Family Family Family

It's hard to believe we've already been here in the province for a week now... and that we'll be heading back to Manila very soon... but everyday has been busy with seeing relatives and running into old friends everywhere we seem to go. This shot was taken just before we left for Mahighag for a day of swimming at a natural spring that was channeled into a great man-made set of pools. The water was very refreshing (ok... just another way of saying extremely cold) but with the heat here it was still a great way to spend an afternoon.

And we've seen some rain. Everyday it's rained in the afternoon and then into some of the evenings... and because of the rain, it's green EVERYWHERE.

A Trip Like This is All About Family...

It’s hard to believe it’s been over 7 years (7 yrs and 7 mths to be exact) since our last visit to Molave. The older folks really haven’t changed much… but their kids… oh my, it’s amazing their changes as many of the kids we remember are now young adults. That in and of itself reminded us that it’s really been way too long since our last trip here. Now the question is "will we come sooner than 7 years before the next visit?" well, only time will tell, but for now it’s time to enjoy seeing everyone we haven’t seen in years.

While Out at Sea...

... it’s really easy to get the "bug" to want to be back out at sea… the unlimited visibility past the horizon, the billowing summer (rainy season here) clouds towering to 30,000+ feet into the sky… the sound of the water peeling off the bow of the ship as it cuts through the sea… the awesome night time viewing of the uncountable number of stars with a new moon in full effect (really reminded me of those night time watches as a Deck Seaman during WestPacs deployments and looking for these same kind of boats so we didn't run them over) … seeing two shooting stars, many flying fish, and at night the sea lit up with the lights from small little fishing boats (I counted 35 ‘little lights’ on the second night) … and some very strong heat lightening. All in all… these are the very reasons we decided to take the boat from Manila down south… Thanks be to God that no typhoons were on course during our travel, that’s an answered prayer for sure : - )

And they Moved the Departure Location of the Piers!

It was a little funny… the cab driver was getting ready to turn towards the waterfront area that foreign cruise liners would pull into so I told the guy… "uh, don’t the WGA ferries depart from over the next bridge down on the edge of Tondo?" His response, "as far as I’ve known they leave from here." Well, I had the guy go straight just to check… but sure enough, they had indeed moved the piers to this new location. And oh boy, has getting on the ferry changed here in the Philippines. All luggage had to go through X-ray machines… then all luggage (including hand carry stuff) had to be sniffed by dogs… and then they when you passed through the final ticket check counter, they scanned the bar-code on your ticket… and then took a web-cam photo to tag to your ticket for their travel records… I’m amazed at all the new security measures in place… but it does give a sense of security when traveling by sea. Even on the boat there was a small military contingent, just to make sure all went well. The boat departure time was 7:45 pm… but while waiting to get on the boat we got to experience a regular rainy season phenomenon (as seen here in the pic) … it rained :0 but it never cooled down, it just got a little more sticky…

We're Here in Molave...

We arrived in Manila just as scheduled on the 11th... and made our way to the boat… again, just as we had hoped. It was actually quite amazing to see Roxas Boulevard with so little traffic… and so CLEAN! Maybe the fact that we were traveling on Monday the 11th… the day before the June 12th Filipino Independence day celebration contributed to the missing traffic with people making it a 4 day weekend instead of working on Monday and being off on Tuesday too. Either way we were happy to make our way to the pier with no delays.

Charlies AnGeL's

Charlie might not have known it but there's another group of Angel's out there... We've made our way to Abu Dhabi for 2 days on our way to the Philippines... and it has been great to see Helen, Jerry, and MaLou... the last time we visited with Helen and Jerry was in Italy in 2000... so it's been quite a while since we've seen them.

Abu Dhabi is in the middle of its own growth phase (just like Dubai)... it's amazing to see 7 lane wide traffic lights and all the shiny and neatly arranged buildings here.

It's funny, the temperature is about the same as back in Cairo... but it feels much hotter because of the humidity... 38 degrees with 80% humidity feels like 42 or so back home with 30% humidity. Last night we had a very nice Thai dinner, thank you so much Jerry and Helen for all your hosting you've done while we were here.

