Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

So it is that time of year. Christmas trees, Lights and caroling. But caroling is taken very seriously here in the Philippines. Every one goes caroling and they want, no not figgy pudding, but cash! We have enjoyed many joyous songs but not so much as this one couple's rendition of Feliz Navidad! So as the woman sings, "you wanna wish you a merry Christmas from the bottle of my heart!" Merry Christmas! And may God our Father in Heaven be Glorified this Holiday season!

Our first gift under the tree!

Yes this is what we have under our tree. No Joke! Our Land lord (new one) sent this to us for Christmas! So Now we know we are officialy in the Philippines for our first Christmas! I don't know what to do send a Thank you card or consider it as an insult?!?!?!?

TOP SECRET! We are giving them to the homless ministry at our church! Totaly a regift gift! Hey just for fun, let's confess all our regifts that other people have given us ( I don't want to know if you have regifted anything I gave you!) and then let's compare! I think I will win with this one but who knows?

Did I ever tell you how great Justin is?

Let me just say I am married to a most awesome guy! I told him about my blog telling you that I didn't have any pictures of my place and he told me "honey I took pictures of our place last week." I was so excited! So here is my house! Isn't it huge!!! I love it!

Here is our bedroom, the window gives us a great breeze! It is the smaller but the other room has too big of windows. So this it perfect!

Our kitchen, the door leads to the "maids room" but it's really a hall way so we use it for storage. I love the bar under the cabinets! We bought S hooks to hang everything from! Very useful!

I love that I can hang my mugs but the round sink is kind of lame. Justin did get a new faucet that is taller so that helps! Praise God for all the space!

This is our living room and dinning room all in one but heck it is bigger than our entire old place! So we think it will work!

This is our dinning area there nest to the balcony. And there is our Christmas tree and our photos of all our friends and family!

This is our entertainment center. Justin had built it for our old kitchen and now we keep all our stuff on it including more pictures and our games and just stuff! The door on the left lead to the spare room and my bathroom! I love having my own bathroom!

So next time you are in the neighborhood stop by and visit me! I am mastering the art of home made Tortillas and pie so you might get a treat when you come!

Back to funny!

Justin and I were at the hard ware store the other day and found this! Did you know that washing your butt was more important than your face? My mom forgot to tell me this interesting fact. Well I don't think she told me washing my face was more important, she always just told to wash everything! Well now that I am a grown woman I guess I should read up on things myself and get educated because I guess it is important. Please if any one knows of other great things your mother forgot to tell you about let me know because my mom may have forgotten too! Thanks a lot! And mom if you are reading this don't worry it's not your fault your mom most likly didn't tell you!

Faithfulness

so I have been here for seven months and seven days and all I can say is God is so Faithful! When I heard him calling me here so many years ago I thought to my self why is this taking so long? But God had a plan. I am here with Justin and he is so good for me! If had come sooner I would missing out on this great man who is teaching me so much! And when God told me to sell all I had I was excited until I had to part with all my vintage pyrex and my stone ware. I was cringing every time a lady would ask me to go down on the price for my treasured nick nacks at the garage sale. I even cried when we had moved out of our house and were staying with family and friends for the last two weeks in the US. But that all had a purpose, I have new cool stuff here that isn't vintage or even nice but it is cheap and I get to use it while living in the Philippines! And those last two weeks were great because we were able to visit and spend quality time with people we love before moving here.
I am so amazed at how God plans things out for me. He knows me even better than I know myself. I find out information and get all bent out of shape and then when it is all said and done I am so glad it worked out the way it did, and God knew that it would! I am learning to look at my circustances with a differant perspective. I know how hold the world in his hands and nothing I face hasn't gone past his sign of aprovale frist. He is right here and will guide me and direct me and I can trust him!
It took me moving around the world to get so many things I never could quit grasp and I am so greatful to all the suporters who are ultimitly paying my way to be here and I get to study God's word every day and I get to share His love with kids and people who need it so badly. I am overwhelmed by HIS FAITHFULNESS!
I hope that as you go through your day weather it is going to work or changing dypers, or just checking your mail that you can step back for just a moment and think of all the times God has been faithfull to you and realize that he has a plan for your life too! Praise Him Thank him and Let's Honor Him for he is Faithful.
erin:)

