Goodbye Philippines.

It's surreal to think that my time in the Philippines is over. I am sitting in my hotel lobby in Manila just before bed, sweating like crazy in the heat, and I will be leaving for the airport early in the morning.

The last few weeks were incredibly busy. This past week, we had a crazy VBS at Noah's Ark which over a hundred local children attended, and then we had an overnight camp for youth which almost two hundred attended. Needless to say.. My last week was filled with TONS of kids I've never seen before, loud music, and songs about pandas. But so many kids learned about Jesus!!! Amazing. We were also hosting a team from Ontario that had organized the camps, so that meant many afternoons spent cooking and baking for them. I made sure to spend plenty of time debriefing and playing with the Noah's Ark kids before all that madness began. I smile now as I think about all the evenings I spent sprawled out on a blanket, laughing and playing with my kids, and then tucking them all into bed with lots of po-po-chan-ja-ah's (I love yous).

I woke up on my last day at Noah's Ark with a heart that felt like lead. I tried all day to make the most of every last moment, and to spend as much time with the kids as possible. Luckily, with youth camp happening, all of our high school students had returned to Noah's Ark from their summer holidays. After dinner that night, all of our kids who we've been with since arriving in the Philippines met us in the family room to say goodbye. Linda gave them all a chance to say something if they wanted to. I immediately started to cry as the kids thanked us for the help we could offer, the times we hiked down the mountain to go to their youth group with them, etc. They all gave us three gifts: the native headdress, which is covered in beautiful rooster feathers, a Banaue t-shirt, and a coin purse, made from the wrapper of our favourite Filipino snack, Salt n Vinegar Cracklings. Afterwards, they all gathered around us and sang their "goodbye song" which they sing to visitors at departure. "Thank You… May God Always Bless You…" etc.

The next morning, as we were packing up our vehicle, the real goodbyes began. I thought I could hold in my tears until we started to say goodbye to the staff. The staff at Noah's Ark are incredible, God-serving people who I was privileged to get to meet. When they started giving us gifts, crying, and thanking us for all their help my own tears began. I don't think I could've ever given enough hugs, kisses, and "miss you''s or "God bless you"s. Driving away from Noah's Ark and taking that last look was one of the hardest things I've ever done. 

In my debrief, I came across something I had written almost one month ago.

"Yesterday as I stood in church, singing a song I didn't know with tambourines clanging, and holding beautiful Elvis Jr. in my arms, worshipping in a totally new way- I was overcome with a realization. Being here has been everything I could've hoped for. Banaue is now a place I feel at home. I can shake everyone's hands at church while singing "There's a Welcome Here." I can say hello to familiar faces in the market. I can hold people's babies. I can point a tourist in the right direction. And not to say there hasn't been those painful mornings, where all I can think of is home.. and all I can do is turn to Jesus. I've hugged, held, kissed, tickled, and fallen in love with children who's stories are unspeakably devastating. I've had my moments of anguish. Where holding a baby in a rocking chair saying a silent prayer over his life feels like the smallest thing I could be doing when there's so much hurt. But my God. Jesus. He has done so much more through me. He has shown me that changing one person's world IS changing the world. And HE is the one who will bring the change. Not me. All I can do is thank Him for letting me come along. "'Now glory be to GOD who by His mighty power at work within us is able to do far more than we would ever dare to ask or even dream of- infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, or hopes.' Ephesians 3:20."

This was life in the Philippines. And it has now come to an end. But…

"For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can't, and life can't. The angels won't, and all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God's love away Our fears for today, our worries about tomorrow, or where we are- high above the sky, or in the deepest ocean-nothing will ever be able to separate us from the love of God demonstrated by our Lord Jesus Christ when He died for us." Romans 8:38-39

Thank you Jesus.

One last moment with Kensin.

My favourite game.. How many of us can fit on Manang Kelly's lap?

Your average walk to church.

Jenjen and I.

I will be landing in Saskatoon on Saturday afternoon. Thank you EVERYONE for reading this, praying, encouraging from afar. I am blessed to come home to all of you.

See you soon!

Like Crazy.

My apologies for the delayed update. These past few weeks have been a heavy blur!

Life at Noah's Ark no longer holds any sort of routine. Three weeks ago, I spent each day:

-Waking up before 6am

-Having coffee and devotions, in front of the mountains 

-Teaching daycare for the morning

-Reading after lunch

-Snuggling babies or tossing a ball back and forth with the special needs kids in the afternoon

-Dinner

-Devotions with the kids

-Bedtime.

