Last Update!!!

(Insert clever greeting). As strange as this sounds, this is my last update from the New Beginnings Children's Ministry. This is our 17^th meeting, but i'm just finishing up week 16, my last full week here.

This week was...interesting. Normally I allowed to go up to the headquarters during the day to use the internet and what not. But this week they were having meetings there with all the pastors that are involved with Missionaries To Asia, the organization that NBCM is associated with. So the plan was for me to go to a local resort for a couple days, Monday- Wednesday. But with the craziness of the schedule for those days, not to mention the fact that the price I was originally quoted from the website, was a lot cheaper then what the person said at the resort itself (about $100 cheaper a night, plus, the fact that i'm an American is going to cause the price to shoot up. They hike all prices up when they see American's because they figure, American's= $$, sadly, that's not always the case.) So I was under house arrest for this week. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration, but I wasn't allowed to go to the headquarters for internet. Fortunately there's an internet cafe on the same road that we're on. But I only spent like an hour at the most there each day cause I didn't feel like spending my money on internet, even though it only cost P5 which is the same as $.12 for 30 minutes of internet time. On Tuesday, I was able to go to the mall. Unfortunately, due to a very last minute change of plans, I was not able to eat American food this week. The plan was that on our way back to the children's home/ headquarters, we were going to stop at a restaurant for authentic Filipino food. But the remote for the car decided to die, so we had to get that fixed, which cost a little less then an arm and a leg, maybe just an arm, and then we were sitting in a coffee shop, eating breakfast, when we found out that a couple of the board members for the States were coming, and Angela had to be tour guide, and then bring them back to the hotel they were staying at. So I didn't get to eat lunch at all on Tuesday, because I had already told the person who does the cooking that I wasn't going to be there for lunch. But I was still full from the sandwich that I had, plus we shared two salads. A Spicy Tuna Macaroni salad, which is absolutely amazing, and a Caesar salad, which was also really good.

Nothing new really happened with the kids this week. The expression “same stuff, different day” applies here, just substitute the word “day” for the word “week” and we're golden. I know they know that i'm leaving soon, but I don't know if they realize that they may never see me again. They keep asking me when i'll be coming back, and I say the only thing I can, “i don't know”, but the very sad truth is, I may NOT be coming back.

That's it for this week. I will most likely post something on Wednesday.

With the wind,

Mark

No Exit Visa Needed!

Hello of people of planet earth! We meet once again. This is now our 16^th meeting, but the end of week 14. It feels so incredibly strange that after being here for the past four months, I'm going home in 11 days.

Last night one of the boys asked me when I was leaving while I was saying goodnight. They now know that my time with them is drawing to an end. Before last night I don't think they realized just how close I was to leaving. But now that they do, who knows how they will react when i'm no longer around. I know it will be one of the hardest things I've had to do to date. I'm not saying that saying goodbye to family and friends to come here wasn't hard, it was, but when you live with people for this length of time, not really getting away from each other, there’s a bond there that almost seems stronger then a family's bond. The only thing I can think that was tougher was saying goodbye to my YWAMily in February after graduation. Being with these kids for four months 24/7, through the bad and the good times, has definitely grown us together.

With that said, it will definitely feel good to be home with all my family and friends once again! I've said this before, I'll say it again, this trip has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I've been a few international mission trips before, but I was always with people of the same culture, who spoke the same language. That was not/is not the case here. These kids, and staff, speak English as a second language. With that said however, they speak English very very well! One of the staff members just about speaks it fluently. These past four months have absolutely flown by! It feels like I just got here a couple of weeks ago.

Nothing really interesting happened this past week. Although, on Monday I had to go to the immigration office to get my exit visa, which costs about P700, which is like $15 or so. Anyway, I get to the immigration office, pick up the form I need and go sit down and fill it out. When I go back up to the desk, to give my form in, and be told where to go next, the lady tells me that I don't need an exit visa because I'm only here for four months. The only time you need an exit visa here is if you've stayed for more then 6 months. SO naturally I was very happy. That was $15 I didn't have to spend! And to celebrate, we went to a different mall then we usually do, which is actually bigger in my opinion, which is very hard to believe. We didn't really go there to celebrate, Angela needed to pick up a dress for the mother of the bride. We had a little breakfast when we first got there because we got there before the mall o

pened. Then it was time to get the dress and a few other little things. Then it was time for lunch. We went to this place called Case Verde. If you look at Facebook profile picture, that's the Big Bang Burger from the same place. I was smart enough not to get that burger again, instead I got the Excalibur burger. When I ordered it, it looked a lot smaller, and much more manageable then it really was. It was huge. But, I was able to finish this one this time.

There's not a whole new with the kids this week. All the kids are officially in school now. For the past month- month and a half or so one of the girls wasn't in school because her aunt hadn't sent her papers to the headquarters for her previous school. But she officially started school on Monday. But other then that, nothing new has happened this week.

Well that's about it for this week, see all of you again next week!!

With the wind,

Mark

"It's not goodbye, it's see ya later"

So once again we meet. Week 13 is coming to an end. Which means I have less then 20 days left. And i've been thinking about going home this past week. It's going to be exciting seeing my family and all my friends again. But it's definitely going to be hard leaving. There's a saying in YWAM, “It's not goodbye, it's 'see ya later'.” I hope, hope, hope that I get to return in the future.

