Jetlag? Nah...no time for that!

You would think that after 4 days of traveling we would be allowed to ease into a life of busy,  mission work. For us, that was not the case. The past 2 days have been quite busy.

We arrived Friday Night, so we knew church, the following morning, was a given. We woke up and drove to the project at 9:30am and had our church service there. 

It was my first time seeing the new 'Learning Center' at the Project. I was actually really impressed with how nice it had turned out. When I had left, there was merely a cinder block foundation. So a lot of work had been put into it in the last 6 months. Anyways, we had our church service in there and Tanya did a small program for all the kids (which if only Missionary kids were in attendance would still be quite a few!)

LeAnne and E.J. (Roy and Sheilah's daughter)

After church we had potluck together with all the missionaries. After lunch we went back out to the learning center for a consecration service. LeAnne and I came just in time for an evangelistic series to start in the village of Mainit, and the missionaries wanted to have a special communion service to prepare us all for the meetings. 

At the end we sang some hymns in Tagalog, it was LeAnne's first time singing in Tagalog and she did very well. So well, in fact, that Roy asked the "PAMAS ladies" to sing for the funeral service we were to attend that evening. We chose the song 'Nearer, my God to thee' and sang it through a couple times in Tagalog and then headed to the funeral service. So, LeAnne's first full day in the Philippines she was already singing a song in Tagalog in front of a congregation of Filipinos. I was super impressed :) We got back pretty late so we headed straight to bed.

The next morning, after breakfast, we were finally able to unpack and settle in. For the next couple months we would be living with Roy and Shielah and their family. They live in the blue apartments on Missionary Row and we are staying in the upstairs room. Its no Ritz-Carlton but its a nice place to call home. Till now we had been living out of suitcases and we were very excited to make this new place a little more "home-y"

After unpacking, Roy and Shielah thought we needed a vacation...cuz, you know, we've been working so hard the last...day...lol ;) So they took us to Mainit Falls, which sadly had changed quite a bit since I had been there last. But the natural beauties remained the same!

After taking some pictures in front of the waterfall LeAnne asked, "So, can we take pictures at the top?" and I said, "Uh...I don't know." and she was like, "You've never climbed up there?" Boy, did I feel foolish! So we climbed to the top of the waterfall and took some more pictures!

That night was the start of our evangelistic series in Mainit. It was LeAnne's first time riding in a truck full of Filipinos. She managed it like a pro!

When we got there we helped to set everything up. Then Andrey started towards us saying, "Allison, prepare your camera!" It was hard to see in the darkness, but he was holding something in his hand. When he came close he released this GIANT butterfly! It flew right over our heads and we screamed like little girls. He managed to catch it for a second time and we were able to take some pictures.

Then, right when we were ready to start the meetings, the lights went out. But we just prayed and continued on with the meetings, the light from the projector being the only source of light. Shielah was suppose to do the health lecture for the first meeting but E.J. had gotten sick and so she asked LeAnne if she would be willing to help. So, LeAnne ended up doing the first health lecture. It has only been 2 days and shes become quite good at spur-of-the-moment, up front appearances.  

Afterwards, we went over to the Children's Program to help Tanya. She had expected 60 kids total for her program and on the first night 65 kids arrived...we are a little nervous to see how this plays out. :/ But needless to say, Tanya needed some extra hands so we spent the rest of the evening helping her.

The meeting was finally over with by 9:30 and we didn't get back until about 10:30, so we were pretty tired. We continue to be thankful that Jet-lag was never really an issue for us because, frankly, we had no time for it. :)