Flying through the Philippines!

A week anywhere is just not long enough! And that's doubly true for a mission trip! However I suppose it's also better than no time at all. I met up with John Ruotsala, Julie Matson and Jada Questad in Manila and we flew together to Cagayan de Oro. An hour later we were also met by Dennis Hilman, Colin Kinnunen, Fratt Aho, Randy Kinnunen, and Karl Somero. All of us fro overseas et with the team frm Philippines that consisted of many people. I worked mainly with Daisy and Sandy-Lyn Senonis.

Here are a few stories and pictures from our whirlwind week!

The main reason for my trip to the Philippines was to join a team from my church who would be conducting Pastors' training seminars. During the seminars, however, Julie, Jada and I had other tasks. One day we went with Daisy and Sandy-Lyn to make house visits. We visited several families and shared the story of Noah with the kids and adults. Julie and Jada told the story and I added an addition for the adults connecting the story of Noahbeing saved with Jesus coming to save us all. In the picture, the kids are making paper boats to remind them of the story of Noah.

The next day during the training we ran a kids' club so that the kids weren't running madly through the hall where the training was taking place. That was lots of fun--we did two stories: Noah and Jonah. In the afternoon we all split into teams and went to a small seaside village to visit homes and pray for people. We split into teams and my team is shown in the picture. After the house visits, I hung out with the kids and made frogs! Always a good time. :) Afterwards there was a service and a lovely lunch.

The next day we were off to Kitcharo. In Kitcharo we had big services where many different churches came together to worship God jointly. After lunch, we had a program for the kids and another for the youth. Here is Jada with the kids. We were making boats to go with the story of Jesus calming the storm. Julie, meanwhile, was talking to the youth about letting your light shine!