Sometimes things don't go as planned...

...but the results are better because of it.  We can make our plans, but it is the Lord who directs our steps. 

As I mentioned before, we arrived in Boracay right along with the torrential rains.  Of course we would have preferred dry weather, but I have really appreciated seeing first hand the sort of conditions that the people here have to deal with day after day after day.  Yes, they also have their days of sun and dry roads, but that is only a part of the life the live.  Pastor Glen was praising the Lord for the rain after our time at one of the feeding sites the other evening.  While part of the team is working with the children, one of the men speaks to the adults who come with their children.  Monday evening five men and one woman put their faith in Christ.  The really exciting part about this is that they only reason the men were there that evening is because the rain had prevented them from going fishing.  Lois had a fun way of looking at it: "God looked down on those men tonight and said, 'You're not going fishing; you're going to BE the fish!' "  Amen! 

Yesterday afternoon is another good example of things not going as planned.  I had the opportunity to help with the construction of a shelter at one of the feeding sites.  We went back to the site after lunch to finish the work, but for some reason, the pastor never made it back out to the site to show us what needed to be done, and none of the Filipino workers came back either.  Miscommunication, perhaps?  I really don't know.  While we were waiting Don started playing with the children who were around and I struck up a conversation with a young girl (18 years) who was also there watching us.  Her name is Leonisa.  Thankfully her English was pretty good.  She was eager to talk, and I really enjoyed our time together.  It was a good experience to just be in her village and see the conditions that she lives in.  It gave me a taste of what building relationships will be like if the Lord puts me in a tribe someday.  If Pastor Rolando had showed up as we were expecting him to, I would not have had the opportunity to talk with Leonisa and make that contact.  We hung around at the site for about an hour and a half before leaving.  The rain prevented us from going back out to the site today, but I am very hopeful that I will be able to go back before we leave for Manila on Friday.



This is a picture of the shelter we were working on. (courtesy of Rick Turske)

For more pictures and other updates from our trip, go to http://blog.tursketech.com/.  Rick is one of the team members on the Ashland team.