good news/bad news/ beauty/ashes

Well what do want first? let's see I always like the bad first to get it over with so her it goes.
Our camera broke before I could take any pictures of our new place to post and we can't get a new one before we go back to the states so you don't get to see my new place :( so sad I know!
Well the good news is Granny and Uncle Chet are giving us enough money for our birthdays and Christmas to get a nice new one! A real one not a point and shoot but one that has lenses and options! We are so blessed! For those of you who don't know Granny and Uncle Chet, Let me explain trust me it sounds crazier than it is but here it goes, Justin's dad's mom married Justin's mom's uncle and well they only got married three years ago so Uncle Chet will always be Uncle to us and Granny will always be Granny! We love them both very much and have been greatly blessed by their generosity and God seems to always have them helping us when a camera is in need. The last time we got a new camera from them it just so happened that our old one had taken a trip to the Philippines with us in December of 2005 and when our paddle boat was sabotaged by our missionary friend the camera took a swim and died. So God knew what we needed at just the right time! God is good and Granny and Uncle Chet are great too!
So I have one other good news, since this story is about the new house and all. You see we were content in our nice little studio when our land lady (who is sick with Cancer) told us she was selling the condo. We were bumbed!!! But we knew God had a plan. We were able to stay in our same building, Praise God, and only had to move down stairs to floor 7. We checked out the only available unit in the place and wow is it big! It is a two bed rooms and three CR's (comfort rooms) yes three bathrooms!!! A lovely kitchen and a huge living and dinning area! We have three balconies and it is a corner unit so we get the nicest breeze that blows through the place! Which leads me to yet more good news! We were sad to leave the studio because we figured it was cheaper to keep cool but with the awesome ventilation we don't even need to use the fan half the time, let alone the AC. So in what we had to pay extra in rent we will gain back in electricity and with the big windows we don't use the lights except at night! We are so grateful to God for such provisions. We now have space to have visitors and we were able to buy a table and two chairs so we don't have to eat on the floor any more! I can't say enough about how great God is to us! He has brought us here and given us a place to stay that is wonderful. He has provided money for schooling. He has given us people to minister to and well he has blessed us with people back home who are praying for us and supporting us. We thank him every day for the goodness he has showered on us. Not a day goes by that I am not reminded that I have so much! We see people who have nothing and we can buy them lunch, but sharing the Gospel with them is the most important thing that we can do and we are free to do it! We have all we need to be able to live here and not have to work at a job and just go out and talk to people! I amazed at the opportunities we are given. Thank you God for this time in my life where I can study your word and share your love with these people who need you! Praise God for he is Worthy! He can take ashes like me and make them beautiful. He is mighty!

Thanksgiving!

I want to tell you of all the things that I am thankful for but well it would take a life time so I will tell of some of the things I am extra thankful for today!
Jesus my Savior, for if he had not come to save me I would be lost with out a hope or a future.
God my father, for he created me to be in relationship with him and he gave my life a purpose.
God the Holy Spirit, for he has the task of convicting me and changing my ways and what a hard job he has any yet he continues to fill me and encourage me every day.
Justin, for he loves me the way I need him too. He helps me where I am weak and allows me to see his true self. He make me laugh and is a constant encourager. he know everything about me and yet still calls me beautiful and tells me he loves me.
Family, for they are always there for me no matter what. I have two great families. One on my side and one on Justin's side. Even though we are far away they write to us, they call us, some of them even travel thousands of miles to visit us. They are our prayer warriors, they are our advocates to those in the states. They support us in so many ways. We are Blessed to have them.
Friends, for they stay faithful to us even when we are far away. They encourage us through letters and pictures that remind us that we still matter to them. We know that living far away is tough on friendships but we have great friends that stick it out.
Those were my top 6 they are what I am blessed with and could not live with out!


These are just for fun!

