Araw Ng Dabaw 2011

Araw ng Dabaw is an annual week long City of Davao festival celebrating Davao's birthday. Today, March 16, is a day off school and work for Dabaw residents! (Our kids have school today, though!)

Last Soccer Game of Season 2011

Kirsten was on the Faith Academy Girls Soccer Team this year.
It was a combined team of 11 high school girls and 11 middle school girls.

The high school girls had most of the play time in the soccer games but the middle schoolers learned the great art of cheering team mates on and learning skills for the high school soccer team.

The last game of the season was played in the rain!


Lining up for start of soccer game.

So while the team played their game, Kirsten's siblings were involved in various activities as well.....


James found it fun to play in the rain with his friend, Sojo.


Ben was riding his razor scooter with his friend, Michael.


Mikayla was watching the game and also chatting with friends.

Names and Faces

When I lived in the US and would see world events unfold on the television it didn't always mean much to me. But now that I live overseas and know people from various places all over the world, and know that our mission group has colleagues all over the world, these world events hit home deeply.
Some of the kids at Faith Academy have spent time growing up in Japan. This recent earthquake and tsunami has hit very closely the hearts of many here.
Please continue to pray for Japan and its recovery.
From a Japanese colleague who sent out an email today.............
"We are still experiencing large scale of aftershock in every one
or two hours and repeated Tsunami on the coastal line. It is not ended! Waiting for rescue, recovery, and rebuild in all factors of
our victims!!
I was at home in Chiba near Narita International Airport the time earthquake hit. First hit was incredibly shaking for over 5 minutes. But I am grateful for the protection and glad to have life line in my area.

Pray for Japan; Pray for Philippines, Indonesia....

As I post this, Japan is facing a horrendous aftermath of an incredibly strong earthquake that was only 20 miles deep.
Tsunamis are heading towards the Philippines, Indonesia and other islands in this region.
Please pray for God's peace to rest on His people, for His name to be glorified, for many to come to Him in this disaster, for good, fast relief efforts to be provided to those hit by the earthquake(s) and tsunamis.

From the US embassy "TSUNAMI ALERT

The United States Embassy alerts...the possibility of a tsunami hitting the eastern shores of the Philippines following a magnitude 8.9 earthquake which struck the east coast of Japan Friday afternoon. ..... The following coastal areas in the Philippine provinces fronting the Pacific Ocean are expected to experience wave heights of at most one meter: Batanes Group of Islands, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Quezon, Aurora, Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Catanduanes, Sorsogon, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte, Davao Oriental, Davao del Sur.

The first tsunami waves are expected to arrive between 5:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m., Friday (Philippine time)....."

We are on the eastern side of Mindanao but inside a bay. It is not expected to hit Davao city.

Psalm 46:1 - 3
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.

We Are Back On Line

A couple weeks ago our web hosting server had some major problem and we were off line until today!
That we are back on line today is a blessing as we'd been told all our blog history was lost!

A prayer I've been working on memorizing is this:
Teach me to treat all that comes my way with peace of soul
and with firm conviction that Your will governs all.
In unforeseen events let me not forget that all are sent by You.
Elisabeth Elliott quotes this Orthodox prayer in her book "A Path Through Suffering." So I am sure there has been a reason for this downtime we've had.

This few weeks without being able to blog has been a bit frustrating for me as I really enjoy blogging and keeping family and friends updated through this blog site! I am very thankful our website has come back on line and we have not lost the past four years of blogs.

....now to do a back up of all these blogs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Watch for more posts soon! Just wanted to let you know we are thankful to be back on line with our website!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!