It's a Beautiful Morning

I just want to say thanks to everyone I have talked to within the past few weeks. Your love and care for my trip to the Philippines and time back home has been really great and encouraging. I'm surprised how my reverse culture shock has hit me this time around (in light of other trips I've been on), but your comfort has definitely helped me cope with whatever it is. Can't say that it is all sunshine and roses till forever, but Today is a beautiful morning.

And thinking about that made me think of this song:

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http://artists.letssingit.com

'It's a Beautiful Morning'

by The Rascals

It's a beautiful mornin' ahhh

I think I'l go outside a while

An jus' smile

Just take in some clean fresh air boy

Ain't no sense in stayin' inside

If the weather's fine an' you got the time

It's your chance to wake up and plan another brand new day

Either way

It's a beautiful mornin' ahhh

Each bird keeps singin' his own song

So long

I've got to be on my way now

Ain't no fun just hangin' around

I've got to cover ground you couldn't keep me down

It just ain't no good if the sun shines

when you're still inside

Shouldn't hide still inside

Shouldn't hide still inside shouldn't hide

Ahhhh oh shouldn't hide ah ah oh

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Reverse-culture shock is basically the coping mechanism of coming back to the familiar. It isn't that coming back to America surprises me, but I realize what I don't have when I "lose it." Everything that I had deeply come to appreciate uniquely about the Philippines is no longer with me, and I don't know what to do about that. And to note, what I didn't have in the Philippines was probably the most apparent (clean air, water, utilities, etc.). And so my natural responses has been a lot of fear and isolation. I am afraid that no one understands me, therefore I isolate myself from everyone else.

And actually this past weekend has revealed that my response is not based on something true. Though my experience is unique, we can identify together with Jesus. And that's where a lot of my encouragement has come from. We are here together. When Jesus tells us the two greatest commandments in Mark 12:29-31, it isn't a formula of pleasing God. It is an expression of how much God loves us and how we can come to know this love. It is also a directive, sage advice, to help us find our life. Fear and isolation is a common response. And it has been driving me down in discouragement. Loving God with everything we got and loving our neighbors helps us see Jesus, to see life.

I woke up today and thought about this, it was great (perhaps BEAUTIFUL!? I was intrigued to overuse that cliche).

With a deep gratitude for helping me see God,

Joel

photo taken by zking1286

A Quick Update

"Warp 7"

by BernieSpeed @ www.caedes.net

This picture pretty much describes perfectly how I feel since coming back. I kind of just feel out of place in life. Everything keeps on moving around me really fast, but here I am 'snail-ing' along life. And on top of that I'm suppose to think about fund-raising and such. Yup, that's pretty much it. Reverse culture-shock. It's pretty great. It's pretty tough.

Thanks for your prayers and encouragement since I have come back. And thanks for keeping up with my blog when I was overseas - I'm glad it was pretty effective with communicating what was going on!

See you next time....

PREVIEW: summer newsletter is about to hit the presses. I'll post it when the final draft is done.

The Correct URL for Photos

https://sweetphilippines09.sugarsync.com/albums

I have fixed the link in my previous post, but this is to send out another email in case you go directly from there.

Lots of Photos

So this isn't much of an update, but our team has been uploading photos to a shared site where the full picture can be downloaded. If you want to check out the photos, here is the link to the website:

https://sweetphilippines09.sugarsync.com/albums

The albums are listed by name and a description so I think it is pretty easy to navigate. Also, please feel free to nab whichever pictures you want. Thanks. Eventually I will post some of my favorites online to give a full recap.

Home Sweet Home

Made it back home!!! It's great, now I'm going to dig a hole and disappear for a couple of days. Probably I'll spend time with my family. It will be pretty great shaving as well, got a bit haggard.
It's pretty great to upload pictures in 10 seconds. When they come, this blog will be littered with them.

Hi Again Means Goodbye Sometimes

Heading out in four hours to the Manila airport. 31 hours later I will be landing in Logan. Nice? It will be pretty great to be back home (and recovering from jet lag). It was pretty great seeing some of the teenagers from the community come and visit. Yes, very good to be spending the last day with my Filipino friends and the rest of our team.

See many of you again soon and look forward to sharing some of the experiences. Thanks for all your prayers and notes of encouragement throughout this trip.

Winding Down

Flying out in 3 days... whoa

It was great to visit Los Banos, Laguna and the ministry in Metro Manila the past few days. The rest of our team left their respective ministries and we are back at the Filipino Navigator headquarters. There are plans for some rest and relaxing in the city as we debrief our time with each other. It feels pretty strange to be talking about leaving the Philippines, but this trip has helped me look forward to another year at UMass.

Also, I personally am hoping to spend maybe one more day with a couple of older guys from our community (Ronel and Darwin) if they can visit on Saturday. That would be pretty exciting for sure... it's pretty tough leaving friends by going halfway around the world.