Hello to our friends and family,

We are excited to share with you our September Newsletter, and again want to say how much we appreciate your encouragement and support as we serve the Lord in this way.  As you can see from the picture above, life here in Manila, Philippines, is a lot different from back home!  In this issue we are sharing a bit about what the last year here has looked like, and invite you to sit down with a cup of coffee or tea (if you’re like me) and look through our pictures and latest news:

September Newsletter

• Our plans to visit a tribal location in July
• What Easter looks like in the Philippines
• Andrew’s visit to the Filipino national training center

We appreciate so much your love and support and interest in keeping up with our lives here in the Philippines!  We always love hearing from people back home- how things are going, see pictures of kids and hear about what God is teaching you!  Please drop us a line at andy_smith@ntm.org or megksmith@hotmail.com

Please click on the following link to see our newsletter:
(If you are having trouble opening it please reply to this e-mail so we can send it to you as an attachment!)

June Newsletter

With love from the Philippines,

Andrew, Megan, Kaden and Brenna ]]> http://blogs.ntm.org/andy-smith/2011/06/02/june-newsletter-2/feed/ 0 http://blogs.ntm.org/andy-smith/2011/03/10/so-much-to-say/ http://blogs.ntm.org/andy-smith/2011/03/10/so-much-to-say/#comments Fri, 11 Mar 2011 07:08:45 +0000 Andrew and Megan http://blogs.ntm.org/andy-smith/?p=324 We apologize for our silence over the last couple months!  It hasn’t been for lack of things to update on, as much of lack of time to put it all together.  There has been lots going on in the last couple months and we are excited to share it with you!  We have been here in Manila for almost five months now and we can’t believe how the time has flown by!

To catch you up, for the last 6 weeks we’ve been learning the names of simple objects in order to store up about 1,000 words to prepare us for grammar classes.  We just had our evaluation today, and are where we should be with our ability to hear sounds and produce some words ourselves.  Now we are starting into “full time” language learning, and are excited for what’s ahead!

We are also enjoying getting to know some of the people in our neighborhood. Andrew is playing basketball on the weekends and getting to know people through that.  We feel so privileged to be here and appreciate so much the encouragement and support that you are!

So first off, “Lechon” means roasted, and we visited the roasting capital of the Philippines.  They roast pigs and cows here, and you can buy anywhere from a quarter kilo of meat here, to having them bring the whole animal to your house to be roasted for a big party.  This little display was just on the sidewalk…

This is a picture we took of some pig being roasted right between the shops where you can see.  And for all of you probably freaking out right now, the animals are slaughtered before they are roasted, don’t worry!!

A lovely man on the side of the road was selling fried pig intestines.  I think we seemed too interested, because then he offered some for us to try!

And of course it would be rude to refuse, so here I am, eating pig intestines  Andrew participated as well.  And looking at this picture, I guess I didn’t do as well as I’d hoped at hiding my feelings about it all.

So now you’ve seen a bit of the bad and ugly… ready for something else??

This was a market area we went to as well that sells an amazing variety of flowers that are grown up north near Baguio City.

They had tons of roses, daisies, orchids, and a lot of other flowers I don’t know the names of, sorry :/  They even had eucalyptus branches, which was so awesome to me because that is a type of tree we have back in California

And this is where I just about squealed in excitement… they were selling strawberries- STRAWBERRIES at that market, because they can be grown in the same area that the flowers were up north.  I totally thought I’d never have a fresh strawberry again until I went home because I thought they didn’t grow here, but sure enough the climate in the mountains up north is great for them!!  I was so happy!

And of course we couldn’t leave that beautiful flower market without bringing some home!

So today was a pretty fun day to get out, and just some things I remembered from the day…

- Feeling like I was going to die from all the smog I inhaled

-Listening to music on an 8 track in our jeepney, first time I’ve ever seen one, haha

- Being SO excited to get strawberries (as you can tell from above)

- Note to self, never eat pig intestines again if you can help it!