We are entering a very busy time at Noah's Ark. It is now high season in the Philippines, so we are hosting new visitors weekly. These are either missions teams, or solo missionaries/Christians from Canada. 

Our first visit was from Jessica, one of our instructors from ISM. It was great to have another familiar (and white) face around here! We had a great week with her, showing her around Banaue and laughing together. We ended off her visit with a trip to Manila.

I said in a previous post that trips to Manila are very tiring. They fall quite short of any sort of holiday. This particular time, we were able to visit two different slums.

The first one is called Smokey Mountain. It is world famous. Smokey Mountain is a garbage dump, where around 20,000 people have made a home. It is guarded inside and out, due to the staggering amount of people who try to enter to take photos. You need a special pass to go inside. We accompanied a missionary there and went with her as she visited the children's program they have, and we went with her on her visits to the homes. 

Smokey Mountain is soul wrenching. I still can't figure out how I'm supposed to process the things that I saw. I remember one specific point walking along a concrete strip, with sewage on my right and the garbage filled Bay of Manila on my left, a baby on my hip and the smoke burning my nose, just crying. My day there was the most difficult day of my entire life. Everywhere you look there are dirty faces staring at you, crumbling "houses", sewage, and garbage, garbage, garbage. I didn't think it was possible for a place to seem so hopeless. Hardly anyone even smiled. The poverty is so gigantic that it truly seems impossible for it to ever be overcome. I threw out my shoes that night, was coughing up black, and got a nosebleed. From one day. The common work in Smokey Mountain is making charcoal. People essentially just burn wood into charcoal all day long. It's incredible that there is any sort of life expectancy. 

The next day, we were planning on attending another slum, Doni Melda. I felt totally unprepared for another day of slum visiting, but with a total reliance of the strength of God, I was able to go. This slum was quite different. I got to play with the children. There was smiling. Everyone seemed to be family. I felt like my hope was restored.

We went back to Banaue the next day, after saying goodbye to Jessica. Our next visitors to arrive were a team from Vanguard Bible College in Edmonton. They stayed for one week and ran an after school VBS, dramas, and other activities for the kids. We loved getting to hang out with some people our own age, accompany them to their presentations, and I got to bake for them all week long! The team was incredible, and we already miss them lots.

Our current visitors are two women from the US, who are running a women's seminar. They will be leaving tomorrow and then a service team arrives from Ontario this week. PHEW! Busy. It's been very interesting to see a "missions host" perspective. The work that goes on behind the scenes is humbling and increases my gratitude. 

Some photos...

Me and one of the wonderful special needs boys, Jovan, doing physical therapy together.

 One of the few photos I was able to take at Smokey Mountain.

The children's program at Smokey Mountain

 Me at the Viewpoint in Banaue.

 My feet after the day at Smokey Mountain, and another photo of it.

 Princess Isey's family home in Doni Melda.

 Doni Melda.

 Princess Isey and I, a little girl who lives in Doni Melda.

 Doni Melda

 My daycare class!

 The beautiful rice terraces.

 Kensin, a 1.5 year old special needs baby who I have fallen in love with!

 Gracia and Mylene

 A walk to a local high school

 Shyra

The Vanguard team!

P.S.- Regarding my last post: all is going well with the whole "big sister" thing. One of our boys wrote me a note the other night that says "You are a good sister."

Manang Kelly

Dearest Friends and Family...

        It's been almost three weeks since I arrived at Noah's Ark. Life here has gotten better and better every day, with new opportunities to serve popping up everywhere, and new relationships forming and growing deeper!

     I am amazed at the chances God has given me to serve. I now have the opportunity to teach in an elementary school that is a 20 minute walk from Noah's Ark every Monday and Friday. I teach sixth grade Christian Ethics. Yes, me. Kelly Braun. Is teaching Christian Ethics. To breathing people. This is a heavy responsibility for me. Most of the kids in my classes do not come from Christian homes, and I can present the Gospel throughout the class in my teaching. I have a few ideas to go off of for my lesson, but I form it myself. I am BLESSED.

