Please put your tray tables in locked position... week 1

I walked off my third flight in a row. With only about 3 hours of sleep in a 19 hour period of travel, I was ready for the 12 hour time change and the night time. Jet lag has never really been much of an issue luckily (thank you college and never sleeping when I should). I flew through customs (they barely looked at my passport) and waited 20 minutes for my luggage to emerge from the baggage of the other 500+ passengers on my flight. I finally got my bags and walked outside the sheltered limits of the airport. Outside, a wave of heat and humidity hit me in the face, I began sweating immediately, and my nostrils latched onto a waft of diesel fumes and the smoke from things that my parents told me to never throw in the fire. I was officially back in the developing world. I felt like this is where I belonged. I let out a sigh of gratitude and excitement. This is what my entire last semester of life had been leading up to. I was finally here.

There's too much that has happened so I'll just give you a summary of the highlights:

Day 1 (fri):

• Went out to the mall to get some stuff (most importantly a cell phone). Malls are huge here. They have aircon (air conditioning) and you can pretty much buy anything there (including groceries) so they are very popular.
• Interesting fact: the largest mall in Asia (Mall of Asia) is located in Manila
• Met more people than I could possibly remember at CCT
• Had adobo for lunch (a traditional and popular Filipino dish)
• Road in a jeepney, the most popular form of public transportation. The streets are literally crawling with them. And every single one is a little different. Just like snowflakes =P
• This view:

Day 2 (sat):

• I went to Fort Santiago which is where the national hero José Rizal was imprisoned before he was executed. He was an advocate for the Filipino people during the Spanish colonial period. He wrote 2 especially inflammatory novels against the Spanish which all Filipino children are now required to read in school
• Found this at the community center which I talk about below. Dr Mask would be so proud:
  

• I went to a "partner day" in one of the community centers in Metro Manila. This was a celebration/competition of mothers that participate in the microfinance program with CCT. One member from each lending group was selected to represent the group. They wore the traditional Filipinianas and performed talents and gave a small speech and answered questions. It was a type of beauty pageant for the mothers of the program. Since I was a guest and new to all this cultural stuff, they naturally invited me as a judge! I ended up copying off my fellow judges as I filled out my score card which included things such as grading personality and quality of the answer of questions (everything was in tagalog of course). Anyway, after all this was finished and they were waiting for the final tallies, they started dancing (a very common end of party practice). Annnnnd as the honored guest, I naturally was asked to join in. AB (a CCT staff about my age who has basically taken care of everything for me and guided me through everything. He's great. Shout-out: he's a great singer.) graciously recorded the whole thing. If you notice, these women are placing money in my hands! This is definitely a first for me. I have never been paid to dance. And actually, it was rather rewarding. I made around US$6. Not bad for a white boy. But seriously, this might be the most embarrassing thing I've ever posted online. Consider yourself blessed:

Dancing at partner's day from josiah meneghini on Vimeo.

Day 3 (sun):

• I went to a Victory Christian Fellowship (a contemporary, evangelical church). It was a great service. It reminded me that although there are tons of differences, the body of Christ and the Bible are the same here as back home. There are certain things that are trans-cultural and our God is one of them. He is the ultimate form of transcultural because he created all cultures. It was a good sermon. It was in perfect Taglish (tagalog and english mixed) and the pastor would switch languages without warning (sometimes almost mid-sentence). It is amazing how bilingual the Philippines can be. The sermon was on honoring your father and mother and how scripture does not say that we should only honor them when they are performing well. We need to honor them because we see them as Christ sees them. Even if they sin against us, we need to see them as forgiven and love them accordingly. Good advice.