At the end of the day though, we are always happy to come home and spend time with our kiddos that we missed while we were away!

Geff, his wife Christine and four children have been in that village since 2003. Geff learned the language quickly and began teaching from Genesis to Jesus in 2006 after which a few people believed and a baby church was born. Shortly after they went home on furlough and they found out Christine had cancer, their future in the tribe was uncertain. This was a hard time for the family and for the tribe with brand new believers and no one to help, but God was present even in that  hard time.

Philippine national missionaries from another tribal church (Ibaloi) came to continue teaching the new believers. Christine recovered from her cancer treatment and Geff and the family returned  in 2009. Now Geff is continuing with the foundational teaching every Sunday, and the three Ibaloi ladies who are missionaries from another village are leading a youth program and weekly bible study. The church is doing well and discovering their new identity in Christ and how to live that out in their cultural context. During my visit I had the privilege of seeing The Haradas live among the I-Wak people by visiting houses, eating rice and drinking lots and lots of coffee! The people here really love the Haradas who help them with medical support and teach them about the bible, in turn Geff and Christine get lots  and lots of rice and bananas! Being home now I am amazed at how big God is and how he can use anything (even our weakness, sickness) to accomplish His purpose.

“By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence.”
2 Peter 1:3 NLT

For more photos of my visit to the tribe follow this link to my facebook album.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=580263&id=528495337&l=3ea1dc5ac4

A picture from our visit to the I-Wak tribe in 2006

We’ve been here just six weeks now, and Andrew is taking the first trip out of Manila into the more remote areas of the Philippines.  He is visiting the Harada family, another missionary family that is with NTM working here in the Philippines, and they are also from our sending church in North Vancouver.  He is there for four days to help with some renovation in their home… Pictures and I’m sure some stories to follow when he is back!  We appreciate your prayers for him for safety as he travels, and to be an encouragement to the Harada family, and also for me (Megan) as I’m at home with the kiddos

That All Might Hear.

So how does it go… from our immense three weeks of experience (yes, I am being sarcastic), this is what  you do-

1. Wait at the side of the road…

2. Get on a jeepney that has room (can hold about 15 people).  They are driving by constantly so it’s not hard to get one.  Also, if they really want more passengers, they might slow down and honk at you in order to let you know, “Hey, we have room!”

3.  Jump on- fast!  They want to get going, so if you don’t sit down fast enough, you might lose your balance as they take off again.

4.  Pass up your fare, which is an unbeatable 7 pesos, or 15 cents USD!  When you give your money to the driver, you are most likely passing it up the line of people sitting on the jeepney, so you say “bayad ho” (in our case, with the best Filipino pronunciation we can give- in fact I probably didn’t even spell that right, need to get into our language learning first!

5. Then you watch for your stop so you can say, “Bara” and get off as quick as you can, because they take off again fast.  Luckily with having a newborn and toddler, they are pretty accommodating with giving us adequate time to get off.

Yesterday I was so ecstatic that it was the first time I went on the jeepney by myself!  I have never gone without Andrew (who picks up language phrases really fast), or someone else who speaks Tagolog.  But I got from “A” to “B” all on my own, with only one mistake, of accidentally dropping someone’s money when passing their change back to them…  But I’m finding that a smile and a laugh goes a long way here, and that people don’t want you to feel bad for making mistakes.  Which is a good thing, because this is just the beginning, with plenty of mistakes to be made I’m sure!

We are for the first time in our married lives, moved into a place that we plan on staying in for more than a year!!  We moved into our apartment here in Manila last Wednesday, and as we were able to get an apartment that other missionaries are moving into, some of their furniture was available for us to buy off of them and keep here.  So not only do we have a place, but we can sit at a kitchen table for meals and sleep in beds already!!  God has blown us away by how He has provided for us far beyond what we would’ve ever thought!

We will be spending the next few weeks now settling into our place, and continuing to learn our way around.  We appreciate all of your prayers for us during this time, and the financial support that we have received to be able to live here!  God has blessed us so much through all of you!!

