Christmas and New Years in the Philippines

Ahhh, the "ber" months. In the Philippines we celebrate Christmas during the "ber" months. The "ber" months are about to come to an end here in just a few hours. Please don't get confused with the "brrrrrrr" you might be thinking of, as you are snuggled up in your cozy sweater, adding another log to your fire, and sipping hot chocolate. No, the "ber" I am talking about has to do with the names of the months...September, October, November, and December. Christmas music and decorations begin the first day of September, and continue through the end of December. Today as I was in the grocery store, listening to Christmas music, I thought to myself, "hmmm, the next time I'm here, there probably won't be Christmas music any more." Considering the fact that we've been in the Philippines now for six months, two-thirds of that time has been blanketed with Christmas music. Interesting. It just might seem like a different place :)

As I am writing this, there is already a kacauphany of booms and pops going off in the surrounding neighborhood. The main street outside of our subdivision has been lined with fire-work stands and the traffic has come to an almost standstill due to the throngs of people purchasing fire works. Those of us who are accustomed to fire-works being illegal are really enjoying the opportunity arrising tonight. Actually, since about the 20th of December, there have been numerous fire-crackers sounding in the distance. At first, it is a little unsettling, and then you just get used to the continuous booming. If you are lucky, and look up at just the right time, you will actually get to enjoy the experience. Usually, we are too late...the smoke is there, but the twinkle of the lights is finished.

Tonight we will go up to the school, which overlooks the city, and enjoy the sights and sounds of so many people welcoming in the new year. We too will accompany the multitude of people in decorating the sky with twinkling explosives :) There are certain guidelines and rules that the school has imposed, and we are grateful for those guidelines. The school has opened up the soccer field for use as a platform to let off fire-works. We are looking forward to this fun show!

We spent our Christmas time with as many people as we could be around, so that the sting of being so far away from our loved ones would be a bit neutralized. However, no matter what we tried, there is a hole that simply cannot be filled. However, we did have many wonderful times of celebration, and boy do these people love to celebrate the holidays! We spent the three days leading up to Christmas with one of the gals from the school staying with us. She was spending her first Christmas away from family, and we thought she might like the crazy Zane household, since our family is the same size as hers. Then on Christmas Day, we enjoyed our morning together as our little nucleus family, and in the afternoon, another family who were spending their first Christmas away from home came to join us for Christmas Dinner.

The day after Christmas, we left the city with another family, the Taylors, and headed up into the mountains to excape the heat. The weather was wonderful and we actually got to build a fire in the fire-place. Wow! It was fun. We did some sight seeing in the town, and just enjoyed the time together. The two highlights for me was when we visited the Easter Weaving Company. This is a place where women continue to weave cloth in the old traditional fassion. It was fascinating to see how complicated, yet how simple it was to them. The other highlight to me was when we let the kids go horseback riding. I am certain that the picture you have in your mind of our kids going horse back riding is completely different than it actually was. However, they had a really great time doing this, and we have fun stories to tell about it.

Here are two links to some slide shows of the Easter Weaving and the horses....

http://picasaweb.google.com/zaneyconnections/EasterWeavingBaguio

http://picasaweb.google.com/zaneyconnections/HorsebackRidingInBaguio

As the new year is closing in on us, I can't help but wonder what the Lord has in store for us this coming year. This past year has taken us to so many different places, with so many different adventures. Please be praying for us as we really try to dive into individual relationships with the people here. I have approached one woman about doing a bible study with me, and really want the Lord to either open that door, or close it. She has very limited English, and of course my Tagalog is even more limited. I have an audio Bible in Tagalog, and we can just use the scripture and invite the Holy Spirit to interceede and to do his wonderful works.

Thank you once again for all you have done to make it possible for us to be here. I have been so appreciative of the way our Church organization has made it possible for missionaries to be out on the field. Sometimes I hear the struggle of people who are raising their support individually, and I am just so thankful for our Nazarene Churches who love and support their missionaries.

We pray that you have had a very blessed Christmas Season, and will enjoy the closing of the year 2007, and welcome all that the Lord has in store for the new year, 2008. May God bless you in ways you have never experienced. May his presence become more real to you, and may you fall deeper and deeper in love with the Savior who came to the earth as a babe so many years ago.

Happy New Year!!!!

A Few Stories

We have been privileged to hear some wonderful stories recently and I want you to have the pleasure of hearing them...



Winston was a school mate of Sam. After Sam's father was in a fatal accident that put Sam in a coma for a short time and seriously wounded, Sam recommitted his life to serving Jesus Christ. Winston saw the new life that Sam had been given and committed his life to serving Jesus Christ. Winston's family were not believers and Winston began diligently praying for his family. This was 1999. After a time, Winston got the pleasure of leading three of his cousins to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. Those three cousins also began praying for the unsaved members of their family. After a time, all three of those cousins got to experience the joy of watching their mothers (three separate ladies) accept Jesus Christ as their saviour. One of these three girls started running a "cell group" or small group Bible study at her college. That group is now running approximately 60 college students. Most recently, one of the girls mothers watched as her alcoholic husband requested, on his birthday, to not have any party, but to have the Pastor over to help invite Jesus Christ to be Lord and Master. Please pray for these wonderful people. they love the Lord with all their heart, and they are truly contagious Christians.


