More animals found in our kitchen

Cat. =)

Animals I have Found in our Kitchen

1. Ants

2. Cochroahces

3. Mice

4. Rats

5. Geckos

6. Little black gross bugs we don't know the name of.

I really think I would not be exaggerating at all to say we have several MILLION ants in our kitchen.....they can pack more in because they're quite small; it's like a little stream of ants starting at their hole all the way across the ceiling, down the wall, and to wherever that little scrap of something is. Or maybe I should say a river of ants. It's kind of frusterating when it comes to cereal because as soon as the bag is opened somehow or other those ants find their way in. We are getting much more accustomed to them though. The other day I poured myself a bowl of cereal and then did a sort of sifting procedure to shake the ants out before pouring the milk on. I may not have got them ALL out, but you know; extra protein.

As for cochroaches, we have put the fear of them behind us. They biggest reaction I've heard recently is a low moan when one scurried across someone's foot. They do seem to have rather sinister personalities, but that could just be my imagination.

The rats really are a problem though. There is one HUGE one about a foot long that creeps around when he thinks nobody's looking. There are also about 6 little mice which have unfortunately developed a fascination for the upstairs and we now have a large quantity living in our bedroom. I guess it's good in a way as it gives us an incentive for keeping our clothes off the floor. As I was falling asleep the other night, I observed 3 sniffing out my jeans as a prospective nest.

Honestly, compared to cochroaches and rats, geckos are like a breath of fresh air. They are so cute and come in so many different sizes. Our first encounter with a gecko was really rather comical. We were at a church service and the pastor was in the middle of preaching and suddenly a sound like a kid's squeaky toy burst through the sanctuary. I wondered who on earth would let their child continuously squeak their squeaky toy during a church service like that, but finally it stopped and afterwards we went outside and found the culprit clinging to a window.

There is a small rat who is darting around the sala where I'm writing right now and hoping I won't notice him. I know I'm not fast enough to catch him, so I'm just being a kind friend and letting him think I don't know he's there.

Love,

Amberkay

Basketball, fireflies, motorbikes, and coconuts.

Can you fit five people on one motorcycle? Um, well, yes. After an hour long bus ride travelling South of Cagayan, we hopped on the back of some motorbikes and took off into the country. This island is very different from Cebu. Out in the country, there are many coconut farms, wide wet fields, and carabou....(this is not like Canadian caribou, you say cara-bow, and they are more like very muddy cows). This island is not so much of a tourist hot-spot, so 7 white people are like snow in July. At last we came to Christians' Haven, or CH for short, the companion orphanage to the Transition house we had visited in Cagayan. It is a beautiful spot, and I was overjoyed to have clean, fresh country air to breathe again, and no traffic sounds all the time. There are tall coconut palms scattered over the property, and one of the boys climbed one with a machete, and cut down 7 coconuts for us. We tried drinking the water inside....it was good, but was in rather overwhelming quantities. I didn't know coconuts were as big as soccer balls! We started playing a game of volleyball with some of the kids, and soon there was a full-fledged competition going on. Those boys were good! Then when a basketball showed up, we all raced over to the basketball court and enjoyed a rousing game. It was fabulous! We played until we couldn't see the ball anymore, and just then the fireflies came out....my first time seeing fireflies!!!! That night at "chapel" (a big circle of chairs out in front of the dorms), we sang songs together and the kids got to ask us questions. They were mostly interested in what the names of our mothers were, so we told them. =) They sang a song for us, and we (feeling slightly inadequate after that) sang "How Great is our God" for them. After a bible study, we spent a long time singing songs and just hanging out with the kids. They all play guitar and are so talented!

We all fell in love with CH. It is a restful haven, and it touched our hearts. Street kids, orphans, and abandoned, abused children are living together in this beautiful sanctuary, surrounded by mountains and palm trees, and are so happy and healthy and just plain fantastic! I was so blessed by what God is doing in this place.

Love,

AmberKay

Dreams Really Do Come True!!!

We 3 Amber's defied all cultural and gender taboos this weekend when we fulfilled a lifelong dream of ours(a lifelong dream that developed about a month ago...) and rode on the back of a jeepney! As Amber Rae had mentioned before, she attempted such a ride and was told to come inside, because it was 'not proper'. But no one in their right mind could think that any of us would give up that easily, so this weekend, as we were in a different city on a different island we decided to give it another shot.

We were on another island because Ate Rhonda has many friends and connections there, so she thought it would be fun to go visit for a few days. There is an orphanage there, as well as a 'Transition House', which is where the kids from the orphanage live after they graduate highschool and are attending university.

