A Dragon Fruit and Chicos
Saturday, February 25, 2006
In pictures: An economy in crisis
I found this on BBC NEWS. I think the pictures and commentaries on the Philippines are excellent.
Thursday, February 23, 2006
More Great Quotes From My Cellphone's Inbox
- An interview with God…
Man: What surprises you most about humankind?
God: That they get bored with childhood, they rush 2 grow up…& then long to be children again. That they loose their health to make money and then loose their money to restore their health…That by thinking anxiously about the future, they forget the present, such that they live in neither the present nor the future…That they live as if they will never die and die as thought they had never lived…How true, something to think about…=) - The GOD we meet in GOOD TIMES is the same we meet in HARD TIMES. May the LORD REFRESH us and give us STRENGHT as we FACE new challenges EVERYDAY!!!
- The Israelites saw Goliath and said: “He’s so big, we can’t win.” David saw Goliath and said: “He’s so big, I can’t miss.” Faith Prevails!
- The Happiest pe(‘..’)ple don’t have EVERYTHING in LiFe. They just make the BEST of EVERYTHING God provides! STAY PAPPY! c’,) God LovEs You!
- No matter how softly we pray.. God listens and understands. He knows the hopes and fears we keep in our hearts… for when we trust in his love…Miracles happen!
- When you make choices, follow God, not your own way. For if your own way fails, you regret, but with God, you can smile and say…HE KNOWS BEST!:)
- It is in loving, not in being loved, the heart finds its quest; it is in giving, not in getting that our lives are blessed. Keep on loving. God bless your day!
- A BEAUTIFUL LIFE does not just happen. It is built DAILY in PRAYER, HUMILITY, SACRIFICE & LOVE. May that BEAUTIFUL LIFE be yours today & always.
- To have GOD in our lives does not mean sailing on a boat with no storms; rather it means having a boat that no storm could sink! Happy sailing w/GOD everyday!
- People may not reward or thank you for your actions, but when CHRIST is your reason for SERVING, you receive an even greater blessing in RETURN. God Bless You!
These are hearts with potatoes and carrots in sauce, and some kind of leafy vegetable with eggs and some other things. Filipino food usually has some garlic and often some ginger in it, and often soy or fish sauce. I bought this in my school cafeteria ("canteen") for about 50 cents, but used my own rice.
Monday, February 20, 2006
Missions/Cross Cultural Communication
I was reminded of why I want to be a missionary when I met a Vietnamese man at church yesterday (I go to an international church). He told me that less than 1% of the population of Vietnam is Christian, and people are not allowed to share the gospel in the countryside. Christians there are still persecuted. Because there are no Bible schools in Vietnam, he had to travel to the Philippines to study the Bible.
Then he asked me what I’m planning to do after I graduate, and I said that I’m planning to get married and will probably work in the province [in the Philippines] for a while. He said that he had only wanted to send his prayer letter to me since there aren’t many Christians in Vietnam to pray for him. I’m just not sure if he thought that I was telling him that I plan to get married because I thought he was looking for a wife, or if he thought that I was offering to marry him (everybody in Asia thinks that Americans are very direct). Hummmm…I don’t know about my cross-cultural skills sometimes.
Then he asked me what I’m planning to do after I graduate, and I said that I’m planning to get married and will probably work in the province [in the Philippines] for a while. He said that he had only wanted to send his prayer letter to me since there aren’t many Christians in Vietnam to pray for him. I’m just not sure if he thought that I was telling him that I plan to get married because I thought he was looking for a wife, or if he thought that I was offering to marry him (everybody in Asia thinks that Americans are very direct). Hummmm…I don’t know about my cross-cultural skills sometimes.
Brown? It's not my favorite, but....
I took this Tickle test:
What's Your True Color?
http://web.tickle.com/invite?test=1108&type=t
Esther, your true color is Brown!
You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.
What's Your True Color?
http://web.tickle.com/invite?test=1108&type=t
Esther, your true color is Brown!
You're brown, a credible, stable color that's reminiscent of fine wood, rich leather, and wistful melancholy. Most likely, you're a logical, practical person ruled more by your head than your heart. With your inquisitive mind and insatiable curiosity, you're probably a great problem solver. And you always gather all of the facts before coming to a timely, informed decision. Easily intrigued, you're constantly finding new ways to challenge your mind, whether it's by reading the newspaper, playing a trivia game, or composing a piece of music. Brown is an impartial, neutral color, which means you tend to see the difference between fact and opinion easily and are open to many points of view. Trustworthy and steady, you really are a brown at heart.
