happened. Not so much with the children or the ministry, but in my life personally. Before I left for my internship here I filled out an application with Youth With A Mission Metro New York, the same YWAM base I went to Mexico with to finish outreach. Well a couple of weeks ago I was second guessing myself wondering if I had done the right thing, or just did it because it was what I wanted to do, and not because it was what God wanted for me. I had been tossing a few different ideas around in my head. But finally, after sending an email to my parents about what I was thinking regarding everything, and talking with them, I had decided that the other option, which was to go back to Belize and do a secondary school, just wasn't a smart idea because of the whole situation in Thailand, I won't go into detail, but to make a long story short, I had to come home about 2 weeks early from outreach. Finally I decided that if I was supposed to go back to Belize, the Leadership team at YWAM Metro would say that didn't feel like I should staff there. And if I wasn't supposed to go back to Belize, then the Leadership team would say that they felt like God was saying that I was supposed to staff there. Well on Monday I got the email telling me that I the Leadership team felt like God was saying that I should staff there, and I had my answer. So Once I get home, I'll have about 3 weeks at home before I head out to the base in Smithtown, which is about 30 minutes from my house, to begin my 2 year commitment to work there. I've said this before, i'll say it again, for not being a planner, I sure like to plan. It's nice to know what i'll be doing for the next 2 years of my life now. Having some kind of structure in my life now is a nice feeling, unlike before where I didn't know what I would be doing, or for how long.

Also this week, I became an Uncle again :) This time a nephew, Joshua Paul. He'll be a little more then a month old by the time I get home, and I can't wait to see him for the first time!

Moving on to the kids. Not a whole lot is new. The kids didn't have school on Monday this week, because of a “holiday”, but apparently it's normal for the kids to get off from school randomly. And the boy, Ian, whose leg got burned last week, is doing better. But he says that he's still in a little bit of pain. The burns blistered this past week, and some of them have popped so it's made his leg look ugly. Hopefully his leg begins to heal, and get better soon.

Well, that's about it for this week. Hope everyone is doing well!!

With the wind,

Mark

11 weeks down...5 to go

Okay, so here we are again. Week 11 is just about over with, which is kinda scary. I can't believe how fast this has gone. It doesn't feel like i've been here for almost 3 months.

So remember in last weeks update, I said that last week was boring, and this week should be interesting? Well I was right haha. But before I can tell you what happened, I have to explain something first. Here in the Philippines, anyone hardly “throws away garbage” so to speak. They just burn everything. There is a guy on a tricycle that comes by the headquarters to pick up whatever doesn't get burned, but for the most part, everyone just burns everything. Okay, now that that's explained, I can explain what happened yesterday. Yesterday, Art came up to the children's home to burn the burn pile, but because we haven't burned in almost a week and a half because of various reasons and it looked like it might rain, he poured gasoline on the pile so it would light. Him and one of the older boys, Ian (pronounced I-On), stood about 5-10, or 1.5-3 meters for my European friends, figuring that that should be a safe distance to light the fire. Ian was the one to light the match, because Art was the one that had poured the gasoline on the pile, and had gotten it on himself, and he didn't want to light himself on fire. Anyway, Ian had found something to light and throw into the pile, only problem was that, even though they were 10 feet away, the gasoline fumes were still in the air, and when Ian had lit the match, the fumes caught on fire, I was inside when it happened, the sound was so loud, and deep, that I thought it was thunder, when I went out to see if it was raining, I saw Ian in tears, and that's when Art explained what happened. Ian has some melted skin, and it looks like a nerve or two were effected. He was in a lot of pain yesterday. I still had some pain killers I was given in Mexico, and I told Angela, who had EMT training, and she said to give him one to help with the pain, and to help sleep. He was in so much pain, that even after an hour after giving him one, he was still crying. He eventually did fall asleep, and he slept for a while. Today, Saturday the 18^th, he said that he was still in a little pain, but that's understandable I think. If you could keep him in your prayers that would be deeply appreciated.

In other news, one of the other sons, Clint, who is a Reverend, travels a lot within the Philippines speaking at conferences and such. Well a couple days ago, he invited me to go with him on one such trip the second week in July. He then asked me if I could preach. I said, “I have in the past.” He then said, “Great, we'll give you an opportunity to preach.” Now my initial reaction is to freak out, naturally, given the fact that i've only done so once in my life, and that was to a hill tribe in Thailand. But now, surprisingly, i'm not quite as nervous as I thought I would be, I mean it is still a couple weeks out, but still. When I know that I have to give a oral report, or speak in front of a lot of people, I'm nervous the entire time before hand. But now that I've been through YWAM and had oral reports every other week, I'm getting more and more comfortable with it, which is good I think.

That's about it for this week. Oh! The kids didn't have school yesterday, Friday, and don't have school on Monday because it's a “holiday.” I say “holiday” because from what Angela has told me, town just kind of makes up holidays randomly so that they can get a day off from work. Naturally all the kids are excited, but some of them had/have projects to do, so they've been keeping busy. And the ones that don't have homework or projects, have book reports to do. As punishment, instead of groundings, because they've tried those, and figured out that that doesn't really work, they do book reports. The kids aren't allowed to do anything until those are done this weekend. NOW that's it for this week. Hope everyone is doing well!!!

With the wind,

Mark

Where is the time going???

