Home Again!

     November was possibly the hardest month of my life. So many small things that came together and piled up and forced me to turn to the One who doesn't change, even when we live in constant transition, and the One who doesn't leave even when we feel like everywhere we turn there are new people.

      Most of the time we were there, we got to visit house to house, and experience true Filipino hospitality! We would take blood pressure, do a small maternal survey, then share our testimonies, pray for the family, and even do simple bible studies. It was really neat to get to know the people and see how they live.

A few highlights:
       We had the opportunity to build relationships and friendships with a whole group of youth! ((Like the group in the bottom left picture above)) This was super neat. Many evenings were filled with bible studies, singing, and playing games.

       We also got to know lots of kids, who, although overwhelming at times, were so much fun to chat with and play with. Over a series of mornings or evenings, we did a bunch of bible stories with them. After each bible story, they loved to draw out what they imagine the story looking like, as in a few of the pictures above.
    Below is our depiction of David and Goliath. CristyJoy, somehow so tall, made a very good Goliath, and on the right you can see Bekah, posing as David, ready to slay the giant! :)

Playing 'Pin-The-Tail-On-The-Donkey' in the top left of the picture below. And the bottom left, we invited a few of the kids who lived farther away to stay for lunch!

 Honestly, whats not to love about these faces??!?!?

 A few of the animals we saw...
The geese in the bottom right did try to attack me at one point. Thankfully, I escaped that, albeit narrowly!
For those of you who have seen the movie Seven Brides, doesn't the calf in the top middle look just like Annebelle??? Pretty cute!!

We had some chances to go a little ways out of the village, and see some of the rural areas, including this dam, where we even went swimming.

      We got to do fun stuff like pail in all our water, cook over an open fire, eat rice almost every meal, deal with mosquitoes (lots of mosquitoes!), and take bucket showers.

      One of the funnest things I got to do was ride a carabao!! A carabao is type of water buffalo. The farmers use them to plow their fields, to pull wagons, and any other type of farm work. Almost every villager owned one or more. I found out that they are the national animal of the Philippines. This kind old man was very happy to take the 'Amerikana' for a ride. :)

     We got home this past Monday, and it felt great to sleep in my own bed again. :)
I was tickled to come back to a stack of letters from home, and a package from my mom. Honestly, hardly anything beats mail from home!
      This week, we start our first 'real' shifts in the clinic, so please pray for us, as we begin this new chapter here!
      Also, when we got home, we found out that we had all been approved for our 2-year visa!! This is awesome news! Not only do we not have to deal with the hassle of renewal again next year, but we also got our full money's worth! This is definitely something to praise God for!

That is all! Until next time!
Love, Becca