Here are some of the things I saw & experienced during my missions trip to the Philippine Islands in Jan/Feb 1986 (with Youth With A Mission organization). This trip had many FIRSTS for me: It was my first airplane ride...18 long hours of it *S*...my first experience in a foreign country & my first missions trip. I think I experienced more 'weather shock' than culture shock (since I'd never experienced hot tropical weather before), but I also had some adjusting to do with the culture differences (like anyone would). I loved meeting the people, especially the children. I really enjoyed learning some of the language, too (I always enjoy learning new foreign words/phrases). We did puppet shows for the children, and sang christian songs for them, too. We told all the Filipinos "Mahal ka ni Hesus"(Jesus loves you, in Tagalog). For our puppet shows, we used an interpreter, Jun Penaflor, one of my best Filipino friends I made on our trip. (Jun, in white shirt & black pants is standing at the right, next to Mark Smucker who did some English narration for the puppet show as well). This is the Manila garbage dump, where the poor people had to search through garbage to recycle to get some food for the day. What a tough life they have, but God loves them so much and He gave me a heart for them, too. Here in Nagtahan, you can see the major contrast between nice hotel buildings and the make-shift housing most Filipinos we saw there used for their homes. Here is the Quiapo area in downtown Manila, Philippines where we stayed during most of our time there. What a busy place, but they all need Jesus, too, just like we do. Here we did some singing and sharing about Jesus on the streets of Manila, Philippines. We would stop at the side of the street and people would gather around in big groups to see what we were up to. Generally, the Philipino people were very friendly & sweet. God really gave me a heart of love for them that I still have now.
Here are some of the things I saw & experienced during my missions trip to the Philippine Islands in Jan/Feb 1986 (with Youth With A Mission organization). This trip had many FIRSTS for me: It was my first airplane ride...18 long hours of it *S*...my first experience in a foreign country & my first missions trip. I think I experienced more 'weather shock' than culture shock (since I'd never experienced hot tropical weather before), but I also had some adjusting to do with the culture differences (like anyone would). I loved meeting the people, especially the children. I really enjoyed learning some of the language, too (I always enjoy learning new foreign words/phrases).
We did puppet shows for the children, and sang christian songs for them, too. We told all the Filipinos "Mahal ka ni Hesus"(Jesus loves you, in Tagalog). For our puppet shows, we used an interpreter, Jun Penaflor, one of my best Filipino friends I made on our trip. (Jun, in white shirt & black pants is standing at the right, next to Mark Smucker who did some English narration for the puppet show as well).
Here we did some singing and sharing about Jesus on the streets of Manila, Philippines. We would stop at the side of the street and people would gather around in big groups to see what we were up to. Generally, the Philipino people were very friendly & sweet. God really gave me a heart of love for them that I still have now.
