STILETTOS TO ARISTOTLE

What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows? Allow me to continue the tale of my third visit to the Philippines. (Read Part 1 here.) WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17TH We awoke to the sound of another singing rooster, as faithful as the dawn. Much like the morning before, we packed up camp, had breakfast, said goodbye to our new friends, and were on our merry way by six o’clock. I was hopeful that going down the mountain would prove to be sli

In a house in Texas there lived a young woman. Not a nasty, dirty, boring house, filled with clutter and a dusty smell, nor yet a quiet, bare, plain house with nothing in it to sit down on or to eat: it was a house of blessing, and that means comfort. “There is nothing like staying at home, for real comfort.” (Jane Austen) And so begins my story of my third journey to the Philippines. There and back again. THURSDAY, JUNE 11TH When my five o’clock alarm went off, I jumped eage

I have received a lot of questions and concerns about the status of our friends in the Philippines. Naturally, since I just returned from there less than a month ago, co-workers, friends, and acquaintances alike have been inquiring about what I know. Well here is what I know: it makes me literally sick to think about. The devastation, the hopelessness, the loss, it is almost more than I can grasp. Here I am, trying to eloquently digest my experience from a wonderful mission t

Mindanao Island I am convinced that all the things in my life that I eagerly wait for are in some sort of time warp – traveling adventures, my wedding, the holidays – they all seem to take decades to arrive but then vanish so quickly into a wonderful memory treasured deep within my heart. And now I can add my trip to the Philippines to that list. I journal for many reasons, probably the most important reason being that I often forget the valuable details that I long to rememb

With less than thirty days until our big trip, I am finding myself surprisingly calm and collected. This pilot trip to the Philippines will be like no other adventure I have yet experienced. A rush of excitement, fear, anticipation, and apprehension all seem to flood over me, often all at once. Preparing for a trip like this takes much more planning than a vacation, and I am an avid “planner,” there’s no trip or event too big for my ambitions! But a mission trip is a whole ot

For the past year my husband and I have been investigating, factually and spiritually, the beautiful islands of the Philippines. At the end of next month we finally get the opportunity to explore the lands, physically. Needless to say, a large part of my thoughts have been occupied by a place and people over eight thousand miles away. In school, geography was never my strongest subject. How I wish now that I would have taken the opportunity then to be more disciplined in that