October and November

Okay, so this once a month posting is harder than it seems with the lack of internet stability.  Sometimes it takes me an hour and eight tries before getting 5 minutes with my mom or my mentor.
For those of you who haven't heard yet I am coming to the US for a visit.  Most of my time is already booked because it's a short visit and I'll be in 4 different states (maybe even 5) over just 4 weeks.  I'm going to be with my parents for their 40th wedding anniversary and American Thanksgiving will also include my brother's family.
My family will likely feel like I'm ignoring them because I'm going to be internet crazy!  I hope to upload a bunch of pictures both here and in the Facebook group.  There will also be some things to accomplish for my marriage and wedding.  Just 100 days and yes, I'm counting!
For now, just continue to be patient with me and enjoy the newsletter that should be arriving in your mailbox any day now.
😁

Some of the Pastors from CGMII.
W. Magaso, M. Castro, my Jun, Jun Bulawan

Some of the pigs we are raising for pork when we have so many visitors in February.

Manang Lydia (Jun's oldest sister), Jun, me, Jun's niece-in-law.

A common sight every place we travelled in Mindanao especially in Arakan Valley.

Ninang Elizabet, me, Josephine, Elena, and  

Poblacion of many Municapilities look similar to this... lots of traffic, jeepnies(public transportation that is totally tricked out with paint and other decor), and lots of motorcycles!

Jun being himself and joking around while pruning the plants around.

I don't remember this cute kids name, but apparently he is my grandson... yep, just because he is of that generation of Jun's family he gets that name.  He is the son of one of Jun's nieces via his second oldest sister (Mama Phoebe.)

Photos posted courtesy of being stranded in the port of Cebu City while a strong wind storm passes before the Coast Guard releases the boats again.  Excellent WiFi signal in the terminal!  Thank you Lord!

September - A lot of firsts.

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!)

Classes and That Man

I'm settling back into a pattern.  It seems like every few momths there is a change in my regular activities, but the past month has been pretty steady.  Classes continue strong with at least 50 if not 60 students every week.  The advanced classes started this month and although the groups are small I think it will be enjoyable.   I just did a document to track my attendance and I had 77 students last term and have had over 100 students already this term.  Total points of direct classroom contact is over 150 as only about 20 students have returned.  This time there are also a lot of Juagdan and Guintaboan community people instead of just from the church.  I'm excited to see where that goes in the future.

Now I'd like to share some about Kuya Jun.  He and I first met in 2004 the first time I visited Juagdan. Even then I thought he was handsome and fun to be around.
Unfortunately, at the time I was in a relationship.  He often wonders aloud what difference it would be if he had known then and started courting me when we first met.  Then he admits it wouldn't have been the right timing, but now is and God knew that truth.  There are lots of good things to share about him so it is hard to know where to start... two really big things include his family and education.
His parents had 10 children and he is the youngest of those.  Two of them passed away young.  Two of his sisters are students of mine :)  Other siblings live in Mindanao and Metro Manila.  His father passed away when he was only 12 years old.  His mom passed away when he was only 21.

Around the time his father died he graduated grade 6, but the family could not afford to continue his education.  Here even government schooling costs something.  About a year later he moved on his own to Mindanao to join the ECCU Bible school.  Due to some internal disputes he ended up changing to a different training program.  It was with this program (Christian Gathering Ministries International Inc.) that he spent another 3 years learning and one teaching.  He explains that they had to work to earn their shelter and food at the same time they were studying and that is why his mom chose to send him so he could continue getting an education.  Although he would deny being a pastor he is accredited with an ordination from Word International Ministries.  He served as pastor to a congregation in Leyte for a little over a year and realized he is not gifted in the administration skills it takes to be a lead pastor.  Last night I heard him "preach" for the first time.  It was more of an informal gathering and so it was a more interactive conversation style than regular preaching, but I enjoyed it and look forward to seeing him in action again someday.  He is really more gifted in mentoring and one on one pastoring.  We are talking about how that can become a part of our ministry in the future.  There are lots of ideas, but we are waiting on the Lord to know what comes next.

