The Philippines for Spring Break!

Hello everyone!

I apologize for being MIA from the blog world, it has been a hectic last few weeks to say the least. I have been traveling and teaching non stop...or at least it seems that way!

Where to begin...so I was offered a spot to join a service team that would be going to the Philippines for a week. It happened to land on my Spring Break and I had been praying that something would just fall in my lap--it did. I am now a heart on fire for the Philippines and absolutely loved my time there. I went with 7 other people and we got to work with an orphanage while we were there. We got to play with babies in the morning, lead a VBS type camp for street children in the afternoon and paint a room in our spare time. It was a fantastic adventure and it was so nice to get to know the people I interact with in Hong Kong more. I fell in love with one of the little girls there and if I could, I would adopt her. She was the cutest and had such a touching testimony at the age of 14 months old. I couldn't believe how happy and excited she was to see me every morning.

This is Rachel my new little best friend in the Philippines and she has stolen my heart. Of course that is me and my weirdo self :)

The street kids were a great opportunity to open up to them about vulnerability and what it is like to live where they do. Most of them live in squatters, another name for slum, and have a family with more than 5 kids in it. A lot of them told me they had at least 11 other siblings, I couldn't even imagine that! We did a lot of games of interacting and talking about our favorite things and what they like to learn about. My favorite was getting to pray with them at the end of the day. These are some special kids with big dreams, I loved it. Continue to pray for them as I am! They were sweethearts and I miss them a lot and hope I can go back in the future to interact with them again!

Here is a group funny shot of us all.

We also got to be tourists for awhile and go see different things that the Philippines had to offer. We went to the only WW2 memorial in all of Asia and it was absolutely beautiful. I love going to cemeteries and this is definitely in my top 5.

Don't even get me started on the food. This is the first country I have been to where I have loved every single piece of food I ate. I was raving about the food and I am slightly obsessed. It might be because the food was pretty much just seafood :) I can't get enough seafood so this was the perfect place for me to visit!

One of the prettiest sunsets I have ever seen!

after the rest of the group left I got to fly to another island and spend a couple days on the beach. A nice little break before coming back to teach, the water was beautiful.

just a little taste of paradise....now to plan the next time I will visit there :)


Highs:
Meeting some amazing people that are changing my life
God.
Traveling

Lows:
A tad homesick

Prayer Requests:
I have a nasty sunburn and just pray that it heals nicely and that the peeling is not too bad.
Get through these next few weeks, just getting a little tired.
We are hiring a new head of school so pray that He guides everyones decisions and that the process goes smoothly.

With love,

Ashley