Philippine Trip

Hey everybody, good evening here from Manila, Philippine. Our journey started on Wednesday early morning. I went to Fairfield to join Jim McGaffey to drive to Chicago to catch out first flight that was scheduled to leave at 12:35 in the afternoon. Well believe it or not we were all loaded and leaving for the runway at 12:35, unbelievable as it may seem. This began our first leg of our trip that would last for 13 1/2 hours. The plane was a huge Airbus with two stories, which by the way I had never been on before. The plane was packed from stem to stern with people from all places and races. As much as I might have tried I wasn't able to sleep a wink. The night before was pretty shy on the sleep side as well and I began to experience the effects. I tried so hard to sleep but to no avail, it escaped me and I was beginning to look like someone who had been beatdown and I couldn't remember who had done it.

After arriving at Seoul, Korea we had about 3 or 4 hours of lay over and I curled up on several seats and got some shuteye. What contact I had with those at Seoul they seemed like a very gracious people full of life. They do talk fast so it's hard to follow them in conversation but they didn't mind slowing down a little for our sake.

After boarding the plane for Manila at 7:35 in the evening we finally made it about 12:30 and meet Jim Wilson and he graciously took us to our hotel, which by the way is a beautiful hotel owned by a Christian group and if you can believe it only 21.00 a night plus tax. Try to find that in the US and you'll probably be sharing it with the bugs. Anyway, we were just exhausted when we got to the hotel and went right to bed. I think we were all so tired that we just fell into bed, basically we had gone without sleep for about 48 hours and after you cross the international date line and have time changes we are actually 13 1/2 hours ahead of you. So right now it's 6:05 PM.

Tomorrow we will leave for Butuan at 7:30 in the morning and arrive about 9. We aren't fully sure what we'll be doing yet but know for sure that we will be working at the AHON Orphanage in the afternoon. This is an orphanage for boys and some of them are supported by the International Child Care Ministries through the FM Church.

Well that's it for now. I'll write more in the next day or two. Pastor Jim McGaffey and I will be preaching at two different locations on Sunday and possibly Sunday night we'll be preaching as well. Please pray for us that God would use us to preach His Word powerfully and with purpose. Below you're see some pictures of our plane, the others on our trip and the hotel where were are staying in Manila. Enjoy.