And now back to our regularly scheduled program

Hello everyone! I trust the last three weeks have been good ones for you all! Boy, do I have a bunch to tell you all! So sit back, grab your hot drink of preference and read on J

            Where to start, I guess where we left off is as good a place as any. As many of you know, the CCBF team came, bringing my family with them!! So amazing to see my family!! But let me talk about the team first. They were an absolutely wonderful team. Fun, loving and energetic!

They kicked off their week with a Winter Camp, filled with snowmen and snowflakes. I think the edible snowmen were most of the kids favorite!! Who doesn’t love marshmallows glued with frosting? The theme for the winter camp was “Grace Changes Everything”; through God’s grace we are transformed and made new.

 I participated in my first CCBF V. CCB water fight! Just to give you all a visual of how it went down. The team had been saying all week how they were going to dominate us in the water fight. When Sunday finally rolled around, CCBF armed themselves with squirt bottles…… yes squirt bottles. So all 19 of them holding their squirt bottles “fought” against all 172 of us with our buckets and cups. So can you guess who won the “war”? …………..CCB won, of course J They were far too outnumbered to stand a chance. All in all, everyone had a wonderful time throwing water at eachother. The little ones didn’t quite understand they were supposed to get the team wet, so they kept splashing eachother which was adorable to watch.

Shoeboxes!!! Wow!! What an amazing blessing!! We did the shoeboxes like we do Christmas. We give each kid their shoeboxes and once everyone has one, we let them open them all together. It’s a wonderfully, crazy few minutes! The kids shriek with glee, pulling every item out of them box, showing each other. Its been a few weeks but they are still walking around their boxes, all the girls are wearing their new necklaces or headbands; the boys running around in the sunglasses and toy trucks. Thank you to all of you who prepared a shoebox for the kids and manangs!!! You are an incredible blessing to us!!!

They helped everywhere. Filled out drinking water jugs, washed the ever present dishes, helped in the laundry, filled water cups for lunch and even helped make the mango floats by flashlight during a brown out J It was sad to see them go. You all have impacted the kids forever! They ask about you all and how you are doing. THANK YOU CCBF TEAM!!!!! I have been praying for your adjustment back.

MY FAMILY!!!! My family came with the CCBF team and then stayed for an extra week to spend more time with me and my family here! It was WONDERFUL!!! We didn’t do anything crazy or exciting, but just having them here and seeing them every day was fantastic. It’s the little things such as eating dinner together, seeing them throughout the day, laying in my mommas lap, get a massage from them, that was much needed. The little things that we would normally do at home J And getting to share my life with them was great! Now that they know all the people and where I am at throughout my day, it makes us feel more connected. Thankful that God allowed it all to work out. I definitely needed actual family time with them all. Skype is wonderful, but being able to be hugged and touched by them was such a comfort! It will be hard over the next 6ish months, but I know they will be at the airport with huge hugs for me when I get home.

My family brought little goodies and treats from home. I now am making a fresh cup of French press coffee every morning!! You have no idea how lovely and delicious my first cup was after drinking instant Nescafe for the past four months. It was like my own little slice of heaven. They also brought some much needed extra clothes for me J I also “borrowed” a few of my mom’s and brothers clothes. The girls think it is pretty funny that I’m walking around in my brothers flannel shirt and basketball shorts (not together though). My next door neighbor sent a bag of my favorite-homemade-out-of-this-world-delicious chocolate chip cookies. Thanks Mass Family! They also brought a very special gift from two wonderful ladies, Mrs. Voss and Mrs. Prior. I don’t sleep that well here. So they made me a beautiful pillowcase with the verse “In peace I will both lie down and sleep; for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell safely” Psalms 4:8. What a comfort that verse is me. Thank you so very much Mrs. Voss and Mrs. Prior!

The day that my parents left was a hard one. Thankfully, we had to go get our new baby cow, a welcome distraction. His name is Ferdinand or Ferrdy for short. Manang Laura is absolutely in LOVE with him. He is actually a very very handsome Holstein cow. He could be a cow model, he’s that cute.

Our well is finally fixed and pumping water like it should! The CCBF team was able to help figure out what was the problem and new how to fix it. Sediment had clogged the pipes, making water pressure, a trickle. Once we blew out the pipes, our water pressure felt like a raging river. It is wonderful! We no longer have to stock water all throughout the house or wonder if we will have water today or not. It took two days for them to blow the pipes, which meant no water for two days. So for two days, we had to carry bucket by bucket, water from public line in the little house to all the places in our house which need water. Basically every room in the house. Everyone worked so hard going back and forth, back and forth for the two days.

We went back to school last week. My mom and brother helped in my class. All the kids loved having tita Kim and Manong Kyle teaching them. Now we are getting everyone back into the motions of school after being off for so long. Graduation will be here before we know it!

Yesterday was a great day! I cut my hair pretty short last week. In Sunday school, two sisters girls came in with short haircuts as well. The older one touched her hair and pointed to her little sister’s hair then pointed to my hair and said “like you!”. My heart melted. They had cut their hair short to match me. Then last night, I was holding of the special boys, who I am absolutely in love with. He hardly ever acknowledges anyone, often times, he just stares out in space. But I was playing with him and holding him last night, when he looked straight at me and gave me a huge smile!!! Oh my word!! I almost screamed for joy. I did cry a little. I literally felt like I was given the world. The song from My Fair Lady “I could have danced all night” comes to mind. I could have danced all week! That smile will always be a treasure for me.

And for the most current news, we were rocking and rolling in class this morning. We had an earthquake of 6.8. Even though I have grown up in California, it scared me. I think it was because, this was the first time I was responsible for anyone but myself. I had 16 little lives to care for if something happened. Thank God all that happened was our pool overflowed. It was a pretty long earthquake. It lasted over 30 seconds. Seeing the earth rolling like waves is mind blowing. When I realized what was going on, I yelled at my kids to get under the tables. They just stared at me with a blank stare. None of them had ever been in an earthquake and no one has any idea to get under a table when it happens. But after I yelled again, they all got underneath till it was over. The entire family was pretty scared. But all is well, no injuries or cracks here. It did, however, shut down half of Bacolod. I think more out of fear than anything.

Well I think I have said enough for today. Till next week,

God Bless, Kelsey

Psalms 18:30-32 “As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. For who is God, except the Lord? And who is a rock, except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect.”

beautiful pillowcase