Yesterday we got a chance to meet our new landlord, and see the apartment we are moving into…  We had a tour of the place, got to visit a little with friends living in the building, and were so excited for when we get to move in!  So after the visit, our friend offered to show us a couple stores on the street where we could get some furniture for our place at a good price.

So, with kids in tow, as we usually are, we went with our friend who had his one year old in the stroller and three year old by the hand, me holding Brenna, and Andrew holding Kaden, and walked across the street.  Now walking across the street is no small thing.  There are cars rushing by, and you just need to find a break and book it across- they don’t really stop for you unless you make a point of being in their way.  So after crossing the four lanes of traffic, we got to the furniture store and started looking around.

Sure enough a few minutes after we got in, it started raining… But “raining” just doesn’t seem to carry the magnitude of this torrential downpour- it looked like buckets of water were being poured out of the sky, and we were thinking, “OK, we are about 10 blocks from where we are staying… if we walk out there to catch public transit (a jeepney, which is like an old jeep made for carrying people, but painted with all kinds of colors and pictures all over the outside of it, packs about 15 people inside), we are going to get soaked!” We had no umbrella, and walking out there you’d be drenched in a matter of seconds.  So we thought we’d wait it out…  Then after about half an hour of “waiting it out,” when we still needed to go to a store to get photos for our visas, we needed to figure out how we could leave ASAP- so we’d be back for dinner at the end of it all.  So after the rain not letting up at all in this time, the streets started having a layer of water…  We need to act fast here.

Our friend said that he could get a taxi for us, and they’d take us to the store to get our photos done.  He borrowed the store owner’s umbrella to hail a cab, and as we were waiting inside with our kids, a woman who was shopping came up to us, and asked, “Can I drive you home to your house?  It is pouring out there, and I just saw your kids… can I drive you, please?”  “Wow,” we thought, we don’t know this person at all, but she is willing to take these foreign white people in her car to wherever they live. “Yes!” we replied!  We explained to her we are going to the store to get our photos done, and she was more than willing to drop us off there.  So we jumped into her car, Kaden freaking out as he usually does getting into a “foreign” car (he is so use to our 4Runner, it has been really hard for him getting into these “unfamiliar” cars), and were off, rain beating down on the car!  We found out this woman is married to an American (she is Filipina), and she works for the Red Cross.  “Oh, you are missionaries?!”  she found out in our conversation, “Let me give you my card, if you need anything at all, let me know!”  We were blown-away by her friendliness and helpfulness- “the Philippines is awesome,” we thought to ourselves!

So then we went to the store and got our photos done for visas, walked around a bit (found they have a lot of familiar things that are in the States in this store), and then decided we need to get home as there was an hour left until dinner…

It was still raining, not as hard now though.  So we went outside and decided to take a jeepney home, about 6 blocks from the store to where we are staying.  So as we were walking to the street to wait for a jeepney, someone saw us, kids in hand, and immediately came over holding their umbrella over our heads, walking with us so we don’t get wet.  Again, “these people are SO kind, we love the Philippines!”

We didn’t know what jeepney to take, so we asked someone standing by, and they pointed us to the one that will take us to, “Nueve de frebrero,” the cross street that gives the location of the guest house we are staying at on the boulevard.  So we jumped in the jeepney, Andrew passed up our change for the ride, about 14 pesos, or 30 cents USD.  We went about 10 feet, and then stopped… And were stopped for about 5 minutes.  “This is a really long light, don’t worry,” Andrew assured me.  So we went another ten feet, and then stopped…  It was a long light, but we were realizing it wasn’t just the light holding us up, but all the flooding on the streets from the rain…

After the 10 minutes of waiting and going nowhere, our jeepney driver quickly put it into gear and went barrowling up a side road- mind you, we have only been here for three days, we don’t know where in the world we are going… We came to find out that he was just taking a side road so he could go around the traffic, and skip a few blocks then get back on the main road.  As we were winding through all these back streets, with very little visibility out the windows, all we could see was the street flooded up to the curb, and abandoned cars off and on that were parked on the sidewalk…  But there were quite a few of us that could make it through the high waters, and many were taking this back road to get around the traffic on the main street.

