First Day in the Philippines

So it's our first day in the Philippines! The first thing I noticed when I got off the plane was that Manila smells like a homemade sauna- the kind you make with a tarp, hot rocks, a pot of water, and a hole in the ground. Not too bad of a smell, actually. The second thing I noticed was the traffic- it's nuts! We got to YWAM Balut around 1:00 AM this morning, after around two hours of driving through several different traffic jams.the streets are just crammed with taxis, buses, and bycicles.
Since we are going to be in Manila for a few days while we submit Tirza's London visa form, we decided to do some ministry. We headed out at around eight this morning to hang out with the kids at YWAM Balut's elementary school ministry. They are so adorable! Many of them are also very touchy- they were holding onto my hands and sitting on my lap and playing with my hair and they hadn't even known me for an hour! Part of that is that they are just super sweet and friendly. I think the other part is that we are kind of a novelty. Everywhere we go people stare at us, particularly at Nath (tall with red hair) and Elena (bright blonde hair). It's fun though, because despite the stares, they are all really friendly and smiley.
We came back to the base for lunch (rice, veggies in coconut milk, and fish), then headed out to do high school ministry. Just as we were leaving, it started to pour down rain and flash lightning. Honestly, I don't think I've even seen it rain that hard in Campbell River! The streets were flooded with muddy water, and even with an umbrella the front of my shorts was soaked through in a matter of minutes. It was cool though, and very unexpected! We saw kids rolling and sliding around in the rain, people washing their hair under overflow off of shop canopies... It was awesome :)
The high school kids were great too. We sang some songs, played a couple games, did a skit, shared some testimonies...
The school ministry is located right beside a place called Smoky Mountain. This mountain is made up of garbage. Pretty great for our first day of outreach!

The Next Stage

It's been an awesome three months here at YWAM Perth, and I think that the next three months will be even better- though I'm certainly going to miss the friends I've made who aren't on my outreach team.
Last night was commissioning night- kind of like graduation. All the schools here went up to the front one by one and did a little presentation. Ours was a couple of personal testimonies and a lovely song which our staff and a few students wrote. Then, the leaders of our base came and prayed over all of us. It was a really nice time, and it was fun to get all dressed up and just hang out together one last time.
My team is flying out to Manila, the Philippines at 7 AM tomorrow morning. Tirza, Hannah, and Zury will be flying out on a different flight a few hours earlier because they got their outreach fees later, but we are just so happy that they can come! We will be Staying a few days in Manila, and then we will be heading by bus around ten hours (not sure what direction) to San Fernando- which sounds exotic and somewhat Mexican.
I am a little nervous- I've never done anything like this before, but then again that seems to be kind of a way of life with YWAM. I know that God is going to work miracles through our little team and I'm excited to see them happen.