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Another week spent in Manila in Ortigas at the Sack's house. We stayed with a rookie missionary family who have been here a little more than a year, Jerome and Heather Sack, along with their adorable children, Halle, Hawk, and Manny. It was really such a great week spent with them, and I know they are going to do great things in all the years they are going to spend here serving the Lord!

We also spent a good part of the week working with a college campus organization called Chi Alpha. For those of you who don't know, Chi Alpha (XA) is a Christian Fellowship for college campuses all over the world. Its name comes from 2 Corinthians 5:20 which says, "We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God." It's a place for students to go and have fellowship, grow in discipleship, and praise the Lord together. Anyway, I'll talk more about what we did with XA below.

We celebrated the 4th of July here! It happens to be Independence Day from the U.S. here, too, so there were celebrations. We celebrated with a BBQ with many missionaries. The ironic thing was that the host missionary was British, so he called it Thanksgiving instead, being thankful of course for getting rid of the rebels ;) But, seriously, it was really a great time, and we had a wonderful time meeting and talking with missionaries. We ended the time playing Settlers of Catan. I'm even more thoroughly convinced now that it's a missionary game, seeing as the only time I play it or hear it mentioned, it's around missionaries. This is a good thing, and I was very excited to play!

After church on the 4th, we went to a memorial cemetery of WWII. Many, many soldiers are buried here, especially those who are unknown. It was a beautiful cemetery and definitely moving reflecting on those who fought for freedom, both Filipinos and Americans.

On Monday we teamed up with another missionary couple, the Daileys. They work with children's feeding programs all over Manila. This day we went to the largest squatter area in Manila, Baseco. We held a program for the children, teaching them about David and Goliath, singing songs, making balloons, painting their faces, playing games. It was an awesome day. We also got to help serve them their food. Ashely and I also taught a women's Bible study for the moms. It's amazing how the children live there. There is no running water, no toilets, hardly any electricity, and the living conditions are unbelievable. Trash is everywhere, and the houses are simply shacks made out of whatever is available. Over 30,000 people live there. The feeding program and the church that hosts it really makes such a difference, as they've been able to minister to the families and even provide school for the children. I so enjoyed ministering there!


Tuesday was spent at PUP, Polytechnic University of the Philippines. It has one of the strongest Chi Alphas in the U-belt of Manila. We did mostly promotion and outreach to the freshman all day and then held a service in the afternoon. It was a privilege seeing what God has started and is growing at that university!
Wednesday was spent at another university, University of the Philippines Los Banos. It has a well-established XA. It's such a beautiful campus, and it was awesome walking around it all day handing out the Book of Hope and inviting people to the service that evening. I've noticed that people are way more open here to receiving things and listening to you, definitely more so than Purdue. Two girls I met even came to the meeting that night and looked like they're going to get plugged in to the body there. It was awesome! We were blessed to hear their worship team play that evening; it was so genuine and beautiful. I can't wait to see how God is going to move in and through this group!


Our last two days were spent in the public high school realm, handing out the Book of Hope. It was an awesome couple days of meeting students and talking to them. We were even able to have them fill out contact cards and prayer request cards and have them turn them in to hopefully get them connected with local youth ministries and counseling if needed. God is certainly using the ministries down here to touch lives, and it was awesome to be a part of it for a couple of days!


So, it's goodbye to Manila for now. I praise God for the awesome ministry opportunities we had while we were here. But for now, it's off to Bohol and then to Baguio and then a tribe way up north! Our team will be splitting up the last two weeks, so please continue to keep the team in your prayers as we fly and boat to different islands.