April na!

Pictures above are some of the youth going swimming in the ocean and me with Pastor Bong and his wife, Evangeline at the day care graduation I spoke at.

Maayong Gabii sa tanan!
Thanks for checking in. As the days tick away here I continue to wrestle with processing what I'm feeling.
I've already been saying goodbye to people or have been making arrangements for a time of formal "goodbye." Goodbyes are hard, but they are needed and actually help me to know what I am feeling. They are proving to be an important way to finish my internship well.
Recently I have been wrapping a lot different ministry things and attending a lot of graduations of my youth. For our final youth event, Mark and I treated the youth group to an afternoon of fellowship with another youth group in a different part of the city. There were close to 100 in attendence. We had a program for them, with worship, dances, games, a Bible Study, and some great snacks. And to top it all off, we took them swimming in the ocean to cool down. It was a fun day. I'll miss those guys a lot, I really spent a lot of time with the youth group and they taught me a lot.
I was also given the privilege of speaking at the graduation of the kids attending the day care at our church. I spoke to the 10 graduates and their families and was able to hand out their awards and diplomas.
I've now successfully completed all my Cebuano language classes and my reward is spending a week with my language teacher Anita and her family in her home island of Bantayan. We leave early tomorrow morning by bus to the north of Cebu than take a boat west for Bantayan. It's Holy Week here and the party begins! Bantayan is known for having large festivals, prosessionals and parties during Easter so a lot of foreiengers and tourists flock to this island during Holy Week, and I guess I'll be one of them also. But I'll be staying with the locals which is the best of both worlds.

So, I was surprised by Rhonda with a concert by the famous Filipino Christian singer, Gary V. There was a "God Bless Israel" worship concert here in Cebu where a few thousand Christians came together to pray for peace and bless Israel together. And there was a surprise appearence by Gary V at the end. I feel like my Filipino experience is now complete with a Gary V concert because every Filipino takes pride in him. It was such a treat to see him live. I hope you all will also be converted to Gary V fans. Sorry the picture is a little dark, but there he is.






So, my last month is looking very exciting, busy and difficult. Please continue to pray for wisdom and protection as I gear up for the end. Financial provision is still an important prayer request. I apologize for not getting out those newsletters to you. Due to a lot of technical difficulties and missends, it has taken a lot more time than I anticipated. But I'm working on it, I have some people helping me out now.

God Bless you all,
Hope Canada is starting to warm up! I know I'm going to be so cold when I come back.
In Christ,
Amanda