Hello!

We’ve been in The Philippines for about 5 weeks what the actual heck! This country has flown by, and is by far my favorite. Thinking about leaving next week makes me want to cry.

I’m currently 87% funded and have $2,463.60 left to raise woohoo! My technical deadline was February 13th. They would like me to step out of ministry for 2-5 hours a week to work on fundraising after that date. But if my current monthly donations stay the same, I will be fully funded in May! I’m hoping to not have to step out of ministry since I have monthly donors. Once I’m funded, the automatic donations do not stop, and will not go to me but to AIM. I will let my donors know when to stop donating.

If you are a donor, thank you so so much for all your help! It means the world and I wouldn’t be where I am without you!

My teams ministry has been working in an orphanage. Four of us were in the girls orphanage, and then me and two other girls work in the boys orphanage. It has been the most rewarding ministry I’ve done so far! I’ve never had younger siblings, and it’s been so sweet to be able to be a big sister for the 22 of these boys. The younger ones, are 5 -9 years old. And they’re so sweet. they’re definitely crazy, but they love to play games and hang out with us, even if they’re destructive games. We also have lots of pillow fights and balloon animal wars. Basically anything that could possibly be destructive they love to play. The older ones were pretty shy to us at first, and we didn’t really know how to talk to them because they are teenage boys. What do I have in common with teenage boys? But after a while, they started to warm up to us and they love making fun of us and hanging out. They’re the little brothers I never had! Even though most of them have no family, it’s been inspiring to watch the brotherhood that they’ve created. The way that they love each other and seek the Lord is so beautiful. A few of them play guitar and sing, and in their free time will worship together, which is so so sweet to watch.

Working in this ministry has changed my heart and made me feel so grateful to all the things that i’ve been blessed to have back home and all the family that I have. It makes me feel so grateful and it breaks my heart that not all people have my experience. The Lord has been teaching me so much about his heart for the brokenhearted and His love for His people. God is love, and if we don’t love people well, then we’re not loving God well

In a typical day for us, we get up around eight or nine, eat breakfast, read our Bibles, and hang out with a few of the younger ones who come home from school early. Then in the afternoon all the boys are home from school and we played basketball, volleyball, tag or have dance parties and pillow fights! Our afternoons are always very full, but there’s never a dull moment. At 5:30 PM every day we help the small boys shower and then we all eat dinner. At about 7:30 PM, we put the small boys to bed and pray and sing with them, sometimes it’s really difficult to get them to quiet down and go to bed and sometimes it’s so sweet and they just love listening to us sing. After they go to bed, we hang out with the older boys, talking about life, singing songs or eating snacks!

I’ve also made a lot of great friends here

who are my age. Some nights after the older boys go to bed, I will hang out with some of the friends that we’ve made. We like to go out for coffee late at night, or sometimes they just like to drive us around and show us cool views of the city. The friendships we’ve made here are truly a blessing! It doesn’t feel like we’re friends just because we’re doing ministry together, but it feels like even if I just lived here, I would be best friends with them outside of ministry also.

PVT (parent vision trip) starts next week! Where most of our parents are coming, and we’re going to another part of the Philippines do ministry. We’re all excited to see our parents, but sad to leave our current ministry. But after PVT week, we’re coming back here for a week of debrief. I’m excited to be doing our debrief where we currently are so that I can still see some of the friends I’ve made and say goodbye one more time!