A Global Kingdom

20 days.  15,000+ miles.  10 flights.

This is enough to quench even my travel-loving spirit.  When I arrived back in Birmingham on Sunday morning, I was very happy to be home.  I am even content to not have any big travel plans on the horizon, although I'm sure that won't be permanent.

Every aspect of my my trip half-way across the world and back again went great.  I'm truly so thankful for this.  Even more so though, I am thankful for God's global kingdom and the relationships I have all over the world because of it.  And somehow, they are all connected in various ways.

After a wonderful visit, I left Kate and her roommate Lydia on Thursday morning.  Good times and quality conversations still lingering in my head from there, I arrived in Seattle about 27 hours later.  I spent the weekend with my aunt, uncle, and cousin who have all lived in the Philippines before and even know some of Kate's teammates.  It was great to be able to process my own trip with them and discuss places and cultural aspects.  A few days later, I headed home to Birmingham via Chicago on a red-eye flight.  My dear friend & former missionary teammate Becca came to see me at the airport for a short visit during my early morning layover.  If I hadn't been a missionary myself, I wouldn't have had the same desire to visit a friend on the mission field.  Becca's passion for missionary care has also influenced me over the years--one more way the stories are weaved together.

Finally, there is my church in Birmingham.  My pastor often says it's like a family reunion, and I definitely felt that this past Sunday.  It's a joy to be enthusiastically greeted and hugged by close friends that I love and that I know have been praying for me.  I felt welcomed home in such an encouraging way.

These intertwining stories paint a beautiful picture of the Lord's global kingdom.  It feels like a small taste of heaven.

An Afternoon with the Sama

Of all my updates from the Philippines, this one is the hardest to write.  I considered not writing it, but it was one of my favorite moments from my time there.  I think that's what makes it so hard: knowing I will not be able to justly describe it or capture the experience through my words.  Still, it's on my heart so I shall attempt...

On my last day in the Philippines, we had the opportunity to visit one of the Central Sama communities in Davao.  The Sama (also known as the Badjao) are a minority people group whose lives are deeply connected to the sea.  Their livelihood comes mostly from fishing and trading (especially pearls), and their homes are built on stilts above the sand or shallow water along the coast.  The particular community we visited has about 300 people, and they speak one dialect of the Sinama language.

Working alongside the Sama and with their help, members of SIL have translated the New Testament into Sinama and are currently working on the Old Testament translation.  My friend Kate's focus is mother-tongue literacy & multilingual education, and she is hoping to join forces with an indigenous member of the community (named Jonathan) who is also passionate about this goal and currently working toward it.  In fact, the primary purpose of our visit was for one of the translators to introduce Kate to Jonathan and make that connection.  It was such a privilege to be able to tag along and make the acquaintance of several individuals in the community as well.

Rather than fully narrate our time there, I'm going to just share a few of my thoughts in a stream-of-consciouness style:

Walking into the community, we immediately create a stir and raise attention--not many foreigners venture here...we're graciously ushered onto a bench while others sit in humble, plastic chairs sized for preschoolers or stand...we're genuinely welcomed and someone brings store-bought sodas in glass bottles for us and a package of cookies for each of us--the generosity and kindness of this community is evident...after introductions are made, conversation ensues...I focus on the conversation but also frequently glance around me to the surroundings and the people...I smile at the children and women gathered around us, and they shyly but brightly smile back...I am tempted to leave the conversation and go play with the precious children..."personal space" is an unknown concept here--the houses are all connected to each other and only have fragile or partial walls...later, we go for a short tour and meet more members of the community...there is a beauty and a joy even amongst the poverty and need...and I'm incredibly grateful to have met these brothers and sisters in Christ...

Jonathan, his wife, and their nephew

Davao

I spent most of my time in the Philippines in Davao City on the island of Mindanao.  Especially after hectic Manila, Davao was like a breath of fresh air.  Although it's a large city of around a million people, it felt much smaller than that.  There is not one central, downtown area but rather pockets of commerce in various locations.  It was still quite hot and humid, but it felt cooler than Manila.  Less people, less traffic, & less pavement all contribute to this fact, along with a nice breeze from the bay and some overcast days.

