Greg and Karmen come to the Philippines!

What a special joy to have friends from home come to visit us! Greg and Karmen are teaching in South Korea this year and had a week-long Christmas vacation... we're so thankful that they chose to spend their holidays with us.

We spent New Years  with some friends from Peace Church, Kuya Boyet and Ate Chi and their kids, at their parents place in a University town a couple hours south of us. We had an awesome view of the many fireworks erupting all around us.... and Manila in the distance was sparkling with fireworks all night. Here's a picture of some of the lovely people we rang in the new year with....

Greg and Karmen spent a couple nights at the beach for Greg's birthday... unfortunately Greg got sick (Karmen first) and they had some rain, but they still enjoyed some beach time, island hopping, snorkelling and good food. When they got back, we took them to the nearby town of Tagaytay, which lies along a crater, overlooking a picturesque lake with an active volcano in the middle of it. Beautiful!

I don't think the view from this Starbucks can be beat!

Several of our Peace Church friends happened to also be in Tagaytay conducting training seminars on Community Development and Integral Mission, so we met them there and enjoyed some sights and a lovely lunch together!

We enjoyed many good conversations, learning about their life in Korea, eating out together, playing with the kids, skyping with Dan and Amanda and introducing them to our friends here. It was so great to connect again with these two lovely people. Thanks for coming to see us, Greg and Karmen!