Blessing or Being Blessed

I have been in the Philippines a week. After 3 days of travel I arrived at Hope for the Island on Tuesday afternoon, October 7th – my birthday. I received a wonderful welcome of flowers and singing. My trek included the following:
· 14 hour flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong
· 10 hour layover that turned into 14 because a storm prevented us from taking off
· 3 hour flight from Hong Kong to Cebu
· Overnight and day in Cebu
· 12 hour overnight ferry from Cebu to Surigao
· 4 hours in Surigao
· 3 hour boat to Siargao
· 20 minute drive to Hope for the Island

I have been at the beach early every morning. The sun comes up around 5:00am and I am taking the opportunity to enjoy the beauty of every part of the day. The mornings at the beach refresh me and fill me up. It is my favourite time of the day. I have my Bible and I read and pray. I am so blessed to have this opportunity to spend this time reading God’s Word, praying and reflecting.

From my first afternoon here, I have met many children and youth and there are a few who I feel connected to. There is a group of teenage girls who I now refer to as the “Gwapa Girls” (Beautiful Girls) – I tell them they are so beautiful, and they are! These girls are part of the discipleship group, which I will be teaching on Wednesday nights for the next 3 weeks. One afternoon we sat on the beach and talked and sang - everything from How Great is Our God to My Heart Will Go On (Celine Dion). Haha.

I have begun work in the library, cataloguing all of the books. Many of the books are very old, and one “educational” book even refers to the USSR. Some books are from the 1960’s. There are some newer books, too, including novels for adults and children, and spiritual growth books but I am sure that new books would be welcomed. I can see that having the library accessible to everybody is a great ministry. I do enjoy the administrative work so I think this is a good place for me.

Saturday morning I went with Jing to minister to the children in our town. Others went out to other towns. We had about 16 kids and we sang and had a Bible story and prayed. Jing asked me to teach them a new song so I taught them “Jumping Up and Down”. I figured kids, wherever they are, love to jump! Later that morning I went to hang out with some kids who were on the beach. One of the girls, Leah, has been around me since I arrived and she was part of the children’s ministry that morning. Another girl was named Esther. So, I asked the kids if they knew the story of Esther in the Bible. They said “no” and so I said “Well, there was a king and he was looking for a queen…” Immediately they were captured with the story and what the outcome would be. I told them about how God used a girl like Esther to save His people and how He placed her in just the right place at just the right moment to do that. She was willing to be used by God and He gave her the courage that she needed. How blessed I am – and we all are – that God would use us. That He would place us where He wants us so that He could work through us.

Today is Sunday – it is a day of rest. We had a worship time this morning with all of the staff with prayer and sharing and singing. We listened to a sermon that Derek downloaded from the internet. Today and tomorrow there is a surfing competition so we will all go and see that. Some of the guys in the surfing competition have spent time at Hope for the Island. Recently there was a team of guys from Maui who ran a sports camp and a lot of them connected with the surfers here. So, we will go and support them.

My desire was to come here and be a blessing, but it is me who is being blessed. I will serve however I can, but am also receiving so much from the Lord.