Count Your Blessings

Thanksgiving Day...no turkey, no sweet potatoes, no cranberries, no pumpkin pie...But the ingredients we really missed are the loved ones halfway around the world from us. Yet as we looked around at each other and watched a slide show of our phots from the last several years, we are reminded of our many blessings. One, two, three,...104, 105, 106,...

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

School Good Enough to Eat

This is school that really matters beyond second grade.

Annalise reading Daddy's pancake recipe.

Not quite as good as the Filipinos since she still uses her hands but we have only lived her a year and a half.

Learning to read a recipe, fractions,

special time with Daddy.A great team

Not only does Daddy make delicious pancakes...

he often takes the time to design special shapes.

"Mangan tayo"

Rainbow Through Bontoc

November 18,2009

UN Helicopter

Since the typhoons, a United Nations helicopter has been seen in the skies over Bontoc on occasion.

It probably means that help of some sort or another has been brought to the province.

And although help is welcome and good, when it lands at the high school athletic field,

it means all of the neighbors will need to rewash the laundry they had hanging out to dry.

Baguio DTS Does Some Show N' Tell

The Baguio DTS team came to my Values Education class several times while they were here for their outreach. They brought songs, skits, and stories to communicate Biblical truths.

On their last visit, the team shared God's love with the students with gifts of schoolpacks.

Besides my grade 5 class, they visited one of the high school's Values Education class. This time at the high school was a continuation of their ministry to the youth of Bontoc. Most afternoons, they spent "hanging out" at the Plaza building relationships and sharing with the young people.

Lisa

The Empty Tank

Ever since Typhoon Pepeng a month or so ago, our water has been much more erratic than usual. The typhoon took out access to the source and the piping in a landslide. That was restored, but our pressure has rarely been sufficient to get water up to our 2nd floor apartment. Fortunately, we have a tank and water pump for just such instances.

But for more than a week now, there has once again been no municipal water. Apparently a pipe burst under some of the new concrete for the road construction work. Negotiations are underway, but until it is repaired, Samoki is without water. (Samoki is the part of Bontoc we live in.)

So what do you do when you have a family of 6 (5 of which are females) and water runs out? You call for water delivery. The water delivery guys park the truck as close as they can. Our place is about 50 yards from the road; others are much, much further.


Then they run hose to the tank. A pump on the truck pumps the water to fill the tank.

When it is full, you pay the delivery guy and he rolls up the hose then prepares for the next delivery. Each tankful costs us 420 pesos (about $10). We have just been glad to get water. Remember, nobody has water right now so these guys are busy. Our last delivery did not arrive until 9:30 pm though we had called them about 8 am. That is better than the last time when we needed to wait more than a day before they could make the delivery. I understand that we were fortunate to even contact them because they have been so busy that they are often turning their cell phones off.

Our tank seems to last about 2-3 days if we are really careful with the water use.

Our tank is piped to the pressure tank and our new little blue water pump. Before the new pump was installed, I had to do a little wrenching on it about every 20 minutes when we were using it.

The little guy in the picture below is Ezer. He doesn't really have anything to do with water delivery. He is our neighbor. When I was taking these pictures, he accompanied me. Normally when I see him it is because he is in some way hanging from me. We are good friends. So while he held the door to the pump house open for the above picture, I snapped a photo of him.

Grace,
Tom

From Pixels to People

Mike, Holly, Lainey, Brady, and Jake

Amidst the busyness of the past weeks, we were given the opportunity to transform some on-line friends into personal friends. Mike and Holly recently moved to the Philippine coast as missionaries. Before their trip across the ocean blue, they had found this blog. So for a quite a while now, we have been getting to know each other's families through the miracle of the internet. When their friend needed to make a trip to Bontoc, it was the perfect opportunity for us to meet each other in person.

Although we were really busy, we were all excited to meet them. After our day at the Mainit Hot Springs, we met them at their hotel (sunburned, dirty, and hair all frizzed - us, not them). We enjoyed talking together and learning more about their transition.

The next day we were a bit more presentable as we met at the restaurant downstairs for a treat of their world famous halo-halo. (Halo-halo is a Filipino desert with shaved ice, ice cream, and a varied mix of other ingredients. Florma's is known for having the best halo-halo in town.)

We really wish we could have had more time to spend together, but look forward to crossing paths in the future. You can read more about their journey at their blog: Strangers and Pilgrims.