On Friday nights, we go to "Young Peoples" with our high school kids. There is a tendency here for people to ask you to speak at a moment's notice, even though they know that us Westerners prefer some prep time. This past Friday, Bethany and I were sitting in the pew, listening to some of the kids talk in the local dialect. Well, sort of listening. I zoned out pretty quickly. Somewhere in my trance I realized that everyone had stopped talking. I looked up, and everyone was staring at us. I realized they probably wanted us to speak, but they hadn't asked in English. I told them "I'm sorry, but I didn't prepare anything." They responded with, "It's okay!" And waved me forward. So I said a quick prayer and was able to whip out a mini sermon about Jesus walking on the water. Thank you, Lord!

I am still teaching preschool every morning as well. This has proven to be extremely challenging, every day. The children we teach know very little English, and misbehave almost the entire class. This is a perfect example of "rejoicing in trials" though, because it makes me feel like I can now handle anything in childcare!

God has also blessed my heart in working with our special needs children. I love passing a ball with them in the afternoons, tickling them and seeing their smiles, and bringing joy to them in any other way that I can.

At Noah's Ark, the children call me "Manang" Kelly. This term is like a polite nickname, meaning "big sister." It's a common thing to be called in the Philippines, but I know that God has much more in store with this title. I am a big sister here. I have been given a chance to bring smiles, to bring hope, to speak life, to bring laughs, and to show love. I do not take my title lightly. 

Us with our little brothers and sisters, on Valentines Day. We surprised them with a big cupcake heart!

Noah's Ark

Oh, the Philippines. 
That's one of the first things I said to myself with a sigh when I walked into the airport in Manila. I knew this country was going to be a lot for me to handle. 
After a sad good bye to Thailand and a quick stop in Malaysia, we landed in Manila. We were greeted by our missionary host, Linda. This woman is incredible. But, I'll get their later.
Unfortunately, my first night in Manila I got INCREDIBLY ill. I had one of the highest fevers I've ever experienced in my life. It was clear that a flu was coming on. Luckily for me, our visa plans kept us in Manila for a few days so I could recover.


Manila is a terrifying, fast-paced city. We spent most of it cooped up in our hotel room resting. After our visas were sorted out, we began our journey to Banaue, a town in the province of Ifugao. Banaue is only 321km away from Manila, but it was a ten hour journey. As you can imagine, it was a winding road.



When we finally arrived at Noah's Ark, the children were all praying in their common area. We waited outside for them to finish and turned the corner. My eyes welled up with tears at the sight. All of them came towards me wanting hugs. Some of the most beautiful children I had ever seen stood before me, and they were in my care for the next few months. I swallowed back my tears and held as many as I could. 

We spent the next day settling in and getting to know the area. I was amazed to awake to my backyard view.
Banaue has hand carved rice terraces that were once a World Heritage Site. 
The next day we began our duties. At 8am, Monday to Friday, we teach a sort of preschool class, to a group of about 7-8 children. They are all around 3 years old. We help them go through some work books on English, Science and Math, and then we play with them until lunch time. Our first few days were total nightmares. The children got the "new teacher" attitude and acted out. It is difficult to get them to cooperate because their English is very lacking. We have developed some ways to communicate, but it will definitely take a lot of work. On Monday mornings, we will also be teaching VEP (Values Education Program) to elementary aged students at a school. This class is similar to a Christians ethics class. I teach sixth grade all by myself!
After preschool every day, we eat lunch with Linda. Our meals here consist of government issued rice, and usually some sort of local vegetable cooked. It was very hard to get used to at first, but it's starting to become very easy for me to eat. In the afternoons, we have some time to ourselves. The high school kids who live here go to school from 7am-5pm every day, and spend their evenings studying. The younger children nap in the afternoons. At about 2:30, I can usually find a job with the special needs children, the babies, or in the kitchen! I am SO thankful that God has given me a place to use my gifts in the kitchen. I was feeling DEPRIVED! I also have the chance to bake cookies for the children on Friday afternoons. God surely knows the desires of our hearts!!
At 5pm every day, we eat supper together, and then have devotion time. We start with some time of worship, where everyone loves to sing 10,000 Reasons, Happy Day, and Here I Am to Worship. Then we have a devotional and prayer time. I get to lead this once a week.
On Friday nights, we walk down the slippery, dark steps down the mountain to the Jesus Church, where the youth run "Young Peoples." I love the opportunity to hang out with the youth, so we go and share, sing a song with no music, or just encourage them as they run the program. Saturdays usually involve basketball (PRAISE GOD!), hiking around the mountains, jumping on the trampoline and chatting with the girls. I am so excited.
At the end of March, the kids who live at Noah's Ark will be going home to their families for the summer. Yes, most of them do have at least one parent. We will be helping host missions teams that are coming, and running a VBS and Youth Camp during this time. Looking at the timeline for the next few months, my head spins thinking about how quickly it will all go.