So we finally got back to the main street, the kids now had been sleeping in our arms in the back of the jeepney, not getting as many looks as we were in the store now for being white, but some here and there, probably thinking, “why in the world are they out with a new baby and toddler?”  I think I was asking myself the same thing…

We had gone a couple blocks on the main road, all the traffic behind us, and quickly found out the driver had gone up so many side roads that he actually got back on the main road past the block our building was one- “We’ve gone too far!”

We asked the man across from us, “Nueve de febrero?” the best we could, and he just looked at us and shook his head.  Then when we weren’t really looking, he spoke in Tagolog to the man next to him and repeated it (without our english accent), and the man pointed back down the road behind us… OK, we have definitely gone too far.  Then everyone sort of overheard that we needed to get off earlier, and as Andrew was about to use the Tagolog word for stopping the jeepney, everyone on the jeepney started yelling the word up to the driver- he immediately stopped, and it was so funny how all these Filipinos on the jeepney were looking out for us, “Those poor white people with their little kids (not to mention we had a plastic baby bathtub in our hands too we had bought at the store… not the most convenient thing to be holding in a tight space and carrying around the city), they don’t know where they are!”

We quickly jumped off, saying “Salamat po” best we could, “thank you” in Tagolog…  Then when we got to the side-walk, all I heard from Andrew was, “Lets walk it!”  And from then we took off, trying to walk back towards our building as quick as we could (with sleeping kids in our arms).

Now, mind you the street had just flooded, so with our sandals on, our feet were, to say the least, getting “yucky.”  We passed a ton of people, watching us walk the whole way past them in a stare as we were carrying our two sleeping kids and pink baby tub for Brenna.  We were avoiding the holes in the sidewalk were there was unfinished construction (not marked), going over cracks, around people, watching out for the motorcycles that were using the sidewalk to get around traffic.  We were looking for our landmark, the big Shell gas station that is next door to our building, and finally spotted it!  “OK, we are only about 10 more minutes away!”  Now, by this time it was about 5:45, we had been traveling for over an hour to get our five blocks home (which ended up being more since we passed the place !

We came up to the street, and realized there were only cars driving down it, and there were no cars coming up the road…  We then saw a huge line of cars turning left onto the road from a side street, all backed up, so that the other lane of traffic was completely blocked!  Everyone was taking side streets trying to avoid the flooded part of the road and get around it!  We realized that the most flooded part of the road was right in front of the guest house building, so that is why the jeepney totally passed our block- it was the worst!

Now with our feet totally soaked, a black film on our feet and back of our legs from walking, we finally got to the guest house driveway- it was dark by now.  It was 6:00 pm, half an hour after dinner started, and when we walked in the entry where everyone was eating, we were greeted by a huge round of applause by all the missionaries at the guest house who were eating dinner. “You made it,” “Where in the world were you,” “We thought we had already lost our new missionary family somewhere in Manila!”  We were told we had made it through our first real “cultural experience” in Manila, and were congratulated at making it back!  We finally had our hands free to look at our cell phones, and saw like four missed calls and six text messages- “Where are you,” “Are you back yet,” “Are you guys OK,” “WHERE ARE YOU??”

So yes, we made it back safely, learning a lesson about traffic in the rain, and are so thankful for all the helpful people along the way… We are getting to know our home, and hope you come along and enjoy this ride with us!

We can hardly believe how the time has flown by, and we are so thankful to everyone who has walked with us along this journey as God has been leading us into church planting overseas.  We also look forward to what God has ahead, and having you all be a part of it!

Brenna's dedication, which she slept through

being prayed for by our church elders, staff and missions and outreach team

reception in the foyer afterwards- was awesome to be able to have time to chat and say bye to everyone!