Saturday, February 18, 2006
B's Blog
B has started a blog: http://bet-ew.blogspot.com/ and has already written several interesting posts. Bet-ew was his dad's alias. His blog name is abella.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
Monday, February 13, 2006
7 Sevens in 2006
(I was "tagged" by my sister, http://hannahim.blogspot.com/, to answer these questions)
7 things I want to do in 2006:
Get good at Tagalog
Start learning more Kalanguya (Bob’s mother tongue)
Get good at playing the piano
Explore other parts of Manila
Live in the present
Talk more
Make more friends
7 things to do less of in 2006:
Getting a bad cold/cough every few weeks
Being tired
Daydreaming
Eating unhelathy foods (even though many healthy ones are more expensive)
Sweating (but how when it’s 100+ in the summer and 70-80+ in the winter?)
Wasting time
Being indecisive
7 ways I‘m going to be a better wife/mother/friend in 2006:
Send postcards to friends and family
Send cards and/or gifts to my family for Christmas and birthdays
Pray for them more often
Send more emails and updates
Smile more
Learn to understand them better
Try to take more initiative
7 Scripture Passages I want to memorize in 2006:
Humm, I’ll have to think about that.
7 Books I’ve Never Read that I‘m Going to Read in 2006:
Basic Tagalog
Any other Tagalog lesson book
Classics
Some of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s books
Books about psychology
Books about nutrition
Books about culture and how it influences our view of things
7 Movies I’ve Never Seen that I’m Going to Watch in 2006:
The Narnia series
Whatever is showing and looks good
Some Tagalog movies
7 people I want to join in too
Bob
Praise
(not all of my other friends have blogs, but are welcome to join, too)
(I was "tagged" by my sister, http://hannahim.blogspot.com/, to answer these questions)
7 things I want to do in 2006:
Get good at Tagalog
Start learning more Kalanguya (Bob’s mother tongue)
Get good at playing the piano
Explore other parts of Manila
Live in the present
Talk more
Make more friends
7 things to do less of in 2006:
Getting a bad cold/cough every few weeks
Being tired
Daydreaming
Eating unhelathy foods (even though many healthy ones are more expensive)
Sweating (but how when it’s 100+ in the summer and 70-80+ in the winter?)
Wasting time
Being indecisive
7 ways I‘m going to be a better wife/mother/friend in 2006:
Send postcards to friends and family
Send cards and/or gifts to my family for Christmas and birthdays
Pray for them more often
Send more emails and updates
Smile more
Learn to understand them better
Try to take more initiative
7 Scripture Passages I want to memorize in 2006:
Humm, I’ll have to think about that.
7 Books I’ve Never Read that I‘m Going to Read in 2006:
Basic Tagalog
Any other Tagalog lesson book
Classics
Some of Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s books
Books about psychology
Books about nutrition
Books about culture and how it influences our view of things
7 Movies I’ve Never Seen that I’m Going to Watch in 2006:
The Narnia series
Whatever is showing and looks good
Some Tagalog movies
7 people I want to join in too
Bob
Praise
(not all of my other friends have blogs, but are welcome to join, too)
Sunday, February 12, 2006
My Update Letter
Sorry everyone, I realized that I’ve been in the Philippines for more than ten months now, and haven’t been sending out updates. This letter is about how I ended up studying at AGS in Manila, and other news that may or may not come as a surprise to you.
In January 2005, I started my first semester as a graduate student at the Canadian Institute of Applied Linguistics/ACTS Seminaries (“Seminaries” is plural because it’s a consortium of six different seminaries) in Langley, B.C, where it was cold and rained most of the time from fall to spring. I also worked part time in the children’s ministry office in a large Assemblies of God church in Langley, which included helping with a first grade Sunday school class. I greatly enjoyed studying at CanIL (except for the homework and cold weather), and found most of my classmates to be like-minded people.
Then one day, I was sitting in my room surfing the net on the super fast LDSL internet connection that came with my basement suite (I miss it because I only have DSL now) and stumbled across Alliance Graduate School (AGS). http://www.ags.edu.ph/about_ags.htm in Manila. Because it is also associated with SIL (the overseas branch of Wycliffe), it offers nearly the same MA in Applied Linguistics that I was enrolled in. At first, I was afraid that it might be crazy for me to go there, and was mortally afraid to ask anyone about it. Eventually, though, I got up the courage to ask, and was able to talk to my Filipino boss, some former missionaries to the Philippines who sometimes teach at AGS, and a classmate who had spent several months in Philippines. When my classmate heard that I was thinking about moving to Manila, he gave me the email of his good friend B, also a student at AGS.
