He Is Risen!

He is risen indeed!

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HAPPY RESURRECTION SUNDAY!

We pray that you had a blessed time celebrating this joyous occasion. This is our third of three blog-posts for Easter Sunday weekend (you can find #1 and #2 here) because this year's Easter Sunday celebration held a unique significance for our family (you'll see what I mean towards the end). So much has happened since the start of the year, and as promised, this last blog post will be focused primarily on our family and filled with an appropriate amount of goofiness 😊! So here we go!

TOP 10's

Parenting through a pandemic, for our family, has allowed us to experiment with collaboration and compromise. Not that we didn't practice these things before; they've just manifested in new and unique ways.

For example, I asked our kids if they would be interested in writing a "Top 10 list" for our next blog: 10 of their favorite things about living in Cebu as an MK for the past 365 days. The girls were all over it, but requested that we include a little twist.

I apologize ahead of time for the solicited audience participation, but our two girls suggested I post their top 10 lists without a category (just an ambiguous, undefined prioritization of items in descending order). We could then ask all of you to guess which girl you think each top 10 list belongs to, and to what category each list is referring (e.g. - top 10 things to do, top 10 least desirable chores, etc.). HINT: one of our girls is 15, and the other 13 ... haha. To spice things up, I also asked Heather to create a list of her own.

The lists are pictured to the right, and Heather's is listed below. Once you figure out the lists' owner and the lists' category, feel free to send us an email/message 😊!

HEATHER'S LIST:

These are guests at what is still my table!
Merciful Father, I have squandered my days with plans of many things ...
She is the earth; seek her in the earth.
When you die, can I give that to me daughter?
Is there a cave?!
You will not see this again. It is the old way.
You can ... draw ... sounds?
Ibn ...
I was wrong. These are not men.
The dog can jump!

MAIL AND THE EASTER/CHRISTMAS STORY

The lockdowns and quarantines in the Philippines have caused all sorts of delays, including delays in receiving mail. The silver lining in all of this is that we've been receiving Christmas cards and packages in March, right when the one-year-quarantine-slump was setting in. As usual, God's timing is perfect!

We want to take the time to thank ALL OF YOU for your prayers, support, letters, messages, and encouragement! Our family could not thank you enough! Your thoughtfulness has had a greater impact than you can know and has helped to provide the strength to keep going when we needed it most.

I've included some pics below of the packages and cards that we've been receiving.

It's also been amazing (God's timing always is) how these gifts have connected Easter and Christmas for us in a tangible and powerful way. Your shared blessings, coupled with God's timing, were an object-lesson/reminder that the unique meaning of the birth of Jesus can only be grasped by contemplating His life-giving, sin-shattering life, death, and resurrection.

Thank you for being a reflection of God's love for us as we seek to be the same for the children, families, and communities of Cebu.

Thank you all again. I know I promised a lot of family goofiness, so to end things, here is a picture I took of a goat in a pick-up truck while I was stuck in traffic.

PRAYER REQUESTS:

• Please pray for continued health and safety, and that we could be a powerful witness of Christ's love during this pandemic.

• Please pray for continued wisdom, guidance, and strength as we serve here at the Children's Shelter of Cebu and navigate this pandemic together.

• Pray that our family and CSC can continue to make an impact on the lives of children and families in the Philippines as the the country faces another severe wave of the coronavirus.

Thank you all again for praying with us! May the Lord's blessings be with you all. Hangang sa muli!

Learn more about the Children's Shelter of Cebu here.

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