Mindanao Leadership Training Seminar (PI Trip ~ Day 4)

 

Our Wednesday started off a bit leisurely.  Our first service wasn't until that night.  

 

 

After breakfast and delicious Campground Coffee, our group went various directions.  Pastor White and most of the men headed out to see some of the churches that were nearby.  We ladies got to work putting bedding together for the new dorms.  Les did not join the men - he found out he would be preaching the first service so he spent the time studying.  The campground is so beautiful!

Clark Judah Weidner.  This boy captured all of our hearts!  He is so fun.

The sanctuary was ready.  

 

Les brought his trumpet, so we did a little sound check.

 

The traditional Filipino welcoming during the first service.  They are so sweet!  I would have been happy just to be there worshiping with them, but they make us feel so honored.

 

Elder Barrero leading us in "I'll be Somewhere Working."

Pastor White greeting everyone and introducing Les:

Les preached "How Will You Serve the Lord in Your Generation?"  This was outstanding!  Of course I'm biased, but I'm also right.  What no one knew at the time was that Les could not get his computer to wake up.  He preached the entire thing without notes.

It was a beautiful start to three nights and two days of worshiping, teaching, preaching, and praying.

Manila Shopping and Traveling to Mindanao (PI Trip ~ Day 3)

It was wonderful to wake up in Manila after about five hours of sleep!  Sis. White advised us to get the hotel breakfast and it was worth the money.  The coffee wasn't great and I ended up having hot chocolate for my second round.

 

My favorite traveling partner!

 

This was my second plate.  When I came to the table with it, Les said, "You got noodles."  I said, "No, it's pansit."  Les, "What's that?"  Me, "Noodles!"  Blame it on the jetlag 😂.

We all gathered in the hotel lobby at 10:00 and loaded back in the vans.

Manila traffic.  I was here for the first time over 40 years ago and this is one thing that has not changed!

 

The wiring is something else!

We had about three hours at the Mall of Asia and we did not waste a minute!  Les was determined to get some more barongs (Filipino dress shirts.)  He bought one five years ago and absolutely loves it.  He hit the jackpot and ended up with FOUR more! 

I bought two pairs of shoes.  It's so fun to go shoe shopping in the Philippines - they always have shoes in my size!

The lovely Sis. Luke!

Shopping mission accomplished, we grabbed a bite to eat, then loaded up for the trip back to the airport.  

It was a short 90 minute flight until we landed on Mindanao and were greeted by the wonderful Barrero family.  We loaded in to vans one more time (I think this was the fourth time since we landed) and drove to the beautiful campground.  Our room for the next few nights...

 

We enjoyed a wonderful meal together and then it was time for bed again!

The "Joys" of Travel ~ LAX to Manila, Via Honolulu (PI Trip ~ Days 1 and 2)

It was five years in the making, but we finally made it back to the Philippines!  We loved our trip that we took in 2019, but COVID happened six months later and along with a lot of work responsibilities for Les our return was delayed.  Earlier this year Pastor White began making announcements about this Fall's trip and we eagerly started making plans.

We were scheduled to fly from LAX to Manila, leaving Sunday, October 6th and arriving Monday, October 7th.  We would arrive at approximately 6:15 p.m.  We were then scheduled to fly from Manila to Mindanao at 9:00 p.m that night.  Scheduled is the key word here.

 

On Wednesday, October 2nd, we started getting emails from Philippine Airlines.  Our original flight from LAX would be on a smaller plane, departing about 90 minutes later and would be stopping in Honolulu for a brief refueling.  No biggie, right?  Well... that meant we would arrive around 10:30 p.m. and we would miss our connecting flight to Mindanao.

 

As is always the case with airlines, we were completely at their mercy!  Thankfully, Sis. Aida in the office in the Philippines was able to help us all get our Mindanao flights changed to Tuesday afternoon.

Our group of 13 met at LAX on Sunday morning.  After everyone got checked in and through security, we enjoyed lunch at PF Changs.  Our flight took off on time and we were on our way!

 

 

I don't remember much about the flight.  I know Les and both slept some.   We made it through customs in Manila, then headed for baggage claim.

 

We were all a little worse for the wear, but we headed out and met Bro. Bong and his son.  After loading everything in two vans, we were on our way to the Belmont Hotel for the night.

Although changing our flights delayed us, it turned into a blessing in disguise.  We were able to get a pretty good night's sleep at the hotel and go shopping the next day!

What a Week!

Les and I have spent the past week in the Philippines.  Most of it was spent on the island of Mindanao. We have been in Luzon since Saturday and are preparing to fly home tonight.  I will have many posts and lots of pictures in the days ahead!

Friday Foto Dump

As usual, September went by in a blur.  I posted about our niece, Leksi, visiting us over Labor Day, but didn't post any pictures of her!  We went for a hike on Labor Day:

We had an earthquake on September 12th!  We definitely felt it at our house!

 

In between days of extreme heat, it felt like Fall for a few days.  The leaves are starting to change and fall:

We tried a new coffee creamer, Southern Butter Pecan, that had a special message.  If you can't read it, it says, "This Southern Butter Pecan creamer is just delicious.  Bless Its Heart!"

I got some new trail shoes.  They will never be this clean again!

I've already taken them on two different runs.  One was cool and cloudy:

 

The other was just as the sun was coming up:

Leksi was back for another visit last weekend.  God really touched her at church on Sunday.

We then met up with Brian and Barb Abernathy (Les's cousin and her husband) who were in Long Beach.  It was wonderful catching up over lunch!

From Long Beach, we drove to Anaheim to drop Leksi off at the Amtrak station.  We had just enough time to go to Holy Roly.  I had never heard of rolled ice cream before.  They use a special freezing technique, mixing the cream on a freezing pan.  It was so good!

This week feels like a blur as we are preparing to go to the Philippines!  We got a message late Wednesday night that there had been changes to our flight from LAX to Manila, but with the help of Sister White here at home and Sister Aida in the Philippines, we got it all straightened out.  Pray for us as we travel on Sunday.

 

I enjoyed a run this morning.  The actual running wasn't great, my legs felt dead.  But the sunrise was definitely worth getting out the door to see!