Coming back to the present day...
Aside from the time I am in classes Kuya Jun and I spend a lot of time together. Sometimes he even sticks around to help woth some of the classes.  He has a farm that he has planted a lot of banana trees on and some other things.  He regularly takes me there so it's a good chance for us to be away from the ever watching eyes and listening ears of the compound. It has given us the opportunity to have a lot of discussions.  We talk about our future and how we will continue to work at loving each other as well as how our family might look.  So far we have agreed on all the big things so keep praying for us that the big discussions keep coming out.  There have only been small things we disagree on and it's not life altering things.  The biggest discussion was about language difference.  It is something we both need to work on.  He has been studying and using my language for 50 years.  I have only been studying and using his for a few years.  He has a major advantage in that and I'm dependant on him for my translation needs most of the time.  It is something that frustrates me more than him.  Actually, I don't think it's frustrated him at all... He like to take advantage of it sometimes a d teases me by using Visayan he knows I don't understand!

Prayer Requests:
1. Students continue to return
2. Future expansion of ministry
3. Kuya Jun and I's relationship
4. Future building/projects
5. My furlough planning
6. Travel next month for his organizations annual Thanksgiving and meeting some additional family

New Beginnings

A change in routine.  That is what the past two months has been for me. It has been wonderful and exhausting all at the same time.  To explain this a bit more you need to know I started a new personal relationship last month as well as classes starting again this month.

We hope to share more of our relationship as time goes on, but this is the basics:
We both argued with God about each other.
Neither of us wanted to start a relationship just because other people said we would be good together.
On our first date we were already talking about this being a decision to love because we felt God brought us together for the purpose of marriage.
It's very difficult explaining us in a way that people understand because we aren't following the typical "first come love" pattern.
After just 2 weeks he officially proposed and I said yes.
We are living in faith and cultivating love for each other.
We both understand that God comes first and he is why we are marrying.
He is my new ministry partner because one of our confirmations that God brought us together is that our visions for ministry are so complimentary.
His name is Jun Apatan, he is Filipino, and he is a child of God.

I  hope to share more details about Kuya Jun throughout the next few posts, but here I want to share about the start up of new classes.  As I shared last time there is a new class on the beach front of the neighboring barangay.  It was a suggestion from Kuya Jun and it has been a big success so far.  The first week I had 24 students when I was expecting only about 6 or 8!  I was gone the second week and was nervous they would all forget and not come back, but I had 22 this past week😆  There are so many I might have to talk to the barangay Captain about using the barangay hall instead of the little cottage on the shore.
I also have a strong showing for my Thursday night intermediate class.  My Saturday morning ladies haven't returned,  but instead I have a small group of young girls that are doing beautifully with vocabulary expansion.  The Saturday evening group returned the first week with some new people as well. They didn't all return the next time, but the new people brought friends so it was still a good size class.
I tried to add a weekday evening basic class, but I only had one person show up and she wasn't really basic so she joined the Thursday crew.  The last classes are the new advanced ones.  We will meet once a month for reading and once for writing. I was prepared to start with reading,  but it overlapped with a trip to Leyte so we postponed the start to August.  The first writing class is in two days... I'm excited and nervous at the same time.
Overall I have had more than 50 student each week.  I've been glad to have Kuya Jun around to help and lend support.  He is my walking Visayan dictionary!  He can be a distraction at times, but also beneficial as a test subject for my activities and source for new ideas.


PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Students continue to return
2. Future expansion of ministry
3. Kuya Jun and I's relationship
4. Future building/projects
5. My furlough planning

Month of Relaxation

June has been a month of rest and relaxation with a bit of travel too.  I taught through the summer and most of my students were going to be busy with the start up of regular school so this teach decided to take a break from lesson planning for the month of June.  I'm glad I did!

