...Hydro Storm?
Too many things have been happening out of the ordinary.
I have been attending weekly Bible Studies in the office, primarily led by Irene and some of her colleagues. On July 26, 2016, one of my Sisters (my "Aunt?") half-jokingly asked me that I lead the next session.
The greatest surprise for me was that... I actually wanted to volunteer even if she didn't ask me to.
So on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, I led our session. I taught about, of all things... Forgiveness. I was lecturing like it was an academic class. I spoke like a nerd and actually illustrated the effects of non-forgiveness using graphs. In James 1:19-20 (Holy shit I am quoting from the Bible), the verses indicate that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. I took it literally and compared two speeds - the speed of anger, and the speed of understanding (which is achieved by listening.)
I will end that discussion for the while. Irene suggested that I post my discussion of forgiveness here in conrad_delta, even if no one really reads this blog. This appeals to me, and... Maybe I should. Writing that article will take a lot of time, though. But I can definitely recall what I have taught.
............
On a fateful Friday night of August 5, 2016, Irene, I and 9 other brave souls left Manila to go to Banaue... for an outreach. Banaue is in the northern portion of the Philippines, and is about 8 hours away via bus.
The mission of the organization that led the outreach is "reach the unreachable." There are a lot of communities in the Philippines that are, geographically, hard to reach, and often have accessibility issues with various commodities.
The path of school that we went to needed us to walk for six kilometers starting from the closest accessible concrete road. The path that we treaded was about 1/6 cemented and some circled around terraces / paddies. The rest were just dirt trails. Moreover, the hike wasn't straight - it had various ups and downs (literal, of course.) Going there took us about 5 hours as we were carrying about 1/6th to 1/4th of the goods that we were supplying to them. I knew the students and staff of the school were deeply thankful of what we have given them.
Going back took us about 3 hours, but with a few new challenges: It was night time and all of us were using flashlights. Also, it was drizzling and so most of us wore raincoats.
On Sunday we just went around the terraces near the inn we stayed in, and looked at how amazing the scenery is.
It was an extremely exhausting but rewarding and fulfilling experience. A part of me is craving for more, and looking forward to the next outreach. There is another one this December. There are no specific details yet, but I am highly interested to join.
I have been attending weekly Bible Studies in the office, primarily led by Irene and some of her colleagues. On July 26, 2016, one of my Sisters (my "Aunt?") half-jokingly asked me that I lead the next session.
The greatest surprise for me was that... I actually wanted to volunteer even if she didn't ask me to.
So on Tuesday, August 2, 2016, I led our session. I taught about, of all things... Forgiveness. I was lecturing like it was an academic class. I spoke like a nerd and actually illustrated the effects of non-forgiveness using graphs. In James 1:19-20 (Holy shit I am quoting from the Bible), the verses indicate that we should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to anger. I took it literally and compared two speeds - the speed of anger, and the speed of understanding (which is achieved by listening.)
I will end that discussion for the while. Irene suggested that I post my discussion of forgiveness here in conrad_delta, even if no one really reads this blog. This appeals to me, and... Maybe I should. Writing that article will take a lot of time, though. But I can definitely recall what I have taught.
............
On a fateful Friday night of August 5, 2016, Irene, I and 9 other brave souls left Manila to go to Banaue... for an outreach. Banaue is in the northern portion of the Philippines, and is about 8 hours away via bus.
The mission of the organization that led the outreach is "reach the unreachable." There are a lot of communities in the Philippines that are, geographically, hard to reach, and often have accessibility issues with various commodities.
The path of school that we went to needed us to walk for six kilometers starting from the closest accessible concrete road. The path that we treaded was about 1/6 cemented and some circled around terraces / paddies. The rest were just dirt trails. Moreover, the hike wasn't straight - it had various ups and downs (literal, of course.) Going there took us about 5 hours as we were carrying about 1/6th to 1/4th of the goods that we were supplying to them. I knew the students and staff of the school were deeply thankful of what we have given them.
Going back took us about 3 hours, but with a few new challenges: It was night time and all of us were using flashlights. Also, it was drizzling and so most of us wore raincoats.
On Sunday we just went around the terraces near the inn we stayed in, and looked at how amazing the scenery is.
It was an extremely exhausting but rewarding and fulfilling experience. A part of me is craving for more, and looking forward to the next outreach. There is another one this December. There are no specific details yet, but I am highly interested to join.