Island Hopping!

It's summertime now in the Philippines are schools are out! We are enjoying ourselves working with young people to share the gospel on different places and islands throughout the Philippines! So far we've traveled to 4 new islands! Here are some fun pictures to share with you...

Delicious sweet pineapple! This is known as the sweetest pineapple in the Philippines...and it really is!
 It's also really small compared to other pineapples. Cut in a swirly pattern for easy eating ;)

Driving over he longest bridge in the Philippines, the San Juanico Bridge

The memorial in MacArthur Park in Tacloban, Leyte.
This is to remember the landing of MacArthur in the Philippines and all the soldiers who fought here in WWII.

Joe and I helped at orientation for the teams going out this summer to share the gospel with the unreached and hard to reach!
We made new friends and are excited about all that God is doing in the Philippines!

Our new friends we made during orientation!

Going out to another island with one of the summer teams to share the good new of Jesus Christ!

The Dolores river at sunset

Fun-day Monday!

Here are some pictures of Fun-day Monday!! Monday is usually rest day for the trainees out at the camp, but last Monday we decided to have some extra fun instead! We have really enjoyed getting to know all of the participants as we have helped with the training and simply hung out with them all. The 11 week training will end soon and the participants will go separate directions to put into practice what they have learned. We will miss them a lot!

Climbing in the balete tree with everyone!

Next, we went to see the waterfalls and cool off by swimming in them!

Who doesn't want to journal with a chicken?!

Waiting for the sunset...

The Philippine Eagle

Last week we enjoyed getting to know many new friends! We helped to host a retreat to encourage and challenge the leaders of Nehemiah Teams here in the Philippines. God is doing great things here and we are privileged to be a part of it!

One of our afternoons during the retreat was spent at the Philippine Eagle Center. The national bird of the Philippines is the Philippine Eagle, also known as the Monkey-Eating Eagle. These are endangered birds with great hair! And their wingspan can be up to 7 feet!

A Glimpse of Life in the Philippines!

Just some pictures to share with you all from our lives in the Philippines! We are finishing language study and will just be learning and practicing as much as we can on our own now. We will send out a newsletter soon which will include what our new daily schedule is like.

On clear days, we can see the tallest mountain in the Philippines, Mt Apo!

Us and our awesome friends, the Traveling Team!

This picture is very important....it's the first time Elizabeth bowled over 100!!!

CARABAO

Our traditional Christmas date...but Christmas is finally over. Only 8 and a half more months until the decoration come out again!

Balete tree! Joe and I climbed partway up this tree. Such a unique and beautiful design God gave this tree!

Taken from Samal looking back toward our home, Davao.

Happy 2016!

Happy New Year everyone!

We spent some a couple of nights on a different island relaxing at the beach to welcome in 2016! Here are some pictures of this beautiful country!

Most of the sand on the beach is covered by the awning you can see at the top of the picture! It's a nice way to stay out of the sun and stay cool!

Fresh pineapple juice!

We have resumed language study and will finish at the end of January. We still have a lot left to learn but have certainly come a long way in speaking and comprehending! Continue to pray for us to learn quickly and have opportunities to practice Tagalog as well as share the Good News about Jesus!

People's Park

Our new Filipina friend ate lunch with us and showed us around one of the beautiful parks in Davao. It is called People's Park and has a lot of statues and neat photo ops! Also, we have been told that it has pretty lights at nighttime so we will need to find a time to go back some evening.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Even though there are Christmas decorations everywhere, it is now Thanksgiving time! Here are some pictures of food in honor of this holiday:

This is Durian. It is famous here in Davao. What makes durian such a special fruit is that it smells...really bad. It's not allowed on airplanes because of the smell! But many people say it tastes great! The picture on the left is the whole fruit cut open. The picture in the middle shows the fleshy part that you eat surrounding the pits. We have tried it a few times and have agreed that we have other favorites in the Philippines...for example, pineapple and banana smoothies!

Pure MSG. It can be difficult to find certain foods
without it. And it's available to buy in very large quantities!

Giant fish! We have bought fish in the marketplace instead of the
grocery store, but couldn't resist a picture of this very large fish!

 Here we have Halo-halo which in English means mix-mix. This is because it has so many ingredients mixed together! This is a dessert that can be found many places in the Philippines...so we are doing a taste test and trying different ones! Some of the ingredients include ube ice cream, flan, coconut milk, beans, coconut and pineapple pieces, and much more!

We have eaten many Filipino foods but there are still many more to try. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!