We are ok!

Just wanted to let you all know that we came through safe and sound!!! The wind was amazingly loud and you could hear trees falling all around us. Around 4am there was a knock on our door. It was a Filipino family, soaking wet as there house was flooding and they were afraid of the falling trees. We all camped out in our home. Marie thought it was quite exciting and had a hard time falling back asleep. We were very grateful to have a cement structure around us and to be able to welcome others in!
Last night we had the students from jfci's training school over for dinner by candlelight! It was wonderful to hang out, hear their stories and hopefully in some way encourage them as they embark in such an intense journey! (I think the brownies were the greatest encouragement:))
We are on our way to the tribes today as many of their fragile homes have been destroyed. Pray for strength and hope to fill their hearts as we listen to their stories and share our crackers and brooms!!

The Typhoon is coming

As you may have seen, another Typhoon is headed our way. So this is the last update until our power returns. It has been an eventful week as Shawn is nursing wounds from a fall on the motorcycle, Marie fought off a 24 hour bug with fever and vomit and Ellie got another tooth!! On top of that we were able to help with the construction of a new church for the Manyan tribe. Cool story, we'll share more about it soon.
We are excited to get home and continue on this justice adventure! There is so much more that we want to do...ok losing electrisity...bye bye

Ellie is on the move!

Ellie has taken off. She has a new tooth (lower left) and more on the way! She is on all fours and moving forward. She is becoming much more opinionated about where she wants to be and what she wants to be doing!
Marie is very much 2 and exploring life in every area. It truly is a non-stop question of "who is in charge?"...keeps me on my toes! She is so good with Ellie and loves to sing.

Hello, my friends

It's rockin' good to be back with people we know here in Puerto Galera (on the island of Mindoro) and continue to work on Tagalog, chilling with our neighbors, and helping those doing healing in the tribes around. It's heart wrenching to look at the rest of our time here and know that we truly only have a few weeks left to love and be loved in this season in the Philippines. As Jenna mentioned, we went to two tribes on Sunday. Pastor Toto (whose real name is something like Alfena) grew up in one of the tribes and has begun an awesome church there. He would like to establish contact with some of those who have not yet heard much of Jesus. We are considering helping him and the other Philippinas do a medical outreach in the area. However, we really covet your prayers on this. It's not as simple as it seems. The needs of the people are massive...malnutrition, despair, lack of opportunity, lots of infection...doing a medical clinic that even just includes white people could enforce their sense of inferiority and hopelessness by only being a drop of balm on a gapping wound...a reminder of what they do not have access to tomorrow. So, we are attempting to train the church leaders to do what we do...differentiate serious illness from basic and become masters of prevention and education (which is by far the most important aspect of health for the whole person...behavior change...real connection with the healing God and the resources He has given us). Instead of doing a medical clinic, we want to do house visits/family check-ups and prayer in which the Philippinas play the major role; and then doing a few funny, educational skits for the whole villiage that includes Philippinos as actors. Then, we want to leave as many resources (books, medications, prayer, relationship) as possible with the church leaders. We are not sure if this is the right aproach or even a good one...but this is what we came here to be...healers part of a healing community. May God cover and infuse every interaction with heaps of grace and tastes of true transformation; and may the effects of our "Americaness" shrivel to nothing.

The return to urgency...

Upon our return to Puerto Galera we could feel a shift in the air. Not only had the tempature dropped a good 10 degrees (yes, it's now more like 85 instead of 95!)but the official tourist time is kicking in, so new businesses have sprouted along the streets, prices have increased and the volume of people have increased. We also learned that one of the prostitutes from the red light district we had been praying through had been brutally murdered by a group of tourists. It was so sobering to think that it might have been one of the young dancers that we visited with just a few weeks ago. I found a new sense of urgency in reaching out to these women. We will be praying there again tonight and we invite you to join us!

Yesterday Shawn and I trekked up into the tribes with Marie and Ellie and assisted with prenatal visits and did some medical checkups. I love being able to do breastfeeding classes and chatting with the new moms. It's amazing how much formula is pushed here. It might require 1/2 of the families monthly income to buy a jar of formula, so they end up watering it down, or worse, they give the baby sugar water. This of course leads to malnurishment. I am told that it is very powerful for them to see a "white woman" breastfeeding as most assume all rich foreigners give formula. Yesterday I had one woman say "I thought all Americans gave formula?" I was happy to shatter that rumor and maybe help these moms give their kids a little more nourishment!!

We are so happy to be back in Puerto and not travel for a few weeks. Ellie has a new hamock bed and we are trying to teach her to sleep through the night. Marie is the sweetest little girl and loving everything but the spiders! Both girls are well and I am so grateful for all your continued prayers for their health! Shawn's eye is much better and he is back to wearing contacts:)

On the road again

This am we board the "Super Ferry" to head back to Manila. We will slowly make our way back to Mindoro, Puerto Galera. We'll be off line for a few days!

Purses for sale

Many of you have asked about purchasing a purse from the Arms of Love children. I am posting some pictures so you can get an idea of what they look like. These are designed and made by the kids and 1/2 of the profits go directly into their personal bank accounts for when the leave AoL. The other 1/2 goes to support Arms of Loves opperating costs.Again, the cost is $30. I am leaving here on Saturday, so you will need to email me before then if you want me to bring one home for you. (You can send your check to Jenny Strout at 26 Farwell St. Lewiston, ME 04240 and I will pay Arms of Love on this end).
I am so delighted to support this small business!

New photos

Happy Birthday Mom Strout!!

CHeck out some new photos on our photo link...

Shawn went to the hospital today to check out his eye. He is still in a lot of pain, but now has the antibiotics and stuff to hopefully make it better. Please keep praying for him!

Another day, another blog

It is so hard to hear the life that these kids had before coming to this wonderful place. You look at a sweet, shy girl playing badminton and here "we found her in jail". You hug a little munchkin with vibrant eyes and a contageous smile and here of the way she was abandoned. Many of the kids here at Arms of love come from big families. I love that there is a place that all 8 or 6 siblings can be together!

Spent yesterday in the "Chocolate Hills" in Bohol. Beautiful, but slightly disappointing to Marie who thought she was going to have "a little taste" as she likes to say! It was a day outing with the Arms of Love staff. As you can imagine, there days out are few and far between! We'll poast some photos later today.

Ellie and Rie are both well. Shawn needs your prayers as he has developed some sort of infection in his eye and it is really painful.
Last night we lead a party for the kids. They all painted their faces and we made a huge thing of popcorn. Felipe lead worship. We just love worshiping with these kids. Even the littlest ones belt it out as they close their eyes and smile!