Somehow, in the midst of papers and finals and work, I was able to get my application sent to AGS, figure out how to get a visa to the Philippines (which required a lot of traveling back and forth to America), and buy a plane ticket to Manila.
After finishing my last final at CanIL in the middle of April, I said goodbye to Canada, drove back to the Spokane Valley, and spent about ten days with my Dad, ending with my April 30 graduation party for my BS in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute. Several of my relatives from central and eastern Washington drove 3 ½ to 8 hours to get there. I was very blessed that they came to my party!
The next evening, May 1, Dad drove me to the Spokane airport. After traveling about 24 hours, I landed in Manila on May 3 during the hottest time of year in the Philippines. B and the Applied Linguistics program director met me at the airport, took me to my apartment, introduced me to a couple of my American classmates (there’s a large number of international students at AGS, but the majority are friendly Filipinos), and showed me around the mall and grocery store.
I had found out a few days before I left that the linguistics classes would be cancelled this year, and the regular classes wouldn’t start until June. Because of that, B invited me to a conference in a village and a translation seminar for Mother Tongue Translators in Nueva Vizcaya (about 7 hours north of Manila), and I ended up spending about a month traveling around the province with him and a group of people from the mission compound (CFM) that he stays at. If you’ve read my blog, you’ve probably noticed that B appears in many of my pictures, and, yes, he’s officially my boyfriend. We might be getting engaged after a few more months as the Lord leads.
I’m very grateful that God led me to the Philippines!
In January 2005, I started my first semester as a graduate student at the Canadian Institute of Applied Linguistics/ACTS Seminaries (“Seminaries” is plural because it’s a consortium of six different seminaries) in Langley, B.C, where it was cold and rained most of the time from fall to spring. I also worked part time in the children’s ministry office in a large Assemblies of God church in Langley, which included helping with a first grade Sunday school class. I greatly enjoyed studying at CanIL (except for the homework and cold weather), and found most of my classmates to be like-minded people.
Then one day, I was sitting in my room surfing the net on the super fast LDSL internet connection that came with my basement suite (I miss it because I only have DSL now) and stumbled across Alliance Graduate School (AGS). http://www.ags.edu.ph/about_ags.htm in Manila. Because it is also associated with SIL (the overseas branch of Wycliffe), it offers nearly the same MA in Applied Linguistics that I was enrolled in. At first, I was afraid that it might be crazy for me to go there, and was mortally afraid to ask anyone about it. Eventually, though, I got up the courage to ask, and was able to talk to my Filipino boss, some former missionaries to the Philippines who sometimes teach at AGS, and a classmate who had spent several months in Philippines. When my classmate heard that I was thinking about moving to Manila, he gave me the email of his good friend B, also a student at AGS.
Somehow, in the midst of papers and finals and work, I was able to get my application sent to AGS, figure out how to get a visa to the Philippines (which required a lot of traveling back and forth to America), and buy a plane ticket to Manila.
After finishing my last final at CanIL in the middle of April, I said goodbye to Canada, drove back to the Spokane Valley, and spent about ten days with my Dad, ending with my April 30 graduation party for my BS in Biblical Studies from Moody Bible Institute. Several of my relatives from central and eastern Washington drove 3 ½ to 8 hours to get there. I was very blessed that they came to my party!
The next evening, May 1, Dad drove me to the Spokane airport. After traveling about 24 hours, I landed in Manila on May 3 during the hottest time of year in the Philippines. B and the Applied Linguistics program director met me at the airport, took me to my apartment, introduced me to a couple of my American classmates (there’s a large number of international students at AGS, but the majority are friendly Filipinos), and showed me around the mall and grocery store.
I had found out a few days before I left that the linguistics classes would be cancelled this year, and the regular classes wouldn’t start until June. Because of that, B invited me to a conference in a village and a translation seminar for Mother Tongue Translators in Nueva Vizcaya (about 7 hours north of Manila), and I ended up spending about a month traveling around the province with him and a group of people from the mission compound (CFM) that he stays at. If you’ve read my blog, you’ve probably noticed that B appears in many of my pictures, and, yes, he’s officially my boyfriend. We might be getting engaged after a few more months as the Lord leads.
I’m very grateful that God led me to the Philippines!
Monday, February 06, 2006
"Faith in our people and faith in God"-I've noticed that the Philippines is more conservative in some ways than America, and much more accepting of Christians and Christian expressions. That�s good, but I think people can go overboard. I heard recently that some people won't celebrate Valentine's Day because they think it's "pagan." Humm� I myself don�t think pagans are bad, they just don�t know God.
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