Arriving, driving, eating and swimming in Bohol

Another early start for our flight to Tagbilaran. By now we'd worked out you didn't need to get a taxi from our accommodation to the airport - it took 10 minutes in the taxi last night, but its about 500m as the crow flies, because he doesn't need to worry about crossing motorways. Our host had told us about the 'Runaway' overpass - a5 storey high walkway complete with baggage scanners at either end and a lift. And what could you see from the walkway? Another of those Filippino restaurants and a massive church.

Breakfast at the airport with the world's smallest 'American big breakfast' then a one hour flight to Tagbilaran. A brand new airport where the road markings don't yet match the signs in the car park. So after about 10 minutes we managed to get out of the car park, which doesn't sound unusual until I tell you that there wasn't any traffic and the car park was about the size of the one at Richmond station!

We drove to the most famous beach here - Alona Beach - but discovered that there's nowhere to park so we drove on. Eventually we found a beautiful beach where we had a dip. Very hot and bright sunshine.

We then drove around trying to find somewhere to eat in Tagbilaran City. Driving here is far less crazy than in Manila - based on my sum total of 10 minutes spent in a taxi last night. So far I've only driven on the wrong side of road once. No one drives over 60, especially the motorcycles with side cars and trailers, with all sorts of passengers.

'... home home again jiggety jig'

There are lots of motorcycle side-cars that operate as taxis, many of them with Bible verses like 'the Lord himself watches over you' and 'whoever believes in the name of the Lord will be saved.' I was particularly impressed by the truck driving towards me on my side of the road with 'in God we trust' in large bold letters.

Hamish did a great job patiently navigating for us with his patient but sometimes unreliable friend Google maps. Finally, we found a great wood-fired pizza place with a family of kittens.

We had been trying to ring our local Compassion contacts but the phone number seemed to be wrong, so we emailed the Australian office, and they asked them to contact us. We eventually realised the problem wasn't that we had wrong numbers. Instead, for some reason we had assumed that the prepaid mobile sim card we purchased included the old-fashioned option of making phone calls. It turns out you can receive calls but you can't make them - but who'd want to do that! Thankfully we've now sorted out the directions for seeing our sponsored child, Raine, on Friday. Tomorrow we'll talk to the Project Director at the child centre we're visiting on Saturday.

We've certainly been struck by the poverty here - makeshift houses and lots of rubbish and poor roads. Right amongst this are the tourist hotels ...

Eventually Hamish and Google maps, together their mutual friend 'U-turn', found our accommodation, which is a very pleasant (and cheap) new hotel with a lovely swimming pool. Elijah and I enjoyed a dip.

Then some down time getting ready for some sightseeing tomorrow. We're looking forward to seeing the Tarsier - a unique mammal with the world's largest eyes (proportional to its body) and a head that can rotate 360 degrees! Plus the 16th century Baclayon church and the Blood Compact Monument - possibly the world's only monument celebrating two men drinking a cup of each other's blood. Chat with your friend Google about each of those - or wait for tomorrow night's blog.

The Philippines here we come

Up at 5am for the train to the airport but the early start didn't dampen our excitement. Though it sure was sad saying goodbye to Danielle.

After a lot of rearranging our bags to fit so many gifts from our church friends for their sponsored children, we were disappointed they didn't weigh our cabin luggage, after all the weighing we had done.

A reasonable flight with plenty of screen time for the boys, supplemented by the in flight entertainment - a 5 minute trivia quiz. A short taxi ride to our apartment and a walk around the high end hotel district to a familiar restaurant. No sign of a Big Mac. McDo is the word. 'Would you like rice with that?'

Another early morning tomorrow for our flight to Tagbilaran. Can't wait

Excited to be heading to Tagbilaran next Tuesday

Very excited to be heading to the Philippines next Tuesday. Overnight in Manila then a short flight to Tagbilaran the next day.

Can’t wait to meet Raine and his family on Friday 27^th in his village 2 hours north west of Tagbilaran.

And really looking forward to seeing the work of Compassion with the children at the child centre on Saturday 28th, followed by lunch with JM and his family.  

A third side of the middle east

What do you do when you have 10 hours between flights in a humongous airport? Stretch your legs, look at the shops, have something to eat, write up your blog and look at the size of it all …

playground

monorail

That fills about half the time, so thank goodness Qatar airways offers a free city tour of Doha. What a city! Qatar is a tiny nation 160km across and 90km wide created by the European powers in the nineteenth century. Things were pretty quiet with agricultural and pearl diving being the main industries, until oil was discovered in the 1940s. It now has a per capita income of about $US 160 000 p.a. – the world’s highest. At least that’s for the 200 000 Qatari natives. They make up just 13% of the total population. Everyone else is an expat worker, mostly from developing countries come to find work. Our driver and guide were both from Nepal and were a delight, carefully and honestly answering our questions. 

The highlights of the tour?

1. The unbelievable buildings:

art museum

women's eyes (in a Muslim headress) at the top of the art museum

?

mosque

There seems to be a council regulation that whatever you build, it has to look weird.