Nothing really new has happened this week. Actually...no, I lied, something DID happen!! On Thursday we were headed to the mall, I needed to get a few things and my fix of American food, and Janet and Angela needed to get dental work done, and Art and Annabelle needed to get some stuff done for the wedding. Anywho, we were driving down the street, and we were driving through the an intersection. Now most of the intersections here don't have working street lights, they have police officers directing traffic. Well, this intersection happened to have a working street light, and had just changed red as we were driving through it. There was another police officer at the intersection with a motorcycle, well he chased us down, and pulled us over. I've been told a few times since i've been here that the police officers are very corrupt, and they take bribes to get people out of tickets or having to go to some sort of seminar thing. Anyway, I had no idea what, or how it all went down. When the police officer pulled us over, he asked for the license, and said that it was only valid for 90 days, but they, Angela and Janet, were told that it was valid for 6 months. The police officer then started to say that they would need to attend a seminar, but that won't work, because they leave the same day I do to return to the States. Even before the police officer can finish what he has to Angela asks, “how much?” on purpose to make him as uncomfortable as possible, because, obviously, it's highly illegal to take bribes. Flustered, the officer responds, “whatever you want.” Angela takes the money and sticks it out the window, again, on purpose, the officer bumps her hand back inside the car, takes out his police wallet thingy magigy, opened it and stuck it in the car for Angela to put the money in her self. After which, he let us go on our way once again. It was very very interesting needless to say. Once at the mall I had to go get my picture taken for an exit visa, which we are getting on Tuesday I believe. The purpose of the exit visa is for the government to make sure I'm not wanted for some sort of crime. Anyway, I did that, had my American food, got what I needed to, and then left to come home. I had to take a taxi home again, and if you remember back a few weeks, the last time I had to take a taxi home, I got the driver lost horribly. Luckly, I knew where I was going this time and got home no problem. I went to pay the driver, but he didn't have any change for me. So I started thinking, and realized that I had a bunch of change in my back pack. I didn't realize how much I had until I started counting it. It was enough to pay for the taxi, about P173. I felt bad for the driver, but it was all I had haha.

As for the kids...not a whole lot is new. Beginning last week, each of the high school students have some sort of party they have to go to. Last week was first year high school, this week is second week, and so and so on. The school is only about 15 minutes away or so, so I can hear the music, and from what it sounds like, it sounds like they are having a lot of fun there. But other then that, nothing is new. Life has gotten dull since the children have started school.

That's it for now. We shall meet again next week! Hope everyone is doing well!

With the wind,

Mark

Phil- Am Day

Here we are once again. Week 13 is now over with, and I am still as surprised as I always am at how fast this internship has been going. I can't believe it's been 3 months since i've arrived here in the Philippines, but even weirder is the fact that I leave in less then 1 month.

As the previous couple weeks, nothing really exciting has happened this past week. On Monday we had a Barbeque at the headquarters to celebrate Philippine- America Friendship Day, Filipinos call it “Phil-Am Day” for short. But us Americans call it the 4^th of July (our countries birthday for my friends not American). We had burgers and hotdogs, potato salad, deviled eggs, can't remember the last time I had a deviled egg, and beans for the Americans there, which were only 4, but we still made 30+ of both, and had fried fish and rice for the Filipinos that were there, though some did have burgers and hotdogs. And then for dessert, we had walnut brownies and chocolate chunk brownies with vanilla frosting on top. Needless to say, they were very good.

There really isn't anything new regarding the kids. Nothing really exciting happened this past week, no had bleach accidentally thrown in their eye this past like we did a couple weeks ago. Now that the kids are in school, the chances that an accident occurs is dramatically reduced, thankfully. But that also means that my weeks have been insanely boring.

Well, that's it for now. As I said, nothing exciting happened this past week. We shall meet again next week!

With the wind,

Mark

P.S. Can't believe I only have 3 weeks left!!

officially have 4.5 weeks left...no more confusion

So we meet once again. And just as I thought last week, my math was off. Week 12 has just come to a close. Which means I have about four and a half weeks left. Which sounds really strange to say. It will definitely feel strange walking out of the airport when I get back to the States.

This week nothing really exciting has happened. Although, we did a new staff member this past week, Pastora Fae. She's been working with Missionaries To Asia, the organization that I am interning with, for almost 30 or so years in the bible college they have up North, as well as pastoring a church there. She asked for a change of location, so they transferred her to the children's home. Which is very good, because according to Angela, she was trained by a very strict pastor, which is very unusual for a Filipino. Angela and Janet, co-founders of New Beginning Children's Ministry, are very happy to have her here on staff. From what I can understand, she'll be the one that'll be taking over my job when I leave. She will be responsible for building relationships with the kids, and just being an ear for them to talk to her. She's had experience as a counselor, which is a huge blessing for the children here, I just don't think they fully see it yet. Also, today, Saturday July 2, the kids are finally off punishment. They've been being punished for about a month from the music room, and practicing. But today the punishment is over, which they are very very happy about.

I had an interesting experience this past week. On Thursday it torrential down poured the entire afternoon, so we were all inside, in our rooms doing different things. My room is at the end of the hall, with two windows, one facing the front of the house, and one facing the side yard of the house. Well, it started raining so hard, that the rain started coming in the side window. I was sitting on my bed watching a movie, and I started getting wet, which has happened in the past, so I didn't really think to much of it. Well, I started getting wetter...and wetter...and wetter. To the point where, I put my laptop under my bed, slid the books that were on the floor and were getting wet, under the bed and left. I returned a few minutes later to check to see what was happening, and found a pond on my bed. It was soaking wet. I had to put two towels on my bed to keep it from getting more wet. Fortunately, the rain stopped around 4 or so, and it dried enough for me to sleep on that night, but for a while there, I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I've had my fair share of interesting experiences, but this was a first for me haha.

Well, that's it for now. Hope all is well with everyone!!

With the wind,

Mark