We are the Same

Who knew that I had a family thousands of miles away? I didn't meet them until a few weeks ago but there is no mistaking that they are my family. They don't look like me or sound like me but they are my family. They don't know that I love vanilla Dr. Pepper's from Sonic or that I really like snow cones and they have never meet my dog but they are definitely my family. My love for them began in the middle of a foreign country way up in the mountains where the heat was stifling and the bug spray was plentiful and it has continued to grow each day I've been here. I did not think something like this was possible, in fact before I came here I really thought Christian love was just something that people were striving for and that I might never see it exist fully. I was wrong.



The people at the Mactan compound show love to each other in ways that are unfathomable. They treat each other like true brothers and sisters without pretenses or question marks. I keep waiting for someone to slip up and say, "this is only how we act when you are here," but that is not the case. This is actually who they are and when I realized that, I began to see why someone would want to become part of this place. The love here is contagious and it's something that as an outsider looking in, I immediately wanted to be a part of.



I wish I could take a few of these people and replant them in churches in the States, to show that it's ok to love each other. There are no rules that say because your child goes to a different school than mine, we can't be friends. Or just because we are in different book clubs, on different soccer teams or like opposite things, we still can't love each other. The love of Christ is what brings us together and thats ok, that can actually be IT.



So...to the group at Mactan, Camp Arapal, the teachers of Green Garden and Kuya Sal...Thank you for letting me become part of your family and showing me that we really are all the same.



Recap of the last few days:



1. My feet have been swollen because of the heat the entire trip and Peter, being his sympathetic self, likes to call them "little sausages."



2. Peter, Ben and I went on the skywalk yesterday, harnessed in of course, on the 39th floor of Club Ultima and survived. It's bascially a glass platform around the top story of the building without any walls to keep you from falling.



3. The last leadership seminar today with church leaders at the Mactan Church of Christ and the one yesterday with teachers from the Green Garden school went fantastic, they are all such passionate people and the Philippines is lucky to have these dedicated servants.



4. Tomorrow is our last goat farm visit and I am a little sad, I'm going to miss those noisy things!



5. If you have not given a goat yet, you should, here is their website. http://www.giveagoatnow.com/