I Love a Parade...

Today at our weekly glucose/blood pressure clinic, I had to forgo blood pressures for a while. The elementary and high school students were having Districts. While I never got a complete description of that, it seems that it has to do with inter-mural sports. Rather than having basketball or volleyball as an extra-curricular activity as we are familiar with, everyone is included as part of a healthy living program during the school day.

A couple things we have noticed in our time here are the apparent lack of long-term planning and the low threshold for celebrations. We knew before coming that timeliness was of little importance here. It does not surprise me that I never hear the term "5-year plan". But it is almost comical to me how impromptu things can be. Last Thursday, the local government decided to make Friday a holiday so people could travel home for All Saints Day. It isn't like the holiday suddenly changed days. Earlier, we had been trying to coordinate our staff outing to the hot springs with the semester break at the school. Nobody knew when that would be, not even the students. Today, one of the SSM students who helped us at the clinic put it the best I have heard it. "In America, time is like gold. Here, time is like bronze."

As for celebrations, parades are popular here. Of course some are planned and communicated such as the Independence Day, Am-Among, and Lang-Ay. But there are several that just seem to happen that nobody knows about unless they happen to be in it or on the street when it happens. I cannot explain the basis for a couple I have heard about. They were over and nobody I talked to could really say why there had been a parade. As I understand it, one parade consisted of employees of various governmental offices - I don't know why.

Well today, we did not know about the parade until the police officers were positioning themselves to reroute traffic while we waited for the Municipal Health Office to be unlocked for our clinic. But we did find out that it was related to the Districts. Now back to my original statement - I had to forgo blood pressures for a while. While it would have been fun to watch the kids in their parade, we had a lot of patients. Many of them were teachers from the schools who are normally busy at the time of our clinic. So as the parade marched by on the street below, we continued on with our work - with one modification. It is nearly impossible to take blood pressures with a marching band outside your window. The faint thump noise made by blood squirting through an artery is no match for the drum corps. Once the parade was over, we were able to resume taking blood pressures. In the meantime, we just focused on testing glucose levels.

It did get pretty busy today. Fortunately, Alexie and Alayna were there to help. We also had two of the Student Sponsorship Ministry students volunteer to help today as well. One is a 1st year nursing student. The other is studying education with a major in science. She would like to be in nursing, but can't afford the additional expense. Jil, the nursing student, was supposed to have class today, but the college is still working through issues with registration so most classes have been postponed until next week. (Refer to the second paragraph.)

Grace,
Tom

p.s. If you would be interested in sponsoring a student that is a part of our Student Sponsorship Ministry, please let us know and we would be glad to share more details.

SOLD!!

Since May, we have been trying to sell our Honda CR-V. We have prayed and asked you to pray with us. This morning, we received word that we now have a check and a lady that lives near my parents has a new vehicle.

This is a real blessing in answer to our prayers!

While I do feel a twinge of sadness about the CR-V (I really liked it), I will not miss the insurance payments.

Thanks for your prayers.

Love from Home

Today, we enjoyed several of the gifts that Lisa's parents sent in a recent package. The girls wore the new skirts Grammie made. Last night they were very excited as they all planned the outfits they would wear today. There was much twirling throughout the day.

It was funny that we received an email after dinner this evening from Grammie warning us that the soup mix she sent was rather spicy. The email was a few hours too late. We all enjoyed the flavor of the soup, but we did need to work to take out some of the heat. In doing so, we realized that we have certainly adopted some of the practices here - to help cool it, we served the soup over rice.

Later, the girls danced around the table, literally, during an evening snack of dried apples that came in the package, too.

Thanks, Grammie and Papa!