I got to visit some new friends in Tagbilaran City and Panglao on the other side of the island.  I got to spend some days with my goddaughters.  I even travelled all the way to Manila to visit fellow CTEN missionaries. Then I spent some time meeting pastors from another Christian orginazation based in Cebu and Leyte.  It is nice to be able to expand my circle of friends.  I now have places I can go to take a break from direct ministry.

If you were to ask me which part of these visits was my favorite I could choose.  Each had it's blessing and renewing factor.   I have been feeling lazy as I go through these things so I am glad it is now July.  I will be starting classes again next week!  People are excited and I am hopeful for some new students😀

As of right now there is a vague plan for 7 class times they can choose from.  Two new ones are only once a month for my advanced student to practice reading and writing.  I will also try a new location for one of my Saturday classes.  It is exciting to think about how this semester will turn out because I was so blessed last semester.

Also, keep a look out for some additions to the ministry.  I am starting a partnership with one of the locals that will potentially lead to a new branch of supporting education for the local high school kids.  Sponsorship is a big thing, but we will be looking to see how we can physically help them as well as financially.

PRAYER REQUESTS:
1. Classes starting
2. Future expansion of ministry
3. New partnership
4. Future building/projects

May in Review

Another month is gone.  Where does the time go?  It has been so hot and humid that most days I feel like nothing is getting done because we are all so exhausted just from the heat.  I don't have air conditioning and most if the time that is okay, but I'll tell you this month I've wished I did have it!

I also don't remember if I shared this yet, but I have two roommates now.  One is just for the summer until she goes back to college, but the other will be for a while as she is still at the local high school.   At first it was an adjustment for all three of us.  Me getting used to sharing my private space, but for them living with an American makes them nervous.  It's been a month now and I'd say we are used to each other.  The younger one shares the bed with me and this week she has been gone for a youth camp.  I miss her and am so excited she will be back tonight!

I have also learned that if you ever want to visit me on Bohol you should not come in May.  Not only is it the hottest month, but it is Fiesta month.  That means travel to get here can be very difficult because the boats fill up fast!  I have never seen the ports so busy.  I knew what I was doing and barely caught a ticket arriving at the ticket office 6 hours before departure!

So, why was I off Bohol and needing to return?  I went to immigration in Cebu City to collect my Missionary Visa!  I have been approved to stay until next April!  It is so exciting I can hardly contain it!!! This means I shouldn't have to go back to immigration for about 6 months!

This week has also been exciting as the youth are finishing up their summer they have been doing a lot of fun activities. One of which is my class closing tonight 😀  Another is an all day event some of us are hosting.

All in all, life us good and God is amazing!  Maybe I'll post some pictures next week.

Summer is HERE!

I really do try to post more often, but the thing is the internet isn't so kind to me.  Sometimes I have enough patience to spend an hour trying to load one page, but other times 5 minutes and I give up!  Sometimes it takes only two tries and I accomplish something.  Other times it takes weeks to complete a task.  I had found a sweet spot to sit in that received excellent signal most of the time (except for trying to upload videos...), it was such a sweet spot that if I moved just six inches one way or the other I would complete loose signal.  Now in the past two weeks I have run into two issues:  That spot is in direct sunlight so it's beastly hot AND it doesn't seem to be receiving such great signal anymore.

Being honest, I've mostly reverted to the stone age of handwriting my drafts for everything!  If I don't write it down then it doesn't happen.  By the time I get signal to work I generally forget things even if I do have them written down because I get so frustrated.  For the first time in my teaching career my lesson plans are handwritten instead of typewritten!  I should probably scan them and to save them, but oh well.  I am glad I've had more than 5 years of practice teaching so that I'm not as dependent on doing research because I don't even have a team of teachers to check in with unless I have internet!