 

The busy lights of Manila.

My backyard view! Not bad. 

My little basement room.

Preschool in action!

Taking a rest at a waterfall.

Sunday morning at Jesus Church.

             
           Me and one of the girls on our Saturday hike.                One of my favourite little guys, Jojo!

The rice terraces of Ifugao.

God is proving his faithfulness to me daily in spite of my doubts. I have been battling home sickness with some new  extra time on my hands, but He is opening my eyes to the thrills around me. Noah's Ark is my home for the next two and a half months- He is the Potter, I am His clay!

In Your City.

My time in Bangkok has come to an end. Tomorrow morning, I fly out to the Philippines. It's been a hard day, knowing Thailand will soon be a memory, but I'm incredibly expectant of what is to come.

The last two weeks have been awesome. Two weeks ago was "Personal Week." We took the DISC personality analysis, a spiritual gifts test, a conflict resolution class, a class on integrity, and others. It was definitely a week of soul-searching and growing in my identity with Jesus. We also got the chance to take a class on loving Muslim people, and a Muslim man came in to speak to us. We were able to ask him whatever we wanted! Such an amazing opportunity.

On Sunday, we ran the children's ministry at Life Centre Church. We were going to tell the story of the fall of man, do a craft, play some games and love on the kids. We were thinking there were gonna be some Thai children and some English children, because it's a Thai/English church. But when we arrived, there was NO dominant language among the kids. One spoke Thai, one spoke English, one spoke French, two spoke Tamil (they were from Sri Lanka) and some didn't speak at all! So it's definitely challenging trying to get your message across when no one understands what you're saying. But I know that even when you feel useless, God has asked you to serve there for His purposes.

This past week was Ministry Week, which was just incredible. Each day we had missionaries come speak to us about what they're doing. The pastors of Life Centre came and spoke one day. When they were newlyweds, they were kidnapped and held for 165 days. Their story of faith and their amazing marriage rocked me. If you want to read their story, you can google their names (they're pretty famous in Scandinavia- Daniel and Paulina Brolin.) We listened to Annie Dieselberg from Nightlight talk about her work rescuing women from the sex industry. We had a missionary named Celeste come speak to us on gender confusion and the Thai "ladyboys." We even got the chance to teach English to the students we have been eating lunch with every day. By the end of the session, I got my whole class to stand up with me so I could teach them the Macarena. 

We finished today with prayers of blessing and commissioning over each other, and a little graduation ceremony. Tomorrow I will fly to Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia) and then on to Manila, where I will stay the night, and then drive 250km (a 10 hour drive) to my new home, Banuae. 

Thailand, I will miss the helmet-less motorcycle rides, the abundance of "my-kow-jy" (I don't understand), your smiles, the sky train rides, using baht (the currency), a 711 every 30 feet, your grace to foreigners, and so many other things. You have a piece of my heart.. I will be back some day!

Kelly

Week 2: Holy Spirit Week & Ministry

Hey everyone! :)

I only have 9 days left in Bangkok, before I leave for the Philippines. What an overwhelming thought. God has been flooding my mind and my heart with knowledge of Him and His people, that suddenly I'm panicking realizing I better get to work on applying this!

Last week was themed "Holy Spirit" week. We took classes on Biblical Understanding, Characteristics of God, Spiritual Warfare, and lots more. We have two classes per day, three hours each. One of my favourite things about our day is when we get to go to the seminary cafeteria and have lunch with the Thai students. :) It is so much fun! I've really enjoyed trying to fight the language barrier and get to know these future Thai leaders. One of the female students at our table was named "Ay", so I tried to explain to the students that in Canada, that is what we commonly say at the end of our sentences. (Thai people say "kah" if they are female, and "kop" if they are male.) One of the male students nodded like he understood and said: "Like... Hello, EH?" It's the best.

