Who Can FULLY Prepare for All the Blessings?

A commercial fishing boat at sunrise

     So the next time you're at the beach, remember that there's a star for every grain of sand.  And for every star, there's a thought about you in the heart and mind of your Father." ~Jon Courson



It feels good to finally share and publicly ponder our adventure to the Philippines!  It's a little daunting to think I'll share all our insights in one post because I don't think we've even fully processed the whole experience!  Therefore, I'll share what comes to my heart and then in subsequent posts they'll be more!!

Precious children at the CCC program

We all agreed, without hesitation, that our favorite part of the whole trip was the Filipino people.  They have the most beautiful, giving, kind hearts!  They smiled freely and frequently; they gave sacrificially; and they loved fully. Our hearts were filled time and again by their love and culture.

We quickly learned that one way they like to give and serve is through food.  So, we ate probably 3x more each day than we do in the States, but they cooked and prepared tirelessly so there's no way we could decline.  We (Doug and I anyway) found that we had to eat small portions at each house to be able to receive the food offered at every house.  The boys (two teenagers!!) found the over-abundance of food to be quite wonderful!  We definitely found our favorite dishes to be adobo, pancit, spring rolls and fried bananas!

One of many gorgeous orchids

Amongst the beautiful, smiling faces and warm hearts we encountered we were treated to gifts to the senses:  the plethora of tropical, blooming flowers; the rich, lush agriculture; the aquamarine ocean waters; and yummy, aromatic, Filipino cuisine.  Our 300+ pictures are a testament to all of these!

The view from the church at Calapadan

One (of many) of our favorite memories was visiting the church in Calapadan.  We rode in the van to Esperar and then jumped on motorcycles to finish the amazing trip into Calapadan.  It was quite a ride...that I LOVED!!  Once we left the village, we turned the corner and dropped down into the most beautiful rice valley.  It was breathtaking how gorgeous it was.  The church overlooked this expanse...what a view!  Pastor JoJo opened the door into this mountain region because his family is originally from there.  We received the most incredible gift, a bag of bananas, and it was so monumental because we knew it was given sacrificially.  Did I mention I had lots of opportunities for tears, happy tears, on this trip?!

Multiple times while preparing for this trip we prayed the Lord would go before us and with us.  WOW!  He did not have to tangibly show us how He would do that, but boy did He ever.  Come the end of the trip we had seen His fingerprints over so much and so many.  But, to confirm His presence He showed up again on our way home....before leaving the US we had a flight change that would not allow us to make an international, connecting flight.  So, we worked diligently with our travel agent to have this changed.  Well, all the puzzle pieces began to fall into place when our flight out of the local airport was late, which originally would've made us miss our flight in Manila.  When we arrived in Manila it was raining, and that was a bit odd because they were just beyond their really rainy season.  We boarded our plane to LA and thought nothing of it.  Upon arriving on US soil, I turned on my cellphone and texted a few people to let them know we were back.  At that point my brother responded and said that he was glad we were safe as he'd read that there was a typhoon in the Philippines and people were being evacuated.  We touched bases with our friend, Steve, once we arrived in Vancouver.  He shared that after our flight out of Manila, all flights were cancelled due to the typhoon....God was so good to get us out!  That was not luck; that was His personal care and protection over us!

Enough ramblings for this post...there will be another one soon with more treasured insights and stories!

Just before jumping on motorcycles to go to Calapadan

Thanks for sharing this journey with us!  For us this is/was a forever, life-changing experience in 2015.  Praying as the new year approaches that you will expectantly look, listen and ask the Lord to reveal the plans He has for YOU!!

Grateful beyond words~

Doug and Noelle