School Year 2009 - 2010 is off to a good start

Our kids have done very well adjusting to city life, but hey are always happy be meet a friend from the jungle.

Faith Academy began its school year with a conference for the staff. The school board was asked to attend and our children were delighted because many of their friends were also attending.


Thomas with one of his friends

James and Carrie

James playing chess with a friend

Carrie and Thomas participating in a relay race

All too soon the fun and games were over. School began yesterday. Here is the First Day of School picture for 2009-2010 school year. James is a senior, Carrie and Jacob Harada are sophomores, and Thomas is in 8th grade.

Jobs with Hidden Prerequisites

We have two ministry trips planned this month so I have been trying to get our house fixed up before I leave. So far I’ve fixed three roof leaks, a wall installed, and some plumbing problems are almost fixed. It is amazing how each job seems to come with a set of hidden prerequisites. You want to put a shower head on, but discover that the valve has rusted, then discover that the wall is rotten… The 5 minute job ends up taking a lot more than 5 minutes. An example of this came last week when a Filipino friend called to say he had a flat tire on his scooter and could I bring a pump to pump it up for him.

When I found him I discovered a rather large puncture in the tire, so offered to take it down to the tire shop. Here in the Philippines there are lots of tire shops. They are little sheds along the road with a “Vulcanizing” sign out front. I found one right away and the fellow set to work. Five hours later… After a running from store to store trying to find a replacement tire and after watching a team of drunk workers trying to fix the tire by tying ropes around it and hitting the valve with a hammer until it was smashed to pieces, I left with a good tire. It was quite an experience. Next time I suspect I’ll pick a different tire shop.

The Dept of Licensing

One never knows what will happen at the Department of Licensing! I saw this brown mass crawling along the floor behind a secretary's desk last week. It turned out to be someone's sack lunch; a bunch of crabs tied together. Personally, I think peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are easier to handle. An even greater mystery is what happens to your papers when they take them inside and how long it will be before you see them again.

Patience and endurance are what it takes to get a license or vehicle registration here. James wanted to get a driver's license so Heidi took him down and started the process. The first major trial was getting through the crowds of men wanting to "help" you through the very tricky process. You feel like a rabbit running through a wolf pack. Once you are inside you have to figure out the process which involves many interesting hoops to jump through.

James taking his driving test

For example, for the written exam you get questions like, "How do you drive if there is rice on the road?" or What shouldn't a driver do when passing a blind person?" The driving test is interesting too. You don't have bring your own car. You can rent one for about a dollar. They have a little track around a parking lot and you have drive around the track once. Sounds easy, but what you don't know is that the examiner is sitting next to you and he is controling the gas and has his hand on the wheel. Whether or not you hit someone is really up to him.

Fortunately, James passed all his tests and had the endurance to wait in line for 8 hours. Good job, James! Congratulations!

July Trip

Last Monday, James, Carrie, and Thomas packed their bags and headed off for a week at Bible camp a few hours south of Manila. They were excited to go and Heidi and I were excited too, because we had been planning our own trip.

After they were safely on the bus heading south, we got in our van and headed north. It wasn't long before were enjoying seeing beautiful northern Luzon again. The mountains, ricefields, and fruit stands were a joy to see after many months of living in the city.

Wow! Fresh pineapple only 3 for a dollar!

We were in our way to visit our newest ministry team on the island. Christina, the Petersons, and the Talbots are living in a small town up north while in the process of building houses in a village where, after learning the local language, they plan to teach Bible truth. We had some supplies for them and Heidi planned to help with canning meat for them to use in the village as refrigeration is still not possible there.

This is a picture of the canning process beginning.

And this is a picture of the final product. The ladies turned out 47 pints in one day. Good Job Ladies! I worked downstairs helping with getting window screen frames built. We really enjoyed our trip up to visit this new team and the time we were able to spend with their children.

This is taken in Christina's livingroom. She has the roof top suite in the building she shares with her landlord and partners.

Erik and Dana Peterson

Chuck and Shannon Talbot with their sweet Sophia.

World Class Loser!

