Tanza Projects and not much rain finally!

The last few days we finished working out at Tanza. On Thursday and Friday we actually had some ok weather, thank you to all of you who have prayed for us to have good weather. It only rained a few times for a few short minutes on these days!!
It really makes my heart ache when I see how these people live and how little they have. So many of them are just stuck where they are at, both in their living conditions and financial standings. They live too far away from the city to have a job in the city and all of the business are small little shops run by a family. As Dave, the guy we have been working with at Tanza, puts it “They are just stuck, they have a very small chance of getting out.” It costs to much money for them to get into town and would be hard for them to even get enough money to go into the city to find a job. If they would some how get a job in the city they would not get paid enough money to cover the travel expenses of going into town and back.
We were able to get the tower of the water tower done. They are still looking for a pump for the tower so the tank is not attached yet(in the picture the tank is up but it was only up for some building purposes, it will hopefully be up for good in the next week or two). We were able to basically build a home for a lady and her children. She was getting kicked out of her current home and was moving next door to where the neighbors had been keeping their chickens with just a wall and a half. We put up a few more walls and a roof for her. We also were able to put in a walk way across the stream in the neighborhood. Thanks to Josh, James, and Michael for coming out to help us this week so that we were able to get these projects done. Another project that we got the chance to help with, more financially than anything, was they building of a trench behind the building where a future Medical Clinic will be held. The building had been getting inches of water into it when it rains. The water from up the mountain would run down into the building and it just sits in there. We did not work a lot on this project but because of the money we raised, THANKS TO YOU ALL, we were able to fund the project.
It has been a very trying time for us here. We have gone through struggles with the culture, with the weather, with the people here, with each other, and with our bodies been worn out but more then anything God has done some amazing things. He has worked in us but more importantly He has worked through us! I ask you to pray for the lives that we have touched, whether it was someone that we talked to on a regular basis or just a hello. God has been in control of this trip! Please continue to pray for us as we finish up our trip.
Lastly I would like to take this opportunity to thank a few people but more importantly please pray for these people. The following people are full time missionaries here in the Philippines and they played a major role in out trip here. They set everything up, they cooked for us, they drove us around, they made sure we felt comfortable, they gave us a place to stay, they opened up their families and lives to us, and most importantly they shared their love for these people, God’s children, with us.
PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR THESE PEOPLE:
Josh and Val Manthe and Family
Dave and Michelle Clinton and Family
Daniel and Suzane Bucher and Family
Chris Cordova
Daisy Chell

We finally are able to add some pictures sorry for the long wait!
God bless!!

Still fighting the rain

Hello everyone,
It has been a while since our last update. Last week was spent on the island of Cebu playing basketball around Cebu City. We played two games a day with the first game being in the morning against a college team and the evening game being against a barangay. A barangay is a little community and there were usually more people at these games so the message was geared more towards the fans. During the college games the massage was more for the players. There is a blog at buhaysports.blogspot.com that will give you a day by day account of this trip.
We started this week working out at Tanza again. We found that the cement that we poured before we left had solidified so it was all set for the water tower to be put in the air. We ran into a problem however when it started to rain once again and seeing how it is not safe to weld in the rain we worked on a different project. We started digging on the water trench behind the building out there to help divert water around the house and not though the house. On our way out, we did some planning for a bridge across the creek so that it is passable when the water gets higher during rainy season.
Tuesday we were able to get the welding to the point that it is time to move it outside to location. Once again it decided to rain again today so we worked on the bridge. We were able to position some cement tubes next to some big rocks there were already there and by adding a couple more rock we were able to go the width of the creek. This allows a walk way that is a couple feet above the one prior which will hopefully provide a passage when the water is up. Planning for the future and knowing we will be welding outside and the possibility of rain, we hung a tarp over where the tower is going to be to provide some temporary shelter.
Things are going smooth considering all the rain we have been getting. The three of us are looking forward to our last days here and anxious to see what we can get done if the weather would happen to clear up. It is hard to believe that our five weeks over here is about up. We look forward to seeing you all again when we get back though.

God bless,
Trevor, Devin, Drew

Posted by Trevor

Hey all!

Today was a fairly full day with basketball and traveling. After church at the Arthur Center, where Lee (one of the guys on the USA team preached) we headed out to our first game at two. We played a good game, but came up with a tie (88 to 88). Apparently there is no overtime. From there we ate at KFC and drove to the next game. Our second game was against one of the top college teams in the nation (probably the best team we have seen so far) and had a solid victory. We leave for the airport at 5 AM (4 PM Central Standard Time in the USA).

