Happy Easter

Happy Easter!

It is Good Friday here today…which is an interesting day in this country…many people focus their energy on Good Friday, and the Black Saturday which follows, but the Resurrection Sunday is almost just like any other day. The malls are closed today and tomorrow, but open again on Sunday.

Last night we walked down to the bottom of the hill that the birth center in Antipolo sits on, to watch a march that happens every year. Millions of people walk from a church in Quiapo, which is far on the other side of Manila, up to a shrine in Antipolo where there is a statue of Mary, who represents health and safe travel. So if the people make this pilgrimage, they are supposed to have health and safe travel for the rest of the year.

Last night the street was filled with people…and the crowd was surprisingly calm and orderly. There were many young people and families; dads riding on bikes with their kids on the front and back, groups of teenagers with their friends. The Nazarene Seminary just down the street from us was showing the Jesus Movie, and handing out free water to marchers. We watched for a while, and then walked against the flow to try to get a better look at another part of the street. We couldn’t see much, but we walked back with the crowd, just a short ways, and it was a really neat experience, just that short walk. A fellow missionary was talking about how her family usually walks part of the way each year, in order to mark this time, and to remember that Jesus did have to walk and carry the cross, and it was a hard journey, and as I walked the small distance, I was reminded of that again, and it was really very powerful. If we hadn’t had a woman in labor back at the clinic, I think I would have walked the rest of the way up the hill to Antipolo….

Many people here will beat themselves as they walk through the streets today, some will nail themselves to crosses, all in order to try to gain forgiveness for sins, and to pay penance for those sins and get closer to God. I hope that for you this is a time you can remember the reason Jesus died on that cross, took our sin and conquered death- all so that we wouldn’t have to…and that because of Jesus we can be reconciled to God and clean before Him! I pray also that you can use this season to tell others the truth and significance of the event we remember and celebrate…beyond the commercialism and payment of penance.

In other news….

A couple of weeks ago we had a great opportunity to bless the Filipina midwives that we work with here at the birth home….they were able to take a little vacation and go for a weekend down to Puerto Galera, and we took the opportunity to renovate the room that they stay in while they’re on duty. It was so great! We didn’t tell them we were doing it, so it was a surprise to them…

We spend four days on it…one pre-cleaning, two painting, and one getting everything back and organized. We cleaned, scrubbed, sanded, painted and organized. It was a blast. In-between everything we had a couple of births. Here are some pictures of the before and after and during…

On another note, it was fun last night, after we'd been down the hill for about 45 minutes, to have to run, literally back up the hill, to get to the clinic in time to be there for the birth. Lindsey and I ran up probably 8 flights of stairs, and then a bit more up the hill, and arrived totally out of breath...but in time for the birth.