Hello all!
Hard to keep up with this thing called time, the weeks and months have gone by in such a blur it has caused me to get behind in a lot of my updating, I know I am well past my 6 week deadline, but here are some high lights!
The wheel
Lately I have been having these cravings to drive. I miss driving like crazy, the first time I came to the Philippines I missed it but not this much. It might be because when I was back in Canada I did a lot more driving and my brother and I had our own car which was a wonderful feeling and I do miss that 2000 red oldsmobile and being to just take off whenever (provided my brother wasn't using it). But I think my missing the wheel also has to do with the fact that driving is the ultimate feeling of control and Independence. I am not a control freak, never have been, but like most people I like to maintain a little bit of control in my life, and I loved the feeling of putting my foot on the gass and steering "Tim Bit" (at it was christened after much debate) wherever I wanted. I loved filling it with gas, learning to check the oil, and how it looked after I gave it a good cleaning. All wonderful feelings of control. Basically I feel I have very, very little control in my life right now, God has been stripping me of that. Reminding me I have little control about the way things go on a daily bases. I have this very strong sensation that I am not driving my own life, that God is, it is not a situation of "Jesus take the wheel" because Jesus doesn't really want me anywhere near the wheel. I don't even feel like I am in the front seat as that would make me too close to the navigation devices, no i am in the back seat, every once in awhile asking the driver where we are and the answer rends to be "You'll see" and when I ask and when I have think I have figured how long it will take to get to the next place, I am always in store for a surprise. I know this is how God wants it and I also know there is more that God will need me to let go of....
So onto to the updates...
The rest of April went well, and went by fast, I continued to help with daily finances, and other activities, the summer started and we planned more activities, the girls started doing self defense classes again, we had some worship dance sessions, and ate Charisa and ate Grace did weekly group sessions. As predicted I missed my Canadian home a lot knowing that lambing was happening and I was missing it. Right after Passover Thursday I went through a massive homesick period, it all started when I described to someone how my mom often cooks lamb on the Passover. And then I started thinking about lamb, and starting craving it with an impressive intensity. That just kind of snow-balled into missing everything at lambing this time of year, and I still have a craving for lamb that is unlikely to be satisfied any time soon But that's ok, homesickness makes me feel human and reminds me of the love I have for both of my dear countries.
Easter did not pass without special attention here at Safe. On Passover Thursday I organized a candlelight communion event, using grape juice and soda crackers, we lit candles and took turns handing each other the fruit of the vine and the bread. For some of the kids it was their first time taking communion so we explained what it meant, for one of the girls, it was wonderful to watch her solemn expression as she partook. On the Friday We made hot cross buns, I am not a great bread maker and have never made hot cross buns before, but they tasted pretty good at the end of the day. I taught those who wanted how to kneed the dough, and they all loved it, even the smallest child, even though her hands were too small to really kneed to I put my hands over hers and we did it together. Sunday morning one of the staff members and I hid Easter candy for kids and adults alike, it brought much joy and excitement! Earlier that morning several girls went on a local missions trip with ate Charisa and ate Grace. They had an incredible experience and some of them even brought a woman to the Lord. For those of us back at Safe we made resurrection buns! the kids helped to wrap the marshmallows around the dough and I explained several times that after cooking the marshmallow would disappear, but after they came out of the oven and they opened them up to reveal the empty tomb the little girls were rather disappointed to find no marshmallows inside, until I explained that all the gooieness on the outside was indeed the marshmallow.
Kalinga and more Midwifery
The end of April brought some adventures as I headed to Tabuk for a few days for a wedding. As always I was happy to greet life in Tabuk, even for just a few days.
The next day I met ate Cheryl, (the woman who want to partner with Ellora and I to bring a shelter to Tabuk) Ellora video chatted in and we had a great meeting about the potential of teaming up to fulfill the calling that God has placed in all our hearts. We confirmed we had the same vision and desire and it seems like we are going to make a great team! The timing of when this will come to pass is still unknown as there is much to do, but By God;s grace it will all be completed. We already have a location to begin when the time comes.
ate Cheryl and her husband Pastor Rod with myself near the their property
I then headed to my friend's (the bride) home town where preparations for the wedding the next day were taking place. I was to be an usherette for the wedding, a role that looks a little different here in the Philippines than in Canada. That night was the before party, which is typical for the culture in that area. The couple start the dancing out, and then people pay to dance and all the money goes to the couple. Mostly it consists of single men dancing with the single girls and someone sponsors each dance. This can go on all night, and would have except that not many single women showed and many of them went home early so there were only about four of us dancing at the end and we were fading fast. So the bride took pity on us and at around quarter to 2 AM put a stop to the dance requests.