Davao also reminded me of where I lived in Mexico in several ways: bougainvillea trees, half-paved streets, bumpy roads, friendly people, gated houses, and corner stores.  Both cities are the kind of place where you run into people you know, and I love this.  Unfortunately, another similarity both places share is being home to noisy roosters that do not seem to sleep much.

Since I was in Davao for ten days, I felt like I received a fairly good picture of what life is like there.  I rode on various forms of public transportation (including jeepneys, motorized "tricycles", and taxis), went to grocery stores and the market, ran errands, went to church, etc.  Some days, I did things at home while Kate was working or I followed her to meetings at the SIL office or a coffee shop.  We also a took a few vacation days though and enjoyed some time at the beach and at a nearby destination in the mountains.  For meals, we enjoyed eating out at several delicious restaurants as well as eating at home and even ordered pizza one night.  :)  And of course, I tried lots of new food and fruits--all of which were very good, minus the infamous durian.

It's funny how quickly aspects of a place can become routine.  I loved "taking it all in" and not only observing, but participating in daily life in Davao.  Spending a significant amount of time there was great, and I enjoyed feeling at home during my stay.

Jeepney: the most popular way to ride

Jeepneys line a street in one of the commercial parts of Davao

People visiting after church.  I really enjoyed being here--it reminded me of my church in Mexico.

Brunch at Sea Green--delicious food and it's walking distance from Kate's house

Making fresh calamansi juice at home

View of Davao and the bay from Jack's Ridge

Bougainvillea!  (photo by Kate)

a side street in a residential part of Davao (photo by Kate)

Full Circle

Last Wednesday, we visited a beautiful island about an hour away from Davao City by boat.  It was a beautiful day on Isla Reta, and the colorful hues of the water were absolutely gorgeous.  Resting on my towel in the sand next to Kate's, I had a sudden flashback to March 2013.  I'd gone home that weekend for Easter, and Kate & I had made a day trip to St. George Island.  She was considering three different assignments with Wycliffe/SIL and had shared with me some of the pros and cons of each.  One of them was in the Philippines in a city named Davao...

Reflecting on this flashback and being here in the Philippines now to experience Kate's world, I realized how grateful I am.

I am thankful for enduring friendships of many years.

I am thankful to be able to walk through life with friends and process decisions together.

I am thankful to experience joys and sorrows with friends.

I am thankful for friends like Kate who supported me and prayed for me during my time in Mexico.

I am thankful for my job in the U.S. and to be able to pray for and support Kate and others.

I am thankful to have the time and means to travel here to the Philippines to visit Kate.

I am thankful for the story God is unfolding in my life and in others, both in the past and still to come.

And I am thankful for the present and moments like these.

With Kate and others, on a Four Oaks Church mission trip in July 2007

St. George Island, March 2013: listening and processing time

on the way to Isla Reta, July 2014

Isla Reta, Philippines, July 2014

Manila: A City of Contrasts

I arrived in Manila on Friday, July 11th, in the afternoon.  I smoothly passed through immigration and customs and quickly found my friend Kate in the crowd without any problems.  From there, we hit the ground running so that I could see as much of the city as possible in my 2 and 1/2 days there.  What I discovered is that Manila is a city of contrasts.

I would be lying if I did not say that my first and strongest sense of Manila is the oppressive heat and humidity.  Since I grew up in Florida, I thought I'd be better equipped to handle this.  There is something about the tropics though accompanied by roughly 12 million people that overpowers you.  The contrast to this extreme is the what Filipinos affectionately call "air-con" or AC in my vocabulary.  People flock to the air-conditioned malls and restaurants, and I can easily understand why after experiencing the heat and quickly found myself doing the same thing.

Manila is also a city of economic extremes.  Saturday, we spent the day visiting several market districts (Chinatown, Divisoria, and Quiapo).  There are a myriad of vendors as well as beggars, especially outside the churches.  Sunday, we visited the high-end of the city (Makati and Bonifacio Global City) where expensive brand names abound and there are three Starbucks all within a few kilometers of each other.  One thing that especially strikes me about Manila is the close proximity of the rich and the poor. It reminds me of New Orleans in this sense.  To see the harsh reality of a squatter's life and witness a man bathing just a few feet from the street, shielded only by a make-shift partial shelter, and then to walk into a brand-new, multiple-story mall is jarring to say the least.

