Inside Out Launch

Our final mission of the trip was to launch InsideOut at Quest Community Fellowship.  The church tried to begin their high school ministry several years ago, but they just didn't have the # of staff and volunteers to support it at the time.  The launching included games to kick off the afternoon, worship time followed by a message, and snacks afterwards to allow the kids to fellowship with one another.  There were over 100 kids and leaders in attendance.  We've been keeping up with the ministry since we've been home and it's continuing to grow each week.  They have since formed small groups, which consists of a male or female leader discipling anywhere from 5-10 students.  There have been several students that have come to know Christ since we've been back.

Our trip was a life changing experience for all that were involved.  Gary and I will never forget this trip and the people we met in the Philippines.  We were extremely blessed with the opportunity to go.  Gary is praying about the decision to lead another group there next summer.  It will be hard for me to miss out, but our child will be 6 months old so the timing just isn't right.  Thank you again for all those who prayed over us and gave us support money so that we could have a small hand in this ministry.  God Bless you all!!

Vertical Reality 2010 - Philippines

The next two days we headed up to Mountain View to hold Quest Church's first ever Vertical Reality camp.  This event is designed to get the high school kids excited about coming to church, to build relationships with one another, and to teach them that InsideOut (the high school ministry) is a safe place to come.  Since this was the 1st event for high schoolers, the church wanted us to help launch the camp.  I was one of the leaders for the camp team so this is what our team had been planning for and organizing for months. This year we designed it to be all fun and games, with relays, team building exercises, minute to win it games, etc.  Usually at our camps, we have worship, speakers, and small group time, but we decided to wait until future years to add these elements and focus strictly on building relationships these next few days.  The camp was a huge success.  We had around 70 Filipino students and small group leaders attend.  The excitement from camp was just what we had prayed for going into the launching of Inside Out the next day.  Here are some pictures from camp!!

A Day of R & R at the Falls and Beach

It couldn't have been a more perfect time to enjoy God's amazing creation at Kawasan Falls and one of the beaches in the Philippines.  We were all wiped out from the long days of painting so this was just what the doctor ordered.  By the way, did you know that the Philippines consists of approximately 7,100 islands??

We took a 3 hour bus ride to the Falls and hiked about 30 minutes to our destination.  Along the way, we had views of a beautiful river and tropical plants.  At Kawasan, there are 3 waterfalls, with the 1st being the biggest but usually the most crowded.  We hiked to the last one because it was least crowded, and we had the place to ourselves.  The views here were indescribable.  There were little huts and tables to picnic as well as little cottages you could rent to stay overnight.  For lunch, our kind friends brought a pig for us all to experience.  This was new for most of our high school students, but it was a tradition of my families' for many years over Christmas so eating straight from the pig wasn't too odd for me.  After lunch, our group rented two large bamboo rafts, and we were carried under the waterfalls.  This brought on quite a few laughs and screams from our group because some of us were either getting pounded by the waterfall or sinking on the raft.  By the way, the water was FREEZING!!!  What an amazing memory we made here!!

After  a few hours of enjoying the falls, we headed to the beach to do some snorkeling.  I've never seen water quite as beautiful as it was here.  It was crystal clear and had beautiful shades of blue come out at nighttime.  The fish we saw swimming looked a lot like what you might see at the aquarium.  This was all so surreal.  I will definitely add this place to one of mine and Gary's dream adventure vacations in the future.   We concluded the day with pizza, mango shakes, and great conversation by the sea.  It couldn't have been a more enjoyable and relaxing day!!  Just what we needed to prepare for the 2 day Vertical Reality Camp we were launching the next few days for the high school students at Quest.  

Here are a few pictures from our day:

Building Relationships That Will Last a Lifetime

One of my favorite parts of the mission trip was forming new relationships with our high school students that I did not know as well and also with the students and small group leaders from Quest Community Fellowship.  After painting each day, our team along with small group leaders, staff members, and students from Quest would go out to dinner as a group and then do some team building activity afterwards to begin fostering new friendships.

To end each night of the trip, our team would come together to debrief the day.  This included sharing the high's and low's from the day, any interesting conversations we had with others, or something that God was teaching us at the time.  We would sing a few worship songs and then discuss a select topic from our devotion that day.  Finally, we'd close our time together by having one-on-one's with someone from our small group.  The students really looked forward to this time together because this is where they shared their story with one another, their joys and struggles, etc.  I can't say enough about how important this element of the trip was to the bonding of our students.  I will cherish the relationships I made on this trip forever!!

Les, the pastor at Quest, getting ready to serenade us.

Karaoke Night (as you can tell the Americans had no fear in getting up to sing and dance)
Karaoke originated in the Philippines so there were venues all over for you to do this, even in the grocery store.  

Some of the guys joined in on the b-ball game

Miranda with Cecille and Wendyl (one of the nicest couples  we met)

Bonding over some bowling

Getting to know some of the students at Quest

Day 3-5 : Paint, Paint, and More Paint

Our service project for the trip was to paint classrooms at Labangon Elementary School.  There were 2700 students that attended here.  Each class could have up to 60 students per classroom.  The initial plan when we arrived was that we'd be painting and decorating two classrooms.  However, if you've ever been on a mission trip, you know to hold your plans loosely because they're bound to change.  We soon found out that we'd be painting two different buildings, inside and out, which totaled 9 different classrooms.  This was quite the project for just 3 days, but we were eager to get started.  Day 1 was a little chaotic because the service project team had to re-adjust all of their plans, pick out new paint colors, and get all the new supplies needed for the project.  In the meantime, we spent the 1st day and a half priming the buildings and cleaning up around the outside.  The team unity with this group was outstanding.  There was a lot of room for complaining and laziness, but everyone rose to the occasion and got the job completed.  We were excited to see that we finished the project just in time and gave preschoolers and 4th graders a new, beautiful space to learn.  The school was extremely gracious for our efforts and held a ceremony for us later in the week.  They recognized us with a certificate, a banner that will hang outside these buildings, and a fabulous meal prepared by some of the teachers and parents.  After talking with some of the people, they couldn't understand why our group would travel halfway across the world to come and help renovate their school.  They were so appreciative and proud of the newly renovated buildings.  Just months before, these two buildings were set to be torn down so I'm glad that our efforts along with the help of Quest Community Fellowship helped save this space.  I'm sure the teachers were glad to see us complete the project so they could have their students' focus back.  As soon as we arrived each day, we were greeted by smiling kids.   You would have thought we were the Hannah Montana or Jonas Brother's bus rolling in.  During recess and lunchtime, the student's stood close by and watched us paint away.  We often had to shoo them away because they started interfering with us working.  All the students (hundreds at a time) would come up to you with a pen and notebook asking if you had Facebook.  I couldn't wait to see how many thousands of friend requests I would have when I got back home.  I quickly learned to just put my initials or 1st name to avoid this.  After painting each day, we would take about 30 minutes to play and talk with the kids.  It was definitely hard to leave them on the last day.   For many of our students, this was the highlight of the trip.

Outside of 4th Grade Building - Before Picture

Inside Classroom - Before picture

Back of the building - Before picture

Getting started with the primer - the kids sat and watched us all day long

Meeting some of the students

Trying to stay as safe as possible

                                      

Bathroom

The parents were coming in after we painted to polish the floors with coconut shells

                                      

Day #2 Still painting

Everything is ready except the roof

How we were greeted each day

Ribbon cutting

                                       

The kids loved this!

They would run from classroom to classroom to be in my pictures

Signing autographs