With the beginning of April the kids finished the school year and I got to attend several closing ceremonies and experienced many firsts.  Catholic mass at a public university graduation.  Watching parents get to process with their graduates into the room.  Seeing proud parents given the opportunity to publicly don their children with the awards they have just received.  Many group songs and dances.  I even had the opportunity to be the "proud parent" for one of the young men in the compound as he was awarded honors for high marks and participating in Boy Scouts of the Philippines.

With school being out the kids are also around a lot more.  It got me to thinking and so this week we started some new classes just for the summer months.  The first is simply an hour class to come and play word games.  I have Scrabble, Bananagrams, and Quiddler to start.  We also had word searches and played hangman.  I will be doing some research to find more games as well... feel free to share if you have ideas.

A second option for the summer is the idea of pen pals.  I will take a month or so this summer to teach the idea and give them practice.  We will cover the basics of what writing a letter takes as well as what is appropriate to share and ask.  After this I will need help from my sponsors to match students here with people back in the US.  If you are interested please e-mail me for more details at: juagdanenglish@gmail.com

I also recruited two of the young people to help teach the little kids.  They will meet twice a week and cover basic English and Visayan for things like colors, shapes, parts of the body, and animals.  The first class we a hit and they ended up spending two hours together instead of my expected one!

Tomorrow I will be spending a day at a higher elevation in which I hope to be able to post more pictures... be on the look out!  (Again, being honest it might take two weeks even though I already know which pictures I want to post!)

Hope you had a blessed Holy Week.  Kristos Anesti!  Alithos Anesti!  Our Savior Reigns on High!

Photo Drop

Having fun doing classroom activities.

These shelves are full of textbooks and other fun activities to use during class.  Eventually it will become a lending library.

Multiple shelves were built and donated in honor or my good friend Craig.

Me and Mickeila in front of the mission house.

Their was a youth event in February that the Juagdan Church sponsored.

These are called Sea Grapes.  There need to be washed really good, but then you just dip them in vinegar or soy and they are delicious little explosions of saltwater in your mouth!

James is one of our youth and he did a special song as part of the praise.

Yes, that is a person up in the coconut tree.  He was hired by Kuya Jonah to harvest the coconuts on the property.

This is an example of a rice field that is still quite young.  I think they get about three harvests per rainy season.

Part of the Bohol Sea.  A sight I see regularly when I travel to Tagbilaran or just over to the beach at Guintaboan.

A visit to Panglao and this view is from the point in Doljo by where my friend has been teaching youth.

Another view off the point of Panglao.

Ate Amy is one of my local mentors and an excellent student!  She hasn't missed a class yet :)

Part of the beach at Panglao.  There were white sands for part of the beach but also larger portions that were all rocky.

Just roll with it...

Somedays I forget my skin is still a novelty to many around here.  I'll catch someone staring and automatically wipe my nose just in case I have a booger hanging out.  Then I stroke my hair to make sure it's not crazy.  When all is good I suddenly remember I'm "puti" aka white.  Directly in Juagdsan they are so used to it because there are three of us around all the time.  We met another single white lady who has been living in Panglao for 10 years.  She came to stay for a few days and didn't know we were there until later because we were away the first part of her visit.  When we finally met her commemt was, "I wondered why they weren't staring at me around here.  Now I know why!"
I'm contemplating this right now because I'm currently returning to Juagdan after a visit to Cebu to extend my tourist visa for what I hope is the last time (I should have the missionary one before this expires) and just caught a young man staring at me.  Then I realized several of the women were too.  The funny thing is now it just makes me smile or even laugh when I realize it is happening.
As stated above I had to renew again because my name has not appeared on the approved list yet.  Please be praying with me that it does show up in the next month. (If not I'm not sure what the next step is going to be.)  I will say that I've renewed enough times that it seems like a smooth process and this was the quickest one yet.  Only 2 1/2 hours!  It just means I might get home before dark this time. 😀
Classes are now 7 weeks down and I'm definitely in a routine. Although I will admit this past week was a bit rough because my routine was thrown off more than once.  One day when I was supposed to be doing a one on one tutoring session I was called away to meet someone for lunch.  (Thankfully the student understood and we just moved it to the next day)  Then Saturday we had a scheduled brownout.  That means no power from 6am to 6pm.  I wasn't told until almost 10pm the night before and didn't think about the fact that I had not printed enough worksheets for all my classes!  Yep, we still had classes even with no power. 😅  The first two classes it's no big deal because the daylight is enough. But the sun disappears shortly after 5pm and my last class is from 5-7pm.  Well we improvised.  The girls who are the most faithful showed up at 4pm and asked about class.  I was ready so we started early and only met for 1 1/2 hour instead of 2 hours.
Around here being flexible is a must.  Most days I'm good with it, but man did this past week suck it out of me!  I'm so exhausted and because of this trip I'm behind on both laundry and lesson planning so I don't know what I'm going to do!
It's okay I'll come up with something...hey "Do the laundry" is one of the things we introduced this past week!
Update:  Three days later... I did make it home before dark and had dinner with the family😁  Laundry was more than usual, but still done by noon along with lesson plans.  Laundry was even dry by bedtime!  But last night I forgot about Bible study...oops.