Writing on the Chalkboard

Today I was back in the classroom, chalk in hand, introducing myself as "Mrs." It has been a while since I was teacher to a class larger than four but before I began my career of motherhood, I was a kindergarten teacher. This was my first day teaching values education to a classroom of sixth graders, all Filipinos except for a strawberry blonde named Alexie that sat in the back row. The school board and the local government officials have approved this values education program but unless a local pastor or missionary volunteers to come in to teach the class it is not being taught. I really enjoyed being in the classroom. I am excited to have this opportunity to teach the Bible each week to the 29 students.

I always think it is best to start a story at the beginning, so the lesson was on creation. The students actively participated which was so encouraging as Filipinos often act shy and remain quiet when asked a question. This is not to say it was like an American classroom. All the students remove their shoes before entering the classroom. They waited in their seats until I dismissed them and then stood to in chorus say "Thank you, madam. Good-bye, madam. Goodbye, classmates." before going home for lunch.

I am looking forward to returning each week and helping the students get to know the Creator of the beautiful mountains that surround them.

Lisa

Some Voting Advice

We are far away from our home in the U.S. but we haven't forgotten that tomorrow is the day to vote for a new president. This week, Garden of Grace Girls Academy, is studying a unit on elections. Today each of the girls had to answer the follow question, "In your opinion, what are the most important qualities that a person running for President of the United States should have?" This is what Annalise had to say.

I think the President needs to obey God and the Bible. This would tell him what to do.

He has to be American so he doesn't kill us. He should be like us but a little bit higher.

He should be strong so he could fight. So if his guards didn't see the bad guys he could be saving himself so he could live.

He should be a good leader. A good leader shows us how to be good.

Just some wisdom from our 6-year-old to guide you when you step into the voting booth tomorrow.

Seriously, we encourage all in the U.S. to get out and vote. Ask God for guidance as to who should be the next leader of our country and vote accordingly.

Lisa

Games

One of the things we have enjoyed about our time here is more time spent playing games together as a family. Lately we have not played as often as when we first came. So after dinner last night we learned a new game, Spoons. Lisa had looked up the rules on the internet earlier while the kids played outside. It was a riot - a little bit of thought, a little bit of action, and a lot of laughter.

The SSM students have also enjoyed learning to play different games. It is interesting to see how much you can learn about somebody when you play a few games with them.

Some of our favorites are Skip-Bo, Toss-Up, Uno, Wig-Out, Jenga, sungka (a variation of mancala), spoons (a new favorite).

What games does your family enjoy?

For the Spirit of the Dead

Today Lisa and I went for a walk around town. It was a beautiful day, quiet too. With the holiday, many of the shops were closed. There was little traffic. Even the basketball court at the plaza only had a few people playing on it.

Along the sidewalk near the bridge is an area with several graves. Bontoc has a cemetery, but in many places in this region, graves are commonly located along (even under) the walkways. Most do not have a headstone, but rather a small shelter. They look like they could be little roosts for 1 or 2 chickens. As we walked by that area on our way back home, there were a few people tending the graves there. They appeared to be cutting back the weeds. Others had already visited many of the other graves. Under the little shelters, a candle was burning and there was a plate of food. We would like to have taken a picture to share with you, but we did not want to be insensitive to the people there.

One need not look too far to see that spiritism is very real here. I recognize that for many people, these are just traditions. They see them as nothing more than that. Much like people in the US look at ghosts, goblins, and haunted houses at Halloween. But the more I look around me and consider what I read in the Bible, the less I see that is truly neutral in this world. I am not on a witch hunt. And I don't think I am as confused as Don Quiote, confusing windmills for dragons. But I am convinced there is a spiritual battle going on around us. The enemy gains a great advantage when we allow him into our camp and think doing so is a harmless tradition.

This blog is not intended to be a place of great theological discussion. Nor do we claim to have any spiritual advantage over those who visit. Indeed, many of you who read about our journey on this blog are mentors to us; people in whom we see qualities we would like to emulate. But I would like to pass along some things of which I am reminded as I consider many of the things I see around me.

For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

Ephesians 6:12

Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.

1 Thesssalonians 5:21-22

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

Philippians 4:8

Grace,

Tom