Welcome Friends and Family!

Our hopes for this blog is to keep you updated as to how God is working in and through us as we serve Him by reaching out to children in crisis here in the Philippines. Please continue to pray for us regularly! Thank you!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

We've arrived in the Philippines!

Dear Friends and Family,
We wanted to let you know that we arrived safe and sound in Manila late lastnight!  Right now it is 7:40 pm; we are 13 hours ahead of those of you that live on the east coast.  We are so excited to be here and already we have met so many wonderful people.  It really feels like this is where we are supposed to be, and it's awesome that we have finally arrived.  We are slowly recovering from our jet lag but overall are doing well.  It's really great to be back in southeast Asia; it really feels like home even though I (Matt) grew up in Indonesia.  There are so many thoughts that are going through our minds at this time that it's hard to put it all on paper.  We are excited yet nervous about learning a new language but know that God will equip us to learn it well.  In terms of our itinerary, we are just staying at a vacant missionary home 45 minutes from Manila with other missionaries around us.  We will be recovering from jet lag and adjusting to this time zone for a few days.  Then on Wednesday we begin our orientation for three days.  We will most likely move into our place in Manila on March 1st.  We don't have an exact date to begin our language language school, but it will begin in March sometime.  We will then have our field conference in March in which we'll get to meet all of the ACTION missionaries.  In even just being here for a day, we have already been so encouraged by one missionary family in particular and have felt their love and support of us.  We are so excited about joining the team here and look forward to building relationships with them.
      Well, I'm going to sign off for now.  Thank you everyone for your love and support.  Keep the prayers coming!  Bye!
                              Love,
                                        Matt, Becki, and the boys