Here is the Buhay Blog link to see a few pictures of action and interaction so far:
http://www.buhaysports.blogspot.com/

More will be posted on our blog when I get the time to do it!

Here is my take on the trip as a whole. Think of it more as a regurgitation of random thoughts in my mind…perhaps a scary thing to ponder.


All too frequently I get caught up in the mission and forget the reason. We serve a big God, one who chose to degrade Himself into human form; not for the life of luxury, but to be mocked, beat, kicked, spit on and nailed to a cross. What for?

The Christian faith is meaningless without the personal realization of what Jesus’ mission was (is). God knew us before we were created (Psalm 139). He knew me before anyone who ever lived on this planet existed. He knew every sin I will ever commit, he knew every time I will turn my back on him. And still he came to be mocked, beat, kicked, spit on and nailed to a cross…for that; for a sinner, for love. (2 Corinthians 8:9) Jesus had a mission…a huge mission, one that no mere man could ever accomplish; to give a FREE gift of eternal salvation for the entire human race. By definition: Grace.

So what is the purpose of our mission…to be mocked, beat, kicked, spit on and nailed to a cross?

I hope not…I didn’t sign up for that.

If honesty is the point, I get annoyed at the constant heat and humidity; the inescapable smells and noises of a poverty stricken city (My American nature). If I have trouble putting up with that then where does humility and torture play a roll?

Many faithful servants give their lives for what they believe in. Does God, the being of ultimate love call people to die for him? I don’t believe so. I believe only one death was required for all of humanity.

I believe we live in a fallen world where bad things happen to good people because God gave bad people free will; the same as good people. He gave everyone the same chance to love him when Jesus’ blood ran down the cross.

Bad people do bad things too good people.


Our purpose on this trip is to glorify our God, the One who gave us the choice to come here. Could bad things happen to us? Of course.

Will I meet the modern day Saul? What then? Will my immature faith be strong and wise enough to lead me in the way of everlasting? Will God really supernaturally give me strength in my moment of potential weakness? (Luke 12:11) (2 Thessalonians 2:16-17)

I pray for that. I have confidence in that. But do I truly, wholly believe it?

I pray for the chance to be tested even though my flesh wants exactly the opposite.
Its not what I want...but what He wants that I wish to seek.

Comfort, being rich, ignorance…are these the qualities God looks for in modern societies? I think not. (Matthew 19:29-30) (Luke 12:22-23) But that is what my flesh wants.



Perhaps this trip was designated for reinforcement.

Too often we leave seed along the path, in rocky soil or in the thorns to be quickly dismissed by the enemy. Seeds in our environment are numerous. Perhaps we are here to make sure the seeds end up in good soil (Matthew 13:3-9).

Will we be called to spread new seeds? I hope so!

Where will the seeds need to be planted? In the places that require our lives to be given? I hope not. But what if? I realize I can keep myself up all night thinking about “what if’s”, but concerning biblical history and our current situation, perhaps it’s an appropriate “what if”. Don’t worry…I don’t have any weird feelings about this trip turning martyrdom; I just like to let my brain run and see where it ends up. I have no idea if any of this makes any sense, but its getting late rather quickly and 5 am isn’t getting any further away.

All in all, this trip has made me think a great deal about biblical missionaries, the Apostles and how they lived (and died). It keeps my mind on the single purpose we are here; the reason behind spending thousands of your dollars we didn't earn...all for the deliverance or reinforcement of an eternal message; the gift of Jesus Christ.

