The Next Generation

Psalm 78 has been a favorite psalm of mine since I first became a mom. Verses 1-7 are so precious . . . encouraging us to teach the next generation about what an awesome God we have, so that "each generation should set its hope anew on God."

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I've been thinking about this more and more since I am about to become a grandma. I am so, so, so excited to watch Jim and Michelle start the process with another generation. And I am sure that when December comes I will fill my blog with grandma posts.

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But this is not a grandma post, it's an auntie post. The sweet girl in this photo is Pristine Roxas, whom I have known since the day she was born. She is the daughter of our good friends Tom and Cynthia. I watched this baby learn to walk and talk. She calls me auntie, and I know her better than I know my own nieces and nephews.

Yesterday I watched her organize and pull off a surprise birthday party for her mom. (I told you we are really into birthday parties in this country!) It was all Pristine's idea, planned and executed with her fun-loving and creative spirit. Seeing the godly young woman that Pristine has become is a great joy.

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Sometimes walking with Jesus is hard. There are tears. It has been "granted to us to suffer for his sake" and I know that very well. But sometimes, Jesus lets us enjoy the sweet fruit of our labors. I love it when that happens!

The Land of Birthdays

The Philippines is the land of birthdays. This country loves celebrating! And everyone's birthday, every year, is a special day. In some other Asian countries, birthdays are not even noticed (to the extent that some of our students can't remember their own birth date without looking it up). But in the Philippines, you can be assured of lots of warm greetings, surprises, and special celebrations. Our other Asian students are quick to pick up this Filipino tradition, and celebrate with their whole hearts. With 200 students in our school, and about 50 faculty and staff, you can imagine that we party a lot.

In spite of the fact that I have been sick, I have already had two parties and I'm told there is another one coming. These photos are from my discipleship group celebration last Monday. Yesterday, the day of my birthday, one of our students personally cooked and served lunch for everyone in my office, just to make me feel special. I felt very special!

Doctors, Nurses, X-Rays, Pills

The last two weeks have been very MEDICAL for us. I, who rarely get sick, but spend half my life taking other people to the doctor. And James, who always eats right and exercises and never gets sick. I started first with a throat infection a few weeks ago, which never really went away and eventually settled in my lower respiratory tract. James started later with several days of unexplained fever. He ended up on Monday morning in the emergency room with severe pain from a urinary tract infection.

We have both gone through lots of tests and lots of medication, and there was a while there where our doctor feared that James had leptospirosis (a flood-related disease) and I had TB (which is very common in the Philippines). James was admitted to the hospital, and while he was a patient upstairs I had to keep running off for my own tests downstairs as an outpatient. In the end, we both had manageable infections and not the exotic diseases our doctor feared.

I am thanking God for our dear colleagues and dear students who helped us through all of this. We were the ones who were helpless and weak, and it was comforting to see that we had so many people to turn to. "Community" is a big thing at IGSL, and I am so glad for that!

This morning, we are at home, worn out and tired, but recuperating and hopeful. God is gracious.