About Valentine’s Day and Love

So this post isn’t really about my ministry or life here.  This is just my thoughts so I’m sorry if you disagree.

Really it’s just another day of the week today.  What is Valentines Day anyway?  Celebrate love with chocolate, flowers, and cards?  No, love is so much more than that stuff.  It isn’t all sweets and roses.  Love is hard and it hurts.  People say you can’t choose who you  love and that it’s all a heart thing.  I disagree.  I know love is a choice.  We either choose to love or not love.  Now I don’t think it’s either love or hate, but it’s to love or not to love.

I mean someone comes up to you and proclaims, “I love you!”  What happens?  Either way you have to make a decision cyision.  You might already know the person and have thought the same but never proclaimed it.  At which point you would likely decide to really let yourself go to them and love them with everything because you now know it’s a returned love.  Or perhaps you think, “Ew, gross.  No way.”  In which case you have already decided to not love them.   The third choice is that either your had not thought about it yet or do not know them.  In this case you will either decide you don’t want to love them or you will decide you can “give it a go.”

In that last scenario I would highly caution you no matter which decision is made.  Love has a price that ultimately costs your life.  It is something to not be taken lightly.  If you choose to love the person your lives will never be the same again.  If you choose to not love them and they really do love you their life will never be the same again.

Once you love someone, even if not romantically, they become a part of your story.  Now I’m not talking about adolescent lusting after that hot guy or gorgeous girl.  I’m talking about the people you truly love and let into your life.

Check out 1 Corinthians 13.  It talks all about love and what it is and does.  For example, love keeps no record of wrongs.  The thing you have to realise is that it describes perfect love so really only God lives up to that standard.  However, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to live up to that standard.  Not living up to that standard is why love hurts so much.  To really be able to not keep a record of wrongs is not an easy task.  To always persevere is also not an easy task.  Sometimes they just really irritate you and you want to shake them!  What we need to remember is that it goes both ways.  God expresses perfect love to us I mean he literally sacrificed his flesh and blood for us to have eternal life.  So, what does that mean for us?  It means we can’t say, “God, do you remember that time I didn’t covet my neighbour’s spouse?  Can I have some grace and get away with wishing my own spouse was like them?”  That’s just trading one wrong with another.  Still not perfect love.  It should be more like, “Hey God, you remember that time you helped me forgive my spouse for lusting after my neighbour’s spouse?  Can you help me through this next battle because I can’t live with out you.”

