on the road again!

Lumban, Laguna was our destination this week. We stayed at the Mennonite Church there and had a lot of fellowship time with the congregation, especially the young people. After worshipping with them on Sunday, we enjoyed a meal with the church- see picture below. And the second picture was taken at the Tuesday night bible study. Our host brought out a couple new trucks for Cody and he played quietly on the floor there until 10pm! 

Everywhere we go, Cody seems to make friends... here he is with two ten-year-old boys who thought it was hilarious that Cody said "owie" when he tripped. In the picture below they were showing Cody their town and it kept him occupied and interested for a long time!

We also visited other Integrated Mennonite Churches while we stayed in Lumban. To visit Lacao Mennonite Church we took a little boat across the river with our boys both strapped to us. Now we've taken 7 different forms of transportation!

Here's a picture of some of the youth while we were waiting for the boat to come back and pick us all up.

I have a sling for Makai that I use ALL the time and Darnell uses this fantastic carrier for Cody (as seen in photos above). We couldn't be more thankful for these gifts! Yesterday when we got out of a bus, were swarmed by people wanting to help us, gathered our suitcases, found a taxi on a crazy busy Manila street and climbed into the taxi, we were SO thankful that our boys were strapped to us! And when we climb in a boat with no lifejackets... just strap the kids on and we're good to go! Awesome. Here's a short video clip of us on the boat....

Lumban is the home of our dear friend, host and mentor, Regina Mondez, so we spent an evening in her very welcoming home and her mother cooked us an amazing dinner. I think Reg might have told her we were missing familiar foods so she really spoiled us! Cody was absolutely thrilled to have a banana muffin that tasted just like the ones I make! I was pretty happy too:)

We visited a local elementary school that Lumban Mennonite Bible Church has a partnership with and Darnell also accompanied Pastor Rancap to the Values Enhancement training they do with government employees at the Municipal Hall.

Now, once again, we're resting at a guesthouse in Manila and Saturday we fly to Davao. These last 2 weeks were the ones I was most worried about- a lot of travelling with the boys and staying in a lot of new places- but it has gone extremely well and I am glad to say that our boys are amazing travellers and great little missionaries! We're thankful for the time we had to meet many of the Integrated Mennonite Churches and look forward to partnering with them as we church plant in Manila. 

Northern Travels

We spent the past week travelling north of Manila visiting pastors and congregations of the Integrated Mennonite Church of the Philippines.  I think we were on the road a total of 24 hours with our boys! The whole time we were accompanied by the lovely Reg, who is a wonderful Ate (big sister) to our boys and has become a dear friend to us too. Here's a picture of her and Cody on the 5 hour bus ride from Manila to San Jose City.

In San Jose, we stayed at the church where the bishop and his family (and anyone who needs a temporary home) live. This is the city where we will live for 4-5 months in order to learn Tagalog. We attended a board meeting here and worshiped with them on Sunday morning. It was wonderful to spend time with these lovely people and we're excited to learn their language so we can get to know them more.

Cody made a friend.... the pastor's grandson is the same age as Cody and they enjoyed playing together. Cody brought out his hockey stick and showed everyone his skills:) Of course, everyone enjoys him and he gets a lot of attention!

On Monday we visited Pastor Jojo in Castaneda and he toured us around the area to meet with other congregations. It was great to share our vision with these Mennonite communities.

We also stopped at a church member's beautiful home and enjoyed some amazing dragon fruit from their farm. Cody loved it too:) It was such a refreshing and picturesque setting and Cody ran around with their son chasing ducks!

The next day we headed up north to a small community called Binuangan. It was a long bumpy ride in a van with the boys on our laps. We just kept feeding Cody snacks to keep him occupied and he enjoyed looking out the window... there's always so much to see here! We met Bishop Docuyanan and had a meaningful evening getting to know the church body there. There is also a school and bible college and we met a lot of lovely people. Cody had fun running around in the cooler weather there.  I took some great photos on my camera, but unfortunately can't access them now. But here's one from the church meeting and then of the students (and Darnell- cant miss him!) at the school.

After a busy week we're now enjoying some much-needed R & R at a lovely guesthouse in Manila. We had some great Skype chats this morning and plan on hitting the pool after Cody's nap. This morning was our first time in a week not eating rice for a meal... kind of nice, especially since Cody has become quite the fussy eater and won't eat rice!  ...somewhat of a problem in this country! Tomorrow we get back on the bus and this time we're heading south to visit some more Mennonite churches. And on June 30th we fly to Davao to reconnect with our friends there... can't wait! We're really thankful that the boys are doing well travelling and are healthy and happy. Look how happy this little guy is!!!

This week has been SO different than anything we've ever experienced as a family and we have hauled our two little ones all over the place! So far, it's been a very fun adventure and we're excited for more to come. Thanks for your prayers:)

no more goldilocks for this boy...

We're here!!!

Wow... hard to believe we're actually in the Philippines again! It was a little surreal driving though the streets of Manila from the airport- it's been a while since we've experience the craziness of this city and it's kind of overwhelming to grasp that this is now home. Cody was super pumped to see so many motorcycles, big trucks and buses and even a train all at once!


The flight here went really well. We had the bulkhead seats and the flight wasn't full so we had about 6 seats to ourselves and lots of leg room! Cody fell asleep at 2am before we even took off and slept on the floor in front of us for 8 hours straight and Makai slept great in a bassinet on the floor too.

As we were landing it was just getting light out and Cody was so excited to see the wing of the airplane and the ocean below. He kept saying "wow" with his crazy enthusiasm:)

We had to wait over an hour to get our luggage and for most of that we didn't have the stroller. It was very tiring for Cody and once we did get the stroller, he was asleep in minutes.


I ended up getting comfy on Cody's carseat for a while... who knew my butt could actually fit in his seat, hey!

We were so thrilled to see Dann Pantoja when we walked out of the airport! He flew up from Davao in order to welcome us here and was so great to right aways be with our mentor and friend.


When we got in the van the carseats were piled into the trunk and with some hesitation on my part, we drove through the city with our kids on our laps. It was really strange to nurse while driving! Traffic always moves really slowly here but it still felt wrong to be ditching the five-point harness!


After napping all afternoon we had dinner with some people that Kuya Dann knows- all people who are really passionate about the gospel in action and have adopted a peace theology. Two of them took a course taught by Jack Suderman (former Mennonite Church Canada executive director) that rocked their theology and set them on a different course in life. It was amazing to hear everyone's story and we're excited to already have some people to support us and possibly do church together. 


Our first night in the Philippines was long.... Cody woke up at 2:15am and Makai was up too.  It is pretty much impossible to get a little boy back to sleep who's wide awake and ready to play! He only just went down for a nap now and it's already past noon. But we had a fun morning still and took our first ride on public transportation.... a motorbike with a side car, called a tricycle here. With Cody in our awesome little back carrier and Makai in the sling on me, we took a fun ride and then walked around a great park near our guesthouse. First outing on our own was successful! Tonight we might hit the mall for dinner. So far so good:) 

I just also want to mention how thankful we are for everyone's support and prayers in the last while leading up to our departure. We have felt so loved by everyone at our church and all our family and friends. It's really hard to leave a life that we loved so much, full of so many wonderful people. We will keep in touch, though.... and we're excited to be here! Thanks for all your love.