Now that we're halfway through the Philippines...

I know, there’s no need to say it – it has been far too long. We’re sorry! I won’t try to come up with any excuse, I’ll just get right down to how life has been going for us lately.

Well, I guess a special mention should go to the RefMin meetings and ILF, when our parents (and Ellie) were able to come visit for 10 days!! It was so, so good to see them again – I think Becky was spot on when she said that God knew we’d need our parents right now. It was great to stay with them in the hotel, go shopping, play with Ellie, and show them where we live and have them meet the people we work with. The ten days passed all too quickly, and it was hard to say goodbye, but I am so, so glad they got to come.

I realize we haven’t really talked much about the church we are with, besides describing their worship services (which are still just as charismatic as they ever were, but I am far more used to it now, and I think they they are content to let us stand in the back and clap). Like Becky said before, most of the church is made up of youth, mostly around 15-22 years old. I always want to refer to them as “kids”, but that’s weird, because I’m the same age as they are. “Youth” sounds so mature, and “students” is not accurate because it’s summer, and it’s not school, it’s a church, haha. Anyway, getting off topic.

This church, apart from being a church, is also a singing and dancing group called Gising Kabataan, which in English means “Youth Awakening”. Gising Kabataan puts on a big concert/revival about once or twice a year, and this year it was on May 1st. We came in the middle of April, so right up until May 1st, basically all we saw was constant practice and preparation for the big event (“May One”, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve heard those words). Dances, songs, props, rehearsals, just hours and hours of it. Becky and I mostly watched them practice, and hung out with them in between. We eventually got involved in some flag ceremony that was held at the end of the event – I held the American flag (despite my efforts to convince them that I don’t really consider myself fully American), and Becky held the Indonesian flag, since there was no Greek flag around, hehe.

Pictures, you ask? No. You will never see pictures of us from that day. Let’s just say the costumes we had to wear would make fantastic blackmail material, and leave it at that.

So when May 1 was over, we headed over to the hotel where ILF was held and where our parents were staying, and we had a great time with them for the next five days. They left on the 6th, and Becky and I headed back to Mandaluyong (the area of Manila we live in).

And ever since then, things have been….slow. Very, very slow. There really is not anything for us to do here, besides attend church services and bible studies. Most of our days consist of sitting around and waiting for meals and services in the evening – there’s no work to be done at all, so lately we’ve been feeling pretty useless. I keep asking God “Why am I here? What do you want me to be doing?” I wish I could say that I knew, but I don’t. Maybe I won’t know what my purpose in being here is until I leave. That’s obviously not the way I’d prefer it, but we’ll see.

All that aside, it’s been great getting to know some of the people in the church, hanging out with people our own age. They absolutely love having us here – why exactly, I don’t really know, since, like I said, I don’t feel like we’re doing much of anything. But they’re always excited to see and be with us, and they’re a pretty fun bunch. I promise that I’ll post pictures soon! There really have been quite a few pictures taken of us, just none with our own cameras, hehe.

Sorry for keeping you guys waiting so long, it really is difficult to post a nice long blog with so little internet access. Keep the comments coming!

-Kendra

PS. Becky wrote a new blog too, it’s right below mine, so don’t miss it!