This week was really huge for me because we had two heartbreaking ministry opportunities. On Thursday, we spent our morning doing prison ministry. We arrived at the facility and registered as visitors, then walked to a market to get food packages for the prisoners we were visiting. We were all assigned specific people to visit. Mine was "J" from the Congo. When it was finally time to go inside, we had to lock all our belongings up and go through security. I expected the visitors area to be like in a movie, where you sit in a booth behind glass with a little phone. Instead, you walk into a big room with two fences from wall to wall. In between the two fences is about 3 feet of space, and they release all the prisoners on the other side. The people detained here usually there because they haven't gained refugee status, overstayed their visas or have other document issues. There are entire families that have been there together for years. What an absolutely heartbreaking place. People line up on both sides of the fence and shout across to each other. I started talking to a PRECIOUS thirteen year old girl from Vietnam who had been stuck there for two years. One of my teachers called to me and said she had found J. I followed her over and there she was. She instantly called my name and I welled up in tears. J and I talked for the entire visit. She has the most amazing faith of anyone I have ever met. She said things like "This place is awful. They don't treat us well, and when I first got here, the smell was so bad I couldn't eat or sleep. But God's Word says to be thankful in all circumstances, so I am thankful to be here today!" or "When I get out of this place, I am going to use my prisoner ID number as my password for EVERYTHING!" She is furthering God's kingdom within that prison. I said almost nothing the whole time, just silent prayers for her. She ministered to ME. When the siren went off signalling our departure, we ended with tears, promises to write each other and "love you sister" shouted over the fence.

Our other opportunity we had to minister was at Nightlight, a ministry to women who have been in the sex industry. On Friday night they run a cell group, so we prepared a song, ice breaker, and testimonies to share with them. Nightlight was one of the places I was interested in interning in SEA, so I was so excited to see what it was like. We arrived and sang some worship songs (which is one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard by the way- Thai women praising the Lord), ran an icebreaker, and I got to share my testimony. I couldn't stop smiling the entire time. The women there were so affectionate and fun. Afterwards, we asked them to share prayer requests. One woman asked for prayer for her thumb, because it was locked and she couldn't bend it. They all gathered in the middle and we prayed around them. A few of us were praying for her and I watched her break into tears. My teacher, Sandra, asked "Is it healed?" And she just nodded and began to move it around like crazy. What an incredible thing to witness! God is SO close to the broken hearted. I was moved beyond belief.

The Lord is doing great things every single day here. I am in my second last week, "Personal Week", where we are learning lots about ourselves and our giftings. Thank you all for your prayers and INCREDIBLE encouragement you send. 

Love from Thailand!
Kelly

Week 1: Culture Week

Hey amazing people in my life!

My classmates Chris and Tim and I in a tuktuk!

So I just finished my first school week at ISM. Each week here is themed, and this was Culture Week. So not only were we getting awesomely educated on Thai culture, but we were also living it, breathing it, EATING it, and loving it! 

My classmates and I with our Thai language teacher.

Our classes included contextualization, culture shock, thai language, ethnocentrism, sharing the Gospel to Buddhists, and more. This week made see how ethnocentric I am (If you don't know what that is, it's the idea that your culture is superior). I saw how important it is to make the Gospel applicable to another people group. The training has been fantastic!

The locust I ate. We named him Jonathan.

I've eaten locusts, fish that is cooked totally whole (skin, bones, and all), and so much spice that I sweat it. Most days, we get up, take a pink taxi to our school (which is on the top floor of a Thai seminary), have an hour or prayer and worship, have a three hour class, eat an interesting lunch with the Thai students, walk to 7-11(or sev-AHN as the Thais say) and get a drink, have another three hour class, and then whatever we may have planned for our evenings. I have two female roommates, and our two male classmates live upstairs. We have had a blast together. Each day is filled with multiple terrifying experiences. EXAMPLE! Yesterday, we were walking back to our apartment after class and I was approaching a small hole in the road. I just walked around it, and when I glanced inside there was a snake staring back at me! Of course the girls and I ran away shrieking. The language has been sticking with me quite well, and I love stumbling through conversation with the locals. One of my favourite experiences so far was our aerobics class. There is a chain of stores here called Big C (similar to a Wal-Mart), and we have one a block away from our apartment. Every day at 6pm, they hold an aerobics class outside on the cement pad. An instructor gets up on a platform and they blast Asian pop music, and we do an hour of extremely sweaty aerobics with a bunch of local women. They are ecstatic to have foreigners at their class and they love to chat with us. 

This week is Holy Spirit week, so I can't wait to grow in my personal relationship with God. Thank you for your prayers everyone.. I miss you!