Welcome to beautiful Baguio.
We are a mile high and have been battling the periphery of a typhoon since our arrival, so lots of rain. This morning when I woke up at 6 something a.m. I saw the sun for the first time since leaving Manila. I was finally able to see the city and valley from the windows of the Asia Pacific Theological Seminary (APTS) where we have been staying in Baguio. The picture above has been the typical view at almost any time of day for the (almost) week we have been here. As someone who loves the fog, this weather has been enough to convince me that Baguio is one of the most beautiful places on earth. Though it's taking me a little longer than I expected to adapt to the altitude; making the "hike" up the hill to Tom and Connie Bohnert's house from the Global Missions Center where we are staying at APTS takes the wind out of me every time.
Anyway, so, from Manila we took the midnight bus Friday night and arrived at APTS in Baguio around 4 or 5 a.m. on Saturday morning. I ate breakfast at 6 when it opened and then got some sleep. Then we had a meeting with all three teams that are here and we met the national pastor that we would be working with while we are here, Pastor Anthony. Each team is working with a different national pastor so the 4 of us from SEU are working with Pastor Anthony and his church: Baguio Full Gospel International Church. Today and tomorrow we will be working with their students and Chi Alpha ministries distributing Book of Hope on a few school campuses.
Sunday morning we went to Pastor Anthony's church, Jason shared his testimony and one of the students on our team (Grant) preached. Then we had lunch and came back to the church for the youth service from 2 to 5 p.m. We had some fun games, got to know some of the students, Amanda shared her testimony and I preached. I felt it went well and I enjoyed it. I love speaking to youth, which is funny because I have never considered myself one to go into "youth ministry," but it has always been something I have enjoyed when I am presented with the opportunity.
Baguio Full Gospel International Church youth group
Monday we went up into the mountains to minister at a church there. The place we went to was called Pual (pronounced as you would say it in Spanish). It took an hour or hour and a half drive and then an hour and a half hike down and up a mountain or two to get there. I will post pictures soon (have to get them off my camera still). It was absolutely beautiful. Many of the people there in the mountains make their living growing and harvesting syote which is a vegetable that grows on the steep mountain sides. Most of the church members there have to walk (read as "hike") half an hour to an hour to get to the church at all. We did a service Monday night there, had some fellowship with the church there (the 5 or 6 people that came) and were able to minister to them. Then we spent the night at someone's house and on Tuesday we went to a couple of church members' homes so that we could pray for them and bless them. They are some of the most generous people as they gave us fruit, vegetables and sugar cane, to take back with us. I don't think I have ever seen so much syote and passion fruit... Though, considering I had never seen either before that trip into the mountains, that's not saying much.
Then we were able to get a ride back up the mountain to the highway... which might have actually been more painful and longer than hiking back up would have been, but it was still a lot of fun. We had 10 of us in standing in the back of a truck going up dirt roads around 2 or 3 different mountains to get up to the highway again. It really gives one an insight into how these people live and make their livings. The people of the church there were amazing, generous and joyful. It was such a blessing to be able to minister to them on the mountain side.
Spontaneous anecdote time: as we were walking up the mountain it started raining so we took refuge in a covered area by a school along the road. Once the rain let up (about 5 minutes) we continued. Pastor Anthony and I were walking in front and Pastor noticed a snake, which appeared to be being chased by a small chicken. I laughed and kept walking, but then the snake coiled up and reared its head. Yes, it was a cobra. The chicken decided to keep its distance at that point and the rest of the team stopped. The snake was in the middle of the path. After a few minutes, Jason threw a rock at it and smashed its head. It took a bit of stepping on it and crushing with a rock or two, but we did finally manage to kill it, and after that all the kids in the school, who had just gotten out of classes and watched the whole thing, followed us up the mountain the rest of the way to the church. It was a great story, no? Sadly, like the balut, the only photos I got were blurry, but I will post soon (probably on facebook).
Tuesday night we had dessert at Tom and Connie's house (the missionaries we are working with) and then we had some absolutely amazing time of sharing. The Sam Huston team (19 people), the SAGU team (5 people), the SEU team (4 of us) and a team of interns who had just returned to the Philippines from Indonesia (6 people) were all there and we were able to take some time to share about what God had been doing in all of us and through our teams the few days we had been in Baguio. We truly overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony. There is so much power and encouragement in hearing how God has been using those around you and what He's been doing in the team as a whole.
Wednesday was our free day and we were supposed to do the "Amazing Race" around Baguio, but the rain kinda killed that, which I don't think anyone was all too sad about as most of us just wanted to rest and not run around the city in the rain anyway. So, we got to go to the market and do a little shopping and things like that. And today, as I said earlier, we will be distributing Book of Hope in the schools and again tomorrow. Then tomorrow night (Friday night) we will be doing a big youth service at Pastor Anthony's church. Saturday we have a big youth summit all day that we will be helping with and participating in. Then Sunday morning we will be going to a different church in the morning and then in the afternoon we will go back to the youth group at Pastor Anthony's church. Then we leave Baguio Sunday night on the midnight bus again to return to Manila. We arrive in Manila Monday morning and Amanda and Grant fly out Monday morning, I fly out Monday night back to Bangkok (where I get to spent the night in the airport again and then fly back to CA Tuesday morning) and Jason flies out early Tuesday morning from Manila. Busy next few days, but I am looking forward to it. And I'm also looking forward to getting home.
Please keep the health of our teams in prayer. Amanda (on the SEU team) is sick and has had a fever the the last day or so, Becky (on the SAGU team) got really sick (throwing up and such) last night and 4 or 5 of the Sam Houston team members have been sick on and off since we arrived in Baguio. Health is a big deal right now as we are trying to finish strong these last few days here. I know that my body is tired and on the verge of getting sick, so I have been trying very hard to keep a lot of vitamins going and getting as much rest as possible. So far I haven't been sick at all on this trip and I would hate to get sick my last 4 days here. Thank you all for your love, prayers and support. I look forward to being home and sharing more of the bits and pieces that haven't made it into my posts here.
Much love,
Kristen Joy
testing. 1.2.3
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