The Philippines.

More Pics to come soon!

Alright, first off, this is going to an extremely hard blog to write. & this is the long version so get comfy and only continue if you are ready for a novel! We met an incredible amount of amazing people in The Philippines, and made some good friends in a very short time. Being there was very emotional and a very powerful time of growth for us both. So bare with me as I try to make it make

sense and explain it the best I can. I also apologize in advance to all of you in The Philippines if I make mistakes explaining some of the work being done there. I'm not even sure where to start...

On our flight from Sydney to Cebu, Phillipines we had a layover in the Singapore airport, one of the worlds best airports! It has free internet and computers everywhere, 2 free theatres, free Playstation and Xbox gaming, free foot massaging machines, a butterfly garden, sunflowers gardens, orchid gardens, entertainment centres, lots of super comfy chairs, a snooze lounge, Koi fish ponds, and a tonnes of shops and [some] cheap food. We spent a couple of hours exploring and using the internet before catching some sleep on the floor for a few hours.

45 minutes before the deadline to check in for our flight to Cebu, The Philippines, we were told we were not allowed to check in until we had flights booked out of The Philippines! We weren't sure what kind of work we were going to be doing in the Philippines yet so we were planning on booking a flight back to Singapore once we had a better idea of the need in the Philippines, & apparently hadn't looked closely enough at entry requirements. So we rushed to find internet to book a return flight, and after 30 minutes, were 5 seconds away from confirming tickets when internet time expired! That gave us 15 minutes to run back upstairs and book flights at the TigerAir counter (which cost about 40% more- hence our internet attempt) and check-in! Then while booking, we found out we had to pay cash, so while I booked tickets Milessa ran around to find an ATM and get cash, all in 15 minutes! We managed to get tickets and check-in with only a couple minutes before we could have missed our flights! It was such a runaround, we must have looked like the Home Alone airport scene.

Once in the Mactan-Cebu airport it was chaos! Everyone was filling out immigration paperwork on the floor all over and the lines were cramped and all over the place. Finally we made it through & began to search for a piece of paper with our names on it. After wandering around for a while with no sign of them we decided that we should try to contact someone. The contact number we had written down for Salvador Carianga (The man we had been in contact with & were meeting up with) wasn't working so we found wi-fi in a small section of sidewalk & sent him a Facebook message. Before we knew it Salvador had sent 4 lovely young ladies & a very nice young man who came up to ask asking us if we were Justin & Milessa. They took are of us from then on!

Salvador is a Filipino Missionary serving The Lord here in Cebu. Even though this was our first time meeting Salvador & our other brothers & sisters who came to pick us up, we immediately felt so welcome & like family. It was especially neat to visit with Salvador about people he knew back in Canada that we also knew. Connections within the church are always so exciting to me!

From here, maybe it's best to try to explain the various churches and locations that Salvador is involved with in Cebu city & surrounding area:
1. First, there was the Mactan Church of Christ, in Cebu. This is where Salvador often works out of &

where his main house is. Multiple teenagers and young adults also live together here in the compound, some so that they are able to work in the office or go to school in the city, others because they lost family members for various reasons and they needed a place to call home. There is also a christian school here & an office space where they are able to do a lot of the bookwork for all the different operations going on in the church and the livelihood programs here.

2. Then there is the Compostella Church of Christ,

another church that is in a community just outside of Cebu that also promotes livelihood programs for the members to support themselves by making and selling goods.
These include a) items made from recycled magazine paper (such as bracelets, purses, laptop bags, etc);
b) items made from old Wal-Mart grocery bags (such as floor rugs, change purses, soap holders, etc); and finally
c) Goats Milk soap they make and sell locally and potentially internationally.

