This week in the Philippines!

Hello everyone! It is a beautiful day in San Pablo City. It is rainy so it is not as hot now. This week has been busy but good. We are now teaching school everyday. We all teach 2 or 3 classes and aid in a classroom when we are not teaching. I aid in the 2nd grade classroom and teach high school speech 2 hours each week, high school Christian ed for 1 hour each week and 2nd grade Christian ed for 3 hours each week. We also have church services a few times a week, time for tudoring and lots of time for play.

The church, school, orphanage, and house are all connected around a center area that is used as a basketball court. The church is located on the 4th floor of one of the buildings. I think it is really cool that their church is on the 4th floor because it is one of the tallest building in the area. On friday nights when we gather for prayer service the sounds of the praise band ring out over the whole city. Talk about a light shining down on the whole city. However my favorite part of the service is when Ron Ron, RJ and Joseph got up in the middle of service and started playing air guitar, drums and singing. Those boys are so funny and are going to good musicians someday!

On Sunday afternoons we go to house churches in the surrounding areas. Last week Chelsea, Levi and I went to one in a town called Conception. As we were leaving Open Door I was asked to lead the adult bible study. I was terrified and completely unprepared but God was able to help me through it and we had a great bible study. On of the youth explained everything in tagalog for me and the one of the natives responded and shared a testimony.

The longer I am here the more I am learning about the kids and getting to know them. They are all different and special in there own ways. I feel like some days are spent playing thumb war over and over again but it is good. Here they play basketball like they play baseball in the Sandlot. The game never really ends or begins, it just keeps going. Everyone can play and it is never about who wins or loses just about playing the game. We were able to celebrate one birthday this week and will celebrate another on July first. Joy turned 14 and Joseph is turning 12!

I have so many things I wish I could share and will do so when I can or when I get home. In the beginning of July we will have a three day vacation so I may be able to update more then as well. Please keep us in your prayers! We have come into an amazing church family and God is doing many great things here.

Good bye!

Brittany

We are here!

We arrived in Manila at 5:35 am on Thursday and have been busy ever since! We met Ate Nenette at the airport and she brought us to Open Door. After the plane ride we were so tired that we all slept for 13 hours straight! Open Door is a very nice place. The kids are sweet and try so hard to teach us Tagalog. I do not know much yet but am learning quickly. Friday we spent the whole day with the kids. They love to play, play and play. There is always a basketball game going on. When not playing basketball the kids amuse themselves playing whatever game they can think of. They don't have toys. They try to teach us a game where they take rubber bands and straws and shot the straws very high in the sky. The older girls love to sing and know many of the same songs that we know. There favorite is How Great is our God.

Last night we were able to attend their prayer meeting. You will be surprised to know that they have a fun band, drums, guitars and all. They are very good. The service was hard to follow because it was in tagalog. The boy who was leading it tried very hard to translate it for us but speaks little english. The music is in english though. It was a very cool service.

This morning, we went to the market to hand out tracks. We handed out hundreds with a few of the children as our guides. The market was crazy but it was a fun experience. After going through the market we walked around one of the lakes and handed out tracks to the people you live on the side of the lake. Many of them live in just little shacks. We saw a monkey that tried to attach Ate Chelsea and all the locals laughed at the silly americans! It was an exhausting job but it was good to really see the city and surrounding areas and get a good sense of what it is like to live here.

Our rooms are very nice. I share a room with the 3 other nehemiah team girls and we have one bed and two sleep on the floor. We have an air conditioner which is really a blessing. The food is pretty good. The feed us more than we could ever eat.

Tomorrow we will celebrate the churches anniversary. The kids get to go swim for this event and they are extremely excited. On Tuesday classes start again and we will be working in the school.

Please continue to pray for us and the kids. The kids are well taking care of by the older kids they live with. Though they do not always seem to get much adult interaction. Pray for our team as some of my team mates are starting to really miss home. Pray for the heat, which we are not use to and makes us feel sick. Pray for the other nehemiah teams that are serving around the world. We are very safe here at open door but other teams are in much more dangerous places.

I love you all and will update again next saturday, which is going to be my day off!

Brittany

bye bye Ohio

Tomorrow I will leave Ohio for Alabama and next Tuesday I will leave for the Philippines.
I will miss you all! Please keep me, my family and the other Nehemiah team members in your prayers.

My Contact Information:

Brittany Bradshaw
c/o Open Door Baptist Church
P.O. Box 29
San Pablo City 4000
Philippines

Noel_06@ hotmail.com

The next time I write you will probably be from the Philippines!
Brittany