Day 11

Sounds like a long time when I look at Day 11. Feels like it too. Today we all sat around the breakfast table and you could just tell it was going to be a hot day. Ironically they served hot dogs for breakfast. At 6:30am the heat was already oppressive. I don't know what the actual temperature was but when the Filipino's are grasping for water you know it's a hot one.

Today we went to Santissimo which is where the Green Box is. We went door to door in the community to follow up after the Crusade and invite them to church. The first home we stopped at we encountered two younger women sitting outside on kubo. This a little bamboo hut kinda thing that is very popular here. We started talking to them and the Filipino we were with, Silver, was sharing his testimony when a rather large lizard crawled onto Jessica. She popped up in a hurry and brushed the lizard off right onto Casey. The lizard ran right up her body, across her face and into her hair. It did a superman off the top of her head. Casey screamed bloody murder and ran for the hills. The look on the 2 women's faces was pretty interesting. Poor Silver waited for the drama to stop and continued on with his story. After Casey stopped crying, we all had a pretty good laugh.

We continued to several more homes and finally the last home we stopped at, our other Filipino interpreter Erwin, shared his testimony and talked to an older woman for quite a bit. He turned to me and said the woman wanted to pray to receive Jesus Christ. I lead her in a prayer through Erwin's interpretation. What a privilege! I had been sitting there trying to stay conscious during Erwin's diatribe, wondering how I had found myself in this position as I poured sweat out in buckets. Erwin snapped me back to reality with the invitation to lead her in a sinner's prayer. It was an interesting example of an ongoing conversation Debbie and I have been having while here. The culture of Frontline is very charismatic and some of the people here seem to attribute everything to God working. Let me give you an example - one guy shared a story how God made a white bread and cheez whiz sandwich taste like the best meal he had ever had. He was serious. He attributed the miraculous to something I would consider mundane. He hadn't eaten anything in awhile, was really hungry and it was really satisfying. Doesn't sound like a miracle to me, just natural hunger and eating. It's easy for me to mock them and think they are just being hyper-spiritual. But then again I wonder how much do I miss in God moving because I am willing to just write it off as something else. I am not suggesting I am going to look for God in cheez whiz sandwich's now, but clearly I am not inviting God to move in my life when I am not looking for how He is working. Sitting in the heat, struggling with the wooziness, I wasn't even looking for God to do something miraculous and what He did was way more than cheez whiz.

After lunch we headed back to Santa Nino. Some of our artists had to get to a rehearsal at the Blue Box for a concert in the evening. I ended up riding around in the truck somewhat pointlessly so when I finally returned to Santa Nino I crashed in my room for a quick napette. The heat was proving to be too much for me.

Romeo and his wife invited us over for dinner that evening before we went to the concert. I was dreading another Filipino meal ,but knew it would be rude to not eat what they had prepared. We walked into his house and there on the table, like manna from heaven, was Tostido's brand salsa, queso, and chips! I almost cried. Romeo recently visited the states and knows how differently we eat so he decided to treat us to Americano food. The main course was pizza. Unfortunately I over-indulged and felt pretty ill the rest of the night but it was worth it.

The concert was really good but it was so hot in the Blue Box. They are working on installed a ceiling which is the next step towards A/C. It is needed badly as I think it was dangerously hot in there. I had to go outside and get fresh air a couple of times. Our students did a great job - especially Allie who did a duet with Rhoda Lynn, Jeff Pessina's daughter. They both have amazing voices and ended with a harmony that gave me chills, which given the circumstances was even more remarkable. After the concert we were going to take the older students out to San Pablo and feed the street children. I really wanted to experience this to better understand where the FTC kids come from but I just couldn't do it. I stayed behind and slept. Apparently it went well.

Today is a little more chill day as we are headed to church in a few minutes. Later all the Frontline staff is coming out from the various locations for a "fellowship". Sounds like fun to me. Only 2 more days left before the long travel home begins. I almost ready to face the flight. Almost.