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.