God is opening doors in Luzon!
Dear friends and family,
We're here at a little Tiki hut restaurant with wireless internet this morning to do some quick emailing so I'll try to write fast. We arrived at our new place at 1a.m last Wednesday morning! It took us around 8 hours from Manila (traffic is much less at night). We had no idea what to expect of the house that we would stay in. We just knew it was "unfinished" and not being lived in consistently for the last 10 years or so. We tried to expect the worst so we would be pleasantly surprised. Sure enough God did it again! He has provided for us beyond what we had ever imagined! The house is owned by an Adventist family staying in Manila now and though it needs a fair bit of cleaning and a few fix-up jobs, it is quite adequate and spacious. It has 3 small rooms (with beds), 2 bathrooms, a huge living room and medium kitchen with a refrigerator and one burner propane stove! AND it has a large garage for the guys to work in! (they will be building a block making machine and a trailer to pull behind our vehicle to haul supplies for our future building project)
The house is located in a little subdivision in the city of Santiago in Cagayan Valley. The houses are close together but it is away from the heart of the city, so besides the neighborhood cats and dogs it's pretty quiet. The owners sat down with us before they left to discuss the arrangements. Basically they said "we want to be a part of this mission, we will not charge you any rent, we hope you will stay forever, and we are family now!" All they ask is that they be able to come stay here now and then. There is no doubt God is leading us to this new area!
When we arrived in the middle of the night, the water pump was broken so we had no water for the first day. (We used the neighbor's bathroom and the hospital's showers) Luckily we had our own mechanics along and they were able fix it in record time. The owners were very impressed and happy to have them now staying in their house! They (the guys) are already doing other improvements on the house as a thank you to the owners for their generosity.
We have been amazed also at how God provided some basic kitchen and household supplies for this new project a months ago through a family at AIIAS that donated everything they couldn't carry back with them when they returned to the states. It is high quality, practically brand new stuff too!
Everyone we've met at the Adventist Hospital and at church has been so friendly,eager to help us however they can, and anxious to work with us. Many are active in medical missions and various ministries already so this will be a perfect place to base, if God continues to open the way. Friday Dan and Dwayne went out to look at some property and they came back with glowing reports of a pretty good possibility of where we could build a hangar/housing and runway. There is an Adventist lady that had already offered to donate a section of her land but there was no stretch of it long enough for a runway. So, one of the layworkers that Dwayne and Dan had met a few weeks ago had started to ask the owners surrounding that land if they'd be willing to sell and so when the guys went yesterday he had already done all the groundwork (they hadn't even asked him to!) He said the owners are willing to sell and he gave the amounts that each want (which is quite reasonable actually). There is a long strip just long enough for an airstrip up on a ridge. The land is out away from the city about 25 minutes south. Today we are going out there again to take some food to the layworkers (who are apparently about to starve) and we will do some more checking around of the land.
Tonight the hospital is starting a week long smoking cessation program which I'll be assisting with (I'll be a small group facilitator). I offered my help and this is what they needed help with, so I pray God will help me! It will be fun. I have "helped" with one other stop smoking program in my life so that is the extent of my experience.
So far everyone seems to be speaking English and Tagalog around here so I will continue to work on my Tagalog even though Ilocano is also common around here. The people being targetted this time for the smoking cessation program will be the affluent and business people so they will all know English. They will wine and dine them for free and it will just be a service to the community and ministry of the hospital.
The vegetables around here are cheaper and there is more variety (tomatoes, zuccini, and celery!). There is even a grocery store with some specialty items we couldn't get in Puerto (salsa, corn chips, soy milk, black beans etc). It's a very crowded little store with tiny isles but there is alot avialabe if you're patient enough!
Wish I could write more but we gotta run. We still have a bit of cleaning and fix-up jobs to do before the house is livable but we are very happy and just excited at what God is doing.
Hopefully next month we will be able to get some internet at our house. Thank you so much for your continued prayers. Please pray for God to direct us to the right land and provide for the purchase of it.
Comments are closed.