Thanksgiving Philippines Trip

It's been over a month since Thanksgiving, and we feel terrible about not sharing this with you sooner, but better late than never. It's been a busy season since that time, but we know that's not a good excuse. It's thanks to faithful supporters like you that we were able to go and participate in God's work in the Philippines over our holiday break. Thank you especially to Transfer Community Church of God and Greenville Church of God - you were instrumental!

The best way for us to do this is not with a ton of words, so we'll share pictures and comment. Then if the pictures don't say the thousand words they should, we'll elaborate. Keep reading!

Our main mission while we were there was to witness and provide relief to a group of families whose villages were still under water from typhoons that hit a month earlier. This is a picture of the evacuation center that housed the 168 families. It was cramped, smelly, and hot- not ideal conditions for living.

Despite the conditions (and we find this generally true of Filipinos) the people in the evacuation center almost always had a smile on their faces. We were able to spend some very quality time with them and made bonds with more than a few.

Part of losing your home means changing the way you do things. One of the things that changes is where you bath. For these people, it was right out in the open by the street. The adults washed with their clothes on.

Since the typhoons hit, Kids International Ministries, or KIM, has been providing food for evacuation centers like this. Because there is so much need, KIM has only been able to provide one meal a week to each center. However, when we came, we were able to focus on this evac center and provide two meals a day for the 4 full days in country. This is one of the "feedings" in process.

Feeding over 500 people puts a large demand on food supplies, so we were only able to feed the children. They lined up with their bowls ready, and their stomachs grumbling...
...and went away satisfied.

This is one of the villages that the people in the evacuation center came from. The water is black and sludgy because it had been sitting without flow for over a month. Mosquitoes multiply quickly and carry a deadly disease called dengue fever. This water is about knee-deep in the center of town, but you can see the water lines from where the water first settled- at about waist high. The village was littered with refuse.

Due to generous support from friends in the States and Korea, we were able to purchase 200 Tagalog (Filipino language) Bibles to give to the families in the evac center. This is now their only bible. We also collected clothing, vitamins, soap, and other goodies for the people. Those were later given away at Christmastime.
We spent some time putting a short, personalized message in each bible. Also included was a tract that listed key verses pertaining to salvation and a relationship with Jesus.

"From your Korean brothers and sisters in Christ"

Every evening, we gathered the willing adults on one side of the evac center, and the children on the other side and preached the gospel to them. Eric, shown here, preached to the adults. On the third night, we passed out the bibles (didn't have them till then) and we helped them find the verses he preached on. On the other side, Jess and our high school students sang songs, put on skits, and gave lessons to children about what it means to know and trust in Jesus.

Another cool thing we got to do was lead a chapel at the Christian school that the KIM Children's Home kids go to. Most of us were involved in some way. Here is Jess, Laurie, Eric, and some of our high schoolers leading a game of Hangman to guess the memory verse.
Here's Matt and Russ (and two of the kids from the children's home) being giants from the story of the twelve spies in Canaan.
Every night at the Children's home, the kids have devotions. Our group led devotions twice, Russ led one of those nights- singing songs and teaching about Thanksgiving.

Apologies and Bellies

For those of you out there that follow this blog religiously (mom), we're sorry. We have been grabbing at excuses for a reason for not posting anything for this long. We've pulled our hands back with nothing in them- we have no good excuses. We've just been lazy, and so we have to apologize. As part of the same body of Christ, we are responsible for sharing what is happening in the field, what is happening only by the funds you have blessed us with, which have been given to you by God for this purpose. We'll get better.. but for now, some much needed blog bingeing.

Here's a fun little up-to-date photo of Jess in all her pregnant glory from week 22. Ain't she purdy?!

The pregnancy is going very well. We found out that near the date of May 9, 2010 we're going to be the proud parents of a baby GIRL. It's nice to put a gender to our baby so we can say, "She's going to be smart like daddy," or "She's gonna be beautiful like mommy." (Obviously Russ is writing this post!) We also have a name picked out that we're 99% sure we're going to use, but we'll keep it out of publication until it's for sure.

We have another ultrasound scheduled for next Wednesday, and it's a level 2 scan, checking the whole body. We'll post it next week!

Baby News and more...

Well, we got back from a very worthwhile trip to the Philippines last weekend and hit the ground here running. It's been basically non-stop since we got back. We'll put a post about the Philippines soon, so check back, but for now- on to some baby news.