Canned food!!! This may sound nasty to some of you but canned food made my Thanksgiving PERFECT! Here are just a few things I made with canned food! you might agree!

Pumpkin Pie! You can't have Thanksgiving with it!
Canned food: Pumpkin mix, evaporated milk

Cranberry sauce, this turned out to be the best part of our meal. Our Iranian dinner guests LOVED it!
Canned food: all of it!

Cherry Pie! It just tastes good! So we thought "why not!"
Canned food: Cherry pie filling

Let's just say my Thanksgiving would not be complete with out green bean casarole! Yumm!
Canned items: green beans, cream of mushroom soup, french fried onions



This years Holidays won't be the same but they will be memorable! This was our first year to make Thanksgiving dinner all by ourselves, and we thought it was "masarap" delicious! We are very thankful that God has blessed us so much here! Only a few years ago you could not get these what we would consider staple items but now you can! God is good!!! Thank you God for giving us life and for blessing us with so many things! You are a loving God who gives to his children so graciously!

We pray that your Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours. May this be a reminder to all of us that we need to give thanks in ALL circustances for this is God's will for us in Christ Jesus!

Cute Girly Girls!

What can you say to a girls who is this cute? Now don't' get me wrong I love little boys, I want five of them but this little princess is one of my favorites here is the Philippines! She is all about PINK just like me! But this girl is high maintenance! When we step out side she says " my shades my shades!" and when we are looking at stuff she can pick out a pink princess item from a mile away! She is a singer too. We are shopping for Christmas decorations and as we were walking she was singing as loud as she could Christmas carols. every one was looking at her but she didn't care! And when we hears a song she likes she breaks out in dance. I love her this little girl, she makes me laugh! She is smart too. When I am working on my Tagalog she will answer what I say with "that is a Tagalog word." or that means tree in English. Kids are amazing. they are little sponges! I can't wait to have a little girl to dress up and play with! In God's perfect timing! So for now I get to enjoy my Friend's kids! thanks for playing with me Becca!

My Big younger Brother

This is my brother, well this me and Justin and my Big Brother. I love this guy! He and I have become much closer these past two years. We love hanging out with Justin of course and Tim too! He is a Awesome guy. When ever we need any thing he is there to help. When we needed help when we had three little boys form the Philippines and they were getting car sick he was there to wipe up the mess. When our friend needed a ride from LAX he was there to pick him up! When we to move for the sixth time and have no one to help he is ther with him truch full of gas ready to load us up on his trailer. We didn't get along well as children but God changed Brian's heart first. Brian was the one who showed me who Jesus is. He was the first one to show me how Christians need to live. He also has showed me what in means to love someone unconditionaly. He has been through so much in his life and I see how he is being changed by our maker. God is growing him up. He has become our faithful friend. We can count on him to hang out, to make us laugh and to eat our dinner even when I burn it. I am so glad to have him as my brother, on my team, look at him he's as tall as Goliath trust me you'd want him on your team too!

Amazing God!

I am always amazed at how God does things. The other day Justin was looking at our blog site and then he randomly pressed the tab that reads next blog and up poped a blog named the crazy life of the preachers wife and I was intreged. I had him save it for me and was able to read it the next day. Well it turns out she is my age and her husband is a pastor of a Souther Baptist affiliated church! CRAZY huh? well then as I read on I realized she had just started to blog and I was getting in at the beginning of her story telling! What I have found these past few weeks is a new Sister in Christ. Well not a new sister but a new found sister! I am encouraged by her entries and find myself thankiong God for this meeting. It seems random to us but I know God had planed it all out. He amazes me every day!
So to all my avid readers meet my new found friend Whitney! This is a Pictur of her and her husband Shawn. And to Whitney thanks for living your life for Christ I am blessed by you! I pray that some day we might be able to meet face to face! Lord willing!

The Christmas tree!

We got our tree last week. It is small and decorated with white lights and red rick rack. It is perfect because it is mounted on a small block of real pine tree wood, perfect for our family tradition! God is so good!
FYI, we were told yesturday that we have to move out of our place. We know God will provide us a new place and we are excited to see where that will be. Please pray that God would open doors for us to find a place afordable and close to our existing place. God's Will.