So we arrived in the city of Cagayan after an overnight boat trip. We spent the day just relaxing and meeting the people at the T-House. We got along with them very well, which became evident as a very intense game of 'spoons' broke out, a bet being made that if one of the 3 girls playing were to lose, she would have to eat something weird, but if one of the guys lost, he would have to have makeup put on him in a public location. It was extremely close, but one of the guys did end up losing.

The next morning we woke up early and headed out for white water rafting!! It was on the way to the river with the rafts that we had our jeepney ride! Since it was not a public jeepney, the driver said we could hang off the back! It was probably one of the most memorable half hours of my life. The scenery was gorgeous and we could just relax with the wind whipping through our hair.

We arrived at the river and separated into our groups. We had the adventurous groups and the not quite so adventurous groups. Naturally all 3 of us were in adventurous groups. There were the traditional rafts, as well as 4 tubes attached together. Anna and I were in a raft, but Amber Rae was in a tube.

Now this rafting company was a little different than most in that they actually allow you to purposely flip the rafts. They feel secure in the abilities of their guides and know that it's so much more fun this way! They also informed us that the record number of flips in one trip was 8, so we decided to go for the record. Unfortunately we only got 6, but that was okay anyways. Personally I fell out a grand total of 11 times, so that was good enough for me. All in all it was an EPIC adventure, definitely worth it! Ooh and on the way back we rode on top of the jeepney on top of the rafts that were up there. And then, of course, we did not forget about the card bet and the makeup and had a very swell time decorating Sherwin's face with bright red lipstick.

We really enjoyed our time in Cagayan, and hope to go back sometime!

Sorry about such a long post! There's so much more I could write about but don't want to bore you to death! Hope you read it anyways!!

So long,

Amberlea

Brother- sister- new friends

tsk tsk, us Ambers have been slacking on the whole blogging thing...but in all fairness its been a pretty busy week. Its Amber Rae here, and i'm totally pumped to let y'all know that my brother and sister are here!!! who would have thought, that all the way in southeast asia, on two seperate trips we would meet up!? Sitting across from them in a restaurant yesterday, it kinda hit me how strange it was and yet it felt completly normal and right :) Jared has dived right into helping add onto a home in Lorega, even though apparently the other builders just stare and him and don't speak to him...sigh :) And the kids in Compassion and Lorega love Rachelle and Jared, and vice versa. Last night was a very encouraging night for me - a couple weeks ago when we were in Lorega i met a couple girls about 13 years old who i realized i wanted to get to know better and focus my time with them - I usually choose to be with the younger children because well i love them, but I realized that as a 20 year old girl, i could be a good example for them...here's hoping ;) Anyways so last night Rachelle and I brought nail polish and rounded up some of the girls and went down the street under a street lamp and spent an hour painting nails! And it was alot of fun and encouraging to build relationships with these girls. I told them that this weekend we would be travelling to another island, and one of the girls said, "oh...than we shall not meet again"...and i was surprised and said, "of course you will! I will come to visit you next week!" and the way her face lit up warmed my heart. She thought i wasn't coming back. And i am just excited to see them again and know how their life is going!! Now that we have been here for a month, we are starting to actually build relationships with these lovely people and remember names and faces and have more of a reason to come back often. We pray that they will see God's fire in our eyes and that our love comes from Him. I just thought i would share quickly :)

Peace out
Amber Rae

Compassion

Imagine 50+ children in a large room, singing a praise song to the Lord in their native language. They aren't just mumbling the words, or humming the tune, they are singing with all their hearts with their beautiful, strong voices, so that the music echoes against the walls.

At YC Edmonton every year there is a table covered in hundreds of pictures of children from all over the world. We remember gazing at the smiling faces and wondering about the lives of these children; what are they really like? The table belonged to Compassion International, the sponsorship program which has a center here in Cebu, where we have experienced these children's singing and seen their glowing, smiling faces for ourselves.

We've been with these kids every Tuesday and Thursday for a couple weeks now; there are large group sessions, like we had tonight, and small groups where us Ambers split up. We feel our niche in this ministry is building relationships with the kids, and investing in their lives. We're working hard at memorizing all their names, AND which face goes with which name. We've enjoyed helping to teach songs, and interacting with the kids, and Amber Rae actually got to teach a class! She teaches 6-8 year olds and believes kids say the darndest things. Example: "Ate Amber Rae.....you are a tall nose!" Amberlea works with 9-13 year olds, a trying age, but she has the BEST personality to work with these kids!! Amberkay's group is age 10-12. These kids have taken it upon themselves to teach her EVERY word in the Cebuano language, which is very sweet of them, but a little overwhelming since her brain seems to shut down after about the tenth word.

Tonight there was a "birthday celebration," which meant lots of games and birthday wishes. We've learned that in the Philippines prayers and wishes for good health in the future are more important than gifts. We taught them several games, including one where they either had to quack like ducks or moo like cows, (with eyes closed) and find each other. Pretty hilarious!

