Rollin' down the river

There's something so relaxing for me about watching leaves float down a little creek. I love how they drift along on top of the glassy surface without a care in the world. Then they bobble down the miniature rapids and pop back up to the surface. Only to get caught in a pool where they swirl around in circles for a bit, and come out the other side just being carried along wherever the current takes them. You may be wondering why I'm talking about a leaf... Well, I brought it up because it perfectly describes our last few weeks.

A pretty little creek out by Opal Lake in Oregon

For instance, a glassy surface we floated on was in early January. We attended our Field Conference, which was so refreshing. We had the privilege of meeting our co-workers working in all parts of the Philippines. There are missionaries from countries all over the world serving with NTM: places like Germany, Northern Ireland, Australia, Faeroe Islands, Canada, South Africa, and many more. We had such a good time getting to know them and hearing about all the different works they are in.

We were swirling around in circles while staying here in Manila for three weeks gathering supplies for our house. That doesn't seem like a very difficult task, but you would be amazed at how your head starts spinning while making decisions in the middle of a ginormous mall with people on every side of you. Praise God, we still have our sanity :)

We bobbled down the miniature rapids while looking for housing out in Bataan. We made several trips out of Manila, which is no easy task... only to arrive in Bataan to find that the owners of the homes we want to rent aren't available at that time. Then the bright side would pop up and we would get into a house that we weren't even looking at originally. Life is different here. It moves SOOO much more slowly than it does back home, and we are SOOO American! God's teaching us to slow down and wait for Him. We made our way to Subic Bay a couple of times to check out appliances and be overwhelmed with even more decisions. It's a blessing though that the appliances we were hoping for are actually available out there. (Note: We didn't careen over any waterfalls by the grace of God and much prayer from you all back home.)

Now we are floating along at a rather rapid pace as we move out to Bataan on Thursday. We will finish packing and buying last minute things today. We may even get to start language study next week! Woohooooo!

This creek is our life right now, but God is the current moving these little leaves to every part of life he wants us to go through.

Thanks for your prayer, it's working!!!

P.S. I don't have pics of the house yet, but I will hopefully get them up before the weekend.