Keeping all of you in our prayers!
DSR

Thanks for the prayers and support! - God is in control

First off I want to thank all of you for your prayers and support! It has been great to hear from some of you!
The last few weeks have been an amazing experience. I have been blessed in so many ways and know that God is working inside of me! I know that all 3 of us have been challenged in many different ways in all sorts of areas of life! We have been pushed to the limits physically, emotionally, and spiritually!
I have seen what it means to really put your life in the hands of God, I have seen people willing to give up the comforts that you and I enjoy in the States to give God their life. I have seen people living on the garbage of others and people who have to get water out of a stream to make it through the day. I have seen people with sicknesses and injuries that you and I would have been at the doctor weeks ago but they can not even imagine seeing a doctor. I have seen people that live in “houses” smaller than my bedroom and they have water and sewage just running into their house. I have seen people who have nothing in their material life. I have seen children that have never seen a parent and probably never will. I have seen people that have given up careers in the States to give these kids some sort of support. I have seen kids call a 20 something girl "mom," she has stepped into their life and cared for them, given them a chance. I have seen kids that just want a parent figure in their life, hoping that someone will step up in someone way...either by just giving them some time and love or hoping to be adopted. I have seen people give others a chance to live again and people that are alive because someone that did not know stepped into their life to make a difference. I have seen people give without ceasing knowing that they are not ever going to get anything back. I have seen people just longing to be loved and longing for something more in their life.
This has been a time for me to realize once again how blessed and fortunate we are in the States. It has been a time of growing and turning to God for help. I know that amongst all of the chaos and problems that we have ran into that God has had His hand in all of it! I have learned once again what it means to lay if down for the glory of God.

Week at Tanza

Hello all,

I hope that everything is going good for all of you. Things are going good over here. This past week has been an adventurous one for us. We didn’t get as much done as we had planned or hoped due to the weather but that is how things go. We were with Dave all week out at Tanza where he focuses his money and effort. Tanza is about ten miles away but it takes about 30 minutes to get there because it is in the mountains. Being in the mountains with all the rain that we have been getting, makes things interesting to get projects finished.

Monday we walked around the community and interacted with the locals and scoped out the projects that we will be doing when we are working out there. We talked with this little old lady who’s house is at the bottom of the hill so is the last stop for sewage before the drainage ditch so that doesn’t make for a good living area. Her boards are rotting out and she has holes in her wall so we are going to replace her boards and patch the holes. It was amazing seeing her face when we told her that we wanted to help her. It made all of our days just to see her reaction. We then went at looked at another lady’s house. She has eight kids but only five live with her in a house that is eight foot by sixteen feet. Everything from sleeping to cooking to everyday living is done in this one room house. Her house is situated in such a way that when it rains, she has a river running through her house. We are going to help her with this problem and therefore help with her children being sick all the time. These two projects are in addition to building a water tower so that the church will actually have running water out there. After getting a feel for what we would be doing and what we would need we set out to buy the materials so that we could get started on the water tower the next day.

Tuesday came and it brought challenges of its own. We left for Tanza early because we had to pick up some extra metal and the tank from a place here in town on our way out. We also had to pick up some gas for the torch when we got out there from a guy that we were borrowing them from. Our other material was delivered before we got there and we got a couple of local guys to help with the carrying of carrying down the path and across the river to the church. After this we found out that the torch that we borrowed was not going to work because it had a seal out of it and leaked all the gas out before it reached the tip. With not being able to cut any metal we decided that we were going to dig our holes and pour a concrete base to set the tower on so that it could cure and we could hopefully get the thing in the air the next day. It was hard to get this accomplished because of the rocky soil and the locals always wanting to help. About the time we were ready to pour concrete, Mother Nature decided that we had done enough for the day and it started to rain. It didn’t stop raining till after we went to bed that night.

Wednesday started off better because we were able to find a torch attachment that would actually work so we were able to get the cuts made that we wanted to finish up the day before. While one of us was cutting, the others cleared the water out of the holes because they were full of water and then started mixing concrete. Once again this proved to be a challenge because the locals were there willing to lend us a hand again. We poured the concrete in trash bags in the holes because of the ground being so wet and the rain in hope that it would actually cure. We managed to get this accomplished before the rain started in again for the day. Once the rain started and we got the holes covered up and finished the cuts, we went to another piece of land that they just bought to plant a church on to clear out the house that is currently on it. They wanted to leave the structure and use that for the church but we needed to do away with the platform that was in it so that it was an open area. Once again it rained the rest of the evening.

Thursday we woke up to even more rain and decided to still go out to Tanza and tear down a concrete out house that they have right outside the church there. No one uses it and it is really ugly so they wanted it destroyed. We had a sludge hammer but without the handle so we tied a rope on it and used it that way. Those of us not running the hammer were throwing large rocks at it to break the cement blocks. Once we got down a little ways, Dave and Drew took some of the blocks that were not broke and made steps coming down the hill that everyone slips on when it is muddy. These were projects that needed done but weren’t all the pressing but since it was raining we had a chance to get it done. After lunch, we went and bough some cots for the lady whose house is rotting away so that she didn’t have to sleep in water and she could get off the ground. Once again it made our day to see the look on her face when we helped her out. It made me tear up when I saw how happy she was to get such a simple gift and knowing that she wasn’t going to have to sleep in water that evening.

