Holy Week

Over the last couple weeks I have been getting adjusted to living here and making new friends. I have also been working on a teaching for our Discipleship training week (DTW) which we will be hosting soon. But of all the things to write about I felt like I should write about Good Friday. This week is Holy Week and the Catholics take this really seriously. Last night I experienced hundreds of people walking to the closes cathedral with candles and big floats behind them. These floats were floats of Jesus dying with Mary protecting him. From what I have been told tonight they will do a walk without shoes on to a local place outside the city. Where tomorrow people will whip themselves to show devotion to God. They will even choose to be Crucified. All in devotion to God. I find it so crazy that someone has twisted the gospel so much that men are willing to kill themselves over it. Tonight we are planning on going to hand out bible tracts and Gospel Tracts to hopefully share the gospel with some of the people walking.

Deja Vu with a twist!

If you are only looking to read about my mission work this post is probably not for you. We started the day with dropping Holoholo DTS at the airport and saying good bye. Then we took a shuttle to downtown and ate at Wendy's ;). It was so good I missed bacon so badly. Then we headed to immigration to help Amanda fill out her exit form and see if they could finish it. After waiting they told us to come back at 5 PM and they might have it. We said ok, and left outside to go find me a store to get a SIM card. However on the way we past the fortified city and a super old cathedral. Then we found a 7-11 inside this super old building with Spanish design and it had a spiral staircase and was super cool.  After sitting for a while we went to the cathedral and walked inside and took photos. Then off to the fortified city. We found the entrance after 25 minutes of walking in circles. So we got to walk on top of the giant wall fortifying the city and they had watch towers and cannons on top. It was really cool to get to walk on. Then we left back for immigration and at 6 PM they gave Amanda her paperwork she needed. We left immediately and took the LRT (light rail train) to a location where we took a jeepne. We arrived in Balut and Amanda got on the phone and found out there was a flight at 12:30 AM so we took a taxi to the airport. We sat at the airport until 11 AM to make sure everything went as planned then Utol and I were going to head home however the LRT was closed which meant we had to bus back. We took the first bus to pasay then we walked around and ate mcdonalds. Then as we were walking around a guy approached us and offered us prostitutes... We finally got a bus to his home after 30 minutes of waiting and we almost missed that bus cuz I barely saw the location tag. Then we road the bus back to his house.
Fun fact we saw the mall of Asia, SM supermall and SM EDSA North mall. All from buses today those are the 3rd 4th and 5th largest malls in the world and we saw all 3 in one day.

January 4th-6th

We are in Albay for this week, it is like 2 hours south of naga city where we were staying. The first day we went to a set of houses that were destroyed by the typhoon (Nona). For the first half of the day we just cleaned up and helped them build homes. Hannah, Kuya Utol and I also got to go pray for an older Ladie who had her home destroyed and we also got to give her a bible. Then we broke for lunch and Becca had someone follow her all the way to the mall and buy her chips (bit creepy). Then we went back to the beach and I worked with Beth, Shai and Marthy to make a children's program with games and a skit. We did a modern representation of David and Goliath so I got to be Goliath and I was a bully who stole stuff from people. Marthy was David, a volunteer police officer who ends up catching me. Then Shai was the mayor and Beth translated the story to explain the meaning of the skit. After the children's ministry I went with Hannah, Kuya Utol and Caitlyn. We went to a house and prayed for a man who had a heart attack and he was paralyzed except for 1 arm and he couldn't speak. We prayed for healing and then after the first prayer he could move his arms and could sit up and speak. Then we prayed again and he could move his feet and legs. Then his wife prayed to God thanking God for healing him. Which is something Catholics here in the Philippines do not normally do. Then throughout the rest of the day we hung out and talked with people. Then Kuya Sam told me hey some guys want to take a photo with you and so I said sure. Then I got over there and I realized they were all gay, and they got touchy and stuff. Afterwards it was funny but at the time it was awkward and I just had to smile. 

