My Newsletter

April 2007 (and everything before that)

Hello everyone! Sorry I’ve been neglecting my newsletter. In March, I was busy finishing the last module phase at AGS: Literacy Principles and Translation 1, attending some of the graduation events, and getting ready for our wedding. I actually graduated with a Graduate Diploma in Applied Linguistics on April 1, but didn’t make a big deal about it because I only have two classes left before I get my MA next year.
On April 7, B and I got married. The ceremony was held in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya, at the Kalanguya mission/Bible translation center. The ceremony, which lasted for almost two hours, went well, thanks to some organizing done by one of B’s friends, an Australian missionary who happened to come along with us because Su San and Noah (my brother-in-law and nephew) had to stay behind in Korea at the last minute. We were only disappointed with a few things…. The main thing was that the one we hired for the ceremony decorations promised to sow blue tents, but used ugly tarps instead, and I thought we had paid for a mixture of roses and another kind of flower, but she used cheap flowers instead (and I didn’t like them). Other than that, it looked okay, the reception decorations were done well, the caterer was good, the weather that day was almost perfect, the singers were talented, and many of our friends were able to make it. There were about 200 guests at the wedding, and about 600 altogether at the reception, which is what we had planned for. I want to write something more detailed about our wedding sometime soon.
The thing that I was most excited about was that my Dad and sister came over for our wedding. It was even my Dad’s first time to fly, and I was happy to hear that he thought it was okay. We met them at the airport on April 2, then we traveled up to the province on April 4. After the wedding, since we had talked them into staying until Friday, we spent a few days together riding in dump trucks etc. to visit two villages and hanging around in the town, then spent a couple of days in Manila and went to Divasoria and Tondo (a squatter community in Manila).

After that, one of B’s sisters and a niece came to Manila to help us clean our new apartment and start to unpack stuff. Then we got onto a big ferryboat and traveled south for twelve hours to the island of Romblon in the Visayas where one of the SIL missionaries lives. He arranged for us to stay in the house next to his on the resort of a pastor that he knows well. After a few days, we sailed to another island to visit three Australian missionaries, who were as excited to see us as we were to see them (we were very excitedJ). The next afternoon, we traveled to another part of the island and found a small lodge to stay in (and it only cost $3.00/night/foreigner and $2.00/night/Filipino). We were supposed to catch a boat there the next morning, but there wasn’t one that time, and the man whose lodge we stayed in drove us on his motorcycle to where there would be a boat leaving for the famous Boracay beach. The boat was very small, and probably carried less than a dozen people. When we sailed out across the ocean, the waves got big and we got scared. Even the engine almost stopped after the boat was hit by a big wave, but that was probably normal for the sailors. Anyway, after spending a couple hours in Boracay, we headed back to Manila on a huge ship called the Virgin Mary. Someone told us that it can carry 2000 to 3000 people at a time.

The day after coming back to Manila, we traveled to the province so that B could speak at a VBS camp. When we got back to Manila a couple days later, I already had a bad cold/flue and had to be in bed for a couple of days. I’m doing much better now.

Prayer:
Thank you for praying for our wedding! Please continue to pray for B and I as we try to understand each other better.
Thank you also for praying for my health. I’m doing much better, but I still get sick too often. B has a bad pain in his right leg that none of the doctors have been able to diagnose. He’ll be going to physical rehab soon.
Please be praying for our visa applications to go smoothly. I’ll need to get a visa other than a student visa, and B needs to apply for a visa to visit the US so that he can meet the rest of my family, I can join a mission organization, and we can do our “partnership development” there since I didn’t do that before I left (except the money for school). B’s visa has to be processed like an immigrant visa since he’s married to me, and could take between 6 months to 2 years. Please pray that it won’t take long.

PS. You can see our pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/baglyandesther?pli=1