Best friends forever totoo(true)

This not just a picture of me with Greta, Ben and my brother Brian dressed for Halloween this is a picture of four friends that have been friends forever! We have shared everything from Chicken pox, to mission trips to Dilivery room photo shoots. We have been together since the 70's OK so the late 70's but heck it's almost 30 years. That is a long time!!! Back then seat belts were not a requirement, sitting silent at church during the entire service at the age of 7 was. We have had good times and fun times as well as bad times and hard times. It seems like yesterday we were playing crawl tag and now Greta has been married for who knows how long, she has three kids and is wonder woman, martha stewart and Ester all wrapped up in one awesome momma! Ben is a professional, we don't what kind, but he always looks professional. He is the only one of us who owns his own home! Brian has one little boy and has a good job making good money. He has truly turned his life over to the Lord and has become a guy I really like! I am the wild horse of the group. I have been married to a tattooed man for six years, we live in the Philippines and cook with nothing but a toaster oven and a hot plate every day. We are each so different but we are connected because we are friends. because I live so far away I haven't seen any of them in person for at least six months, Brian and Ben went to Puerto Rico together last summer. Justin and I loved spending time with Greta's family before we moved. We are now blogging friends and are closer than ever! God brought us together so many years ago and he has pulled us through so many things! I am so grateful to him for my true best friends!

New friends for Justin!

So Justin has always been the type to have one or two really good friends and doesn't likes to commit himself to those who he really values. I am the opposite. I have twenty friends who know everything about me and probably more than they would like. I am a open book! I do have those whom I tend to gravitate towards more, but any one willing to talk to me is my new friend! Well for some strange reason Justin is the hip and happening guy here and he seems to find the neatest people! This first guy is Ed that is short for Edgar. Justin met him first at a men's discipleship group, but we didn't start to hand out until my friend from Dumaguete (the place I live when I was here before) introduced us. We found out that he lives just down the street from us. We now have a standing date with him every Sunday night LATE. We get together at about 9:30 PM and we talk or watch movies or go to Dunkin Doughnuts and what else eat doughnuts! We have even gone out and taken books and just read together at a coffee house. We love Ed! He is single and young and has a scooter! But the Best part about is is that he LOVES the LORD! He is a passionate guy! He met Jesus and can't wait to tell everyone else about Him too! We are always encouraged after spending time with Ed!

This is who we call Justin's new Best Friend! His name is Richmond he is 12 and Justin spends most of his free time at Richmond's house. Richmond is an only child, he has a mother and father who work alot and a Lola (grandmother) who takes care of him all the time. Richmond looks like a typical 12 year old in the states with his baggy jeans, checkered belt and cell phone lanyard, black DC shoes and a name brand hat. Any way, Justin loves spending time with him. I found out why, Richmond also has a Nintendo Wii. Need I say more! Richmond's parents are also great. When I have women's Bible study they take Justin to the mall, out to eat, to thyme parks! They really like Justin. And he really likes them! They make him feel like he is 12 again and who didn't love being 12? Richmond also attends our Tuesday night Bible study at our condo and is learning the truth's about God's love! We love spending time with this guy well because we do!

This is Farshid, He is the only Iranian we know and have fun with. He is 19 and is going to school to be a Dentist. He has some crazy ideas but we are praying that God will use us to share the Truth of Jesus with him. We met him about three months ago, he lives exactly two floors up from us. We went out to eat with him and another Persian guy. the food wasn't very good but the company was great! We talked about all our differences and found that we are more alike than you might imagine. We disagree on many things but our lives and stories are very similar. Any way we had him over one night and we gave him a fruit roll up and told him he had to get a tattoo on his tongue, he loved it! Please pray as we continue to share the Gospel with him! Nothing is impossible with God!

Christmas will not be the same!