I (Russ) could see Jess's disappointment after our last ultrasound failed to reveal the gender of our baby. They told us you have to sign up for 3D ultrasounds, which is how some of our friends found out their gender. I thought I'd surprise Jess by sneaking back to the clinic and signing us up for a 3D scan for December 2. It was a hard-to-keep secret because I was anxious to go as well. The time came at the end of the school day, however, to spill the beans. Jess was pleased :)

We went in and had the ultrasound with a lady we haven't seen yet. We thought she was a doctor and we asked a few times for her to tell us the gender, but she flat out refused to help or even try. Finally, we called up one of our Korean friends (the lady didn't speak any english) and she told us that she is only a lab technician, not allowed to tell us the gender. What a rip-off! She hinted that she thought it was "Mommy-like" but wouldn't try to scan the "goods" for conclusive evidence. We are a little disappointed, but definitely have our opinion on what the baby is. Watch the video below and tell us what you think. Make sure you look closely around 1:10-1:11, there's a clear shot there.

Victory Christian Fellowship

Our small church fellowship here in Songtan recently acquired our own space. In the past, we'd been using a Korean Methodist church, which was a really nice facility. It's nice, though, to be in our own place and have full access whenever we want or need. Here are some pictures of our first Sunday there, Thanksgiving Sunday. We had a big luncheon afterward (we usually have a small one). Take a look.

Here's Russ waving sheepishly in the empty sanctuary before the service started. We attend bible study at 11:30 before the service, which starts at 1:00 PM. The forest on stage are all plants given as a sort of house-warming gifts from all sorts of friends of church members. They took up the whole stage!

Here's the little foyer area where we will have meals and possibly Sunday School and Bible Studies. We eat a meal together as a congregation every Sunday after the worship service. It's nice.

Here's Merline, one of our Filipino friends. She's manning the controls of the soundbooth, making sure everything is sounding OK, and keeping the worship powerpoints rolling on time. She's married to one of the Iranian guys in the church, Andy.

Here's a peak at the first service in the new building. There were a lot of people there that don't usually go. They were Korean or Filipino family members who came to show their support.

Here's just a handful of our friends from the church who gathered for a photo.

Back Row: Harahm, Yazdan, Habbas (three totally cool Iranian guys), Russ

Middle Row: Iraj (Iranian guy who was imprisoned in Korea for a minor thing. He accepted Christ in prison, and the Iranian government came for him and told him he could get out if he would just denounce Christ. He refused and spent 3 years and 8 months in prison, often being tortured and treated badly. He just got out days ago and this is the first time we met him. He's cool) and Mara (one of our Filipino friends)

Front Row: Irene (Filipino friend), Jess, Mandie (Filipino friend)

We're really excited to have this opportunity to be part of a fellowship of believers here. It took us a while to actually feel like part of the body here, but this church has welcomed us in and plugged us into their family. We feel we belong and it will be hard to leave in June.

Boy or Girl... You be the Judge

We had another ultrasound today, and were hoping to find the gender of the baby. We even had a survey posted outside our doors at school where students and teachers could cast their vote for if they thought it was a girl or boy. We thought we would definitely get a 3D ultrasound, but apparently, you have to make reservations for those. On top of that, we had a new doctor that we haven't had yet, and the ultrasound quality wasn't as good as usual because we were on a different machine.

Sooooo, we couldn't tell the gender. It stinks, but we DID get to see our wonderful little son or daughter swimming around and being very healthy. Also, Jess got blood taken for a down syndrome test. The doctor said if everything was normal, they wouldn't call us, but if there were any problems, they would call. PLEASE PRAY THEY DON'T CALL US!

We go back in on December 15 to have another ultrasound and find out the gender. We hope to share it with you then!

Basketball Season, Here We Go!

It's that time of year again.. basketball. Last year, Russell was head coaching the boys team, and Jess was his assistant. This year, however, as our school is understaffed, Jess is coaching the girls team- while pregnant.

Our first game was last night, after a total of 5 practices- 4 in a gym. For the majority of our players, this is the first time they've ever played organized basketball. It can feel like coaching elementary sometimes. Last night in the game, Russell had to "remind" some of our players of some very basic rules. It's easy to take that kind of thing for granted in high school basketball.

The games went fairly well. The girls won 19-15, but the boys got trounced 18-56. For the guys, the team we played was the best team in the league, so starting off with them wasn't exactly ideal. To top it off, we play them again on Saturday- our schedule is goofy. To top THAT off, two of our starting forwards are out with leg injuries. Flexibility is the name of the game for us now, which isn't that bad of a thing because the real reason we are here is not to play or coach basketball- it's to set an example for our players to emulate. We have been striving this year to make our coaching position more of a discipler position- pouring into our kids spiritually. Some of them respond very well, and deep bonds are formed.

We look forward to the rest of the season. Keep checking back for updates on how we're doing as a team, and how the ministry is going!

Price Comparison

So, we thought you might be interested in seeing a price comparison. Yesterday we bought a can of Women's shaving cream. In the states at Dollar General this would cost $1. But, lo and behold in Korea everything is backwards so here it cost us 6,000 won. That is a little more than $5 with the exchange rate. REDICULOUS!