Perhaps the most extravagant is the airport terminal reserved just for the King.

2. The delightful and newly re-built souq.

How am I feeling to be heading home? Sad but so very thankful to God for such an extraordinary trip – to have enjoyed planning it, and to have seen and experienced and learnt so many wonderful things, and to have had the privilege to do it with my son.

So very thankful to be returning to our wonderful country.

And so very looking forward to seeing my family.

Glimpses of ministry in Jordan

Something special today. 

Malcolm and Charissa took us to the Anglican Jofeh Rehabilitation Centre in the Jordan Valley. Started in 1994 in an area where there are no known Christians this centre provides schooling, speech pathology, physiotherapy and sheltered workshops for children and young people with a whole variety of disabilities. We met the centre’s director, a Dutch Anglican monk named Brother Andrew. That morning he’d been showing the Archbishop of Canterbury the plans for a new Anglican church at the Baptism site on the Jordan river; he was of course keen for the Archbishop’s support, and was only too happy to show us the plans as well over tea. We enjoyed joking around, especially about the plan to include an Isaac chapel in the design. 

Eventually Brother Andrew was finished and the manager Yousef showed us around the centre. The rooms and equipment were basic, but the work they are doing is amazing. Many of the children with disabilities were previously shunned by their families and their communities, being shut up in separate huts, and the local schools didn’t cater for their needs at all. Now the children are educated in the centre’s classrooms, and the centre has even encouraged and practically supported the integration of children into the local state schools. Plus the centre provides work opportunities in recycling paper, sewing, needlework and woodwork, enabling them to support themselves and their families. 

recycling paper for gift cards

sewing cross-stitch for gift cards

Some of the children who were first helped by the centre now work as teachers there. Malcolm and Charissa’s church have an appeal once a year to purchase a new piece of equipment for the centre, and Charissa and a couple of other women teach English to some of the older women once a week.

Two other highlights of our visit – an abundant Jordanian brunch, and the ingenious water cooling system.

the pyramid-shaped roof panels from which the water sprinkles down

Water sprinkles down onto the centre courtyard of the building, and the air flows across through the windows and is cooled down by the water. The water is then pumped up to the roof and the process begins again. It’s more complicated than that – I just can’t remember it all, but I can say that it sure works. The Jordan valley is very hot, and yet it was beautifully cool in every room. And the only electricity used is to pump the water. I told Brother Andrew that the architect in my congregation is planning some passive cooling and heating systems for our new building and would be positively buzzing to see this system in action; he immediately suggested that my architect might be able to help with his building project at the Baptism site and gave me his card. I said that I wanted him for our own building project first, and then he could have him.   

Isaac and I loved the visit and enjoyed chatting through things afterwards with Malcolm and Charissa.

On the way back we did some shopping in one of the top-end shopping malls. Here is another side of Jordan. We felt more at home than at the local chaotic souq, especially in the supermarket, but almost all the shops were way above my fashion sense and price level. On the top floor was the small roller coaster. 

Almost all the customers were Arab, but all of the advertising pictures were of glamourous westerners. And though they said welcome as we walked in, the metal detector and touch down by the security guard tended to weaken that welcome a little.  


We enjoyed a sumptuous Arabic dinner together ...

... then I had a second glimpse of the Forrests' ministry here in Amman - Malcolm's bible study group. It was much like my group back home - we read Psalms 42 and 43, talked about what the original writers were saying, how its fulfilled in Jesus and what it means for us, then we prayed together and ate supper. 

But there were three differences: 
i) the supper was certainly better - fancy chocolates, marzipan sweets and pastries, 
ii) the people were from all over the world: a dutch man working for an aid organisation, two Americans born in Lebanon but studying Arabic here, an Indian man who grew up in the America but is teaching French here at an International school, and a woman whose mixed background I can't remember but who grew up in the Sudan, and
iii) we paused half way through the bible study as the Muslim call to prayer dominated the neighbourhood; this doesn't happen during my bible study group in Kurrajong, but here it happens  every week (or rather 5 times a day). No one else in the group was in the least bothered by it, they just paused and waited for it to pass before continuing on. Realising that was a novice at such things, they asked me whether I knew what was being sung. Of course I didn't, so they explained - 'God is great, I bear witness that there is no God except the one God, I bear witness that Muhammed is the prophet of God, Hurry to prayer.' (3/4 of which is terrific)

What a wonderful opportunity it has been to get some experience of the joys and challenges of the Forrests' ministry here - 
i)  the sometimes chaotic and frustrating way things work (or don't work)
ii) the dominant Muslim enviroment, where it is illegal to tell Muslims the gospel and for Muslims to become Christians; 
and 
iii) the expat community, where people are here to do a job for a short time and then move on, making it hard to keep on investing in relationships, to train leaders and to build bridges to share the Gospel. 

How much the Forrests need our prayers and encouragement in such a context.

We've certainly been encouraged by their faithfulness. Hopefully they too have been encouraged by our visit and as we prayed together. They certainly seemed to appreciate the card signed by members of our church.