We rested for a few hours after that and then arose to get ready for the wedding which would begin at 9 AM. The rest of the usherettes arrived and we all got dressed and had our makeup done. The bride looked gorgeous in her dress of lace! The wedding went well they got hitched without a hitch! The other clinic staff (who were also ucherettes) and I took photos together while we waited for a ride back to the reception. There was lots of food for our meal, though I admit I was so hot I didn't eat much, we did a little tribal dancing and all sat together. One of the new students who had been one of our principle dancers the night before was there and she and I had bonded over the last 24 hours. I was so happy I could be there at my friend's wedding, she herself is a midwife and taught me a lot when I was training under her in the past.
We went back to Tabuk that afternoon, The next day one of my other midwife friends and I made plans to travel to Bugnay to see our friend who lives there and go see the the nearby falls. It was one of those perfect days. Spending time with good friends, swimming in the cool falls and then having a long siesta in the afternoon to the sound of falling rain. I spent a lot of time in prayer that rainy afternoon just needing some time to soak everything in.
I traveled with my friend's sister and her little son. Somehow we had actually booked the wrong day, but thankfully there were two extra seats, so the three of us squished together for the 13 hour bus ride. After arriving in Manila I managed to get a taxi to take me to the MRT (he charged me way more than he should have as par usual) but thankfully there was a McDonalds where he dropped me off, and I took time to eat some pancakes and gulp down some coffee....so good. I arrived in Quezon city at the clinic, as was my plan, mid morning feeling dirty and sleepy. They had limited water and only a very little left in the whole clinic. so I took a bath with only about two gallons of water. But then the water truck arrived and we were able to fill all the buckets and barrels. I was at the clinic for about 8 days, three days longer than expected. There were two births and a labour watch while I was there. I got to so some more prenatals on my own, and spoke lots of Taglish, and was able to understand more than I thought I would, which means my language skills are improving still.
After two full weeks I arrived back in Tagaytay, where I was greeted warmly by both human and kitten. It was good to be back. my cat didn't let me out of his sight for the first 24 hours I was back.
When I returned most of the girls were in Manila teaching at Vacation Bible school, when they returned it had been three weeks since I had seen some of them, since they were still on the missions trip when I left. It was so nice to be with them again. Another One of our residents went to the USA to share her story at several International Justice Mission gatherings. She and her little daughter had a jam packed two weeks but they managed to have some fun as well.
On Other News
One of the churches I attend asked me to share at the Ushers ministry day retreat. Their subject was connecting to people, so I shared about 30 minutes on my experiences with this. It went well and it was nice to meet more people in the church.
That afternoon and the next day I helped a young woman in need, I won't go into details since this is a social media platform so for safety reasons I will say no more. But I was thankful for anyone who had been praying for us during that time and for the strength that God gives.
When the situation had been resolved I returned to Safe exhausted but grateful. However the kids were complaining that I had hardly been present lately and were sad to hear I would be going to Manila the next day for a free talk by Ravi Zacherias. So before heading back to my place I spent a full hour playing Jenga and reading them stories.
The next morning I woke up at 3:30 AM and packed enough things for a possible overnight.
I left for Manila at 4:30 AM and met ate Charisa, ate Grace and ate Red at a McDonalds in Manila, after scarfing down breakfast we began the journey to find the church where the talk was being held. We finally made it. The talk was amazing! I soaked in every word Dr. Ravi Zacherias spoke, he is one of the leading people in Apologetics and speaks with incredible wisdom. I was disappointed when he stopped talking, I honestly could have listened all day. At the end of the talk I totally splurged and bought two of his books.
