May 16, 2019
On Easter Sunday we had caroling angels come to the cottage for a visit. Listen to these angels sing!
seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Australia
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from Macao SAR China
seen from United States
seen from Greece
seen from Greece
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from Netherlands
seen from Malaysia
seen from Yemen
seen from China
seen from Sweden
seen from Malaysia
seen from Malaysia
seen from Sweden
On Easter Sunday we had caroling angels come to the cottage for a visit. Listen to these angels sing!
Celebrating Palm Sunday and our anniversary.
Happy Palm Sunday! We celebrated Palm Sunday in Cagayan De Oro at the Black Nazerno Church. Everyone lined up after mass with their palms for Father to come by and bless them with holy water. It was cool to see people all day carrying their palms around. The sidewalks outside of the church was filled with people selling nicely crafted palms.
After mass and the palms blessings we asked Father Jeffrey to give us a special blessing on our one year anniversary. We received a beautiful blessing in Visaya. It was a beautiful day of much needed rest as we prepare tomorrow to go to another city where all of the missionary families will gather for time together as a community. Please continue to pray for us this week as we come together. God bless!
Happy Palm Sunday of the Passion of Our Lord from the Philippines
College graduates!
We have been on Camiguin Island for 3 days. Currently we have one missionary serving here, Joanne. Joanne wanted to surprise all of our sponsored college students who just graduated with our visit. So she put together a beach outing, an afternoon retreat where the students could reflect on God's goodness the past four years. Thomas and I joining was a great surprise. Being able to hear their reflections on all that God has done in their lives was really beautiful. I taught these students in high school so to see their maturity and growth was really incredible.
Traveling on the ferry from Camiguin Island, the island behind us. Camiguin is where Genevieve spent her first two years serving on mission.
We have arrived.
We made it to the Philippines! Over 48 hours of travel we have arrived. Our first flight out of Houston was very delayed with caused all subsequent flights to be changed. We ended up flying from Taiwan to Hong Kong which was a fun surprise. When we finally flew from HK and made it to Cebu, PH on Saturday night we were ready to crash. Sunday we woke up at 3am to catch our 5am flight to Camiguin Island, only to find it was pushed back till 10am. Oh my! The thought of the sleep we could have had! As I tried to sleep on my backpack in the airport lobby I thought of Saint Paul when he was imprisoned and being escorted to Rome. There boat was shipwrecked for 14 days and ultimately the journey took 3 years. An angel appeared to St. Paul on the ship and told him their lives would be spared, God wanted him to go to Rome to testify before Ceasar. The Lord kept St. Paul safe but that doesn't mean the journey was easy. This helped put our journey in perspective, the gift that it is to be able to fly and easily go across the world. So 48 hours, 5 airports, 4 countries and 2 meal vouchers later I am grateful we are here. Plus I bet St. Paul didn't have Dunkin Donuts to munch on while he used the Wifi to update his blog as he waited in an air conditioned terminal for the next ship.
The view was quite beautiful at the Hong Kong airport!
Our arrival on Camiguin Island!
It's take off time! We have a 20 hour flight ahead of us with one stop in Taipei, Taiwan. We are traveling with Joshua Seilhan who is going back to the Philippines to visit his sister who is going through chemo. We are excited about our pastoral visit to the Philippines, which one friend coined a "mission of encouragement".
I had a blast today with Father Roimar's 11th & 12th grade classes! Father invited me to share my testimony and life in missions with his students. I love recounting the great work God has done in my life, it reminds me He wants to keep doing more! Thanks Pades! #fmcmissions (at San Isidro College)