Thankful for Opa and his "Christmas Eve Surprise"

I am preparing for a teaching session this week for a Mennonite Youth Camp we are speaking at December 26 to 29. My sharing is focused on the Anabaptist history, and in wanting to relate personal stories of Mennonites across the world, I've been reflecting more on my Opa's story. My Opa, now 97, is a courageous man of peace, who, following his experience as a German Army Captain during WWII, chose to seek forgiveness at the cross and spread and live Jesus' message of peace during his life.

I asked a friend from church to send a version of Opa's story found in the children's book "Plant a Seed of Peace" by Rebecca Seiling (story in photos below). As I read the story of the Christmas he spent on the Russion front when he heard Christmas carols being sung across the enemy lines, it brought tears to my eyes. I thanked God, once again, for the deep impact he has made in my life. 

The last line of this story says, "He never would have guessed, on that winter night during the war, that during his life he would plant seeds of peace in many others." Opa, you have planted this seed of peace in mine and Darnell's lives and we know that if it weren't for the way you have followed Jesus in your life's journey, we would not be here in the Philippines today, planting more seeds of peace. We love you and we miss you this Christmas. Thank you for choosing to live a life committed to Jesus, the Prince of Peace.

Birthday blessings: a car, a weekend getaway, a reunion, and a dolphin show.

On Friday afternoon we bought a vehicle and an hour later we were on the road, ready for a weekend away to visit old friends and celebrate Darnell's birthday. We planned this trip at least a month ago, and while I was excited for the getaway, I was quite set on only going if we already had purchased a vehicle by that time. Our goal was to  have wheels in time for the long trip to our speaking engagement at the Mennonite youth Conference later this month. While we did go on many long bus rides with the kids when we first arrived here, Makai was not a busy crawler at that point- now he won't sit still! Anyways, I really wanted to be able to strap the kids into carseats for this trip. And what do you know, we bought the vehicle without a minute to spare!  Here's our new ride...

Our 7- seater 1.3L Toyota Avanza. 

We spent the weekend at Andrew and Brittany Wilcox's place in Subic (a former military base, they teach at the international school), about 3-4 hours north of us. Andrew and Darnell were roommates at Columbia Bible College when Darnell and I first started dating (2005) and hadn't seen each other since then, as Andrew moved back to Ontario right after his year at CBC. It was very fun to hang out with this lovely couple. Even though I didn't know either of them before this weekend, it sure felt like going to visit old friends! And how cool is it that Darnell got to spend a weekend with his old roommate??? Andrew remembers the evening when Darnell came home from his blind date with me:) Being on the other side of the world from all our friends at home who "know" us, having a reunion like this was extremely special. And they were fantastic with our kiddos....

We enjoyed relaxing afternoons, not having to clean/cook, playing at the park, a nice dinner out, hanging out late while the boys slept, seeing a new town, eating birthday cake and most of all... the Aquarium! We went to Ocean Adventure on Sunday for Darnell's birthday (or maybe more for Cody... its a toss up) and had a blast. The best part was the dolphin show. Cody was VERY excited about watching dolphins (ever since his outing to the Vancouver Aquarium with his cousins he does "dolphin jumps" and always asks me to draw dolphins), but I think we were all as excited as him :) Who wouldn't be.... look how cool this is!

Can you spot the man above the dolphin???

Cody couldn't keep his eyes off the dolphins... or his mouth closed.

We also saw a very entertaining sea lion show. One of the volunteers from the audience actually ended up in the water. So funny!

And the Animals in the Wild show. Cody got to touch the snake.... he was thrilled and a little scared.

So all in all, a fantastic weekend. The only downer was the boys both getting a little sick.... I cannot even begin to count how many throw-ups we've cleaned up since we came to the Philippines! And of course, our new ride was also christened... poor Cody, I think the back seat is a little bumpy:(

A Summer Wonderland???

