Hello from the Philippines! WOW it has been just amazing here so far! I am so excited to finally fill you all in now that we have been in the rhythm of our new ministry here. So, you can expect this blog to have information about where I am staying, how ministry works, traveling to get here, and both highlights and challenges during this season! Thanks for being to willing to follow along my journey. It has been over 5 months on the race and have about 3.5 left! Crazy!

Travel to the Philippines

Starting at the beginning of our journey to the Philippines, we left Da Nang, Vietnam on January 7th at 11pm by train. We took a 20 hour sleeper train to Ho Chi Minh City for a mini debrief. That ride was fun as a team and with the boys team as well. We slept in little rooms with 2 triple bunk beds (6 people total). We booked the cheaper beds which were the top and middle beds meaning most cars were 4 racers and 2 strangers. Finding a bathroom that wasn't a squatty potty and had toilet paper was a challenge but was a fun scavenger hunt. We arrived in Ho Chi Minh around 5pm and spend the night catching up with other teams. We stayed in a hotel that was above a coffee shop that was open 24 hours! That was a nice space to have some bible time or have one-on-ones. These couple of days consisted of worship, debriefing Vietnam, and preparing for the next country! It was a restful couple of days, however, there has been a lot of heaviness on our squad with other team issues and friendships things that weighed me down.

We left for the airport around 11am on Sunday. This travel day was supposed to be a breeze after the 78 hours to Vietnam with only 1 short flight, however it did not turn out that way. After some issues with our tickets, we barely made it through security to make our boarding time, and then sat on the plane for 3 hours because there were technical problems. They eventually got us all of onto a bus to a different terminal, sat inside for 2.5 hours, and then the flight was officially canceled. The airlines would pay for a hotel for everyone, so we left that seating area, went through customs again, got our bags, and waited for a bus to get to the hotel for a long, long, long time in a dark parking lot next to the airport. We eventually got there at 2 am. 3 hours later, we woke up for airport round #2! Sat on the plane again for over an hour before taking off, but finally made it to the Philippines! We took a 2 hour bus ride to our ministry site, had dinner, and went to sleep!

Ministry in the Philippines

Here in the Philippines, my team along with 2 other girl teams (Teshuva and Salt, my team is Akouo) are staying in Cainta, a suburb of Manila. Charis (other girls team) is staying in Tondo, which are the slums and the most impoverished area in Manila, and probably in all of the Philippines. The boys are staying in a neighboring town called Antipolo. Even though we are spread out, our entire squad is with the same ministry, Kids International Ministries (KIM) which has so many opportunities to serve in the communities here. I am staying at the KIM base which is a large compound with housing, offices, game rooms, a pool, and basically a home base for everything. The pool is a big deal here- we can invite kids from the street over to swim which is something they look forward to every weekend. It gets them through the doors into this safe, Christian community and shows them the love of Christ in such a simple way. Kids from the children's home also come and swim often as well. And if you know me, you know I LOVE the water! Swimming, water activities, anything. I worked as a lifeguard for 3 years if that gives you an idea. There are 2 slides and 2 jumping platforms. If you are familiar with Cascade Falls in Ankeny, the highest one is probably double the high dive there!

My team and Teshuva stay on the top floor in 2 big rooms full of bunkbeds. It is very fun and feels like camp! I put up notes and paintings on my wall to personalize my space! Salt lives a minute up the road at the girls home. Each of our teams is assigned a different ministry. Teshuva- outreach, feeding programs, and youth group. Salt- children's home. Akouo (my team)- school ministry at Cuatro Christian School!

Here at CCS, I am known as Ms. Ellie! I even have a lanyard to make it more official! The first 2 weeks, Savannah and I were assigned to all of the MAPEH (Music, Art, PE, Health) classes which was so much fun to be apart of. I even got to teach ukulele a couple of times already! It is fun sitting in the classroom and seeing how school runs here, but it's even more of a blessing to get to know the students! I have been in 7-11th grade classes so far and absolutely adore all the students. I was introduced to 150 names in only a couple of days! Everyone is very open to talking with us and love when we come into their classrooms. The first few days of class were simply getting to know the students, more at surface level, but I had some really deep conversations with some 8th grade girls who really opened up to me about some struggles they are facing. I got to share some encouragement with them and prayed over them. These kids come from all sorts of backgrounds (which I will hopefully touch on in a later blog) and being a constant, listening ear for them is really impactful. Since we have been in the school for 3 weeks now, the students are very familiar with us and come up and talk to us all the time. We are all within 5 year of age which really isn't that much so its cool to be able to connect with them in that way too. When we aren't in the classroom, we have helped with organizing the library, grading tests, and tutoring. Really whatever they need help with!

Challenges

Besides all the change in ministry and location the past month, there have been some other changes and hardships that I would love to share about and ask for prayer over. And even when I talk in other blogs about the highlights, there are hardships along the way too. In all honesty, I have been feeling pretty defeated recently with a lot of challenges that have come my way recently that are seeming to just pile up and up. I sat in that place for a while, but through it all, I have realized that spending time with God and trusting His plan for my life is the most helpful thing. Simply reading the Bible, reflecting on TRUTH being in prayer relieves so much stress and sadness.

To give you some more insight, my closest friend on the race left almost 2 weeks ago which has been really hard for me. That pulled me away mentally from being present at school and giving it my all. I also got sick recently for over 3 days which took me physically out of ministry. I would appreciate prayers for endurance through the school day and good health. Please also pray for my friend and other racers who have made the decision to go home as well, that the Lord will meet them where they are at, relieving bitterness, and still a desire to grow their faith even when this season might not be what they have planned for.

Remember the pool I was talking about earlier?? Yeah, it's pretty awesome. I swam with a little girl the other day and taught her some swimming skills. We had so much fun together! To close out our time, we were going to go down the slides together. Not using my lifeguard brain, I decided to climb up the slide. "I have done this so many times, I won't slip" I thought. Wow was I wrong! I slipped off the side while trying to get up and I fell onto the edge of the pool (cement) and my shoulder blade hit it so hard it took a chunk out of the floor. I fell in the water and could hardly move my arm. Long story short, the scapula/shoulder blade is either extremely bruised or broken. Prayers for healing would be appreciated as well. I would love to be able to swim more, and I also can't play PE games which stinks. This is a lesson to listen to the lifeguards at your local pool because even if the rule sounds dumb, it's there for a reason (speaking from both ends of the stick).

Anyways, thanks for reading this blog! Lots of different topics were covered, and if you'd like clarification or would like to chat about anything I am an open book!

Ellie