After eating some lunch (which was another adventure in trying to find a chinese noodle place) ate Red and I went to chrislink to see about what was taking so long with my missionary visa. Turned all we had to do was bring some papers in, fortunately ate Red happened to have those papers with her, so they made copies and then promised that the process can now begin. With a thankful heart we left the building. I decided I would head home that afternoon, ate Charisa and ate Grace were also going to Tagaytay that day but being unaware of how long they would be at the errands I headed to the bus station. I had been praying the line would not be too long, but as most of us know, sometimes God answers our prayers with a no; the line up was the longest I had ever seen it. Thankfully I had a book, the one I had bought earlier at the talk. So I read as I slowly itched my way up the line. an hour later I was on the bus! praise the Lord! turned out I only just missed ate Charisa and ate Grace, they arrived back in Tagaytay about 20 minutes after me.
I went to Manila again for a day with ate Red to attend the first of a series of workshops with faith based non-profit organizations to come up with a good referral system between all of us. It was really great, but I was tired after as I spent more time traveling than I did at the actual workshop :) most of that time being spent in line ups, an hour at the MRT and two hours in line for the bus home. But I learned a lot of patience!
The next day I got to have some quality time with one of the residents we took advantage of the nice weather and sat on a blanket on the grass behind my house, we listened to the cicadas and talked through some things. Language barriers are still hard but love is a universal language.
Some randoms
We finished our worship dance video with the girls! this is something we have been working towards for months, but have finally finished, at least the actual filming part, with crazy schedules we had to stop practicing for awhile and only recently resumed practice, I had also decided to add some choreography involving candle light dancing I admit there was a moment, during filming when everyone's candles kept burning out and I was frantically lighting candles by the light of a flashlight and trying to get kids to keep still, hoping no one's hair was going to go up in flames and ate Charisa and ate Grace trying to get the actual dancing on film that I asked myself what I had been thinking adding things last minute! But it looked pretty cool in the end, and I think everyone was happy about it.
We are looking and praying for a new building and land, whether we find a house already built or buy a lot to build on. This is a challenging and expensive venture but we are praying God will provide in his timing, the house we are living in now, is falling apart in many ways, we only have one working toilet now for 14 residents including kids, a leaky roof, which we fixed but putting in a proper drain for when it rains and a floor that is chipping.
We celebrated Philippine Independence day, by making a cake and one of the girls decorated the national flag on it, you can see the video on my facebook page.
here a few photos from other moments in the last two month
tea time!
mother's day card making
I became an aunty again! meet my newest niece Emma Rose Alice Moilliet
And that brings us up to date but before I sign off I want to bring up a a project of our fellow brothers and sister in Christ. This project is not directly related to my ministry but it is close to my heart. The Christian Church in Bugnay (the tribal village in Kalinga where the clinic has done a lot of outreaches) has been going through a building project for the the last few years, as finances come in they do a little more each time. It is a very old building and is in much need of renovations, it also is not big enough to hold its people, the last time I attended a service there several months ago, people were overflowing to the outside. This is a wonderful blessing in its self but of course they want to be able to contain their members, especially in the rain. In order to finish the renovations they still need several thousand dollars, (keep in mind Canadian dollars go much further in the Philippines) They are not a denomination so the only money that comes in is through individual or foreign supporters, it is a poor village so it is a challenge for them to raise the funds my themselves. Anyway I just thought I would post that here in case anyone felt led to give.
If you feel inclined to you may give through a cheque to my church making to sure to "Philippines Mission, Bugnay Church" in the memo, or you can also send direct to me via e-transfer or my paypal account which you can find on my blog here. However if you want a receipt you need to give through the church. my email is vmoilliet@gmail.com
Thankfulness
-Progress in getting my missionary visa
-God's provision, truly I have not felt in need at all since arriving, I have had freedom to take the girls provide and teach baking and other special treats. And it is all because of the faithfulness of the givers for this ministry.
-For all that I am learning
-For the future ministry beginning to unfold
Prayer
-A new house for safe!
-For the future ministry in Tabuk
-For health for everyone here at Safe, just today two of our girls are feeling flue like and I am feeling my immune system fighting at something
-For the staff at Safe to be healthy both physically and emotionally
-Language (as always) :)
Thank you all for your prayers and support Many Blessings as you head into your summer! until next time.
thesheepishmidwife