After eating our rice with the kids, a group of about 10 of them walked us back to their homes in Lorega and introduced us to their families. In the dark cemetary, with cockroaches crawling over our feet (or flying into our faces, as the case may be), with stray dogs and cats brushing past our ankles, it might not seem like the loveliest, or safest place to be on a warm night; yet somehow we felt peace and protection. As we stood among the tombs about to say goodbye, Ghonro, a strong little Christian asked us if we would pray for them. We gathered in a circle, and held hands and prayed God's blessing over them. Somehow we felt like tonight was our open door into our ministry in Lorega.

We're thrilled to be able to see these kids on Tuesday at Compassion again. To be honest, these kids are blessing us far more than we are blessing them. Amber Rae thinks this sounds cheesy. (but she still believes it)

Love,

the Ambers. (We're a band now).

Glory Reborn

Two very long jeepney rides and a bit of a hop skip and a jump from our house, along a small, slanted street is a building called "Glory Reborn." It might look humble; from the outside you'd never guess that there's a good chance there is a baby being born inside, since an average of 50 babies are born there every month, and over 2,000 have been delivered in the past seven years. Inside, we are greeted by a beautiful lady, Hillary. She came to Cebu from Texas in 1999 for a missions trip. She came back in 2000 and has been here ever since; after completing her midwifery training, she started Glory Reborn seven years ago. Now she juggles gruelling 12 hours shifts at the clinic AND her first year medicine studies at one of the Universities here in Cebu. As she ushers us in, she apologizes for her appearance; she's been up the last 24 hours rushing all over Cebu to every health care facility and blood bank to find some blood for a patient; in all of Cebu, there is none of the type she needs. One blood bank was out of all blood whatsoever of any type. A blood bank. We tell her she doesn't need to apologize- she looks a lot better than we look after a good 10 hours of beauty sleep. We sit down on two of the three cots and she says usually at least one of them is full, but it's been a slow day. There were six births the night before. As we talk, and ask her questions about her ministry, our eyes get gradually wider, and we are simply fascinated with what she has to tell us. She sees a side of life which in Canada is usually joyous and exciting; in the Philippines, birth is not always what it should be.

A little while ago, Hillary delivered a woman's 15th baby. There were complications simply because her body was not in good shape. This is very common, Hillary tells us. These women don't take care of themselves and simply don't have time to recover fully in between births. I mean don't you think having one baby a year for 15 years would at least wear you down a little? Hillary is very excited because just this January, it became illegal in the Philippines to have home births. Again, very different scenario than in Canada. No competent midwife, caring husband, a warm bath, candles; nope, you're just squatting on the floor of your shanty, with all your relatives and most of your friends all around you and watching through the windows; the witch doctor will be the one to saw the umbilical cord--with a rusty knife. If you don't bleed to death at once, it's more likely than not you and your baby will die of infection.

Day before last, Hillary delivered a baby from a 15 year old. "What!" we cry in horror. Fifteen! Calmly, she tells us it was the girl's third. She had delivered her first when she was 12. My brain still can't process this. My sister is 12. The worst thing is, a 15 year old giving birth here is common. How on earth does this happen? we ask, baffled. She tells us many young mothers live in the Red Light district. We've heard of this place, it's downtown, some of the kids we know live near there. Hillary says she prays these girls will let their babies be sent to an orphanage; if they take them back to the brothel their masters take their babies and sell them to anyone who wants them-- for 1000p. That's something like 25 bucks. You can get a good Canadian steak meal for that much. And these are human beings, precious and loved by God. How do these girls get there in the first place? we wonder. Hillary says that brothel owners go out to the countryside and tell the parents of young girls they have a good job for them in the city, as a saleslady, or a waitress, and give the parents a few months wages in advance. Then they take these young girls to the big city, get them hopelessly addicted to drugs, and then they are stuck there. There is no way to leave, or get out. If they escape and are spotted, they can be shot. What about the police, we ask, aren't they doing anything about this? Hillary smiles. When she goes to visit the girls a couple times a week, she says there are cop cars lined up all along the street. They might even get free service. Due to the fact that Hillary sees quite a bit of darkness on a regular basis she replies sadly, "Welcome to the Philippines, it's so corrupt."

But, is there good news in all this sadness? Yes, there is. Through Glory Reborn, mothers are being given pre- and post-natal care, are being taught better health care, are being counselled by Christian counselors, and most of all are delivering their children safely. Praise God, even in such a place of spiritual death, the light of Christ still shines, and may it be that these children born in this little building will one day spread the good news to this needy nation of the Philippines!!

To GOD be the Glory.

AmberKay