It is also a city contrasted by aesthetic differences.  It's much greener than I expected and the beautiful, lush palm trees are everywhere along with varied flowers and trees.  There are also wonderful sunsets.  Yet, people have also marred this natural beauty.  Trash in the river is a common sight, and the fumes of all the transportation for millions of people create a smog.

I suppose you could say that most big cities are full of contrasts, but Manila seems to be an extreme example of this.  I'm glad I could experience it for a few days and catch a glimpse of it.

Travel Thoughts

Sitting on the plane from Seoul to Manila, I type in Microsoft Word and will upload this later to Blogger.  It's my 4th flight in just a few days, but I'm holding up pretty well.  Induced by travel, my head is full of thoughts that range from the deep to the shallow.

As I rode on the airport shuttle this morning from the Best Western back to Incheon airport, I was thinking about the word foreign.  Though simple in definition, its connotation can be strong.  Latin America and Europe do not feel foreign to me.  They may feel different, but not foreign or completely new.  Some places even feel familiar like I belong there.  It’s my first time in Asia, and it truly does feel foreign.  It’s not just that I don’t understand any of the words around me—I can’t even read any of the characters.  I see only one other Westerner in the giant Seoul airport this morning, and that surprises me and increases this foreign feeling.

But then, there are also the parts of travel that make the world seem smaller…like the friendly Filipino couple who sit next to me on the plane and live in Lakeland, FL, or the way all children are similar no matter their language or culture.  There is the universal comfort of things like a hot shower and a Starbucks chai latte, which tastes the same from Zacatecas to Seoul. 

I am also fascinated by the way that the language part of our brain works.  I have already found myself wanting to speak Spanish to the people around me, or translating a question in my head that I need to ask an employee.  It’s my natural instinct – if the people around me aren’t speaking English, my mind assumes it should speak Spanish.  I don’t know what it is like for people who speak multiple foreign languages, but I would imagine whichever secondary language they learned first is the most ingrained in them and their “default” mode.

Enough travel reflections for now, I’m going to watch a TV episode on my computer. :)

July 1st

Today is July 1^st: the day that every teacher has a miniature panic attack because summer is half over.  (If you think that school doesn’t start until September or that summer is three months long, you are living under a rock.)  If you don’t believe me, just ask any teacher.  They all experience the “July 1^st phenomenon."

This year though, I had some premature panicking back in June and instead now find myself in a relatively healthy spot today on July 1.  I have been thinking about the fact that there will always be more to do.  I can’t think of a time in the last fifteen years when every item on my checklist was completed.  There will always be one more email or phone call to make, one more errand to run, one more goal to pursue, etc.  That is life!  Maybe there’s a point when you no longer feel this way, but I think that as long as I am cognizant, I will have things I want to accomplish each day even if it’s one last letter to write to my family. 

So then what do we do if the “to-do list” will always be there?  We accept it.  We take Sabbath anyway.  I love the way Mark Buchanan explains this in his book The Rest of God:

            “The lie the taskmasters want you to swallow is that you cannot rest until your work’s all done, and done better than you’re currently doing it.  But the truth is, the work’s never done, and never done quite right.  It’s always more than you can finish and less than you had hoped for.

            So what?  Get this straight: The rest of God -- the rest God gladly gives so that we might discover the part of God we’re missing -- is not a reward for finishing.  It’s not a bonus for work well done. 

It’s a sheer gift.  It’s a stop-work order in the midst of work that’s never complete, never polished.  Sabbath is not the break we’re allotted at the tail end of completing all our tasks and chores, the fulfillment of all our obligations.  It’s the rest we take smack-dab in the middle of them, without apology, without guilt, and for no better reason than God told us we could.”

And so June slips into July, and August will be here before we know it as well.  But that’s ok.  I still have things I hope to get done before the end of the summer, but it will be all right if I don’t.  My heart can be at rest whether it’s the summer or the busiest day of the school year because God is good and reigning on the throne.

[Side note: this “July 1^st” theme seemed oddly familiar, and sure enough I mentioned it in a blog post two years ago.  Clearly, it’s a lesson I’m still learning…]