Friday was completely different than the rest of the week. Today we had orientation for our basketball part of the trip because most of the guys have gotten in and we had our first game tonight against some local all stars. This was a good experience seeing everyone show up to watch the Americans play basketball. At half time we all said where we were from and the local pastor gave a short testimony and then during the third quarter the ones not playing handed out tracks. It was fun getting to interact with some of the local people and get to show them God’s love.

Tomorrow we start our span of two games a day for seven days. Monday we will fly to another island and play over half our games there.

The trip is going good for me up to this point. It has been a struggle having to get used to the way of living here and the laid back culture. It has been tough dealing with people who deliver things when they get to it and have no sense of rush to anything when I am used to having things now and doing things quickly. I have leaned that I really need to work on being more patient and not worry so much about things that I don’t have control over. Like all three of us were expecting, there has been times that we have gotten annoyed with each other and especially since we all three like to be leaders and we are all working on one project. It has been tough for me to not be the one making the decisions and not being a leader. That was not something that I was planning on having to work on but I know now that it will help in the future and that God wanted to use this trip and the other two guys to help me with this. Even with us getting annoyed with each other at times I know that we have grown closer as a group and closer to the lord though those times of annoyance.

Take Care and God Bless,

Trevor

Rain...Rain...and More RAIN!

\The past few days have been somewhat slow, mainly due to the weather. On Thursday we had everything prepared to paint our basketball court and had begun marking lines on the concrete when it began to rain. It rained quite hard for several hours thus making it impossible to paint. We had decided to find a cab and head to a local mall to get some lunch, find some bolts as we were two short on the rims and essentially kill time. After a few hours at the mall, we headed back to check out the concrete. It was still wet but we decided to go ahead and finish marking all the lines. It’s about a 3 mile drive from the Arthur Center to our Condo, some of which is along a main road. We decided to just start walking and flag down a taxi along the way. We saw three taxi’s, all of which had people in them. It was a long, hot walk that took about 45 minutes through the various curves and hills back home.
Having all the lines marked out, we got right to work taping and painting lines Friday morning. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant for lunch and got Starbucks after that. During that time it began to rain incredibly hard for about an hour which caused us to worry about our paint sticking. Saturday morning we finally got to see all of our work pay off. The paint stuck and still looked great.

The church has basketball from 8am to 10am Saturday mornings, usually they have to rent a court each week, but having our court finished, they can now play for free as long as they want. There were about 30 or 40 young kids playing around and a few high school kids that showed up. They had a lot of fun playing on their new court. It rained again shortly thereafter for most of the day. We spent the day relaxing at the condo, reading and sleeping. We ate supper with the Clintons and made a few calls to the US.

Today we went to church, which managed to be even more confusing than last week. 7 days ago the worship songs were in English, so we could at least participate there, but this week they were all in their native language…so we pretty much just stood in the back and clapped. I think pastor Better was giving us a hard time about something cause at one point everyone looked at us and laughed…we just smiled.

It started raining about 4 this afternoon…it is now almost 11 and still sprinkling. This morning our pool was about 4 inches below full…now it is overflowing! This evening we went to two Filipino pro basketball games. The first teams to play were the Burger King Whoppers and the Realtors. We decided that our FHSU men’s basketball team could have beat either team. It was still an interesting experience. We got there a little late so we couldn’t get three courtside seats in a row. Had we been able to, they would have cost a whole 12 American dollars.

Some very different days!!

