Since our arrival in March I’ve tried a few Filipino delicacies (some more desirable than others) and this week I was able to enjoy another one. Lechon is probably one of the Philippines’ most recognized dishes other than balut and is one of my personal favorites. A whole pig is roasted over charcoal, rotisserie style, until the skin becomes crispy. It is a little intimidating to see the whole pig sitting on your dining room table as you get ready to eat but the taste is phenomenal! Sometimes you can see pig farmers transfer a live pig in a sack on their motorcycle! Fresh delivery for the buyer! The church just recently had a fellowship meal and someone provided a beautiful lechon for us to enjoy! Others also brought their very best and that was a blessing to see too. The people here do not have much but they have been taught to give and have seen the Lord bless them for it!
Camp in Cebu
We just finished a great week of camp with the teens from our church! The theme was Facing the Giants, Who is Your Goliath? Throughout the week we heard some great preaching on the giants of fear, pride, and public opinion. By the weeks end seven teens trusted the Lord as their Savior and others made decisions about their own personal giants. The devil fought hard to disrupt the week but the Lord still worked in the lives of the young people despite it all. We made a lot of good memories and Elizabeth and I really enjoyed participating in camp! At the end of the week I had to face one of my own giants, balut! I’ve never really liked the boiled fertilized egg but somehow there I was, standing in front of the whole camp holding the crunchy egg. Two other Americans were next to me examining their own balut. I tried to eat it in one big bite but that strategy didn’t work…I won’t go into the details but lets just say it was a failed attempt. I couldn’t get my wife to try one but perhaps she was smart. We had a lot of fun this week and really enjoyed seeing the Lord work in hearts! When it was finally time to take the kids home we had another interesting developement; our jeepney broke down! Having your one and only jeepney give out during camp is a major problem but thankfully some of the other churches let us borrow their vehicles. As a result I ended up driving for the very first time in the Philippines. Our journey began in the mountains so traffic wasn’t terrible…until we got into the city. I think I scared the teens a few times. Right before we started for home several teens asked me, “You sure you know how to drive Pastor Chris?”. Praise the Lord, after getting lost and just barely avoiding a couple of motorcycles we made it home safe and sound! That was an experience all on its own but I think it gave me a little more confidence about driving here in Cebu.
Our Home
We signed the contract for our house this week! After traveling on the road for a couple years we’re really looking forward to putting some roots down. It’s a cute little three bedroom home so we have room for you if you want to visit! Funny thing is there is no bathroom but they’re working on that right now. The lady that we’re renting from has been very kind and let us make some necessary changes, like adding a bathroom. We don’t want to put a lot of money into the house because we are just renting it and we hope to someday buy a home, Lord willing. At this point we’re just thrilled to finally have our own place! I think Elizabeth is counting down the days until we move in. June 1st is moving day, and we praise the Lord for helping us find a place so quickly.
March and April 2012 Prayer Letter!
Categories: Missionary Prayer Letter, Tags: Letters!
Here is our current prayer letter in PDF form: