Praise the Lord with us for a safe trip to Manila over this past weekend. All of our prayer requests were answered with a “yes.” Yes, we were able to receive all of our boarding passes in Chicago. Yes, we were able to make our connecting flight with extra time to spare. Yes, all our luggage arrived.
One of the mysteries of flying is what they will serve for food. We were served four dinners, no breakfast; not sure why this was. An interesting fact is the sun never set on our 15-hour flight as we flew west with the sun. So, four times we were served dinner and all four times the food was either covered with aluminum foil or plastic. The only hint we usually received was “chicken” or “beef.” Depending on who you are, the removing of the aluminum foil was an experience of either “dread” of the unknown (Ginger) or a child-like “excitement” opening a Christmas present in hopes of a new bicycle (Stephen). At least one time, Ginger said, “That was weird.” On the other hand, Stephen enjoyed his food, including Korean Spicy Octopus and the Seaweed Soup. No mystery, for this meal, along with most of the others, Ginger chose . . . “Chicken.” She also avoided the salad with raw salmon. On our last flight, we were served Korean cheesecake ice cream. This was a nice surprise.
We appreciate your continued prayer as we prepare to return to the village. We know there are mysteries of how the believers did in our absence. As we move back in, we will begin to remove that “aluminum foil” and discover how they did. With this return, we have very mixed emotions. Please pray that we will be able to quickly discern how things went and how to help the believers. Usually upon our return to the Philippines, Stephen already knows what direction the Sunday messages will be for the coming year. This time, Stephen has several ideas, but we want to see how the church is doing first. So, we greatly appreciate your prayer for our family and for the believers. Thank you.