818 Ministries Philippines : Visiting Titay

How long have you gone without seeing your mother? Probably only a few months, maybe a year, right? And imagine what a sweet reunion it must be when you are once again together.

About two weeks ago I had the fantastic honor to witness my wonderful, hard working, amazing husband be reunited with his mom after eight long years of being separated by half a world. Sure they talked on skype occasionally and texted back and fourth; but nothing could beat being in the same room with the people you love.

We traveled to Zamboanga via boat from Cebu. It was a long 10 hour boat ride with a 4 hour “layover”. I think that I was more nervous to meet my mother-in- law for the first time than Ronald was to see her after 8 years.

We arrived at the port in the Zamboanga peninsula and Ronald immediately picked his mom out of a sea of people (hahahah …. get my pun? ). He was so happy and giddy. I have really never seen my husband that happy before. His joy was incredibly contagious. I, however, showed my happy emotions in tears. It was just such an incredible moment in time. We got off the boat, after pushing our way through the porters, and made our way to the family. Not only was Momma Q. there but she had also brought, cousins, uncles and friends! It was so great! It was such a sweet reunion. I am thankful that God had given me the opportunity to be a part of that.

We stayed in Titay (Ronald’s hometown, about a 4 hour drive from the port) for a week. During that week, Ronald gave a 2-day seminar on “Participating in God’s Story” for all the area wide elders, preachers, deacons, etc. It went really well! The message of the weekend was very well received and I believe they are probably still discussing some of the topics Ronald brought up. The church there has such servant hearts and it was evident in the way we saw them all weekend. Everyday the ladies served us lunch and snacks and on Sunday they had a big “Thanksgiving and Welcome” feast/party for Ronald and me. We were thankful for their encouragement and kind words and, quite honestly, we’re blown away by the amount of honor we received; it was humbling.

Ronald wasn’t the only one who got to put their Lipscomb degree to good use …. I taught the kids for bible class. It was my very first time teaching children that don’t speak fluent English. The night before I had some help drawing pictures for each part of my lesson, and I was able to teach using lots of pictures (thanks, Brenda for the great idea). After we had the bible lesson I taught them how to make crosses using coconut leaves. It was so much fun! I haven’t truly enjoyed teaching like that in months.

The trip as a whole was a good one. Terrorist did not kidnap me and I was able to communicate with Ronald’s family beautifully! I thank my Quilaton/Dar family for teaching me a few things during our visit:

Anything with more than two legs are still considered friends. These may include but are not limited to: spiders, mice, and roaches.
Bathing with a bucket instead of a showerhead with continuous flowing water is not really all the bad.
Rubber grows on trees.
My family is not the only one that is loud and opinionated.

Leaving to go back to Cebu. This was at the port as the sun was rising.

I have so much more to blog about, but I will have to save that for another night. Maybe tomorrow. But for a preview here are some pictures from the last weeks.