Well, I had planned to write a separate blog for each of the following things, but it's all kind of piled up on me, so I'll attempt to share everything we've been up to lately in one blog. I hope you can follow. If not, enjoy the photos  :)

Earlier this week Josh and I made our FINAL trip to Manila for immigration (until November when we have to renew haha)! Monica and I were already finished, but Josh had to pick up his I-Card, which basically acts as our exit and re-entry visa. I decided to tag along for some husband and wifey time.  We ate yummy Cajun food and also got to grocery shop in the supermarket for things to bring back with us. It was really fun to go on a date together. (Alone time in the Philippines is hard to come by.) Also, the Lord opened a really neat door for us to share the Gospel with a devout Catholic taxi driver who took us to the mall. His name was William and he was very inquisitive about what we believe. We've prayed that he will come to know Jesus as his Lord and share the good news with all his passengers. So..praise God for that incident.  All in all, it was fun to celebrate that we ALL THREE HAVE VISAS! And after we got back to the province, we had a cereal-for-dinner night with Monica from the cereal and soy milk we bought. These weren't as yummy as they looked, but it was fun to have cereal.

Thank you to everyone who has prayed for us in this process with immigration. It's just a part of living in another country, but we are very glad to have it behind us and are excited about long-term time in the province.

In a previous post, I asked you all to pray for us as we shared our 'love story' with a singles group at a Love Banquet. Well, the banquet was last weekend and we had loads of fun. The pictures tell it all.

There was food. Watermelon, bread, lumpia, turnips, etc.

There was lots of singing

We encouraged them to be content in Christ

Monica and Dylan won "Faces of the Night"

Group Photo...including our dog Joke-Joke

Let's see.. we have successfully eaten from our own garden. Such a labor of love. Only, when you live in the tropics, there's not that much labor since everything grows year-round :) Filipinos actually learn how to garden in elementary school. They can all name every plant just by looking at its seedling. It's been really fun for us to learn from them.

Ours don't look like this yet, but next year they will!

Cucumber, Squash, Tomatoes, Peppers, and more!

Harvesting a yummy herb, kang kong

Fruits of our Labor :)

There was a fiesta for our province a few weeks ago. While visiting some of the booths at the fair, we also went to a museum in Baler, the capital of our province.  We learned a lot about the history of the Philippines, especially our region and province. Yay for educational trips with friends.

Props to Kletz for his creative photography

Lastly, we joined some of the girls in one of our DBS groups yesterday to serve their community. Part of the Discovery Bible Study method teaches the group to help meet the needs of their community. This group would always mention praying for food and finances for their community, but never really seemed to have much desire to act. We began praying for them to move and act on this need. With only the prompting of the Holy Spirit, these girls came up with a plan to invite some of the children in their community to hear a Bible story and eat a hot meal. They invited Josh and me to share the story before the meal. We were thankful to be a part of it, but even more proud of these teenagers for obeying the Word of God.

Serving champorado, a chocolatey rice porridge

Masarap! (Delicious!)

Feeding her little brother

Calabuanan DBS group

We are very excited as the Lord has opened the opportunities for several new ministries lately. Today, we met with a group of young Christians whom we will be training to become trainers. Josh shared with them today about the difference in 'addition' and 'multiplication' when making disciples. It was so exciting to see their eyes light up at the possibility that God really could use them to reach their province and beyond! Please pray for us as we encourage and challenge them. Pray for them to place full confidence in the Holy Spirit as they begin to go and make disciples.

Blessings,
The Borens