The big move

Thank you so much for praying for us and our new friends. This weekend we had the tremendous priveledge of bringing a birthday cake to a little boy named Art's 2nd birthday. He lives in Welfareville with his parents and 1 month old brother in an area about as big as a twin size matress. (same family as the previous blog). What a joy to celebrate with them and see his smiles! The family also attended church for the first time on Sunday and said that they really enjoyed it! Please pray for their little son "Dos" who has a really bad crackle in his chest and is going on his 2nd week of sickness.

We leave today for Puerta Garela, where the Mercy In Action head quarters will be from now on. We helped pack up the clinic yesterday and last night we stayed with some wonderful news friends who are here with their 3 kids. It's been so fun to see who God is connecting our hearts with! They are teaching us about a tree that has all the nutrients of a pre-natal vitamin! The father was in hordiculture before becoming a missionary, so he and Shawn has some fun talking bonsai and such...

Marie was a little upset to be uprooted again and kept asking for "my other house" (what that means is anyones guess at this point) so I am excited to have them in one place for at least a few weeks! It looks like the girls and might do a little less traveling than we originally thoughts, but keep that in your prayers as we are making a lot of those decisions right now.
We are not sure about internet access for the next few days but will update asap.

Baby home and Welfareville

Shawn and I spent Tuesday in Antipolo at a baby home.The baby home has 13 babies from 2 months to 2 years and the Children In Crisis students will be taking 8 hour shifts during the weekdays to help take care of them. It was heartbreaking to hear the various stories of these little babies. One was found in the garbage at a mall in Manila, he is now over a year and doing well. Others were left by parents who knew they could not afford to feed them. We will spend our time praying over them and giving all the love that is possible. I personally will not be pulling the long shifts with them, since I have 2 of my own and they won't let the toddlers be with the little one, but I'll get in as much as possible.

We also did a prayer walk through one of the main slums here, Welfareville. It was crazy to see all the men standing around. Unemployment is a serious problem. I got to pray with one young mom who was really worried about finding a job to feed her two little boys. She said she was willing to do anything, even move to another country away from her boys if she could find work. She explained that she was an orphan and so she didn't have family around her to help her. I can't imagine what it would feel like to feel like you have so few options in life. My heart broke for her. I take comfort in knowing that Jesus knows her better than anyone as is working on her behalf. Please pray for her to find a job here in Manila so she can stay with her kids!

We are well. We chopped off Marie's curls yesterday due to heat rash. She looks super cute! There are new pictures to view...click on Stepp Photos

Institute for Foundational Learning

We spent this weekend at a wonderful orphange called IFL in which the kids are really cared for in wonderful ways. The orphanage is pretty much self-sufficient, growing it's own produce, farming fish, chickens, pigs, goats and more. It was a wonderful place where the worship music never stopped, the laugher was contageious and every corner of earth was alive. Herbs, veggies, fruits, flowers, bananas and such covered every corner.
Shawn preached at the Saturday youth service. It was a powerful time of worship and prayer. IFL is definately raising up passionate lovers of Jesus and fully encouraging and empowering their youth to be radical followers and leaders. I was challenged and encouraged.
Marie really bonded with this little boy named Marlo. He was so precious. They played finger puppets for hours and sang together and danced. Marlo came from a broken home and had been at IFL for 6 years after his mother left the family of 6. He and his brothers and sisters are being cared for at IFL. We were so taken with him and our hearts broke as he cried when he had to say goodbye to Marie.

I was also taken with a precious staff member named Sheila. She was a passionate, fiesty lady who had been serving the kids for 6 years. She pretty much ran the place and was just so gentle and encouraging to everyone. She had recently adopted a little girl who was very sick with TB and more. The coolest part of the story is that the Mercy in Action that was here last year had encountered that same little orphan girl while visiting a hospital in another city. One of the medics was really taken with this little girl and spend the last year praying that God would intervene for her. He was blown away when we got to IFL and he found the same precious little girl, still very fragile but now in the caring arms of such a compassionate Philipino mama!!
Our team also attended the Sunday morning outreach that IFL was doing for their community. It was awesome to worship in Tagalog!

This was our first encounter with the culture here. I love the sense of humor. These people love to laugh and have a good time. It reminded me of Chile as they absolutely love making fun of each other! We were not so sure at first, but as time went on and they just kept laughing and mocking us it became really funny. :)One little boys looked at Ellie and said "O, She very fat like her moma!" I smiled. Then he looked at Marie and said "She more like her daddy." Gotta love the honesty!! :)
Personal space does not exist in this culture, especially when you are holding a white bald baby with blue eyes! I think I went throug and entire bottle of hand sanitizer in a day! No matter where I go with Ellie I here "Magdala" which means "beautiful".

Exploring our new surroundings

Probably the most precious time so far was eating dinner with the Filipino midwives last night...fish soup with rice. Marie was pretty facinated by the eyeballs and saw all the Filipino kids eating it but didn't get too many bites down.(thus my reasoning for bringing protien bars:)
The midwives here have been through a lot over the past 3 months with the closing, reopening, closing and then moving of the clinic. It was good just to be able to hug them, love on their kids, and enjoy there stories. 3 babies were born the first night we were here in some homes around the clinics by the Filipino midwives! (we heard the doorbell ring a million times that night but in our jet lagged stuper didn't realize what it was about.)
We took yesterday to aquaint ourselves with the transportation system, get a cell phone, buy some water and such. We had been told that the most danger to our kids was the traffic, so (after much debate with their daddy!)we decided to buy Marie a "harness" (kid leash). I had tried to explain to her that she'd need to wear a harness when we were in really busy places, we were expecting some resistance by the opinionated 2 1/2 year old! So you can imagine our delight and surprise yesterday as she enthusiastically put the harness on and pranced around saying "look Ellie! Look! I have a blue harness! Your harness is white. Mine is blue!" (Ellie has been in a pelvic harness for her hips for the past 3 months) What a blessing to have her so eager to cooperate with one of my greatest concerns. God is sneaky and soooo very good!
We slept a good 7 1/2 hours last night and are feeling good. Ellie has added rice cereal to her menu and is loving it. Marie is equally facinated with helping to prepare it and encouraging her to gulp it down! Precious moments I will treasure forever.
Today we are hoping to join the midwives on a trip to welfareville, a stark contrast to the shopping centers we visited yesterday. We are greatful for all your prayers, especially regarding protection for our little ones! :)
If you would like to call us, our cell phone # is 63-915-621-6436. Incloming calls are free to us and it's a 12 hour difference (from EST). We are not sure what our coverage will be once we start traveling, but we'll have it with us.

The Elephant has landed (or not)

Really, that's the opposite of what we want to be...the large, loud, arraogant American that is going to be the stomp on the opposition. Our goal is to be much more like the ant...extremely small footprints and carrying 10-30 times our weight. No matter what, we feel a bit like the elephant at first in another culture: ranchid smells, cold bucket baths, lack of clean water, not speaking the language or understanding the jokes...yet, as our eyes turn from ourselves to the fantastic colors, beautiful people, and amazing opportunities to love from the time we got on the plane, our feet shrink...God's heart in us enlarges...and maybe we become a bit more like the ant. Let it be God! May your justice and power be made clear in and through our hearts!

Note for our family: the girls traveled beautifully with Marie often plaintively counseling us to "calm down" when we tried to get her stay buckled in her seat...we're a bit jet-lagged but very healthy (and we're on skype!). Love you all so much!! Ellena has already been an awesome expression of God's love to many with her outrageous smiles and giggles. Thanks for your prayers!!! God is moving!