Thoughts Today

"He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. . . The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. "
John 1:2-5, 9

I guess I never realized before just how intense these words are. Darkness does overcome manmade lights: candles, lanterns, car lights, flashlights, street lamps. These barely touch the darkness; it consumes them. The SUN is required to truly conquer the darkness. The sun chases night away.

So the light of the Son of God, overcomes the darkness of evil and sin. The efforts of men alone are as nothing. But the SON prevails.

Outreach #2

Here are pictures from another awesome outreach. We spent a day taking tuberculosis medicine to a woman in a remote village. If you want the unabridged and complete story go to Tim and Bethany's blog . Bethany is one of the students in my class, and Tim (who is her husband) went on the outreach. The story is quite good...I'd encourage you to read it.

The sunrise on the way to the mountain

Attempting to keep off the pesticides which were raining down on us (blue tarp has many uses!)

Breathtaking...

One of the three rivers we drove through (not the one we got stuck in).

The river where we got horribly stuck.

The mountain water that causes so much pain:
not drinking it = pain from dehydration
HOWEVER
drinking it = pain a day or two later. :)

Getting stuck in some serious mud...

Finally the top of the mountain...now we just have to backpack down into the valley.

Hiking...

Whew...made it!

Mordegai explains the medicine.

Picture of the Week #5

This is the ambulance for Mercy Maternity.

Normal in the Philippines

Last week I got the amazing opportunity to go on a two day outreach with Laura (one of my roommates) and some people that she knows. We drove four and a half hours in the back of a truck to a town between the mountains and the ocean.







Laura and I took way too many blood pressures to count. After taking one woman's pressure, I told her, "Normal. It's normal." But, just before I said that, a man leaned over her shoulder and asked me my name. All he heard was me saying, "Normal. It's normal." So then, he thought my name was "Normal". He proceeded to tell everyone that I was named Normal!





We met a lot of Filipinos.





Also, we watched Mordegai (the missionary doctor we went with) extract 167 teeth in just one afternoon. Ouch!! I don't have a picture of that now (I was too busy watching him to bother taking pictures :), but if/when I get one, I'll be sure to post it as picture of the week. The infections underneath some peoples' teeth were horrible, but they'll feel better now...once their gums heal.

After the teeth pulling, someone gave their testimony to the crowd that had gathered, and Mordegai showed some videos (pictures of other outreaches he had been on, the Filipino Jesus film, a National Geographic movie about the ocean, and others).

We ate a lot of rice, kinilaw (a mixture of raw tuna, cucumber, onion, ginger, and hot chilis...very good!), fish eyeballs the size of golf balls (okay, so I didn't eat a whole one), fresh coconut juice (my favorite!), more durian (it's starting to taste almost good), chicken, and banana cake.



So, now you know a little more about being Normal in the Philippines.

Picture of the Week #4

This is the whiteboard in our living room. Technically, it's only for announcements, but sometimes those announcements get a little, well, shall we say "out of hand". :)

Outland Adventure

Last Saturday, all of the new students and a few of the old students spent most of the day at the Outland Adventure ropes course.



The McNeils use the camp as an outreach for children in the schools here and for other groups in the area. They use the challenges to teach teamwork, trust, and communication. Many kids have come to Christ through their outreach.

So, they gave us the opportunity to experience the camp, putting us through some of the challenges.



We did a lot of climbing, jumping, balancing, and hanging from harnesses. It was an awesome time to build our teamwork and to get to know everyone better.





I can't wait to do it again with the new students next year!

Picture of the Week #3

Just remembering good times. :) Hmmmm, I miss my most awesome bodyguards.