Teaching and Typhoon

Hello!

It feels like it has been forever since I last updated. So much has happened.

The other day I got school supplies! I was SOOO excited! And they were paid for by IFL. It was such a blessing! I got markers, a new stapler, a ruler, paper clips, scissors, tape, glue, and push pins. If you are a teacher, you understand. There is hardly anything that can make a teacher so superficially happy as new school supplies! :-)

I also went to the mall with Tita Pat to go grocery shopping. We were buying things for the whole family of IFL. So, she tore off part of the list and said, "Good luck." I looked it over and found my scavenger hunt items: 4 gallons of catsup (it comes in kilograms here and is made from bananas), 3 packages of powdered milk (500g each), 15 cans of evaporated milk, 6 packages of butter compound (I still don't know what this is), 12 cans of garbanzo beans, 6 kg of sugar in the raw, and 6 kg of milo (it's like chocolate milk but more nutritious). What a grand adventure there! Haha!

I now have two students taking English lessons from me: Valentina and a teacher named Jo. Jo wants help with pronunciation. I am excited to have people to teach! It makes me lean on God to figure out what I am supposed to do for each lesson. I wouldn't want it any other way.

Valentina is just learning how to ask, "What's this? What's that?" The other day, I Valentina (Tina) was doing really well in her lesson. I wanted to give her a high five, but she only has two toes! What would that be? A low seven? I gave her a pat on the back instead.

I have been filling my time with helping to write the geography workbooks for kindergarten 1 and kindergarten 2. We are finding the flag, national animal, and traditional dress for a whole bunch of countries and creating activities/stories about them for 5 year olds. It is interesting work, but very tedious and time consuming. I haven't slept in a while.

Not only are the workbooks keeping me up, but there was a typhoon last night. I learned a lot in that experience! Signal 1 means the typhoon is close, but you are not in its direct path. Signal 2 means you are very close, but not in its direct path. Signal 3 means you are in its direct path. We were Signal 2 last night. Our brand new apartment is not waterproof. Even though we are on the second floor, we got flooded. It was raining through the door! So, at 1am (after having "gone to bed" at midnight) there were four women bailing water into the bathroom so it could go down the drains. It sounds like it was terrible, but we were cracking up laughing the whole time. We ended up using my school supplies as typhoon supplies! We took some plastic contact paper, my clothes pins, some tape, and some ribbon and rigged up a shield over the door so the water would not come in. I know it makes no sense to describe that, so one day I will post pictures and video. One of the windows broke and we used my new thumbtacks to cover the hole with the curtain. We were finally able to fall asleep around 3 am to the sound of whistling wind, torrential rain, and singing bullfrogs.

The power went out, and with it, the pump for the water. When we woke up around 8am, we bailed more water out of our place and sat at the table praying for coffee. God is good! Someone was able to boil water and we had it! So, for most of the morning, we were without power or water. I still have not had a shower (or dip as it really is). Tita Pat, Roselle and I went to a Starbucks so that we could keep working on the workbooks. We turned Starbucks into our office until power etc was restored at IFL.

There minimal damage here. Most of the papaya trees blew over, but were able to be put back up. We are praying that we will still be able to harvest them later. The entire city of Metro Manila was flooded. A family member of IFL lost the roof to their house, only a few days after their husband died. I don't know their name, but God does. Keep them in their prayers.

We got back in time for a late dinner and have been working for the last 4-5 hours. It is 11:40pm right now. God is so good to take care of us. He is a good provider and protector, even when we don't understand His ways.

One of His ways that I don't understand is how and when He heals people. I wrote in my last post that my back was bothering me. The night before the typhoon, I couldn't sleep because it hurt so bad. It is still bothering me. I can live with the pain, but now I am facing disappointment. God is still on His throne. He is still good. He is still my Healer. His ways are just different than mine. Tita Pat knows a chiropractor here and is going to make an appointment for me. I will leave any and all results up to God, but continue to pray for 100% healing.

Oh, I finally got the book from my dad! :-) But, I had to pay for the shipping: 3122.50 Pesos!!!! That's about $70!! It was soooo worth it though! He put candy, other books, and love notes in the package. I was a mess of tears as I read through each one and flipped through each needed book. Don't worry- they were tears of joy! My DRA book is there, so I can start assessing kids!

Being here and going through the typhoon, leaving everything, etc, makes one so grateful for such small things. I love being here!

I just got word that Tita Pat's spiritual mom is dying. I don't know any more than that. Please pray for comfort for Pat. Pat carries so many burdens with unwavering strength and peace. God is the perfect comforter. May He spread His arms over Pat even now and just hold her through this time.

I'm going to go pray and then sleep. Any notes of encouragement, things God leads you to pray/share about what I've shared are sooo appreciated.