Jumping the Gun

==morning musings========
So the last post is slightly inaccurate. Apparently I have a few more days with daily internet access. It is no longer low-speed wireless, but high-speed dial up (I didn't even know this existed). I know it's dial-up for sure because every time the phone is picked up, I have to restart the router. Weird. Anyways, jet lag has finally caught up with me and I didn't know what to do with myself at 4:30 AM when everyone is sleeping. Naturally, the only light in the room that was on is this computer. So of course I have to send another update!
==musing over========

• Monday morning = official moving into the slums and probably the cutoff of daily internet access (but meanwhile, I am going to milk this luxury).
  
  
• Here's a rough look at each week's schedule:

Monday - Evening high school bible study
Tuesday - Working in the mountains during the day, spending time in the community at night.
Wednesday - Same as Tuesday
Thursday - Same as Tuesday
Friday - Team day off
Saturday - Morning tutorial session, afternoon sports session, evening at community director's house
Sunday - ???

• The Navigator ministry where we are staying takes an insider approach. Our community director, Kuya (older brother) Willy, has established a relationship with the local Catholics*. And his vision is that people who follow Jesus will share Christ's love with their local community, naturally attracting neighbors/friends to know God. This ministry is very young (5 communities: the oldest being 3 years old, the youngest being 2 weeks old) and that means that our trip is part of the greater picture of learning and growing - exciting!

==morning musings========
As a side note, I think the Navigators have recently had a paradigm shift toward ministering to the local communities. Being catholic or protestant (if you call yourself christian, you are considered protestant) has fueled a lot of cultural tension since Americans began sending missionaries over in the early 1900's. Rather than add to this tension, filipino christians (referring to my last trip in 2007) have begun realizing that following Jesus is not about the type of worship they are affiliated to, but exactly who we are following. This is pretty exciting that the message people are sharing is not about methods and philosophies, but that Jesus is the way to Life. Since I personally have made decisions based on rightness rather than following Christ, I am really interested in seeing how this happens on the trip.
==musing over========

Thanks again for reading and your continual prayers!

I look forward to update you more with more about our trip leaders (Kuya Willy and James Kang), our team, our living situation situation (which we visited yesterday), and more about what we will be doing in the next couple of days... after that, who knows!