January 2013

Gethsemane Dweller Church – Hillside

Church Building Dedication

January 22^nd was a very exciting day for my church-mates and me. It was the dedication of our beautiful new church building. When I first joined GDC-H in March last year, our church had no roof, an uneven concrete floor, empty holes in place of windows and no doors. Now we have a beautiful two-storey building with small classrooms and a workers’ room downstairs and the main hall, a small library and a room for meetings on the second floor.

Our church is part of the Gethsemane Dweller Churches, a group of churches here which were established by Korean sponsors. There are now 14 Gethsemane churches in Manila and the surrounding areas. Our Bible School is linked to Gethsemane; it is under the leadership of a Korean missionary pastor, Pastor Lee, who is also the senior pastor of the main church, Gethsemane Dweller Church – Cainta, and our school is located on Gethsemane Prayer Mountain.

Our Korean sponsors came to the Philippines for the dedication of the building. I felt so blessed as I considered the investment they have made into the ministry here in this nation.

It was also so lovely that the PCL students were able to come and support this wonderful event. GDC-H has been so blessed and I am excited for the future of our church. I truly believe that we can shine the light of Christ into our community and that through our church, people can find the hope, love, joy and peace that comes from a relationship with our wonderful Lord and Saviour.

With PCL students at the Church Building Dedication

Preparing for the feeding

The Opening :)



With my church-mate Lanie

Singing an unrehearsed, unexpected 'Special Number' at the Dedication :)

PCL Students Ready to Serve the Food

 

Visiting other churches

One of the things I love about my role here in the Philippines is having opportunities to visit other churches. On January 26 I joined a group of PCL students to sing some praise and worship songs at the anniversary of Jesus Christ, Chanel of Blessing Church. It was quite an experience. After we had sung some quiet, reflective songs, we began an upbeat song, ‘Let Everything that has Breath’. Then one of the electric fans caught on fire! All of a sudden, the church members were out of their seats and once the fire was out, they remained standing and began clapping and praising the Lord with great energy and enthusiasm. So there you go… to add a little ‘spark’ to the praise and worship, simply start a small fire!

 

The next day the same group of students (plus a few more) visited Jesus Christ Potters Hand Christian Church, the church of two students, Bro Ely and Bro Glenn. It was a blessing to again sing to the Lord and celebrate His faithfulness in that place. I had the opportunity to meet the pastora of the students and spend time with some of the leaders for dinner.

I told Bro Johnard that only people wearing sunglasses were allowed in this photo :)

PCL Life

Of course, we continue to have classes, services, administration and events here at PCL. We have passed the half-way mark of semester two and students have completed their mid-term exams. The students have a heavy work-load, so it is always nice to take time for bonding. In January, two of our first year students celebrated their birthdays and their batch-mates surprised them with a special night including praise and worship, games, a short message and of course food. The students always invite me to join them in their celebrations, which I love to do. My contribution was to allow them all to try Tim Tams, which I had brought back from Perth. Not surprisingly, they were well-received!

Games at the Birthday Celebration

 

Having our school located on a beautiful mountain is a wonderful and peaceful contrast to the crowds, traffic and pollution in metro Manila. For the most part, the animals here add to the beauty. But last week, the boys had an unwelcome visitor in their dorm. I don’t know what type of snake it was, but apparently it was venomous. Thankfully, one of the Gethsemane Prayer Mountain maintenance staff, Bro JoJo, caught the legless intruder. I’m glad the snake didn’t come to my room!

 

 

The months ahead

This month, PCL will begin the process of electing the new leadership teams for the academic year 2013-2014. The roles of the student council, the discipline team and particularly the president are such an important part of PCL, so we pray for God’s guidance. I am grateful to our current team who have faithfully served the student body here.

Preparations are already underway for the upcoming Baccalaureate Service and Graduation Ceremony. The graduating students have had their special graduation photos taken. We are excited for the plans God has for the next chapter of their journey in serving Him.