Next stop... Manila.

Anticipation

There are so many things that we anticipate. For me this week we had an inspection of the operations at work ... and there was much anticipation before hand... to the point of it actually being unhealthy (loads of anxiety)... and our Father tells us to be anxious for nothing... and with that in mind the prayer became "Lord, give me wisdom to prepare things... and favor with the inspector when he's here..." and now that I'm on the other side of the inspection... things went well... all the glory is to God!

Now today... all four of us have a heightened sense of anticipation... but this time it's in the positive form... as we leave for vacation tomorrow for three weeks. It's been four years now already since we've seen our relatives in the Philippines... so we're really excited to go back and enjoy a few days in the beautiful Philippines. For Mia this will be her first trip down south... and for Ahte it'll be the first time since '99... so... they'll get more attention than they can even imagine :-) As for the site... I hope to make at least a weekly update while we're out... so stay tuned.

Today while doing a little reading... Mark Batterson was ed-u-ma-kating (you have to read it like that and think of a southern accent... and :-) ... well... you get the picture)... me and he was outlining the word "enthusiasm". This word comes from two Greek words, "en" and "Theos"... and when they're put together they mean "In GOD"! Wow. That's awesome. I mean, our God is awesome, but learning that, I find it hard to believe we as a people (Christian people) are not propagating the word "enthusiasm" more... there's no bands named "enthusiasm"... or book stores.. or whatever... maybe it's just me... but the word enthusiasm just took on a whole new meaning to me. Your thoughts????

Vanity

I can remember when I first set up this blog thinking... ah yes... if old friends are every wondering what ever happened to me, they could just do a simple search for me and... whala, they'd be here at this site...

So I did a yahoo search with my name... and it didn't find this blog... I tried google... surely it would see me and point to the blog... but... NO... a genealogy page came up, and a few other sites ... but not here. I tried a few weeks ago on google... and it still wasn't pointing this direction. But today... "drum roll please"... I preformed the ole vanity search on google and it listed this site as the "top hit" ... yeah... pretty shallow I know... but at least now I know that if (ok I'm not sure why... but still "if") someone were wondering what's up... now they can know.

On the flip site... just a few more days until vacation...

Now I Understand... Summer ='s Good-Bye in Egypt

Well... we're coming up on our one year anniversary of being in Egypt (28 June is the "official" date). And the year we've been here has been a year of building some great friendships in the Lord... but none has been more influential than Duane and Shirley... we knew coming to Egypt was God's call for us... and He was so very faithful to put the right people into our path... like the first day we were in country and trying to "beat" jet lag by taking an early evening walk... and who do we meet but Duane and Shirley. Our heavenly Father is so faithful. We weren't in the country 12 hours and He had already provided the divine meeting with this great couple that quickly became mentors for Sandra and I.

Although we're pretty use to moving and seeing others leave too, there are indeed people that you become really close to, that those times of parting... well, quite simply, they stink. Yes, we know they'll come "someday"... and because of that we seem to have many superficial relationships, kind of buffering in advance for the "loss" of these friends because we know either they or ourselves will eventually be moving on ... but there are those that you just can't help but to become close with... they truly become part of your family... and now we're experiencing it ourselves with the imminent departure of Duane and Shirley. What can we say except thank you Lord for giving us this time together in Cairo. No... they're not dying... they're just going back to the States... but for us we'll miss the face to face interaction... the conversations, the Godly insight, and the mature perspective they both bring to every issue that came up while we've known them here.

Duane and Shirley have been to numerous "going away dinners" in the last few weeks but for sure we were so very happy to host them tonight and wish them all the best as they go back home... where God will allow them to see their own children and enjoy their company for a season... but also to be reassigned in what the Father has for them to do next...

More importantly though, this is a time of renewal for Egypt. As many believers are going back to their home countries, we pray that God will bring more believers of the faith here to continue to be lights in this diverse country... to come along side those of us here now to bring the message of Jesus to the dying world we live in. For those checking this site out... that's our prayer request... that the Father will send servants to our fields here ... Blessing Always.