We arrived in the nation of 7,000 islands on March 3^rd. After spending one night in the capital city of Manila we have island hopped to a small town on the island of Mindanao in the mountains called Malaybalay. We have for almost two weeks and this place is easily one of the most incredible spots we have been to on the trip.   We are working and living at an orphanage and camp called KIM (Kids International Ministries). 

The summer camp begins at the end of March at which point 300+ kids will be arriving. There is a ton of work that needs to be done to get ready for their arrival including building the dorm, prepping and painting the main orphanage building and                   constructing a bamboo church. The camp has also been sponsored to build an international sized soccer field as well as a 92 foot basketball court. This is the first country that we have been to where soccer is not the #1 sport. Pretty much everyone here is a diehard basketball fan and NBA team logos can be found on almost every taxi and t-shirt in this small suburban town.   Part of our ministry this month includes playing basketball in a men's league on Mon, Wed and Friday nights as well as on Tuesday nights with a group of talented teenagers from a local church group. Needless to say this will go down as one of our most memorable March Madnesses of all time.

Our primary responsibility here at KIM, in addition to getting them ready for the camp, is to help take care of the 26 orphans who live here. This matches up perfectly with our group, as the entire squad of 26 Racers is here at the camp this month.   These adorable children, who are all under the age of 10 years old, have some pretty incredible stories. One of our favorite kids so far is a baby named Hannah who was just dropped off last week by her mother who could no longer afford to take care of her. The most amazing part about this beautiful little creation's story is that she has only been alive for 19 days but God is protecting her each and every step of the way.   

There are two other babies here under the age of one to go along with a half dozen not-so-terrible two year olds. Since the orphanage has just recently lost two of their full time house moms they are now ridiculously understaffed to take care of all of the babies. Our squad has created a schedule in which teams of up to four people will work in 4-8 hour shifts to take care of the babies 24 hours a day and 7 days a week while the orphanage finds replacement full time hires. Becky and I have already worked six shifts together and it has been so much fun. It makes me think about many of our friends and family members (Katie & Paul, Dan & Crystal, Steve & Becky, Matt & Jen, Sam & Sara Beth just to name a few;) who have recently been blessed with beautiful babies of their own. We are appreciating how much work and patience is required but what an absolute gift of God each and every child is in this world. 

Watching Becky with these babies has been such a marvelous pleasure. During our first few shifts so far the routine seems to go something like this: Becky holds 1 (sometimes 2) babies in her arms and feeds them then rocks them to sleep while Uncle Daniel begs and pleads with the 3^rd baby not to cry too hard before bailing out and trading up with Becky for a calm and sleepy baby. By the grace of God I have somehow found a way to only change about a dozen dirty diaper so far which foils my original life plan of "never changing a single diaper" but I guess that was a bit of a long shot;)  On a serious note it has been so much fun taking care of these little rascals and I actually think that Bex and I are getting pretty close to being ready to start a family of our own when we get back to the States. We are so excited about what God has in store for us and we know without a doubt that we will be looking into adopting a boy from Africa and a girl from either here in SE Asia or Central America at some point in the future. 

The other ministries that we are working on this month include other forms of construction, painting, fence building, cement sifting, VBSing, hospital and prison visits and children feedings. I can already tell that this is going to end up being one of our favorite months on the Race and we can't wait to post a few more blogs about all the wonderful people we are working with here. God bless.

 We are working and living at a refugee school called Harvest Center which has been quite a change of pace from what we experienced over the past three months in Africa. The school is one of the first of its kind here in Malaysia as they teach utilizing the Montessori teaching method with the 700+ students who attend the school. The children range in age from four all the way up to eighteen. 

The work we are doing here is all over the shop as we are learning what it means to be servants to the truest definition of the word. We have done a whole range of projects here at the school ranging on the bottom end from cleaning the stairwells to helping teaching in the classrooms. Our normal work day starts at 7:30am and runs through 6pm with a short 20 minute lunch break. 

The school has won a grant to produce the same Montessori materials for 34 other schools around the nation who are in desperate need for teaching guidance. With that grant we have spent several entire days over the past few weeks copying, laminating, cutting, binding and packaging more than 10,000 pages of lesson plans. The focus on working non-stop seems very reminiscent of life in America. It has been difficult to maintain the level of intimacy and focus on my relationship with God during many days that seem to run together with an unending amount of work to be done.  It has been a nice glimpse into what living a life for God is going to look like when we get back to the States instead of simply trying to fit God into my life, which up until the World Race, has been all I've ever know.

We have met some amazing kids here at the school and it is going to be really sad to have to say goodbye at the end of the week. We are still waiting for approval from Harvest to put up pictures of the students and teachers here. We are hoping to get those up soon. God bless.

Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

-Ephesians 5:14

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

1 Corinthians 13:6

 I love love. I love loving people and I love being loved by people. I love it that God loves me and I love to love God. However, somewhere along the line a mix up happened in how I have seen the world. I love those that I can love. I have so much mercy and grace for these people. It just so happens, that most people fall into my lovable category and I love these people in the deepest and truest way. When I love people in this way, I know that God is truly working through me. I feel like I am living for my true purpose. When I cry with people, when they share their hurt, when I rejoice with people in their victories...I know that is what God created me to do. 

However, there is another side of me. There is a side of me that finds a few people very difficult to love. For some reason, I have always allowed myself to separate and distance myself from these people. I think that since I get along with and love most people, I hardly noticed that I treat these other people in such a manner.   I allow myself to have this pocket of judgment and dislike instead of compassion, mercy and love.

A funny thing about God is that He won't let me get away with being less than He has called me to be.  Jesus tells us in Matthew, Chapter 5 that we are to love not only the lovable, but our enemies and those that are hard to love. This year He has put in my path some major challenges in loving people.  I believe God did this because He is pushing me to love the way He loves. And I find it so incredibly difficult. 

Last week, God started to reveal to me how He loves and see's some people. I didn't want to see it. I wanted to keep fighting and seeing things my way. I wanted to hold onto my judgments because if I let them go that might have meant that I was wrong.  But God has shown me that my judgment doesn't matter. It's not about right or wrong. It's about love. If I can't love the people He has called me to, I know I will never have the space to speak the truth to them in love. And I will not provide them with the necessary space to speak truth to me. He wants me to help people see themselves how He sees them, but with eyes of judgment there is no compassion and no mercy and no grace and there is no way to deliver that message. 

Once I let go of judgment, what is left is love. Love, but also truth. Love without truth is fluff. It's not real. Really loving people is challenging them to be what God wants them to be.   I will be able to do this in the relationships that are hard, but only if I move out of the way and allow God to work.