My mom and I met up in Tokyo and flew into Manila on the same plane. We were thankful that we--and our luggage--all made our connections.
We arrived late at night and it was past midnight when we arrived at our guest house. We are staying at a SEND International guest house so everything is nice and clean; basic, but we have A/C in our room. Yay! However, there was a dog that barked incessantly right below our window. I was thinking many unkind thoughts about it and wondered how on earth it could bark so long without getting hoarse. It's probably had many hours of practice to keep it's voice box limber. UGH.
We leave today after lunch for Zambales, about 4 hours north. We have been told it is much more primitive but we will be staying in a compound of a Philippine family who runs a school and clinic there. We were told last night that the mosquitoes are fierce since the typhoon hit, so we are going to try to locate some bug spray in a little bit. We would love prayers that our team would stay healthy!
Speaking of health, Jerry, our fearless leader (who was also on our Honduras trip) had his first-ever gallbladder attack last night. He was in intense pain but is feeling better this morning. Having just had my own bout of the same thing a few months ago, I was able to commiserate.
I have no pictures to share yet since we got in late, but hopefully I will be able to take a few today and share tomorrow (providing we have wifi there).
Oh...I almost forgot... my church family donated medical supplies to take and I was trying to make sure my suitcases were not overweight. As I'm sure you know, you are allowed 50 pounds for each checked bag. Our scale at home broke, so I had to estimate. The larger of the two suitcases had most of the medicines and at the last minute, I shifted a few things around to try to balance the weight between the two, hoping the large one wouldn't be over the limit. I had my camera and computer in a rolling carry-on, and two large suitcases. Schlepping all that stuff by myself was a bit difficult and I just wanted to get rid of it. I didn't want to be opening and re-arranging at the check-in, so I just prayed that God would help me get it right. I hoisted the heaviest one on the scale at the check-in counter and held my breath. It was 50 pounds right on the nose!!! I couldn't believe it! (Oh me of little faith!) Would it have been a big deal if I had to have rearranged things? No, but it was just so nice that God took care of it. It was just His way of smoothing the way and letting me feel His Presence. And maybe His way of making up for the stinkin' lack of Starbucks at JFK. What's that about, anyway?
