Beautiful Bohol

I had the priviledge of traveling a bit during my spring break. My first trip took me to the island of Bohol to visit some new friends, the Monungolh's (at right). They are a precious family and I really enjoyed spending time getting to know them. I have recieved email updates from Stacy Monungolh for a few years now after meeting her dad, a missionary rep for CrossWorld, at Liberty. Since I was in the Philippines, I figured I had to go and visit! Her dad is always telling me I need to go and teach for his daughter! In the past few years they opened a dayschool/preschool, and next year are expanding to elementary. They have such a ministry with these kids and their families! It's an amazing school! I would definitely consider returning to teach there in the future! I loved it that much! The school is on a lot with a church and a small Bible college. The whole place is full of joy and life! Please keep all these ministries in your prayers as they expand! Their biggest need right now is funds for the school and the church.

There is a ministry a short distance away that they thought I might enjoy, so they set up a day for me to go and hang out with these other missionaries. What a day it was! These three missionaries serve the small baranquay/village of Dojo by serving breakfast every morning to the children before school. With this comes a Bible story, songs, and an after school program with games, activities, songs, books, etc. This village was thought to be a squatter area, but is actually a very poor fishing village right on the coast. For some reason, breakfast is considered so important that parents will not send their kids to school unless they eat breakfast. Needless to say, in this poor area many kids weren't going to school. By providing breakfast every morning at 6:30am, they are giving kids not only food but an education. With a ministry like this, you can't exclude God! Every morning the kids, and lots of parents, hear a Bible story then in the afternoons get to play games, color Bible pictures, and check out books from the mobile library. The kids are precious and so full of life! It was a joy to spend time with them. You can pray for these families and the ministry. The culture is an animistic catholicism mixture, and there is often persecution for those associated with the missionaries. Pray that the priests will back down and allow the people to continue to come. Pray that the word of God will sink into the hearts of these kids and take hold of their lives.

I am so thankful for the opportunity to travel, see more of the Philippines, see more of the culture, and experience more ministries. It was such a blessing! I will never forget it!