The last week and a half in the Philippines has been wonderful. We have so many opportunities over the next 5 weeks to love and serve the community here. We have an independent schedule. Four teams out of the six on our squad are staying here at the Yungen Ministry Center. We are in dorm style living and get to choose what we want to do and when we want to do it. We can do construction on a maternity center. Right now, that looks like moving mounds of dirt to make a foundation. We can work in the children’s home & nursery, go to the girl’s home and spend time with “Josie’s Angels,” tutor kids, substitute teach, go to daily feedings for the nearby communities, have Bible study with the local girls, spend time with kids on the street, etc. Basically, ministry can look like whatever we want it to this month.

Africa was easy. Ministry was planned out and done as a team. We were usually cut off from the outside world; internet was a ride into town. There were less distractions. Now we’re surrounded by amenities. It’s like being back in America. If I wanted, I could sit in my room all day and do nothing…watch movies, stay on Facebook, and let life and its opportunities pass me by. The only difference is that I’m surrounded by a group of people who are going to call me out of that old way of living and call me up into the greatness God has for me.They’re not going to force me into doing anything, but they are helping me face myself…a person I’ve been trying to avoid dealing with for a while now. This is going to be a key month for me growing in self-governance, initiative and time management…making God the priority and dealing with myself in areas that I struggle with.

Over the past 12 hours or so, I’ve been realizing my lack of self-abandonment and intentionality on the trip thus far. If I were to fly back to America today, I feel like I’d still be, in a large part, the same person I was when I left. I feel like I’ve let God bring a lot of my issues to surface, but I haven’t completely acknowledged them and let Him deal with them yet. I haven’t been letting Him transform my mindset and my habits. I’ve been bottling things up and not dealing with them – just distracting myself from them. It’s easy to say I’m going to go on the World Race; I’m going to get to do some awesome stuff, go to some spectacular places and God’s going to work in me and through me. It’s something quite different to actually let Him dig out the junk in your life and get to the core of your heart. And that’s what He’s after…our heart. For me at this time, that has God getting at my core by placing me in a setting that’s very similar to home and giving me a choice. I have a choice to be the same person or finally surrender myself, my selfish desires and make the choice to let HIm change me…and not to just change on the surface, externally, superficially etc, but to change in my very core. I’m struggling to write a conclusion here….because there is none yet. This is what it's been like spiritually for me here this week. Basically, I'm pumped to be here and I'm excited/anxious/ready to be challanged and changed.