This month has been filled with many new things. Jun and I are experiencing most of these new things together. We have found two major differences that will forever be a struggle for both of us. He has a hard time making firm decisions and I have a hard time when decisions aren't being made. I do better when there is a set plan I can follow and he is better at taking it one moment at a time.
Being totally honest, the next few months will be more stress for me because of these differences. I am trying to make plans for my furlough and our wedding. Furlough is all on me and that's good this time because I can make plans without having to check with him first. On the other hand I don't feel like I can make decisions about our wedding without him. Less than 140 days... I think there are more decisions than either of us understand yet. Please pray that we can find balance of making decisions to calm me but not so much it makes him crazy.
Early this month he took me with him to Mindanao. His Bible School has their annual foundation conference in September and he wanted us to meet each other. It was amazing and tiring at the same time. It was really good to meet so many important people in his life, but we traveled by motor and often spent hours traveling from one place to another. 10 days and we only stayed in one place for more than a night. So many people were surprised and his best friend even told me, "I didn't think he would be able to get married anymore." As soon as he knew the date he called his wife to get permission to attend our wedding. Of course she said yes!
I also got to spend some time with family. We stayed at a sister's house and his brother's house. I had met his sister before, but just as a missionary from the church when she visited here. This time was different and she greeted us with tears in her eyes because she is so excited for this and us. It is crazy for me to have nieces and nephews that are my age and a few older ones. There are many people for me to learn who they are yet.
This month we also started a weekly drive to a neighboring municipality. There is a fellow CTEN missionary that lives about 30 minutes away and she has a facility that works with high school kids and supporting house churches. I am teaching English to a group on Wednesday evenings and he is helping do some odd jobs during the day. The hope would be to eventually find someone who wants to live with them and be in community as well as teaching English. It is much more beneficial that way. If you are one of my fellow ESL teachers and this sounds intriguing let me know and I can share more details.
Over all life is good and productive. This month I celebrated 1 year in the Philippines and I'm most likely at 200 direct contacts now. It amazes me how God works in the little things. I am not preaching the word from a pulpit, but I am watering seeds planted by others. I can tell how much braver the locals are with communication directly to me even if it is in Visayan. They are understanding me more and I am understanding them more. I'm excited for the day I surprise them and can share testimony in Visayan. Unfortunately, that is likely a long way off yet.
(Sorry for the late post, but I was busy experiencing another first... manual planting of corn!)