The Band that plays for Taytay First Church recently participated in a National Band Competition. They competed with people from all over the Philippines, from all walks of life and all sorts of religious beliefs. The band decided it was a perfect opportunity to witness and performed a song with an evangelical message. When the competition was at it's final moment, the judges awarded our band with the national title and stated that they were not only a great band, but that they were the only group that had lyrics that had a message. In March, the band will travel outside of the Philippines to compete in another competition seeking the title covering all of Asia. What an incredible testimony each one of these guys have.

Interesting Needless Information

I just thought you might enjoy some trivia. Along the roads/streets, there are numerous "billboards" as in the States. However, these billboards are much larger, and they are actually tarpaulins. Here is the trivia, when a typhoon threatens, they take them all down. I thought it was quite interesting. Here are two pictures...one with the tarpaulins up and one with them down :)

Whew...City life is CRAZY!!!

The last time I wrote was before thanksgiving. We've done quite a bit in the last couple weeks!

Jon had a very fun Thanksgiving feast at school with both 1st and 2nd grade together. They all dressed up as either Indians or pilgrims. The kids all put on a brief skit (1st grade) and Jon's class recited a poem. Then, Jon got the privilege of reading scripture to all of us. Then each child had prepared previously, something they were thankful for, and one by one, each child went up to the microphone and told us what they were thankful for. Jon said, "I am thankful that we came to Manila because I have such great friends."

We celebrated Thanksgiving with several other families associated with Faith Academy on Thanksgiving Day. We had a really nice time...turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, pumpkin pie, apple pie... :) We missed the Green Bean Casserole though :) Then on Saturday afternoon, we celebrated with all the Nazarene Missionaries. It was a wonderful time! More of all that wonderful food...including Green Bean Casserole :) We met at one of our homes and it was decorated so nice...twinkle lights, lots of harvest vegetables for decoration...great fellowship and such a pleasant night, gathering together in thanksgiving.

Saturday morning, we took Andy to his first rugby tournament. The weather was a little "iffy." We were being teased by a typhoon that was just sitting off the shore, twirling away, gaining strength. However, it sat there long enough to change it's course, and it headed north and didn't interrupt the rugby! The boys were all quite happy. Andy's team played four games that morning. They were nice and dirty, and a bit on the tired side when it was finished. They did well, and learned a lot!

Luke was involved in the middle school Band and Choir Concert. Luke is not in either of those, but he is in beginning guitar, and the guitar classes also performed in this special occasion. They all did really wonderful!

We took an afternoon and headed down town to get fingerprinted for part of our visa process. This was a rather long event, mostly because of traffic. We left our house at 11:30 in order to get downtown for our 2:30 appointment. We grabbed some lunch on the way, and got there just before 3:00. They took us in and we were completed by 4:30. Fortunately we went through the process with someone directing us because it would have been completely overwhelming without her! We came home a different direction because the we were going to get caught in rush-hour traffic. We did not escape it, but we did go via several areas we had never been before. We finally made it home by 9:00 pm. It was a really long, slow drive home.

One of the areas we went by was the "Smokey Mountain Project" Area. These people used to live in the area of Manila's largest dump site, rummaging, and doing what ever necessary to live, day to day. The government, along with Asian Development Bank came in and built places for these people to live, rather than the squatter homes they build on their own. We drove by both the dump and the housing project. The people have been living there for several years now, and they have added on and made their "apartments" even larger by building on to the sides. Take a look. If you are interested in more info on this, just put in "Smokey Mountain Remediation Project" into your search engine. It is an amazing thing. Jon's class is collecting items to give to (just a fraction) of these kids for Christmas. There are an estimated 50,000 people currently living in this area.

Jon's class put on a "Christmas Chapel" and we got to go to that. It is so fun how many opportunities our kids have here at this school.

This weekend we went to another set of games for Andy. It is really amazing the schools we have gone to so far. They are way beyond any high school I have ever set foot on. The only two schools we have been at so far have been international schools. They will also play a military school down south. There are a couple other schools, but I don't know much about them...yet :) This particular field is an AstroTurf field. Andy's cleats actually came home clean instead of muddy!

We've also successfully decorated our house for Christmas! I had to get the fan in the room and get the sweat off my brow as I was putting up the fake Christmas tree. It was pretty funny. I decided it was very similar to putting up the tree with too much wood in the fire place. Anyway, we are enjoying all the festivities that the season has to offer. It seems like we've already had plenty of Christmas celebrations, but there are several more yet to come :)

We love you!!! Thanks for visiting our site!!