Day 4 (mon):

• I attend devotions at the CCT main office at 7:30 in the morning. We meditated in silence for a while, then sang, and then broke into small groups to discuss the word. The men's small group that I was in graciously tried to use as much english as possible. It is great to be with believers in other cultures and see Christ praised in other languages. It is the way it was meant to be.
• I went to visit a Community Center in a different part of Manila. While there I got to see some tailoring and printing work of the Kaibigan Ministry (video here). Kaibigan is the Tagalog work for 'friend'. The Kaibigans are all former street dwellers who have decided to take advantage of the programs CCT offers to get themselves off the streets. These include jobs training, housing, employment, etc. The street dwellers learn about the Kaibigan program and hear the teaching of the word from what is called Street-side Fellowships. These fellowships are a feeding program where they receive the word, food, and build relationships with the CCT Kaibigan staff (some of whom are Kaibigans themselves). Through these relationships and attendance of the street-side fellowships, the street dwellers decide whether they are ready to move off the streets. This is key to the ministry, it is the street dwellers and not CCT who decides if/when they are ready to change their lives. Once they join the Kaibigan ministry, they can either learn construction, water purification, tailoring, printing, janitorial services, or a host of other vocational training options that CCT offers. There is actually a whole construction company called Covenant Community Service Cooperative. All the workers are Kaibigans and they provide all the construction needs for CCT and its various ministries (including the Tagaytay retreat center which I visited later on Tues). 
• Key take away: CCT is HUGE and has tons of different ministries. It has around 1000 employees. Not bad for an organization that just celebrated its 20th anniversary 

This is a picture of my first trike (sidecar) ride that I took to get to the community center: 





After on the way back to the main office, it started raining (these are pictures taken out the back of a jeepney):

Day 5 (tues):

• This was a big day. I woke up feeling pretty sick (I think I accidentally drank some tap water from Jolibee's). We went up to Tagaytay (a beautiful area about 2 hours south of Metro Manila). I visited Magdalena which is a boys school for street boys. We also visited the sister school nearby in Puypuy (the girls school which is still under construction by the Kaibigan construction company). The landscape was incredible, but unfortunately I was laying in the back of the car most of the drive. After that we went to the newly constructed Tagaytay retreat center. It is a beautiful facility that exemplifies the Selah spirit. We then visited a weekly savings group meeting with the group's facilitator and went over the house of principles using Chalmers training material! Incredible to see it at work in the field. On the way back to Manila, we stopped by a road side stand and bought fresh pineapple. The stand was owed and operated by a savings group member! So great. Here's a picture:

This is a statue at the Tagaytay retreat center:  

This is a shot I took out the window coming back into Manila. It is the ever growing city in my mind. There are signs of growth and construction everywhere. It is the most sprawling, alive city I've ever visited. It's quite a treat to live here and be a part of it:

Day 6 (wed):

• I was sick so I stayed home and rested in bed (I am feeling much better now). And made this short video to show off my living quarters. Hope you enjoy (press on the word 'vimeo' if you want to see it in a new window).

Welcome to my home in the Philippines from josiah meneghini on Vimeo.


Day 7 (thur, today):

• I worked in the CCT main office all day. A lot of time of this blog and a lot of time on emails and CDV homework. Now I'm going to bed because I'm learning that I need 9-10 hours of sleep when I'm in new cultures

Prayer requests:

• Full healing and bodily acclimation to this new climate and food
• Adaption to cultural stress. This is a new culture. I love it, but it has been very overwhelming and as with any cross cultural experience, it takes time to be fully comfortable. I am expecting it to be worse before it gets better. Right now I miss home and my friends. Pray that I would remember that it is natural to be lonely and desire my own culture and that I wouldn't let that ruin my experiences and enjoyment of this new country
• That I would turn to Christ more and more. I have an incredible opportunity in that I am forced to rely on Christ a lot here because everything is new and unknown. Pray that I would actually turn to Him and that I wouldn't try to stubbornly do things on my own
• I am not in control of much of anything here. That's hard for me. Pray that I am able to deal with the ambiguities of not knowing whether the plans I make will ever happen
• That I would remember that God has placed me here. That I am not simply surviving or trying to get by. I have a mission which is exciting and inspiring. Luke 12:48 is especially applicable to me here and I need to remember it: "everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more"

Praises/answered prayers:

• I am feeling better!
• I am learning how to get around and am growing daily more comfortable with my surroundings
• I have incredibly gracious and caring hosts at CCT. They have been so kind to me and continue to treat me as an honored guest
• I am going to meet up with some missionary friends (Tammy Schutt and fam) this weekend. It will be very good to talk to them and learn about their experience here in the Philippines.
• God has greatly blessed CCT and their efforts at ministry. They are a fantastic organization who is pursuing God's will and standing for Him when it would be easier not to. It is a huge blessing that I get to work with and learn from them.