In honor of the New Year, I have decided to start keeping a list of the things that I have learned while living in the Philippines. I did this in college. My college list is a random assortment of useful knowledge from my classes, useless facts that I wanted to remember, quotes that impacted my life, funny situations that taught me something, ways God worked on my heart, and ideas that I thought might be more useful if I remembered them later. After I graduated, I was glad that I had kept this list. Some of it has been very helpful and the rest of it is at least entertaining. Anyway, here is the beginning of my new list: Things that I have learned in the Philippines

1. Ants will go out of their way to avoid walking over a line of chalk. (I have now circled my house with chalk)
2. No matter how prepared you think you are, there is no way to completely avoid culture shock.
3. I must acknowledge my weakness and ask God for strength daily. I have no strength on my own. My weakness alone leads to failure, but my weakness filled with God’s strength leads to ability.
4. Truth is more important than my comfort.
5. There are at least 20 fruits and vegetables that do not exist in America.
6. The dictionary is not always right.
7. It is possible to completely butcher three languages in one sentence.
8. The easiest way is not always the best way. Sometimes the harder way is better just for the lessons it can teach.
9. Lizards do not make good pets.
10.  Missions workshops and classes make a lot more sense when you listen to them again after you have spent a few months on the field. The speakers are much smarter than they first appeared!

Well, now I have experienced New Year’s in the Philippines. New Year's is a big holiday here and people stayed up all night making noise! I had to close all of my windows and put in earplugs to try to get some sleep! People did fireworks and karaoke all night in my neighborhood! It is not like in the States, where most of the noise is right around midnight and then people start wrapping things up and going to bed. It goes on all night here! New Year’s seems to be much more celebrated in the Philippines than it is in the US. Since it was a Saturday night, we waited until Sunday night to celebrate at the church. After the evening service, we had snacks and did fireworks on the church property. I really enjoyed watching the kids get so excited as they watched the fireworks!

 Maayong Pasko (Merry Christmas)!

It has been difficult for me to update this very much, since it isn’t easy to get on (or stay on) the internet here. I see that I haven’t written much at all since I arrived in the Philippines! I’ll try to go back and fill in some of the gaps, using my hand-written journal.

Today, I went to camp with the Cadavos family. It was fun! We went swimming and had lunch there. Pastor and I caught fish with our hands! I caught two fish.

 As I was walking home after going to camp, I saw a cow tied up at the side of the road. I have been wanting to pet one. I looked around and didn’t see anyone, so I walked over and pet it. It was scared of me at first, but after a minute, it settled down. When I was done petting it, I turned around to see two ladies from church walking toward me. They were laughing! So much for nobody seeing me! Oh well, I finally got to pet a cow!

 One of the girls from the school office moved in with me today. I’m not sure how this will work. We will both have a lot of adjustments to make, but it will probably be good for both of us! She is a very sweet girl though and I am hoping to get to know her better.

 Tonight was our Christmas Cantata at church. A funny thing happened! In between the songs, during the speaking parts, the choir would sit down on the risers. When we went to stand up for the second song, I caught my shoe on the riser and it fell off! It landed on the floor in front of the choir. Paul saw it there (it was right in front of him) and turned back to look at me and we both laughed. I don’t think that anyone else noticed it. I had to sing the whole song without my shoe! The next time the choir sat down, I picked it up and put it back on. A lady in the front row saw me and started laughing. I couldn’t look at her for the rest of the cantata because she would smile at me and it was hard for me to sing without laughing!

  Ate Thata went home today. A girl that works in the school office will be moving in with me soon. She will teach me Visayan, but will not help me as much as Ate Thata did. It will probably be good for me though. I will be forced to do a lot more on my own now! I will miss Ate Thata though! I really enjoyed getting to know her and I am very thankful that God brought her to teach me as I began living here in the Philippines. She was a great help to me!

 I have learned so much in the past three months! I understand some of the language now and can speak a little bit. I am also beginning to understand a lot more of what goes on around me and how things work here. But, as I understand more, I also begin to see the problems here more. Many of the people here are new Christians and are not grounded in the Word of God. There are many problems here that should not be in the church, but the people don’t understand that they are wrong. I have a burden to do my best to teach these people God’s Word and the importance of obeying it above any person or practice.