Christmas is always a special time of year for us. There is only the two of us but thanks to our good friends the Eskirdges we have lots of fun traditions! They started us off with the "Christmas mug" tradition, collecting mugs that would and could only be used at Christmas time. That being our first Christmas as a married couple, and our friends impressing on us the importance of family traditions we felt the need to start our own family tradition. We thought long and hard on this and came up with nothing. We were watching our Christmas tree get a fresh cut off the bottom at the Home Depot when Justin said why not have them cut an extra slice off the stump and we'll keep it? I of course had to add my two cents and add decorating it and using it as a ornament! So we have five little slices for every year we have been a family and have decorated them with sharpies. Well now that we live in the Philippines and being this is a tropical island we have found there to be a shortage of live Christmas tree farms, well the truth is there is NO Christmas tree farms any where! We have been able to find fake Christmas tree all over, let me remind you the Philippines never had Pilgrims or Indians so they do not celebrate Thanksgiving and seeing they have only two seasons, wet and dry, there is no Fall, So we have found Christmas coming upon us quite a bit sooner than we had expected, September 1 to be exact! So every kind of fake tree has been found and it's only Nov.15 but NO pine tree stumps to be had! Until now!!! You see for my Birthday party we took a few of our friends to a mall and celebrated at Starbucks! While on our way we walked through a department store and found the coolest fake green glitter wire tree but that wasn't the BEST part! this fake wired glittered tree was mounted on a thick slice of REAL PINE TREE!!! The LORD does give us the desires of our hearts even the crazy family tradition desires! The price is right too only 165.00 P the P stands for peso and that is equal to about $4.00 US!! Praise the LORD!!!! We won't have to have a bright RED tree after all!

The casual life.

As most of you know I am a very casual dresser. I love to get dressed up but only for special occasions and not on a regular basis.



I love jeans and a T- shirt or a cute skirt with a tank top but Easter Sunday is always a day I dread because every one expects you to look so springy and dressed up. Well The reason I bring this up is because I am so sure that God has called me here, and now I am realizing why he made me so casual.



This will be our new church when we move. It is concrete with a nipa roof. Trust me when I say this is a up grade from before. It used to be a low tarp with pews made of a two by four held up by two sacks of dirt. Now we have chairs! And the the walls have windows so the breeze comes through nicely.



Very simple! I love it! Most people here don't even have dressy cloths so I won't ever have to hastle over that again. You see to get to this church we will first take a 15 Minute boat ride then a half hour hike and after all that I am a sweaty mess and beet red! Well needless to say I am right at home here.

A picture is worth a thousand words, here's my Birthday novel!

What we do for vanity?

So we women do everything we can to get rid of hair. We wax, we shave, we laser, we bleach, we pluck but in all my years i have never tried to remove eye brows of all things with a box cutter. I guess it is a big thing here. While watching my friends groom eachother in this way I was wondering what do you say to this? What do I say when they ask if I want them to do mine? And how will explain to them how crazy this looks to me? So I started out with "Why don't you pluck those thigs out? It lasts longer!" the answer, " That would hurt!" So they sort of shave it off with a box cutter blade. They of course then asked, "do want us to do yours?" I said Oh that's ok I plucked mine yesterday. Well while watching them shape with such care I noticed that they all have leg and toe hair ever so noticably peeking out from under skirts and pants, and it made me wonder if they ever thought to cut it off. They always comment on my leg hair how thick it is and that it wouldn't be that bad if I had not shaved it the first time. I then had to explain that even as a young girl my leg hair was darker than some men's, forcing me to shave it off at the ripe age of 15. So getting into it I then ask about arm pit hair and there responce, to my amazment, "we pluck it out of course!" Well what could I say to that I pluck my eyebrows!

