First of all we need to thank everyone for praying for us
because we have been in Manila for almost two weeks now and we feel like we've
landed on our feet! Neither of us has felt really stressed out or worried at
any point of our time here. We've been slowly branching out to new places
around the city, just trying to learn street names, and where all the different
shops are. It’s strange to see so many
American stores here, just today we ate at Bubba Gump… it’s hard for us to find
that in the states, but it’s here in Manila. We’ve been on a tricycle, jeepney,
fx, taxi, and bus so we’re getting more comfortable with public transportation.
We are currently living in the NTM guest house till close to
the end of the year then we will move to Bataan (pronounced batah-ahn) and
begin language study. Bataan will sound familiar to most of you because of the
Bataan death march in World War II. NTM Philippines has a training center there
for Filipinos who are interested in missions to the unreached, which we were
able to visit this last week. We will start looking into housing the coming
months and move out there when our Language Consultants get back from furlough.
We’ve been making all sorts of new friends here at the guest
house and at the little church we’ve been able to attend. Their Sunday service
and prayer meetings are so enjoyable for us. What a privilege to worship with
Christ’s bride all the way on the other side of the world.
This Sunday we will be flying north to visit a tribe there. We’ll
be staying there for a few days with one of our new friends who is kind enough
to host us. We even get fly in a helicopter!
Praise:
Neither of us has gotten really sick, Alex is only battling
a cold.
We’re still in the “honeymoon phase” where everything is
cool.
We were received with open arms and it’s been a pleasure to
get to know people here.
Prayer:
Our trip into the tribe up north could be affected by bad
weather. Pray that God would grant us some clear skies J
Pray for future housing in Bataan.
Pray for us to be sensitive to culture so we can learn
quickly and build healthy relationships.
