New Year, New Shoes

Welcome to the New Year! 

We know, we know the New Year is old news by now. You're all probably use to writing 2011 on all your papers already. I'll have you all know it was our New Years resolution to keep up with our blog, but resolutions are made to be broken, right? lol. We've also been a little busy around here....not that we're making excuses. We shall explain ourselves in the posts to come.
Anywho, our New Years Day events actually branched from some earlier experiences that we had. We've told you all about the Melnes family. They are a very poor family with 8 kids (one of which is Nini) but this family has the most inspiring faith in God. They live, eat, and breathe day-to-day on faith. We've spent a lot of time with them taking care of their sick kids. One day, we happen to notice their shoes. Their flip-flops (especially the childrens) were so worn out to the point where there were no soles left in the shoes. One of the kids was even missing the whole front part of one of his flip-flops. And Nook-Nook, the youngest, didn't even have shoes. So we decided that we wanted to buy shoes for this family. We had mentioned to our mom that we were going to spend some of our money on shoes for the Melnes family and she asked us how much it would be. We told her "it was probably gonna be about 50 pesos ($1) a pair. So a grand total of $9 for the whole family." "I'm sure someone would donate $10 for shoes" she said. Sure enough, that Saturday our mom went to church and, without even bringing up that we wanted to buy shoes for this family, someone gave our mom $50 for whatever we needed. God is SOOOO good! Now not only would we be able to buy shoes for the Melnes family but also for many other families in need of shoes.

So, the Wednesday before New Years, we went shoe shopping. We had Sister Nitz accompany us, so that we wouldn't receive, what we call, the "white" tax. In the end we were able to buy 45 pairs of shoes to give away to people.

Sam helping to tye the shoes

Sister Nitz tying shoes.

Since the Melnes were the family we were going to donate to in the first place, we went to their place on Friday and let them all pick out a pair of shoes. We also brought them a loaf of bread and a snack. They were so excited to receive new shoes!

Then on Saturday, January 1, 2011, we went to the Limbason church. This is one of the most recent Adventist churches in Brookes Point and a lot of the people who attend are extremely poor.

The Congregation

Brother Nitz, one of the P.A.M.A.S bible workers, started the church and is actually the current pastor. It wasn't until we got their that we realized a lot of our favorite people go to that church. Including 2 little girls named Kia and Ivey that we met our first weekend and immediately took a liking to.

Kia

Ivey

Of course we were asked to perform a special music and then the sermon was on The Fall of Man and the Plan of Redemption. The youth of the church put on the CUTEST skit to illustrate:

Brother Nitz then followed up with a sermon about the Fall. Of course it was in Tagalog so we only caught like every other word, but he was a very animated speaker.

After church, we invited all the children out to the bike and we distributed shoes. Suddenly we were surrounded by Cinderella's, as everyone was trying to find the shoe that fit them perfectly. We were so happy to see all the smiling faces and the excitement as everyone found a pair of shoes that fit them. They were so grateful for this gift.

Doon-Doon checking out his new shoes.

If the flip-flop fits.

Nook-Nook getting his first pair of shoes.

While seeing all the grateful expressions from the little children we couldn't help but to feel so incredibly grateful to our church family back home. Not only to the ones who donated the money for the shoes but also the people who donated stuff to send to us in our Balikbayan box (which we haven't gotten yet :( But we can't wait!!) and also the people who donated money to send us here. We know our adventures here are not finished yet, but this experience has already been LIFE-CHANGING! We just want to, once again, say "THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!" to all of our supporters back home! We would never be able to have these amazing adventures if it wasn't for you!!

Baby Haddie loves us now. Yay! lol.

After church, we spent the afternoon at the Project with the other missionaries. It was the perfect way to spend the first day of a Brand New Year!! We trust this year will bring us countless adventures and we cannot wait! Till then...

~Me and Her