3. Then there is the Arapal Church of Christ, a small village 3 hours north of Cebu. Arapal refers

to the church, the village & the farm that is there. Arapal was hit hard by the typhoon just over 6 months ago. They have done extensive work rebuilding their lives as well as all sorts of work in the surrounding village area. The big focus at Arapal is helping the people learn new ways to create income for themselves and create a livelihood versus being in need or dependent on others, not that everyone is by any means, but that is what they are working towards. This church has up to 500+ members weekly, over 20 various bible studies throughout the week, and whose leaders have helped plant over 2 dozen churches in the Arapal region in the last 6 months. So that's my short summary... ;)

I should also let you know that there are lots of other Churches of Christ in the Cebu area as well, but these 3 were the ones we were able to visit.

Anyways, after the airport we grabbed some lunch & then headed to a little market where members of the church, many of them under 20, had a booth set up selling many different products. From Goats milk, to Goats milk soap, to homemade vinegar, to vegetables and fruits, to beautiful handmade cutting boards, fermented juice, and some other products. The purpose of participating in this market for a couple days was to promote the products from Arapal as well as to get the younger generation some experience selling their products & dealing with customers.

After visiting the booth and meeting everyone, we went with a group to a little restaurant for our finger-food dinner! With big banana leaves full of different kinda of rice, noodles, shrimp, chicken, etc placed in front of 3 groups of 4-6 of us, we dove in eating off the same piles as everyone with

naught but our fingers! Now I've been pushing for eating everything without cutlery for a long time, so this was awesome!

I wasn't nearly as good as the Philippinos (or Milessa) at eating rice with fingers, so I had it all over the table. And my beard. Mostly my beard, it's way too good at catching rice. It's like those vine-things in Jumanji, just not for people. Yet.

After riding in the back of the open bed van with a dozen of the youth, back to Salvador's, we got some much needed sleep. We also got to meet Salvador's son Peter and his wife Sarah, who were here visiting The Philippines from the US. We quickly realized we knew some of the same people who had been to school at Oklahoma Christian!

2 girls then gave us a quick tour of Mactan, taking us to the Mactan Shrine, where a statue commemorates the defeat of the Spanish in the 1500s by the Philippino warrior Lapu-Lapu. We got to try out the different transport methods during this little trip as well: taxi, mini-bus (a Philippino-sized 12 passenger bus with little benches, and Tricycles or tuktuks (motorcycles with side-cars McGivor'ed together that fit up to 5 Philippinos, or just me and Mil... Jk!!! Kinda...)

I also got to play ball on the street with some Filipinos which was really cool. Playing on dirt & rocks in flip-flops with different rules made the game pretty fun as well!

Then we spent some time at the booth where the Arapal group was selling their products at the department of agriculture's market. After that we got to hear Salvador speak (in a combination of Filipino/English) to various members of the community, some of importance in the

department of agriculture. He spoke about creating job opportunities for Filipinos, self-sufficiency, national pride, and innovative ideas to help Filipinos create livelihood and bring people out of poverty. Even though we only understood a small amount, we learned so much and really enjoyed hearing Salvador speak.

Dinner back at the church, with about 20 of us, included balut for all! What's balut, you ask? It is a developing duck embryo that is boiled and eaten

out Of the shell. So, I got to eat an egg 16 days into its life, which meant I ate a hard boiled baby duck with a definite body, teeny tiny bones (crunchy!), tiny feathers, and parts you could see clearly. One boy ate (kinda, not really) an 18 day embryo which meant when he held it by the head, you saw a chic. Grosse!

The next morning we were treated to chicken feet for breaky with Salvador thanks to our chef Julius. Most of the day was then spent in the back of their truck/van with just over a dozen of us on the way to Arapal. It made for a long 5+ hour voyage but a couple fun stops along the way made it quite enjoyable.

Our first stop was in Compostella where we were treated to a very delicious lunch. After lunch the ladies at the Compostella Church of Christ showed us all of the livelihood products that they make and sell to make a living. The stuff these women

make is beautiful & so crafty! They are very skilled. The make bracelets, purses, clutches & laptop cases out of recycled paper. They also use goats milk to make soap & recycled plastic bags to make change purses & mats. It was neat to see how hard they work to provide for their families. If you would like to purchase any of their products you can contact Ellen Jumao-as on Facebook & she will hook you up!