God's Blessings

Pastor Lito and his wife, Cecile are two of the most amazing people I know! They have three children and two foster children. They live above the chruch in a humble home. Cecile is my mentor. She loves the Lord, her husband and her children. She is an amazing cook, very resourceful, always a cheerful giver, she is smart, makes great coffee and is just plain fun to be with. She is always finding cheeper and better ways of doing things. She homschools all five kids from ages 12 to 5. She teaches Bible studies and is invaulable to me as a missionary here. She is a prayer warrior and a servant to Christ. I love spending time with her. She teaches me something new ever day, and is always pointing me to Christ. The more I learn about her life as a child I am amazed at how god used her life in the past to shape her into the Godly woman she is today. She did not grow up in a christian home. she was sent to her aunt's home to live when she was very young maybe 6 or 7. There she was forced to do all the chores from cooking to cleaning, she would hike to the well to do the laundry for the family early in the morning before school and was put right to work after school was over. She worked very hard and studied harder and was able to graduate from college. She was introduced to Jesus in college and started Bible studies on campus. the Lord brought many young women to these studies and I am amazed to see that most of them attend and are leaders in the church still to this day! God can do such great things with those who are weak. We have only to surender our lives to him. Thank you Lord for putting such a blessing in my life as Cecile.


This is Kuya Albert and his wife, Teem. Albert is an elder in our church and they have three children who are also homeschooled. They are our kindsman redemers. When ever we need anything it seems that only Albert can help, he is a bussnessman, and always informative and helpful. We needed to fax our votes who was there Albert, we need a lift home from church who is there Albert, We need good healthy rice Teem os ther to find the best and most aforable. They are always blessing us in one way or another. We are surrounded by so many people that help us here in Manila and we are greatful to God for their friendships.

My Knight in plastic armor!

For those out there who don't know this amazing guy, His name is Justin. He is the reality in my life. He tells me like it is. He never plays along with me when I want him to to be funny with me in public. He rarely does it at home, he does laugh at me when I break out it dancing and silliness and those are the times I love him the most! Every once in a while he will be funny himself, only when he thinks of it and he wants to be! So this day I am not sure what he was thinking but it made me laugh so hard! I think some times he thinks he is too serious and at those moments he does something like this just to prove he's funny! Last night he was in rare form, we were pillow talking and he started to use a Australian accent and well I was done for he had me laughing so bad I almost pasted out from not being able to breath. So Justin I love you!

LICE or in tagalog LISA

I have now had lice twice as an adult! What can I say I am a buffet for them! Praise the Lord I was able to get rid of them within two days this time. Last time they grew to be the size of small pintcher bugs. These were combed out by my fearless husband! Way to go Justin!

My sunglasses secret life

I was so excited to get a new pair of sunglasses! I had been waring my glasses until we moved here and because of the exstreme hummidity they kept sliding down my face and I seemed to be dripping with sweat from my face so I started to wear my contact lenses. this was going great, now I could easly wipe the sweat from my face with out having to remove my glassses. Well incase you did not know we frequetly ride on Jeepneys here and the roads being very dirty I found myself getting junk in my eyes all the time! Leaving me with one option, buy a pair of SUNGLASSES!

Well after showing off my new shades I found out that Filipinos LOVE sun glasses! I decided to alow my sunglasses to have a life out side of me and this is what happened! These are a few of my friends that are new friends of my sunglasses.

What do you get when you have cards and lipstick? FUN!!

We have enjoyed all our visits to the Island of Santicon but this trip was extra fun for me because I took with me some playing cards and taught my friends the game all fallowers of Christ should know, SCUM! Then of course the Filipino's had to modify the rules a little buy adding that if you become SCUM! you then also recieved a larg marking on your face with lipstick! I was amazed that even the boys were game for this silly game. I told them that in the states no boy would ever agree to this kind of rule. I found out that insterad of lipstick they usually use charcoal, I was glad for the lipstick!
We also taught them to play spoons, we used stir sticks instead and went back and forth from the lound yelling way of playing to the silent passing of the cards method. Then of course in Filipino way we added the lipstick and needless to say we turned into clowns!

NO PARKING? so I can park here!

So this is one of the crazy things you see here, a firmly parked SUV on a NO PARKING sign. That is one of things I just have to laugh at!

welcome to my crazy world!

So I am Erin and I am currently living in Manila, Philippines. I have been here for six months so far and have done a terrible job of documenting my adventures and have decided to start! So here it goes! I Hope you have fun reading about my crazy life.