It’s been a wild week as we’ve been busy preparing for our trip to the States (by the way, we leave the province tomorrow to catch a plane on Wednesday!). We’ve been packing our things for the trip as well as packing up most everything else in our house because….drum roll… we are SO blessed to be getting an expansion in our home while we are away. We're getting ready for Baby Boren! We’ve also been meeting with many of the students and friends we’ve been blessed to partner with and train in our time here. We’ve handed off some responsibilities to them and we’re thrilled to see how God will continue to develop confidence and leadership in them while we’re gone. And on top of all this, we’ve continued with our normal schedule. Let’s just say the need for a get-away has hit me hard!

I wanted to blog about a special day we had this week. Some of you may remember a previous blog about the children who live in our neighborhood. As the months have passed, we’ve developed very special relationships with many of these kids. We’ve been blessed to get with them twice a week to walk them through the Bible from creation to Christ. We're currently storying the ministry and life of Jesus. We tell stories, sing songs, play games, and laugh a lot. We also have been helping them memorize verses to go along with some of these key stories to help them really piece the ultimate story of the Bible together. To encourage them to keep up their hard work, a few months ago we told them we'd have a picnic when some of them memorized 10 verses. Picnics are a really special and exciting event here and a few girls really set their eyes on the prize. They’ve been diligently studying and even going to visit their friends to help them learn! The two final stragglers completed the last verse the day before the scheduled picnic. It was such an accomplishment for these 5 girls!

We planned to meet at 9am to walk to a nearby resort for the picnic.

 Here are the girls standing at our gate at 8:20, bags packed, and ready to go! 

 

We occupied them long enough for me to finish cooking the food and we were off!

 We took a million pictures. We played on the 'playground'. And after waiting for the pool to fill up, we ate, we swam, we ate, we swam and we ate some more. They loved it! 

 

I enjoyed the day so much as I played with these sweet girls. We got to see them tell an elderly woman about the reason we were having a picnic. It was so precious to hear one of them pray for our food. And we just loved loving on them. I'm thankful for the opportunity we have to invest in them and I'm anticipating God using them to reach their harder-to-reach families with the good news of Jesus. Please pray for them as we will reach the story of Jesus' death and resurrection shortly after we return from the U.S.   

We hope to see you all during our stay in the States! Stay tuned for more info about our time there. 

Meet Baby Boren

Ok, this is Baby Boren's big debut to the world!

Is this the cutest picture you've ever seen, or what?

Earlier this month we went for our second prenatal check-up. We tried out a new doctor and really enjoyed her. One of our friends works as a lab tech in the office next to a maternity clinic so she let us know that they were giving away free prenatal check-ups! (As if medical expenses aren't already a fraction of the price here compared to the States, what a blessing.) I decided to try the place out and if I didn't like it, I would just go back to the lady I saw previously. I had prepared myself for it to be like a zoo, since it was free, but our experience was far from that. Dra. Hidalgo spoke excellent English which really brought so much peace to my non-fluent Tagalog self. She asked me lots of questions, did the routine blood pressure and sent me for some blood work (which our friend actually got to do). She then asked me if I would like to see my baby instead of just hear the heartbeat. I couldn't say no! So Josh and I were able to 'meet' our child for the first time. I can't explain this experience. I'm certain that only parents can relate. I was speechless as we saw a little life inside of me. She pointed out his/her head, body, and limbs and assured us that everything was as it should be. We could even see the little heart thumping. Praise God. As a mama who feels like she has no idea what she's doing on the other side of the world, God used this doctor and this ultrasound to bring me to a place of rest in Him. And my sweet husband was there rejoicing with me as we looked in awe at the screen. What a precious moment.

I journaled shortly after the appointment about the simultaneous feelings of chaos and peace that I've been feeling. As we prepare to head to the States soon, we're busy planning our time there, gathering pasalubong (souvenirs), getting our home in order, and most importantly, handing off ministry responsibilities here. This can feel slightly chaotic. However, we've also celebrated birthdays with friends, enjoyed new fruits in season, 'met' our baby, and really enjoyed our life, ministry, and the people here. This has been peaceful. Spiritually and mentally I've been researching and praying for all things baby. Cloth diapers, vaccines, names, dual citizenship, and on and on. (I guess that's more of a having a baby overseas kind of list!) Learning about all of this kind of hurts my brain and feels like chaos. How will I ever make all of these decisions in only 5-6 more months? But my King is so gracious. When my thoughts consume me, the Lord reminds me of all that He's done in my life to bring me to this point. He's carried me through every scary or trying time. So even now, as I feel so ill-equipped for motherhood, I know my King will see me through. He'll give me wisdom for the important decisions like vaccinations. He'll give me self-control to eat well so the baby will benefit. He'll make me brave to stand in the convictions that He gives us for parenting. He'll bless me to be selfless as my time will be consumed with being a mommy. He'll bless me to be patient. He'll bless me to be loving. This is when I realized that the peace of God reigns in chaos. I feel so at peace about the season to come. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Thanks for reading all my ramblings :)

We survived Typhoon Utor!

I'm sure many of you heard either from us or on the news about the typhoon that came through the southeast Pacific last week. I've been itching to blog about it since then, but we've just now gotten the internet to do so. Since we have lived in the Philippines, there have been many warnings of typhoons. A very strong storm actually hit the southern island last year, but none have actually made landfall in our province until now. Thankfully, our neighbor Barry keeps track of the weather system here and we knew the storm was coming a few days before it actually arrived. To prepare, we tied down the cabinet in our outdoor kitchen, the tricycle, and a few other valuable things. We closed our windows (which is a rarity here due to the heat) and made a game plan in case it began to flood. And that was that. We prayed for the Lord's protection and went to sleep. Around 1am the winds began to pick up and we could soon hear things snapping and cracking. But since we had closed our windows it didn't sound nearly as scary as I had anticipated. (I personally think the sound of jungle thunder is much more frightening!) However, reality set in the next morning when we came out to see the damage. All the plants were still bent toward the direction that the 70-100 mph winds had blown them. Most of our banana trees were ripped out of the ground. The welcome sign above our home was torn in half and everything was out of order. We spent half the day cleaning up what Utor had left behind. One of the most interesting parts of the aftermath of the typhoon was watching how the Filipinos responded. As soon as the kids were awake, the parents sent them out to gather anything and everything that had been blown down. First come, first served was most definitely the mentality. It was totally irrelevant who the fruits and lumber actually belonged to. It seemed as if all of our barangay (neighborhood) was in a race to gather their things before someone else did. Nonetheless, we are very thankful to the Lord for protecting us. After we were able to access the internet and learn about the damage in other areas, we learned that an area not very far north of us received the most destruction. Most of their town was destroyed. Praise the Lord only 2 deaths have been reported thus far. But please do continue to pray for many who were left homeless and some people (particularly fishermen) who are still missing. I've also noticed that the 'rally-up and help' mentality that we experienced in the southern US after Hurricane Katrina is just not as feasible for a poor provincial area. Pray for the body of Christ to serve those who need assistance.

Here are some pictures of the after-math: 

The herb garden was a mess

2 of the many banana trees- notice bananas that were growing

Kiddos gathering bananas..as big as they are!

Everything was a mess!

Yay for free coconuts!

And lumber for firewood. This is great for cooking over.

Our shortcut to the road was inaccessible for a few days

 Thanks to everyone for checking in on us and praying for us during the storm!