The Vision Trip - Part 3

Welcome back to the continuing saga of our Threads of Hope Journey!

We began raising support for a trip to the Philippines to see if that was where God wanted us to be. One way to test God's will is to try to raise the funds through his prompting of other people, with no contribution on your own.

We initially set out to raise support for Jim and Will and I.  Ben was living in Tennessee at the time at Lighthouse Christian Camp doing an internship, so we weren't going to include him UNTIL we had enough funds raised for the three of us to go.  We were humbled and blessed by the amount of support that our church body and others sent to us to allow all four of us to go and see the people we would be serving if we went into the mission field.

With passports updated and visas obtained we set out for the Chicago area in three vehicles.  We parked two of them at the home of some of our Shaklee family and took the third one to the airport.
We met a gal who would travel with us at the airport.  Kelly was staying for three months.  While my guys were staying for 2 weeks and I was staying a month.

The first flight was very long. 13 hours. Will and Ben with their long legs were having a hard time sitting in those seats for so long.  We had a layover in Tokyo with a little time to stretch and get on the internet.  The next flight to Manila was around 4.5 hours, so much more tolerable.  I had a fever on the plane, so I couldn't wait to get back on the ground.

Chris and Alex met us at the airport and we all piled into the back of the brand new Kia van they had purchased for Threads of Hope.  Then the real fun began.  While driving to Faith Academy we were reminded how crazy it is to drive in some parts of the world.  I am very glad it was Alex driving and not me.  Manila driving reminded me a lot of Rome and Cairo.  In those places, the lines on the road mean absolutely nothing.  So a three lane road has four or more lanes of traffic.  Cars are driving on top of each other with cars a foot away from yours.  Rather insane.  Something that would be hard to get used to.

We all got to our sleeping destinations and turned in for the "night"? It looked like night outside, but our bodies were so mixed up we didn't know if we were coming or going.  But, tomorrow we go into Manila!

After broken sleep because we had traveled for 24 hours and we were in a time zone that is 13 hours different from our own, we got ourselves together to join Chris and Alex for breakfast and then to head to Divasoria.  No fever was going to keep me from missing this event.

All the Pretty Thread

Ben, Will, Kelly, Jim, Julie and Alex at the thread store.

Will and Ben looking at bracelets while Alex buy clips and rings.

Divasoria is a shopping area comprised of shanties, shops, wharehouses, and outdoor stands where you can buy anything imaginable.  Needless to say, the color of our skin and the height of my sons created some good entertainment for people.  It reminded me of our first day in England when we moved there.  Chris and Alex herded us through the shopping area with Alex at the front and Chris bringing up the rear to make sure all of her little chicks were safe and staying together.  We went to the thread store and purchase over 100 cases of thread that would be prepared for us while we did the rest of our shopping.  Next was the jewelry store where we purchased lanyard clips and key rings to bring to the island with us.

The day was completed by sitting around the pool and eating pizza.  All the comforts of home!  We were early to bed because we had to be on the road by 3 or 4 am to beat the traffic out of the city.  On to the island to see another kind of action.

Enough for now!  I'll be back with more pics and adventures.  Blessings to you!  See you later!