Great Expectations, Part 1

This won't be a long blog since I'm typing on my iPhone. I'm in Bangkok, Thailand resting after a long day walking in the heat. My feet hurt and I am sleepy, but compelled to write since it has been so long since my last entry. 

I left Korea on a cold Wednesday morning, hauling my suitcase full of warm and not too cold clothing down to the subway to Seoul station and from there to the airport in Inchon where I met up with Pastor DeVries, Emily, William, and Tain. We ran into a royal procession in the terminal.
I mailed a package of postcards to the classes at GGCA and flew away to the Philippines with my traveling companions. 

We arrived in Manila just in time to hit the rush hour traffic. The weather was hot and humid, but we had air conditioning in our van, so I survived the long trip to our overnight lodgings at the YMCA. Along the way, I saw my first jeepney, a sort of stretch jeep with bench seating in the rear for as many people as can squeeze in. Some were elaborately pimped out with chrome, neon lights, spray painted artwork, and speakers playing loud music. 

This is the idea. That's Pastor Clyde posing with one. 

Our first night in Manila we went to a restaurant that had just enough tables and chairs to fit our small group.
The food was tasty and we were hungry and thirsty, so it hit the spot. 

Oh, yeah. We met up with our other Korean travel buddy, Nobu, who had arrived the day before and sent me pictures of inasal chicken to tempt me. 

We got a shower and a little sleep before rising before the roosters crowed in order to get to the airport in time to catch a flight to another island where the Greater Grace Philippines conference would be held. I asked Nobu to get inside a luggage cart, and he obliged. 
 
It was a great blessing to have some young adults along with us on the trip. William diligently kept a photo journal of every place and event for school, since he was missing quite a few days. 
We arrived at the airport in Barangay
and encountered the tourist and police assistance desk in the terminal. I had to smile. 
It was a small airport with one short luggage carousel and lots of people outside hoping to drive us and our belongings somewhere. We piled into three vans and drove into the town of Dumaguete for breakfast with local believers. We passed many churches and universities that seemed to have more Christian campus organizations than any other clubs. I took this picture near the restaurant where we are. 
Somehow I missed out on the chocolate that was in a pitcher on the table. I wondered what the brown gravy was that people were putting on their rice. This was the first of several things that were to put my faith to the test, and I will tell you up front that I failed several tests before I figured out what was going on with me. I didn't expect for God to allow testing to come on this trip, and it turned out that it was just that - my expectations - that were being tried. 

Back in the vans, we drove to the resort where the conference was held, and this was what first caught my eye. 






The second thing that caught my eye was a nice bed that came with a towel and a roll of toilet paper!

A typhoon was supposed to be heading our way. What did I do? I took a nap. If Jesus could sleep in a storm, so could I. 

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