Day 2 

We had high school ministry today and we went to the local high school during lunch and shared with them and gave them a small word. Then later we shared with some others in a community

Day 3 

We went back to the high school and hung out with Kuya Benji group. We performed our dance and prayed with them and gave a small word. Afterwards Fred and I got swamped with girls wanting our photos. It was super funny and we just kept smiling at each other and laughing. We took the photos together so it wouldn't be too awkward. After school got out we went to where they catch the bus and trikes home. Fred and I talked with two young boys and prayed with them and gave them bibles. Then later we talked with two young girls and we explained the difference between religion and relationship and they both wanted to have a relationship with God and they both accepted Christ. We also got to give them bibles and pray for them. 

12/8 Blog Entry

I couldn't think of a title sorry. :)

The day started with orientation and a meeting with the mayor of naga city. The mayor welcomed us to the city and told us to enjoy our stay and we got to pray with him and bless him.

Then later I went with Hannah and Amanda to give the local kids nutrition mix. Its water and tons of vitamins mixed together and we gave it out to about hundred kids. After they got the mix we talked with them and just got to fellowship with them. It was a really awesome experience. They all call me Kuya Jeremiah which basically means older brother Jeremiah. 

Joyful nation

 After arriving on Friday I got the opportunity to go Friday night and speak at a youth group and talk story with them. Walking to and from the youth group was the first of Manila we really got to see. We went by smokey mountain which is literally a mountain 5 stories high of garbage and it catches on fire "smokey mountain". We went through some poorer areas and got to see the people. They all would smile and say hi to us because it's really rare to see a white person in these areas. At the youth group it was amazing to see everyone. Even with having so little they were all smiles. They had four teams and even before they would play a game the team would huddle and pray. When we got to worship every single one of them was fully engaged and dancing around it was incredible.

Sunday morning we went to a church in squater village. It is the poorest area in Manila the sewage is all over the ground. Electrical wires running wild and the water is pumped in from the unsafe river. The homes are literally slabs of bricks put together. As we walked through we had be careful they told us it was one of the most dangerous places. We walked into the church and everyone is dressed up. They were all smiles and filled with the joy of the lord. We started with worship and they had dance crew for every song sung and they would all dance around to every song sung. Then I got to get up and share with the church about purpose and hope. Then uncle Paul shared about his past year. We ended with them asking our DTS to join there leadership team in praying for those who wanted prayer at the end of the service. They also prayed for our team and blessed us and welcomed us to their family. Afterwards we socialized with them and took photos and talked. It was so amazing to see the joy in them and love in them. Even though they literally have nothing. I honestly can't wait for January when we get to come back to this area and join side this church. 

My departure

I left for the Philippines on Wednesday the 2nd at 5:30 Am. My flight to Honolulu was a breeze however we had to split up for our flight to Japan. Six of us (including myself) left one hour after the first plane. We were scheduled to leave at 12:45 with boarding at 12:15. We were sitting and it was 12:50 and the waiting room was full of people and it didn't appear like anyone had boarded yet. (We were flying Japan air and they did not translate to English when speaking over PA) However we looked up at the screen and it said final boarding call for flight from Honolulu to Japan. So we got up and went to the gate and asked if it was our time to board and they said yes. We got on the plane and economy was empty, the flight was delayed. Which was an issue because our layover is only one hour in Japan. The plane took off at 1:20, so if we had any delays we would be in trouble. The flight was suppose to be nine and a half hours however it ended up only being seven hours and forty-five minutes. When we arrived in Japan they said over the PA because the airport is really busy we can not go to a gate and we will park in a parking spot. I thought that meant we were just going to wait until a gate was open. However what actually happened was we got off the plane in the freezing weather and they bussed us to a terminal. So we had to walk cross half the airport to our next flight. Everything went smooth for the rest of the day. We arrived in Manila and the airport was empty and no lines at customs praise the lord. The currency exchange is normally 43-45 to 1 US dollar. However it was 47 to 1 so the lord blessed us with a great rate. We got to the Ywam base at 2am Friday morning and got to head to sleep! :)