Hi Friends and Family!
Today we had our first full day in country and hit a new level of exhaustion as we jumped full force into the day’s tasks. After a quick breakfast and bracelet making lesson from Ella Joy, we hopped on a jeepney and spent the morning playing with kids at a feeding. They had boatloads of energy and kept us moving with races, hand games, and basketball. After stopping for currency exchange (Fun Fact: there are about 55 pesos in a dollar), we headed back to the base.
After lunch we joined up with a team from APU to go to district “T”, which is one of the poorest parts of this city. It’s on Smoky Mountain, which is made almost entirely from trash and gets its name from the way the summer heat makes the plastic smoke. It took us two hours of traveling each way by jeepney, train, and foot. But it was worth the trek because we were able to participate in Youth Lab, which is essentially a youth group. We spent time connecting, had a time of worship, and then heard from a group that had just gotten back from their own missions trip to Cambodia. It was encouraging to see how the global body of Christ was connecting, and to hear how eager they were to serve and share the Gospel even though they had so little themselves. Lauren and I shared our testimonies, and so did a few of the APU team members. We had an incredible moment of confirmation happen during this time. One of the APU girls shared that one year ago, she had a dream about a girl giving Lauren’s testimony after leaving this country last year. It was the same exact story. She also mentioned that she had been reflecting on Proverbs 3:5-6, which is the verse that I had shared in my testimony.
After a closing time of prayer, we headed back to the base and arrived two hours and a lot of vehicles later. We had a late dinner and debrief, and now we’re headed off to bed after a hard, but good, day. Tomorrow we’ll be getting our hands dirty with some trash cleanup and painting.
Thank you for your continued prayers!
Laura and Philippines team
Love the updates and the photos!