We were listening to Christmas music today... in shorts! It's not exactly "beginning to feel a lot like Christmas" here and it won't anytime soon. Its pretty much 32C (feels like 45C with humidity) every day of the year. Though we did enjoy Mandarin oranges this week and lit a Christmas-y smelling candle while listening to Boney M, its pretty hard to feel like Christmas when we're hot and sweaty everyday. I know many of you are probably jealous and would love a tropical getaway, but believe me, the heat gets old very quickly. Every time I wear jeans, I regret it. I'm terribly sick of cut-offs, tank-tops and flip-flops and would love to wear (and be comfortable in) a cozy sweater, boots, a wool coat and scarf. 

On the positive side, we can enjoy the pool in our apartment complex, it doesn't take forever to bundle up the boys to go for a walk (sandals and a hat does the trick!) and we get to play outside in the sun (actually only in the shade... we don't dare play outside mid-day). So I will choose to be thankful and share some pictures of December-but-feels-like-a-very-hot-August in the Philippines...

Peace Church and Pantojas!

This past Sunday, Peace Church had the wonderful opportunity to gather as a community with Dann and Joji Pantoja. This inspiring couple are fellow Mennonite Church Canada workers and founders of Peacebuilders Community and Coffee for Peace. We were privileged to be mentored by them during our internship in Davao and many others from Peace Church have also worked with them. 

Near the end of our internship in 2008/2009, Dann and Joji and us began to envision Peace Church. As more and more people (army Generals and Islamic leaders!) were asking us where the church is that believes in building peace, we began to feel God calling us to plant a church- one that is Jesus-centred and follows His radical teaching of reconciling all people and all of creation. We wanted to encourage and equip followers of Jesus to have a faith in action and felt that God was calling the Body of Christ to be a mediator among various conflicting groups in the Philippines.

Fast-forward a few years and this vision has become a reality! What a blessing it was to visit with Dann and Joji and be inspired by their story and encouraged by the affirmation they received during their recent 3-month speaking tour in North America. And having just spent a few weeks living at my parents house, they came bearing gifts from Gramma and made me feel a little closer to home:) All in all, a very special evening filled with excitement, laughter, thanksgiving and hope.

Makai was a little overwhelmed by all the people and clung to my hip
most the evening.

We fit 18 adults and 6 children in our apartment! Just barely:)

praying together.

Cody loves his Tito Dann:)

Prayer Requests

- Finding a vehicle. We hope to find the right diesel mini-van in the next few weeks. We have a few options we're looking into. And being a foreigner always makes things tricky so please also pray that the paperwork, money transfers and insurance would go smoothly.

- We are speaking at the Integrated Mennonite Church's Youth Camp December 26 to 29. Pray for us as we prepare the sharing time and also for the event.

- Language study. We spend two to three hours everyday studying Tagalog with our awesome friend/teacher/mentor, Bryan. Please pray for patience and energy during our daily lessons and for discipline to use the Tagalog we're learning, even when people understand English.

- A quick recovery for Darnell. He had laser eye surgery today! Supposedly the healing process is very quick so he should be fine by tomorrow.... and won't be wearing glasses/contacts!

- Peace Church. Pray for us as we discern scripture together and strengthen our relationships. This weekend we are excited to be able to meet with Dann and Joji Pantoja (our mentors from Peacebuilders Community in Davao).

- Relationship building. We are meeting many people in our neighbourhood and also connecting with a lot of other churches and NGOs in Metro Manila.

- The Integrated Mennonite Church. They are seeking to grow in their identity as a group of Anabaptists churches. Pray also for our relationships with them.

Thanks friends!

Family time!!!

We have been making Saturday our family fun day and are enjoying finding kid-friendly things to do in the morning. Here's a look at what family time has looked like lately....

We LOVE going out for a good breakfast. Since living here, Darnell was really missing abc or IHOP breakfasts.... so we were on a mighty big search for a tasty breakfast that didn't include rice:) We found Gram's Diner and its become a favourite Saturday morning hangout for us. They also have cartoons on in the morning.... can you tell Cody is a little distracted? We don't have a TV at home so this is a treat... makes for quite the relaxing breakfast, actually!

We went to Salcedo Market a couple weeks ago and found some amazing food from all over the world. We feasted on a moroccan dish, chicken curry, samosas, lugau (a tasty Filipino soup), some Italian sweets and mango shakes, and we brought home some sourdough bread, which we haven't been able to find anywhere else. And there was a playground there... perfect!

