Feeding 5,000 Almonds
Every trip I bring a big old bag of almonds just in case there’s a meal I can’t eat, I can still get some protein and electrolytes in. This trip I thought for sure that I’d be going through a lot of them so I had Jadon buy me a brand new bag! But here we are on the last day and the bag was unopened in my backpack! Earlier on in the week, one of the translators told me he didn’t get breakfast so I offered my almonds and he told me that it was fine. But today he asked if I still had any left, and so I pulled out the bag!
He had some and then some of the other translators had some… and then some of the patients had some…
That bag made it far but boy did they devour it! Apparently nuts are very rare here and therefore expensive so I unknowingly bought a delightful treat :)
I had random people coming up to me all day thanking me for the almonds 😆 guess I will have to remember that for future trips!
Potiphar’s Wife
We had a man today named Joseph who was presenting with a lot of chronic stress symptoms and so we asked him if there’s anything stressful in his life and he broke down in tears and shared with us that he’s a driver for a rich lady who is taking advantage of him and has threatened his girlfriend and him if he refuses to do what she wishes. Karri shared the story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife with him and wrote down the reference (he has a Bible at home but since he was catholic, he didn’t really read it). It just reminds me that God’s Word really is living and active and the accounts in scripture aren’t just fictional stories. We prayed that Joseph will remain strong and that God would change the heart of the woman he works for.
Rainbows
It has been raining a lot here!! But there’s rarely a breakthrough of sunshine right after it rains. Except for today when we saw a double rainbow! This also (I think) prompted a lot of kids to ask for a rainbow on their faces! So we learned the colors a lot together ;)
Washing Feet
I again got the honor of washing feet today :) we had a few kid slippers left so I got to wash a lot of kid’s feet which is marginally better ;) one of my other teammates also joined me in foot washing today and confessed that he too hates feet and did not want to do it — I empathized with him 😆
The mayor took our whole team out for lunch on a small, white-sand-beach island as a thank you for all the work we did for his town and roasted a whole pig for us! I enjoyed sticking my toes in the water and watching all the little tropical fishies dart around :) we have now packed and are about to get on an overnight ferry back to Cebu where we will all fly back home. This trip has been incredible. The people are incredible. And the need is so great.
So thank you to all of you for making this trip possible! You are truly amazing and both me and all of our brothers and sisters here in the Philippines are so grateful for you. And I hope to catch up with you soon back in the US!