Our second stop was fun as well. Salvador had purchased a box of chicks to give to a small village on the way. As soon as we pulled over all the children & parents started gathering around. Starting with the youngest children we handed out

all the chicks, each with a small bag of feed to go with it. Hopefully having a chicken to take care of will help these children to understand a sense of responsibility & benefitting from hard work!

On way Salvador also pointed out an incredible amount of people they'd helped out with typhoon restorations, food donations (Filipinos love MannaPak!), goat/chicken donations, etc. For some it was bamboo, tin roofing, piles, etc that each person was supplied with or given assistance rebuilding their home. I couldn't believe the number of people they'd helped in only 6 months since Typhoon Yolanda; and the damage that was still evident in some places.

Arapal was a nice little village in the hills complete with water supply from an underground cave with pump system, goat farm, piggery, vegetable gardens, fermenting process areas for pig food, lumber mill, dirt ball court, kitchen

(where 1 lady cooked for between 100+ people daily during the week & up to 500+ people on Sundays!), tents (where many still lived since Yolanda), many huts, a large soon-to-be-hotel/guest house/conference building, a large tent made of tarps that fit 500+ people for Sunday worship, and a 'Canadian Hut' for Milessa and I to stay in! After a quick tour, supper, and realizing Arapal was like a desert and scorching hot, we had an early night in.

Church the next morning was great. 400+ people and Brother (Koya) Dodong preached (in Visaya) about optimism. Singing was fun as we could recognize the tune and sing in their language.

Koya Gerald (a youth minister) asked if I could give a lesson to the youth so I threw one together quick. It was then I realized I'd better always be ready to teach/preach!

After church I was asked to sing with some of the youth leaders as several people were baptized. It was an incredible experience & such a blessing to be a part of the whole thing.

Shortly after the baptisms we left to have an evening church service on an island of 500 people, a 45 minute drive and 3-4 hour boat ride away.

We hopped in a boat and began our cruise across an ocean strait to the island. After 2.5 hours, we switched boats in the middle of the ocean to tinier little boats half the size of kayaks and went the rest in them. Very hot under the sun that day!

When we arrived we were greeted their by a few of the families that live on the island. It was nearly dusk so we rushed to pitch our tent before dark on our new ocean-front property.

Church that evening was under a little tent with about 30 of us. They have been meeting for several months now after Salvador began Bible studies with some of them and have been growing ever since. Milessa taught the kids while I

preached! Ronel was my translator (his first time) & it went really well. Afterwards a man came forward who wanted to be baptized after hearing the Word for several months now. Koya Sal asked if I would baptize him so we all walked down to the ocean & welcomed him into God's family. Another surreal experience.

The island was even hotter than Arapal and we felt it full force that night in a tent with no a/c! Luckily a brief midnight storm cooled us down for a short while & taught us to always put your fly up, or risk getting wet!

Early morning basketball with some island boys was great, even with sore bare feet! As we were playing a couple people were carrying a big fish up the hill which soon became our breakfast. Milessa even tried some yummy raw fish dish!

After breakfast we had a quick swim in the beautiful clear water before heading to visit a

smaller island with about 2000 people. There, some of the young men from Arapal had been teaching, singing & preaching on the roadside for a couple months now so we did the same! Milessa taught and sang with kids on street side where about 65 of them gathered around!

It was an overpopulated pretty stinky  little island with little alleyways, tiny shacks, giant pigs, millions of fish everywhere being dried by the

sun, flies galore, and almost no English! It was a pretty unique experience. Back on the 'big' island we had a delicious lunch, a chicken that we'd noticed caught in a net earlier that morning & octopus soup. After lunch it was time to pack up & leave. The people on the island were so kind providing us with so much wonderful food during our visit as well as so many nice gifts when we left including a Filipino flag, some beautiful seashells & an ornament.