I let myself romantically love someone once.  Looking back it really was love because if it was just lust I would have let it go and moved on much quicker.  But here I am 15 years later and it still hurts to think about that time in my life.  I was of marrying age, we had similar backgrounds, he was a Christian, I was physically attracted to him, and his family had accepted me as one of their own.  He had responded with, “Okay, let’s give it a go.”  Then after a few months he must have decided either he didn’t love me or at least he didn’t want to keep loving me.  Thankfully I am still on speaking terms with his family because they are one of my supporters and they are wonderful people.  But I still feel awkward when around him or his now wife.  I still love him it’s just as a sibling in Christ rather than romantically.  But I am a different person because of him and that love.  I approach romantic love much more hesitantly and perhaps that is playing it too safe, but I have saved much heartbreak for myself because of it.  I’d like to have a romantic love for a man again someday, but it scares me just thinking about it.

Lord, I think you have some man you are preparing for me, but I don’t know who or where he is.  Will you give us both the strength to respond in love when your time is right?  I’m sorry if I’ve been too hesitant and wasted our  potential time together.  Please help him to be patient with me if I am not ready when he asks.  Please help me be patient until you reveal him to me and help me be ready for his heart when he offers it.  Help me understand that love crosses all barriers, but remind me so does lust.  Give me the grace, wisdom, and knowledge to tell the difference.

Amen and amen

Happy 2019!

December was so crazy as you can see I forgot to post the update I did write!

As said, the pageant went good.  Travel to Negros was good as well.  It was their annual conference, but this year was a special celebration of their 50th year.  All the pastors and wives were recognized as well as the missionaries.  I even received an official certificate of ordination as a missionary in their denomination.  It was exciting and exhausting all at the same time.

The last two weeks have now been focused on two major things:
#1. Official 9G missionary visa application
#2. Planning the first classes

Neither of these tasks are without frustration or complication, but the Lord is in control.

The 9G application has been submitted, return trip for interview is done, and now I wait for my name to show on the approved list.  In the mean time I just need to keep my tourist visa up to date.

Planning classes doesn't require the travel that visa does, but I'm still anxious. I ask that you be in prayer with me over this.  I think I am almost ready which is good because they start in 24 hours!  My big concerns are their high expectation of me and the potential mixed level of students within any one class.  Both are expected and I can handle it, I'm just nervous about getting things started.  I'm hopeful it is just that "first day of class" jitters.  I'm sure come Monday I will be even more exhausted than normal, but it's what I'm here for 😀

Hopefully next month I will have photo updates from all these events and joys to share about these first days of teaching and learning.  Be blessed and thank you for your support!

December Update

Hello Friends!  This is an update I wrote in December, but failed to post.  New one coming in the next week or so!

Life is always interestinteresting here.  I find plans change quickly and without notice. Also they seem to usually run later than expected except on rare occasions when it is an early morning activity such as 6 am departures ;) The sun is already at full brightness by 6:00 so it's actually not that hard to be up and ready to go.  I'm already naturally waking up before then most days since I'm usually so exhausted and heading to bed by 8 or 8:30pm. I have found that December is just as busy here as it is back in the US.  Ate Jess (one of the other local missionaries) leads the Sunday school program and decided to try a Christmas Pagaent for the first time ever.  It was a lot of work but so worth it!
I also had a visitor this month which was a blast experiencing some new sight with her.  This is such a beautiful island and has so much to offer despite its small size. We saw white sand beaches, rocky beaches, the Chocolate Hills, and tarsiers.  We held a python, a baby aligator, a bearcat, and a Philippine eagle.  We rode ATVs and ferries.  I think my highlight was warm showers as we don't I water heaters here in Juagdan. :)
Next week is yet a new adventure as we will be traveling all day on Christmas.  The local church denomination is having their annual conference two islands over and it's their jubilee year.  I've been to one of these conferences in the past, but I've been promised this will be more celebration than business!  It will be an overwhelming experience for me due to many things: a new location, multiple addtional languages, large crowds, lots of people I've met before but don't necessarily remember, and it sounds like I will be introduced with all the pastors and the other missionary family.
I can honestly say that sometimes I pray for a boring day to come.  It hasn't happened yet!
Thanks for your prayers, love, and financial support.  Blessings,
Christine Davenport
Juagdan, Bohol, Philippines