One Saturday we went to the Mind Museum with some friends. It's just down the street from our house and its an awesome museum for kids.... we all had a great time.

Last weekend we went to Rizal park, named after the national hero. We went for a walk and then headed to another kids museum to escape the heat. Another fun Saturday morning:)

A few weeks ago we had planned to go to a new indoor zoo in Manila, but after some miscommunication, the taxi driver brought us to the Manila Zoo instead. Once we got there we figured we might as well go in (and only $2.50 for all of us!) but it was not exactly what we were hoping for. While Cody did enjoy seeing the animals, the place was very dirty and the conditions for the animals were terrible. We got home earlier than planned and hit the pool to redeem the morning, though.

And today we found the zoo we were looking for!

a chicken wandered into the playroom and nested in the red pop-up
 tent behind me. kind of funny:) 

Right after this photo was taken Cody heard Darnell say
that it looked like the bearcat might jump and he freaked
 out....  "no bearcat up there jump on Cody!!!"

An event-ful weekend

We were busy this past weekend with two memorable events. Friday evening we attended a 20th anniversary celebration of an amazing organization called Samaritana. They are "committed to sharing and living out the Gospel among Filipino women caught in prostitution" (check them out here). It was a joy to celebrate their work with them and make more connections with various people. We also got to hear our friend Bryan's band play, which was a huge highlight. The boys received a ton of attention, as usual, and even though we left way past bedtime (10pm, home at 11:30!), the boys were great- Cody played with some sweet young girls and Makai just enjoyed mommy cuddles. The only downer was Cody throwing up on the way home.... it happens way too often in this crazy driving! Here's a couple photos from the evening...

Saturday afternoon we headed to a 1st birthday party for Gabby, the son of some good friends of ours who are part of Peace Church. We had a great time. The party was at McDonalds in a big event room with over 100 people! Crazy, I know.... but completely normal here to have such a big bash. They also had a dedication service for Gabby at the beginning of the party and then we were each served a double cheeseburger, spaghetti (a popular snack, very sweet here), fries and a sundae. 

In the middle of the craziness when the McDonalds characters were seriously breaking it down to Gangnam style and everyone was laughing and cheering, I said to Darnell, "this would so not happen at home!" While I very much enjoyed Cody's first birthday party (and others'), I'm not sure if anything compares to a Filipino party... they seriously know how to have fun. The MC, a McDonald's employee, had everyone in stitches.... at home it would have been awkward and people would definitely not be laughing like we were! As the saying goes, "It's more fun in the Philippines!" Here's some photos from the party....

cake! each kid said Happy Birthday in the microphone one at
a time.... Cody was very pumped to do that:) 

the birthday boy and his family posing with the characters

enjoying the dance show.

photo booth time. Makai wasn't really into it.

best friends.

Bryan, Rei, John (birthday boy's dad) and Darnell

getting there...

When we travel around the city as a family, we nearly always take a taxi, but the other day we decided to go on a little jeepney/train adventure to get to our destination. Cody was pretty excited.

First we took a jeepney, which is the main type of transportation in the Philippines.... they are jeeps left by the American military after WWII and transformed into mini busses with 2 benches facing each other. They are often super colourful and unique.... anything from paintings of Jesus to a huge Vancouver Grizzly logo. This picture was taken up north in the mountains, but you get the idea....

As soon as we got in, Cody had a little meltdown because he wanted to sit on the bench SO badly but it was too full and he had to be on my lap. 

When some people exited, he got to sit beside his best friend, Ate Reg, and he was very happy :)

We soon squeezed our way out of the jeepney, made our way through crazy crowds and traffic, carried the boys up a big flight of stairs, bought our tickets and waited for the train. Here's what we saw looking down...

And once we got on the train we couldn't move.... we both stood there with a little boy in each of our arms and braced ourselves for the ride. Darnell often rides the MRT but this was our first time with the boys. I couldn't even bend my body to put Cody down- SO crowded!

Here's the crowds as we exited... 

And that concludes our trip. We took a taxi on the way home :)