Batch Leviticus - To graduate in March

 

December 2012

Trip to Subic

At the beginning of December, I had a wonderful opportunity to visit one of the most beautiful places in the Philippines. Along with two dear friends, I went to Subic, the home of one of my students, Brother Philip. It was so encouraging to see what God is doing in that place and especially in the lives of Brother Philip’s family who are pastoring a church in that place and overseeing daughter churches nearby. After many years of faithful service and passionate prayer, the churches are seeing a season of great breakthrough and blessing. What an encouragement it was to see the things that God is doing there and to hear about the wonderful way He has been answering prayers. While I was there, I was invited to bring the message to the daughter church in Olanggapo. I had very little time to prepare and I had never before shared a 45 minute message, but I felt very strongly that God wanted me to accept this opportunity and to trust that He would give me the words to say. Of course, God is faithful, and during my Saturday Dawn Watch, He gave me a scripture and some insights to share. I woke up at 3am on the Sunday morning to finish preparing and by the time we were at the church, I was nervous but excited to bring the word of God. The church members blessed us by buying lunch for us and then we headed back to the main church for a combined meeting, where I sang a special number. I enjoyed meeting the youth and some of the leaders in Subic. I also thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity on the Saturday to go out in a boat to a small island nearby with some of the church members to have lunch, have a swim and walk around the island. It is a very beautiful place and I look forward to visiting Subic again sometime.

 

 

 

 

 

Sharing a message at Olonggapo Church

 

With some of the youth leaders in Subic

Christ-must Concert

On December 14, Paul College of Leadership held its ‘Christ-must’ Concert on the Prayer Mountain. The students had been planning and practising for months, so there was much excitement when the day finally arrived. In the months leading up to the event, PCL students had been tirelessly promoting the concert. I was surprised to learn that the promotional poster (with a photo of me!) was even in one of the major shopping malls. On the night, the sanctuary on the Prayer Mountain was jam-packed. The concert went through the story of creation, the fall of man, the death and the resurrection of Jesus through drama, song and dance. It was a wonderful night. The Gospel message was delivered powerfully and the praise at the end of the night was so alive. It was really great to have such a victorious night together before the three-week Christmas break. I felt privileged that the students really wanted me to be part of such a special event.

Many people came to watch the concert

 

Visiting Australia

I was so excited to be able to go back to Australia during the Christmas break. Even though I had enjoyed the most wonderful vacation in Darwin during December, it had been 11 months since I had seen my family in Perth, so I was very excited. I thoroughly enjoyed spending quality time with my family, especially my five nieces and nephews, who continue to grow and are such a joy. I also caught up with lots of friends and spent two evenings sharing about my Philippines adventure with some people who help to support me in finances and in prayer. One goal I had while I was in Perth was to have a sebaceous cyst removed from the top of my head, as it had grown so much during 2012 and was becoming difficult to hide (you might notice that I often wear sunglasses on my head). It seemed like it was going to be very difficult and probably expensive to get it done and I expected that I would have to extend my stay in Australia in order to get an appointment. However, God answered my prayers, as my parents are friends with a doctor who did my operation before Christmas. It was a very minor procedure, but I was so happy and I really believe that God was the one who made it possible for me to be back in the Philippines before classes started again. I loved my time in Perth and even got to spend a few days in Darwin on my way back. 

The Annual Christmas Day Family Photo

Decorating Jesus' Birthday Cake. I'm so happy that Jesus likes Pavlova as much as I do!

My beautiful 'baby' dog Olly (the golden retriever) who now lives with my sister has a new little baby sister, Lala :)

Cute!

The months ahead

I have only been back at PCL for 1 week, but already, life is busy. Mid-terms are just around the corner. We have some Korean visitors coming to the Prayer Mountain in the next few weeks.  I continue to tutor a Korean student who is here for a few months to study English. I am looking forward to all that 2013, my second year in the beautiful country, will hold for me, and continuing to trust that God will direct all that I do. 

October and November

December is just around the corner. I am amazed to think that I have been living in the Philippines for over 10 months now. As always, so much has happened. October and November were particularly exciting months for me. But before I talk about that, here is a short (4 minute) movie I made last month which gives a bit of an idea of the things I have been up to since arriving here in January. I have had some difficulty uploading videos onto my blog, so you can just follow the link to watch it on YouTube.

http://youtu.be/KwJOL_XwBwU

 

October saw the end of Semester One of the Academic Year 2012-2013. The students had accomplished many things and were looking forward to a well-earned break. However, days before semester’s end, we learned that CHED (the Commission for Higher Education) would be visiting the school in only one week’s time to assess PCL for accreditation. We have been working for more than a year towards accreditation, but there were still many things to prepare. In particular, our library needed to be completely reorganised. Thousands of books needed to be categorised, labelled and arranged. So instead of winding down, the students worked, sometimes through the night and into their vacation time in order to be prepared.

