Not too many things to report here about this past week. I will say, though, that it can be hard for all of us to be away from home sometimes.
Within the last month, a lot of things have happened within people's families.
Tori Beaver's mother passed away. They had been caring for her here in the Philippines but wanted her buried in the States where the rest of the family is. Apparently there are a lot of legal matters to deal with, because I guess there's some sort of law here that says if you are a foreigner and pass away in the Philippines, the body has to stay here. They really wanted her back in the U.S., though, so things were pretty stressful for a while on top of the emotions.
I think it was within the same week that Tori's mother passed away that Dan and Tori welcomed a new grandbaby that lives in the U.S. Pretty exciting!
Rusty Russell's dad passed away about a month ago. They decided it was best to stay here rather than go home, but the two oldest Russell boys had been in the States to be there for their Grandpa's last days. On top of those emotions, the boys weren't wanting to return to the Philippines, plus the Russells were in the process of deciding about moving. The boys are back now, but the family had to deal with a whole lot at once.
Gretchen Kropp (the mom in a family here) is a teacher at Agape and her mother passed away a couple weeks ago. They all decided to stay here as well. It was difficult for Gretchen to not be home. She tried to help plan a lot of the funeral so that she could feel like she was a part of the process, but then a lot of it got changed. It was a very emotional time for her.
Anderson has two friends at home going through chemo/cancer treatment.
Olivia has a baby cousin at home who her sister cares for (so Olivia calls her her niece), and she has been battling cancer for quite some time.
My almost 10-month-old nephew has been diagnosed with Infantile Spasms. It won't go into all the details of his story, but I think it's a form of epilepsy and he is currently not able to receive the treatment he really needs until he gets over an ear infection. My sister and brother-in-law live in Oklahoma so it's not like I would be there to physically support them anyway, but it's still hard knowing that all of this is going on on the other side of the world, and mostly hard to think about all that my nephew has gone through in just his ten months of life so far.
And here, Lauren has been battling sickness off and on since she's been here. She got extremely sick last week and is currently in Manila with Elizabeth where she can get better treatment. In this case, I imagine it's very hard for her parents to be so far away, wishing they could be here to care for their daughter.
Though it is hard for all of us being away from home, GOD gives us JOY through it all. There are things to rejoice in ALWAYS.
Students proudly memorizing Bible verses.
Kids from feeding sites coming to church.
Olivia, Carla, and Lauren all finding out since they've been here that they will be an aunt or an aunt again. I think this trend should continue. I feel left out!
Being on a beautiful island.
Enjoying weekends with great friends here. I'm so thankful that there's a group of us that can hang out together.
The kids here! They are so incredibly loving and always happy and sweet.
And SO SO SO MUCH more!
God is GOOD!
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