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! :)