Our PCL Cafe. The boys provided refreshments for the students with enthusiasm and their own special style!

 

Their hard work was worthwhile, CHED were pleased with what they saw at PCL and they approved our school. Praise God!

We did it! Hooray!

 

While the students were busy in the library, I was enjoying my first visit back to Australia. I was so excited to step onto home soil for the first time in 9 months. Earlier in the year, I had prayed about visiting Darwin, as there were cheap flights (keep your eyes open because Jetstar often has $99 flights from Darwin to Manila) and May was school vacation. However, I had no peace about going home and I believe that God was telling me that it was not the right time. This time, however, I truly felt that it was right to pay a quick visit to Darwin. Even as I was trying to get onto my flight, I felt God’s blessing, as He provided perfect answers to unexpected problems as I was leaving immigration.

 When I stepped off the plane at Darwin airport, I cannot describe the feeling that hit me. I was home! I was not a foreigner! Everything was familiar, everyone spoke in English and I was not the odd one out! I immediately felt as if a weight was lifted off my shoulders. During my 10 days in Darwin, I was blessed by Viv Chellew, who provided me with a beautiful room in which to sleep, let me eat anything in the house (I did not choose to eat rice!) and allowed me to use her car. Of course, I was so excited to visit Darwin Baptist Church, and loved sharing briefly with my Darwin church family about my time in the Philippines in the morning service. On the Sunday evening, I had the opportunity to speak for a bit longer in the DBC café as well as answer questions. I was blessed to receive $540 in donations on this night, which I used upon returning to the Philippines to help some students pay for registration, to provide snacks for the opening of a small church and an overnight prayer meeting for another church, for 2 months’ sponsorship for some children on Pangapasan island and to buy resources for the new subjects our school is now required to offer.

During my stay in Darwin, I thoroughly enjoyed visiting Marrara Christian College and the wonderful staff and students I have been blessed to have worked with. I even got to attend the staff dinner! I saw my students from my Palmerston Christian School days have their final Year 12 assembly. I thoroughly enjoyed being with my DBC connect group, who have continued to be so supportive of me.  I was able to attend the Global Leadership Summit, which was amazing and inspiring, and I spent time catching up with dear friends. My time in Darwin was perfect, and I am so thankful to God, as I felt that he was refreshing me spiritually, physically and emotionally.

Unfortunately, most of my photos from my time in Darwin were mysteriously wiped from my camera, but I found this one from the Staff Dinner on Facebook.

Staff Dinner: Our table was French

 

I was so blessed to have my dear sister, Bec, and my gorgeous nephew and niece, Connor and Abbey, visit me in the Philippines. They flew from Perth to Darwin and then we went to Manila together. It was so special to be able to share my Philippines adventure with my family; for them to see the places I stay, meet the people I am close to and see some of the things I do here. Bec, the kids, some friends and I visited a couple of tourist places, joined in with some of the ministries here, visited my Philippines church and spent time on the beautiful Prayer Mountain. They were particularly excited to meet EJ, Pastor Garlan’s nephew. They have been sponsoring this little boy for 18 months, so to spend a day with him at Avilon Zoo was a wonderful experience.

The kids in a tricycle

 

 

Trixie, the Orang-Utan loved to pose for the camera

Connor, Abbey and EJ are now friends :)

On the Prayer Mountain

Fresh Coconut, straight from the tree on the Prayer Mountain

  

But they weren't quite sure about the taste
 

Before coming to the Philippines, Beccy had held a fund-raiser dinner in Perth. The money raised bought a gas cooker and rice cooker, along with some food, for the people who live at the church I sleep in every weekend. We were able to buy some asthma puffers and spacers for some students who were really in need. We gave some money towards a feeding ministry in Caloocan and toward a small school. It was wonderful to be able to give to these causes.

Giving Ella an asthma puffer and spacer

At Pastor Jhun's feeding ministry in Caloocan

Cooking on the new gas cooker bought with Bec's fund-raising money.

Abbey-Lou and a very large bag of rice for the people here

Our first meal cooked on the new gas cooker

Some of the money went to King's Kids School

Now, Semester Two is underway! Students are busy with their studies and also practising for our upcoming concert, “Christ-must” on December 14. Only two weeks to go!

 

Til next time J