It is a little known fact that missionaries are world class losers. I think I had better clarify that before a mob of angry missionaries starts throwing bananas at me. I do not mean that they are not winners. All the missionaries I know are great people. (Really, guys!) I say they are losers because they lose things. I am not trying to say that they lose things any more than your average person does. I mean when they lose something it could be anywhere in the world. They are world class losers.

For example: An office chair of ours was shipped from our tribal location to Manila. When we went to pick it up, we couldn’t find it. After a few weeks of looking for the lost chair we sent out an email asking if anyone had seen it. Right away responses started coming in: someone in Palawan said they hadn’t seen it there. A kind person in Colorado said that it wasn’t there either. A guy in Portland, Oregon said he saw some kids using it to climb up to the water fountain, and a retired missionary in Port Angeles, Washington said that an office chair matching the description of ours mysteriously showed up in the lobby of her retirement center a week ago.
You see what I mean, at least I’m world class at something.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop at office chairs. We lose fellow missionaries too. When we lose them they are world class lost: California, Colorado, Maine, and Norway just to name a few of the places we lose to.

This past month we said good-bye to the two couples in the picture above. God has moved them on to other ministries. Steve and Ja Whitney and Markus and Sarah Rosvik have been more than coworkers to us. They are wonderful friends who treated us like family. God has wonderful plans for them but we sure hate losing them, they are world class friends!

Alien fingerprints

Perhaps you have wondered why aliens are reported to have the habit of visiting at night and leaving without spending too much time. My experiences last week may prove helpful in answering these questions.

I suspected that the day would not be a normal day of translating when the person in charge of immigration paperwork in our main office put a piece of paper in front of me and handed me a pen. The paper said, “Aliens sign here.” “Me?” I asked. That was just the beginning. After signing our alien names many times it was time for us to turn in our fingerprints. It just so happens that the alien fingerprint ink is on the other side of Manila. So we went out to the street and took a jeepney to the dock.

We were in the habit of using a taxi every time we went in search of alien fingerprint ink, but the person in charge of aliens for our mission wanted to give us a bit of excitement. We were actually happy about this. We had heard about going on pleasure cruises and were happy that our turn had finally come. Besides, the price was only 65 cents each. Not a bad price for a cruise on the beautiful Pasig river.

Like most pleasure cruises, there were various ports of call and we enjoyed passing other boats along the way.

The most outstanding thing about the river cruise was that the last stop was only one block from the immigration office. We were tempted to take pictures of aliens being fingerprinted but didn’t dare. The people there are very strict with aliens and we wouldn’t want to be kicked out of the country.

After we had given away every single finger print we had we headed to the street to find a way home. On the way we decided to try some earth food. It was deep fried bananas covered in brown sugar. Earthlings sure do have strange tastes. The bananas were delicious, but with all the signing forms, traveling, and fingerprinting, I can see why many aliens prefer to make quick exits.

Life in the Big City

Last weekend was hardware weekend. Our van had problems and we also had plumbing problems. Now that we are not living in a remote village we just head down the street to a hardware store. This might sound boring compared to jungle life, but these trips are often interesting and there is much to learn in the cement jungle. For example, Chinese own many of the hardware stores and several of them still use rather ancient calculators like the one on the desk.

As you walk around the city you will see pink lines on the sidewalks. These lines run under vehicles, around telephone polls and along long stretches of sidewalk. If you follow them long enough, you will come to a men's bathroom. Just thought you might want to know. Sorry ladies, I guess the city budget wasn't big enough or they ran out of blue paint.

There are some nice things about garbage day here. First of all, you don't have to sort your recycling. The garbage men do that for you. Being trained in Washington, I help them a bit by pre-sorting my garbage. Second, you don't have to crush your cans. See video to find out who does the job. On the down side, if you leave your garbage can out, the neighborhood dog pack will get into it and make a big mess or your garbage can will disapear. So, you wait until you hear the truck to put out your garbage can out. Unfortunately, the truck seldom comes on schedule, so we feel like we have made a major accomplishment if we get our garbage to connect with the truck.