It has been a cultural last few days!!
On Sunday we went to the Arthur Center, where we are currently working, for church. We were unable to understand the majority of it as it was in the native language of the Philippines, Tagolog. After church we went to a big mall and spent the day looking around and shopping. This was not an ordinary mall, not much has been ordinary in this country, they had stores which sold real items, and there were stands that sold, as the Filipinos put it, imitation items. You could by clothes, jewelry, things for you home, souvenirs, and lots of imitation items such as shoes, purses, sunglasses, and cologne/perfume.
On Monday we ran into some more issues, as we are now calling it along with all of the other missionaries here, “the culture.” We were planning on working on the basketball court. Once we got to the Arthur Center our plans changed, it’s all in God’s plans. The cement that we had used to secure the basketball hoops was still damp, thus we were unable to work on them. We then spent the rest of the day with another full time missionary, we have been doing some things with and that we will specifically work with later on in the trip, Dave Clinton. We went out to where he works, it is away from the city up in the mountains a little ways. From where we are staying it is about a 45 minute drive. This area is called Tanza, Dave has done a lot of work to support these people. These people are very poor and do not have much. While we were there we scouted out and made plans for the projects that we will be doing. The feeding program was getting ready to start while we were there, we easily saw over 50 kids waiting with bowls, cups, or containers to get a meal. The area was very rough and dirty. The water supply for this area was from a natural well in the ground and from a spring up the mountain. At the time we where there, the natural well was actually out of water, they usually have to wait 4 or more hours to get water again if it is out. All around the well there were buckets and more buckets of people within the village who where waiting to get water. Can you imagine not having water or having to wait for water to go on with your day? We need water to eat, to clean, to shower, to go to the bathroom, but there is none so your day stops until there is more water. Some homes had hundreds of feet of house running from the spring up the mountain to there homes so that they could have access to water. At the natural well and by the side of small creek we saw hundreds of packets of soap, you could tell that this was the showering area, as we were leaving we saw a young girl getting ready to shower. We also went and saw a church that was built in the 1760’s!
On Tuesday we ran into more “the culture.” Once we were able to start working we were able to finish the backboards expect for painting them. After working we were able to go visit a Filipino man who is in his 50s. We got the chance to share our faith with him and talk with him about God. It was an amazing experience, knowing that this is the reason for everything!
On Wednesday once again we ran into “the culture.” We were going to finish up the basketball court but at the Arthur Center there was a timing issue and they were cutting down trees, thus making it difficult for us to paint. We did a little bit of splitting up today. Devin and Trevor went with Dave to do some missionary work, they ran some errands and took care of some of the business that a missionary has to do. I, Drew, went to the Children’s Home, and helped another missionary woman, take a few sick babies to the doctor. This was quiet the experience for me, we sat around for over an hour just waiting for the doctor to show up, and then it was an couple hours waiting for it to be our turn. We were stuck in a small, hot, overcrowded hallway with lots of sick and crying babies. Once we finally got to see the doctor we were only in there for a few minutes.
Over the last week we have met some very incredible people that are giving up everything they have to serve God and these people! They have blessed us and the people of the Philippines. Thank you guys!!
Thank you for all of the prayers! We need them and so do the people of this country!! Please remember them in your prayers!! They are God’s children just as much as any of us!!

God bless!!!

Learning the Culture

Hello all,
The past couple of days have given us a good look at how things are done over here in the Philippines. After spending all day Thursday looking for and purchasing supplies for the basketball goals we are building we showed up at the Arthur Center yesterday morning to see that they had delivered the wrong pipe. We had to spend all morning waiting for them to come back with the correct stuff and take away the wrong. Pastor Better called them when we first got there at 9 and they said they would be there right away. We worked all morning and had to stop for lunch because they still hadn’t showed up. After eating some Kabobs for lunch in a little hole in the wall and returning the correct pipes were still not there. They finally showed up around 1 so we have decided that right away over here really means four hours. This is proving to be a little frustrating but it is something that is part of this culture and something that we are going to have to learn to deal with. Another thing that we will have to get used to is the fact that you can not do anything out of the ordinary. We were shopping the first day and Devin wanted to get just a bag and that was not possible. When we borrowed the welder, it also came with the guy and we couldn’t get just the welder. We were able to talk him into leaving but it took some discussion and additional money.
Today went better though and we were able to get really close to finishing the goals. We mixed 200 kilograms of concrete to pour for the bases of the two goals and we are currently letting that cure before we can put the wood on for the back board and the rims. When those things are finished we will have ourselves some basketball goals and with some painting of a couple of lines, have ourselves a full basketball court to offer the locals.
Today we were able to go with Better to a local place and eat some local food. We all got the pork and rice. The pork was something like a pork stew thing. It had chunks of bone with little meat simmered in some juice. We all got three chunks and maybe a total of ten bites of meat between all 3 of us. It was a good thing that we each got two cups of rice to fill us up and allow us to make it though the day.

God Bless,
Devin, Drew, Trevor

by Trevor

Our first few days in our new environment...

Today (Wednesday May 20) we just checked out the mall and BBQ'd with most of the people/families we will be working with at the different projects. It was more of a rest and relax (aka shake jet-lag) day.

