Sunshine, Cornfields, and Kimchi: To the Philippines and Back

Spring Break is winding down, and it's been a good one.

Arriving at the airport!

After finishing the quarter in rapid style, we jetted off to the Philippines on an evening flight that transitioned into a late night bus ride to the Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary in Baguio City (our home for the week). We arrived sometime around 3:30 and promptly fell asleep.

And so began a great week.

We spent Saturday in recovery and prep mode, planning for the week ahead, buying supplies, and prayer walking through a local park.

Breakfast at the seminary - a daily pleasure :)

Sunday was a full day at the Trinidad Baptist Church. We helped run Sunday School and performed a praise dance for the congregation. After the service, we enjoyed a nice time of food and fellowship with the church staff and teachers with whom we would be working through the week.

Monday morning...Back to Trinidad Baptist Church for our first day of VBS. The focus of our VBS was on God's word.

Performing our praise dance at Sunday service. That girl
at far stage right is really cute

After VBS on Monday, we ate lunch with the church staff again (a regular part of the week), and we regrouped to go to Burnham Park for evangelism. The skies looked ominous, and a light fell as we arrived at the park. The light rain was soon replaced by a heavy downpour that showed no sign of letting up. After a wet time in the park, we brought a few shoe-fulls of water into a local Chinese restaurant where we tried to warm up and dry off a little bit...and ate delicious food!

Tuesday morning...VBS Day 2!

Our afternoon plans of visiting a local hospital fell through, and given the rainy weather, we decided to reorganize our schedule slightly. Instead of waiting to do a day at the mall on Thursday, we headed to the local mall on Tuesday afternoon. Our students had fun shopping and only got into minor trouble. Dried mangoes are a favorite souvenir for our students.

Parachute fun and games! He wasn't
actually supposed to be in the middle,
but it made for a good picture.

Wednesday morning...Our third and final day of VBS!
Our group was feeling more tired all around, but still had a great day with the kids and church staff. After a full day of singing, dancing, tie-dying, game playing, picture taking, and lunch eating, we headed out again for a trip to a local orphanage.

This was probably the hardest part of our trip. Although our students were excited to work with the kids, the challenges in the orphan's lives were very apparent, and our group left with somewhat heavy hearts.

Wednesday night, we ate a delicious all-you-can-eat dinner at a Mongolian Barbeque restaurant before heading back for a bonfire back at the seminary, where we were joined by several of the teachers from the church. We had a good time of singing, reflection, and s'more-making. Joy ate about 10 marshmallows (They were delicious! How could I resist?).

Bennett and the Games Group. Perhaps a future name for a
rock band.

Thursday morning, we packed up our bags, checked out of our rooms, and headed back to Burnham Park to try for another day of evangelism. Although the morning started out bright and sunny, the rain caught up to us by the time we arrived at the park. Despite scattered showers, our group was still able to have some good conversations with people in the park. The skies also cleared enough for us to take a paddle boat ride around the lake.

The rain became more steady just in time for lunch, and our group got split up because there were not enough open taxis. The two of us and three students waited for hours looking for taxis, but thankfully, made it back to the seminary just in time to catch our 3:00 p.m. bus to the airport.

Tie-dyeing shirts teaches how God's
Word changes lives.

A long bus ride, a red-eye flight, and another bus ride later, we arrived safe and sound (and sleepy!) at our apartment in Korea.
We're relaxing this weekend, and both of us have been sick since getting back. We're thankful that this cold didn't catch up to us until we made it home.

As a whole, the highlight of our week was our nightly discussion of the book of John with our students. We really enjoy seeing how God is teaching them, and we are praying that they don't lose sight of him as they return to their "everyday" lives in Seoul. We also really enjoyed seeing our students work with the kids at the church during VBS and getting to know the teachers at the church. We're encouraged to hear about what God is doing there!

One of our paddle boats was defective, so the swan boat police
came to save the day!

Bennett also enjoyed getting to know a local Jeep-ny driver, Joel, who drove our group around for a few days of the trip.

Back to school tomorrow for the start of (can you believe it?!) the fourth quarter!