Crisis Care Kits

There were some very helpful folks in Redding who gave money for Crisis Care Kits (CCK) to be shipped to Manila in our container. We unloaded them and put them in a storage room. A few days later, the District Superintendent from the Bicol area came and loaded up several of the kits to take home. Just this past week, the Bicol area was hit by two different typhoons. They were not near as devastating as the typhoon that devastated the area last December, but it is good to know that thanks to many of you from Redding, and all of you who donate CCKs, they have the resources available to pass out.

If you are reading this in an email, you can (hopefully) click on this link and you can watch the slide show. Otherwise, the slide show can be watched right on this blog page :)

http://picasaweb.google.com/zaneyconnections/20070928CrisisCareKits

Thanks to everyone who has ever participated in CCK!!!

Mari in the Mirror

Mari found a friend in my room the other day :) She came in and climbed up the little step ladder that was sitting right in front of the mirror. She was pleasantly surprised to find a beautiful little girl staring right back at her. I wanted to share the moment with you...and show you her cute new hair doo.

Foot Spa!

Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news of peace and salvation, the news that the God of Israel reigns!"

Thanks for allowing us to be here! Thanks for letting us be the ones to come here and experience God at work! Even amongst the homesickness and culture shock, it is such a privilege to be here as missionaries, doing that which God has called us to. It really amazes me that God has brought us to this place, for such a time as this!

We recently got the privilege of going on missionary retreat with all of the team here. Some of the kids we hadn't even met yet. We went to a resort on the beach for three days. We got to have meals together, swim together, snorkel together, laugh together, cry together, pray together and have communion together. This was the first time the team here has joined all together for such an event. Saturday night we had a blessed time together, praying for one another, lifting up the work here, and praying for the souls of those who have not yet met Jesus.

The work of APRC has just been bustling! The first contracted project has just about been completed. Our first project was to call all the Nazarene Mission International (NMI) presidents stateside, using voice-over-internet-phones to heighten awareness of Nazarene Compassionate Ministries (NMC)...sorry, that's a lot of acronyms in one paragraph :) There were five employees calling from Manila to all 4900+ NMI presidents in the states. All five of the employees took opportunities to pray with each president, and after just a few phone calls, all of them were reporting how exciting it was to pray for these individuals in their work involving missions. Wow! There are some other projects in the beginning stages that will all be internationally done. It is really exciting days for APRC. Please pray for continued guidance as we look to find the right people to be doing the contracted work. Growth is always challenging, and the team that has been involved from the ground up are really feeling the stretching. It is exciting to see God at work, orchestrating the work coming together with the correct people to put into these places.

Andy tried out for the Rugby team last week, and was selected to be on the team. I think one of the coolest things that happened is that the week he had try-outs, the rest of us were home sick with the flue. God protected him from getting it, allowing him to be at every try-out practice. He is learning about balancing a crazy schedule with added practice and games. His first game will be on the 24th of November. We are looking forward to going and being the fan section :)

Today we went to the feeding program that was supposed to be at our church, and when we rolled in, noticing the lack of people there, we were told that it was at another site today. We quickly conferenced about changing our plans and headed to the other church with the group. The village we headed to is know as a "relocation" village. The residents are all people who used to be "squatters" (one who just claims some land and begins to live there, despite true ownership) and the government established specific locations where these individuals could buy land for a very minimal cost. It is a great thing for the high number of squatters here. The road in was rather muddy. The pastor joked before we headed in that if we got stuck, the kids could all push us out of the mud.

As we arrived, the sound of children's voices reciting scripture in Tagalog, erupted out of the windows of the church building residing behind the fence. There was a big banner across the front that said "Church of the Nazarene." As we came up to the door, 200 plus little pairs of shoes sat outside the door, their inhabitants inside the church. We proceeded into the church and there, 240 little faces looked up at us from their places on the floor. They sit there every Saturday, getting fed scripture and then getting fed rice and some sort of vegetable dish. You might be thinking...rice Christians...I don't know. What I do know is that these precious little children are getting fed the bread of life! They are there getting their precious "feet" cared for, so that they can go out and spread the good news to those back in their little houses. The children meet the Lord, and become little missionaries in their own place. They come to the church for a little "foot spa" so they can march out and continue the work into the places we can't go.

For one particular little girl, Mary Grace, she no longer needs to come get a foot spa. She used to come regularly. She used to get her "feet" cared for and she would go out and about, sharing what she learned. About one month ago, she went out for her last time, to the wrong place, and was killed. Mary Grace is with Jesus now, and I'm sure her feet are truly beautiful!

I want my feet to be beautiful. I want to share the Good News! How are your feet today? Maybe it's time for a spiritual "foot spa."