BOO!!! Admit it, I scared you didn't I? Okay, so I probably didn't, but it was worth a try. This is now our 10^th meeting, which is weird, because it feels like I JUST wrote the 9^th a few days ago...not a week ago. Can't believe I leave in 6 weeks, which was the length of my Outreach to Mexico.

This week was pretty boring in all honesty. The kids started school on Monday, so the house is empty from a little before 7 to about 4:30-5:00. There really isn't all that much to do here. So I spend a lot of my time in my room watching movies, or listening to music and playing Mahjong Titans, which is an awesome game by the way, I discovered it a couple weeks ago.

Now that I think about it, this week was so boring because last week was so eventful. It has occurred to to me that one can't have two interesting weeks in a row. If you think back to my blog update about a month ago, when my phone was stolen, that was a very exciting week. If you look at the week after that, that week was boring as well. If you look at all my previous posts, it's the same thing. One week is boring, the next is as exciting as can be. So following this format, next week should be exciting...key word being should.

This week I started getting sick for the first time since being here. Not bad, almost 3 months, which is a record for me on mission trips. It's just a simple cold, which is better then having stomach issues like I...er...everyone did in Mexico.

Well that's pretty much everything that went on this week. As I said, it was a very boring week. I hope everyone is doing well!!

With the wind,

Mark

9 weeks down

So we meet once again. This is now our 9^th meeting, and the more and more that we have this opportunity together, the more and more comfortable I get with my role here in the Philippines. I am now officially at the point where I have fewer days/weeks left, then I have been here. Now that i'm at that point in this internship, I'm approaching the home stretch. 2 months to the day until I leave. As much as this makes me happy that I get to see everyone back home, it grieves me that I will have to say good bye to the kids here, and to the amazing staff here at New Beginnings Children's Ministry. As with every other mission trips I've been on, this has been life changing, and one that I will never ever forget.

This past week I watched Lord of The Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring again for the first time. There's a line in there where one of the Elvish maidens tells Frodo, “Even the smallest person can change the world.” Now she was probably talking about physically small, but that can also be taken as feeling like the smallest person inside oneself. Before I began this adventure almost 2 years ago now, I felt like the smallest person. I didn't think my life would amount to anything special. I didn't even think I would leave the country. Now, I know who I am in God, I know that that feeling of feeling like the smallest is straight from the enemy, and now, I'm writing this blog entry from the Philippines changing the world for His gain!

The excitement for this week occurred on Wednesday. One of the boys “playfully” threw Bleach on another boy. As retaliation, the boy threw Bleach on the one who did it first. Only problem, the Bleach got in his eye. The boy didn't really do anything at first. He just complained about pain, and was rubbing his eye. Eventually he said that he got bleach in his eye. Immediately I told him to flush his eye out with water for a while. After about 15-20 minutes, he said that his eye still hurt a little bit. I told him to go to bed and told him i'd see how it was in the morning when he woke up. Thankfully, he said that his eye no longer hurt, and was fine.

School starts on Monday for the kids. From what I can understand, they have a ridiculous school day. Class starts at 7 in the morning, and then at 11 or 12 they have an hour lunch break, and the class until 4 or 5 in the evening. That's for elementary and High School, they don't have Junior High here. Kindergarten is for only 2 hours everyday. The kids are really really excited to start school, which is totally not like the States. Here, everyone has to wear a uniform to school, regardless if you go to public, semi-private, or private. Public school is the cheapest out of the three, then it's semi-private, and then private. The kids here attend public school, because that's the most affordable for the ministry. However, the ministry wants to open their own school for the kids. They wanted to have it opened before this school year, and were in the process of doing so, but a few medical emergencies came up, and they have to wait until next year to open the school. Since everyone has to wear uniforms to school, this past week the kids were taken out in two groups to get them. Which they were very excited to get to leave the house for only a few hours because it doesn't happen very often.

Also this past week, I had to renew my Visa to stay here for another two months. I ended up going with them when they took the second group of kids to the mall. They dropped me off at the Immigration office, and they continued on to the mall, which is HUUUGE by the way. It only took me about an hour and 15 minutes or so, so I took a taxi to the mall, and I can officially say now, that I have ridden in more taxis outside the United States, then I have in the United States. Anyway, I ended up staying at the mall after they left, I had some things I needed to get, and I stayed and had lunch, my weekly fix of American food, and I saw a movie. Kung Fu Panda 2 was amazing!! After that, I made my way back to the children's home, and I got the poor taxi driver lost. I had told him to make a wrong turn, which got me all turned around. Finally, after about an hour, we finally found it, and I was back safely.

A few other things happened this week. Two of the kids had to get glasses. One of which resisted as much as possible. He did NOT want to wear glasses, but finally gave in. The other was very happy about getting glasses. She had been suffering from a lot of headaches, so she was happy that the headaches would stop. One girl had to go to the dentist this past week. She ended up having 13 cavities, and 5 extractions, not sure if they're the same as pulling a tooth, but I don't think so. And on top of all that, another girl had to get her hearing checked, because she had said that she was having trouble hearing. It turns out that she has 50% hearing loss in one ear, and 60% in the other. She has to go back in about a week and a half for more tests to see what's causing the hearing loss.

Well that's all the excitement that happened this past week. Hope everyone is doing well!!

With the wind,

Mark