Our Busy-ness With The Lord

Busy, busy, busy! That's how these past few weeks have been.  In this time we were able to join in the harvest of rice from the experimental farm, begin the monthly recollections for the high school students, start the Sea Wall project, prepare for the Parish Fiesta, and sleep (well, not very much). Thank God for the Holy Spirit! We couldn't have done it without Him.

We thought it would be very fun to join the harvest of “palay” with the Parish Maintenance Group...and it was! But it was also very itchy! I had no idea how much work it takes a farmer from beginning to the end. And we were just doing the end part. I'm sure it was a lot more work plowing and planting the seeds than it was to cut and haul the reward. I know it is probably a lot easier in the States with all of the machinery. We did all of this work by hand. Father Joe said that this was a “very primitive way of doing it” as I watched Lop-lop gather the rice stalks and then twist and turn them with his feet over the bamboo floor. Little by little the grains sifted through the cracks on the floor and unto a tarp that we laid underneath. Meredith, Abram, and I continued hacking the field with the others and then transferred the heaps into a giant mound. After a while, our skin was starting to show some bumps as we scratched and scratched and scratched some more. Wow! And there was Lop-lop “dancing” away  with a huge smile on his face. It was when I was cutting the stalks that I remembered how true the parable of the weeds and the wheat is! The weeds grew right next to the palay and along with it. It would be so time consuming if one were to try separate the two. Anyway, in the end all that is not for eating is thrown into the fire.

The high school recollections are going well. The students get to meet at our house for some fun with games and activities to enhance a sharing of God's Word from the Holy Bible. The theme for the 1^st and 2^nd year students was about being ready for battle. We are always being attacked by the devil and he will keep trying to distract us from the ultimate goal. Stacie handled most of the talking parts as I prepared the powerpoint presentation. We also had them decorate paper plates as Shields of Faith. After a short snack break, they got their shields and lined up for a “dodgeball”-type war. They tried to go from HOME to CHURCH and vice versa while not getting hurt by sin (7 balls representing the Deadly Sins). If hit, they must spend some time at Confession. (Thanks to the Blue Knights Leaders Guide) At a brief pause in the game I talked about how we must always be aware of the devil's temptations. If one is to walk with their shield of Faith lowered and not paying attention, WHACK! they will get hit! And sometimes as we sin, it not only hurts God and ourselves, but we may be bouncing it around and hurting others.

Nanding Ocaba

A few months ago we asked God to help our friends with a sea wall to protect their home from the damaging waves and bad weather. With your help, we were able to start this project right at the end of September! The sea wall is now in its final stages and should be completed by mid-October at the latest. Praise the Lord! When we received the funds we were only thinking of how blessed the Ocaba family would be to have a dry home. God is so good with His timing! The man of the house, Nanding, is also the leader of the group of fishermen in his area. The men had not been able to go fishing because of the typhoons in the north causing rough waters for us here in the south. So, this came at a good time for these men to be able to feed their families by working as masons and laborers. The whole area now has been blessed by this one sea wall. The need is so great here. People have been doing hard labor here and all for 150 pesos per day. This is just under $4 in the U.S....not per hour but per day! That is a fair rate here and they are happy to do it, but it is just enough to scrape by on in these desperate times. Please consider sending a donation to us through Family Missions Company in Louisiana so that we can help feed our brothers and sisters in Christ. One Value Meal at your favorite fast food stop can feed a whole family rice and fish for at least one day or maybe even two days (they are good at making it stretch!)

The Fiesta of Our Lady of the Holy Rosary was on October 7^th. We had about two weeks to go and then one and we were thinking of how routine all of the Fiestas that we had been to in the past two months had been getting. We attend the Mass, we share a meal with the parish priest and his staff, and then decide to stay to visit vendors booths or leave (which we usually did). But this had DIFFERENT written all over it. With four days to go, Father approached us and asked if we could prepare the Youth Group to fill in a one-hour time slot between Masses. “Sure, no problem!” we replied without any clue as to what we were going to do. We went home and talked about it. Since this was the time for the Holy Rosary, I thought that we could have the students line up and present a Living Rosary. I pictured them as a rosary with sky blue paper mache balloons as the Our Father/Glory Be beads and the others with candles as the Hail Mary beads. Stacie added a sweet and simple Marian song to go between reflections of the mysteries. With the help of Gogoy (guitar) and Mag-mag (music/dance/director) we practiced and practiced. We also were able to put a little dance number to the song “I Lift Your Name On High”. It was all good! Father Joe had a group with him from Magsaysay and heard many compliments from them and the rest of the parish. “This has never been done before!” The kids get all the credit though. They did all of this while practicing their band routine for the day before the fiesta! Amazing! Maddie got to participate with the band while her proud parents watched from front row seats in the gym.

I threw sleep in there because even though there has been many nights with few hours of it the cooler weather has allowed me to sleep way better. Quality over quantity. I think of Ms. Genie's saying also that goes a little something like this: “...no better feeling than going to bed exhausted in His service.” Thank you for reading and thank you for praying for our mission. We can feel your prayers.