Onboard a little tarp-covered boat with about 15-20 of us, some supplies and a goat, we headed back towards Arapal.

We arrived back to the mainland after dark where we proceeded to unload & then re-load the boat with water & supplies for the people on the island

to continue to rebuild with since the damage from the typhoon.

When we got back to our hut that night we had the pleasure of coming home to a little bit of an ant infestation. Thousands of little ants & white eggs covered my bag & some clothes! I only found that out after I picked up my underwear and immediately found my hand covered in ants. I guess we scared them because they quickly began moving all their precious cargo down my bag into the sofa-chair that it was sitting on. Afraid they'd move into our bed, we hauled the chair outside 20 feet away and emptied all of the contents of my bag outside to de-ant it. So fun.

The best part, however, is that 20 minutes later as we lay in bed, we look over and a trail of ants carrying eggs was climbing up the cabinet to a flower pot next to where the chair had been. Same ants. I recognized them. They must have really liked that corner of our hut. So we have up & let them stay. At least it wasn't our bed!

Next morning at 530 AM we heard over the church loudspeaker singing and teaching for their everyday-devo at 530 AM. It's pretty impressive they all get up that early for devos every day!

After devo about a half dozen of us went to play some basketball which was wicked fun! Especially when Mac-Mac dislocated my pinky! Ha k it wasn't his fault at all, but it was pretty funny. We had to

set it back in the right place (crooked, down and left didn't look healthy) so the 'doctor' Ronel helped me pop it in and massaged it to keep it there. Then we resumed playing until my feet hurt too much!

On Wednesday we were able to aid in training several of the people at Arapal on running a B&B (fortunately since we had just worked at one in Australia we had some experience) because they were hoping to open one up in the hotel type building that was built on their property. We went over making up beds correctly, room set-ups, breakfast/dinner table setup, food serving basics & general guidelines for this type of thing. It was a lot of fun. We had a good time getting to chill, joke around, and get to know some of the people better.

After that, the rest of the week was pretty similar. 530 AM devotional everyday (where we memorized Ecclesiastes 11), and teaching and preaching 2-3 times a day from Tueaday-Friday at devotionals, tiny churches in roadside shacks, or meetings in homes. Sometimes with a translator, sometimes not. There are 20 house churches

meeting for group bible studies every week, many of them led by young men aged 16-24. They all just drove around in trucks or bikes & taught lessons in the various areas. There have been 700 baptisms since the typhoon and five church buildings are being built around Arapal.

The passion and conviction these guys had was incredible. Some were on break from Bible College, some just graduated, some just about to start serving The Lord as there full time career. I can't explain how encouraging it was to spend all this time spent with such mission-minded people.

Saturday morning was our departure from Arapal. We were sad to have to miss the 'graduation ceremony' that afternoon for the ACTS program. The ACTS program was a series of lessons they had put on for people in the community involving English lessons, Bible lessons, and singing lessons. I was honoured to have been asked to be the guest speaker but we had already committed to being at the Compostella Church of Christ for the next 2 days so we had to decline. After the morning devo, with much difficulty, we said our goodbyes. We'd

learned so much and had so much fun, we were pretty sad to be leaving Arapal. Jep-Jep joined us on the 2-3 hour bus ride as our guide and stayed with us for breakfast in Compostella before heading back.

That morning Milessa taught a women's class at the church before we walked around the neighbourhood for 3-4 hours visiting members houses, singing and praying with them.

We then went back to John and Ellen's house (not McMillan!) where we had a nap and supper before going to bed!

Sunday morning I preached the lesson. After church we chatted a bit more about their goats

milk soap and other products they produce at the church. It was very cool to see the innovation and creativity to help the women make their own livelihood!

One of the ladies from the church invited us into her house for lunch  before we hopped in a taxi to the airport. Some of the girls who we had first spent time with in Mactan surprised us with a visit at the airport. We had a great visit with all the girls and John & Ellen & Esther before going through customs and boarding our plane to Singapore!

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