The mall is a very interesting place, very loud and lots of people.
All the people (Americans) we will be working with throughout this trip seem really cool. You can definitely see the Philippine influence in their lifestyles and mannerisms, they're so much more calm and laid back. It would be nice to see more people like that in Hays. Besides the humidity, we could easily get used to living here. One of the single guys we are working with says he can easily live for under 1000 a month!

We're excited for tomorrow, we get to start building a full scale basketball court. There are several college basketball players coming over to play (over 6 foot tall, one is 6’7”). We are playing at least a few Philippine college teams, 16 games in 7 days.

Our condo is nice…nicer than our apartments back home…just A LOT warmer. We have one air conditioner in the bedroom window that we can run at night, but other than that its 85 degrees at 90 percent humidity by 8 AM. Today being at the mall was interesting. We got to look at the complete difference in culture, especially the foods. Their cuisine is amazing. Some of it smells (and we're told tastes) horrible, but we still want to try it. Its interesting to see how much of an American influence there is on the market, especially in electronics.


Thursday May 21

The sun sets about 6 and rises about 5 every day of the year (were only 14 degrees north of the equator) so its hard to get used to that. We woke up about 7. We read, ate and wasted time till 9 when we headed out.

We “worked” today. We spent the entire day looking for supplies for our basketball court. We went to several different malls and shoppes all over the city trying to find a cheap but well built movable basketball goal but couldn't (the other one we were going to mount to the concrete wall). The best deal we found was 20,000 pesos for one movable basketball goal that was designed horribly, so we got to planing stuff out and came up with our own designs and rounded up materials. The final bill for two movable setups was 12,000 pesos and it will a great deal stronger. After we bought rims and hopefully renting some welders, chop saws, drills and wood saws tomorrow, we will get done for under 20,000 pesos for both basketball goals (saving the church about 400 dollars). But we didn't actually build anything today. We ate New York style buffalo wings and got starbucks (which is less than half price over here... I got a large carmel frappuccino for 100 pesos!) So the bulk of the day wasn't exactly a “cultural experience”.

However, after we took a look at the the church and building location, we took a tour of everyday Philippine living conditions. Poverty doesn't even begin to describe their way of life. Shacks built out of scrap wood, fragmented pieces of plastic and small chunks of tin make up the common construction materials. At best it provides a location to their name, a place they can call home; it doesn't provide privacy or shelter even from rain. The forest is so thick in many places, shade isn't a problem. Sewage runs openly down the dirt beaten path and infected, starving dogs crawl all over the place, drinking the inhabitants waste. Their well was only about 3 feet deep; I can only imagine how much sewage easily seeps into what they ingest. And thats only the beginning.
We ended the “work” at 3 PM. We got back to our condo, swam and decided to venture off on our own to really explore our environment in the inner city.

We're really looking forward to tomorrow...when the real work begins and we get to build, get dirty and play with power tools/welders.

Anyway, I think this blog is long enough...theres thousands of details I wish I had time to type, but I don't think you want to read a 2348932 page long blog.

Were keeping all of you in our prayers. Please pray for our mission leaders, and church pastors we are working with; that the work will go smooth and safely. Pray for all those we come into contact with, that they wouldn't see the effort we are putting into our work, but the effort God is putting into us and through us for these people. Pray that we can be tools for God to use, in whatever way he sees best to use us. That we sacrifice comfort and rest if it means doing the work of the lord.

Thank you, to each of you who through prayer made this trip possible. We wouldn't be here without you!

Hi from Seoul, Korea

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to let you know that we have made it safely so far to Seoul, Korea. It has been a long trip so far. We were at the Denver airport around 6:30am on Monday. From Denver we flew to LAX. Our flight from LAX to Seoul was right around 12 hours long. We were talking and realized that we had not seen the dark for nearly 24 hours(by the time it gets dark it will have been over 24 hrs). Our flight from Seoul to Manila, Philippines leaves here in about 2 hours, it is 6:00pm on the 19th here in Seoul right now.

We had the great joy of starting to eat rice for lots and lots of meals. For lunch we had rice with beef, cuccumbers, pickles, spinach(like substance), and other things we did not know. For supper we had rice and chicken with mushrooms and carrots. We had a really good dessert though!!

We will be using a blog to keep everyone updated for the trip. The blog is:

http://www.3foradifference.blogspot.com/

We will send an email out and let you know when the blog has been updated!!

God bless!!

Devin, Trevor, and Drew