From the 35th floor of our hotel in Makati.

It has been such an amazing trip so far. The mission is a story unto itself, that will take time to fully share, but I wanted to jot down some thoughts while they were relatively fresh in my mind. This has been a journey that touch so many levels of who I am as a person, as a Filipino-American and as a Child of God.  I've never been on a missions trip and here I was on a missions trip to the land of my people, going to churches that are such a part of my family and who I am, and to places that were so rich not just in my family history, but part of the legacy of my Christian walk as well.

 

I've seen so many things I've never seen before. I watched a sunrise above a volcano,  intense lighting storms, typhoon rains brought more rain that I've seen in my whole life, a sunrise on the 35th floor of our hotel in Manila as the sun rays shot through the skyline and turned the Pasig river into gold, a bat flying through a church, Filipino historic sites, met amazing people, bonding with my amazing family, eaten too much food, and so much more.

 

I learned that the Tagalog word for rain is ulan.  The tagalog word for flood is baha and bagyo is the word for typhoon. Flooded streets were everywhere, the rain from the typhoons kept the faucet of the sky on blast for days and days.  I had to fly to another part of the country to see sunny skies again.  Floods that were waist deep to some, I can't imagine what it might be like for all of those squatters and poor in the shanty towns. We drove past rice fields that on our trip there were lush and green, but were so flooded they were deep in brown silty water.

 

I've seen things that will break your heart, little girls only 6 years old, dirty and caked in grime, begging for money and Chinese businesmen brushing them away.  I've seen the small beggar kids, paying off a motorcycle cop, making sure he got his cut of their earnings.  I saw a poor man walking the street with a larger tumor on his neck.  Rivers choked with silt from the rain, and trash floating like a plastic flotilla.  I've heard stories of churches in Bulacan with a ministry dedicated to the "stand by" people.  Families with 5-6 kids that go around begging and picking up scrap trash to sell, the money going towards finding food, all the while their parents "stand by" and drink, gamble and let their kids earn by picking up trash.

 

I've heard stories from the family of how my father and his brother's and sisters had to survive during WW2.  How my auntie would walk great distances to barter for anything to sell so she could buy food for the family.  I heard a story about how the family had to head into the mountains of Zambales to avoid the fighting between the Japanese and the Americans.  Once in the mountains, they had no food and no medicine so the youngest child, my Uncle Domingo died from dysentary.  He begged my aunt for some pancit, thinking that if he only had some pancit he would get better, but they had no pancit, and no medicine.  

 

I've watched as my niece practiced with her worship band in the carport of their house, rain flooding the streets outside, but they practiced anyways, there  ontop of a car, because they had no real place to practice.  Just being faithful in their service.

 

I watched a young kid smile with his whole body because the team was able to donate new drum heads to the church, replacing drum heads that were over ten years old.  He was a quiet kid, but his smile radiated his joy.  A small gesture that will help provide many worship moments for years to come.

 

I've learned from some amazing team members what it means to serve with all your heart.  Talent is one thing, but your heart is what matters.  I was honored to get to know each and everyone of them and as I was able to peel the layers from them, I was overjoyed to see how incredible and amazing people each and everyone of them were.

 

I've closed my eyes, with sweat pouring down my face, and heard the sound of  hundreds of voices rising up as one singing to the heavens, singing to their Lord.  I watched as kids crowded around a tall American kid from the States and listened with rapt attention to every word he said, stared at his fingers and he strummed the bass, soaked in every pointer he gave to them.

 

I heard our alto become a bass, and how our tenor sounded like a frog, how Jojo left his voice somewhere in SM Asia, but somehow we were able to lift up our hoarse voices to Him.  I've seen how the crowd led us in worship, and lifted our bodies and spirits.

 

The team discoved bangus sisig, ube, ube bread, salabat, the best tea ever!

 

We laughed at so many silly things, told so many funny stories, laughed so hard our sides hurt and our eyes filled with tears.

 

I've seen and experienced so much, this is but a taste of it all.  One day I hope to write something that is more inclusive and hopefully bring justice to the whole experiencel.  Till then I leave you with one last observation.

 

Every small child here in the Philippines just stares at me.  They can't take their eyes off me.  I'll look away and then look back and the kid is still staring at me.  Most kids always were fascinated by me, they would look at me and examine me. This was before the hair,  now with the hair it's a straight on stare fest.  I have a theory as to why this is.  My face has always had interesting features.  The big lips, the big nose, the fivehead, the glasses and the dark skin.  It's like they are seeing a cartoon character in real life.  Now with the hair it's another feature to be fascinated by.  My young nephews and nieces must be thinking, "Are you my Uncle or my Auntie?"

 

At least they aren't crying when they see me.

Parkcrest's Worship leader Jojo Ambion asked me to accompany them and this is an incredible blessing to all of us and I'm extremely honored to be a part of the team.  We are all still getting to know each other, the musicians are talented, the singers have great voices, but most important of all they have a humble heart and want to use their talents for God.  They are the nicest people. 

We leave June 10th and we arrive in the PI on the 12th and we will be singing at a different church each day we are there.  My friends and family, if you have any musician friends or family and they are missing God in their life, please consider bringing them to one of the concerts.  If you could make it out to any of these concerts I would love to, see you, sing for you and worship with you.  

Here is the schedule of worship concerts:

June 12th SPKKKabite Rally

June 13th Life Christian Fellowship in Manila

June 14th Baclaran Church

June 15th Cruzada Church

June 16th Manila Bible Seminary

June 17th 20th St Church of Christ in Olangapo

June 18th Subic Church

The rest of the team will be leaving on the 19th back to the States, but I will be staying back a few weeks, to visit with the family and see a bit more of the beautiful land of Pinas.  I will also be flying to Cebu to meet up with Pastor Justin Lacanilao, a good friend and mentor.  I want to be able to do more volunteering and ministry and there are some opportunities to help him in his long term mission there in Cebu.  

I'm excited and a bit scared.  I've never been on a missions trip before and this is a huge step for me in my ministry.  I've always wanted to go on a missions trip even as far back as the True Faith days.  Years ago True Faith was asked to go to the PI, East coast of US, and even Africa on trips, but it never happened for one reason or another.  I've also had two other opportunities to go with Jojo on other missions trips to the PI, but they never materialized.  But here we are about to head to the PI, the mother land of my father and mother.   Ever since we visited in Christmas 2009, I've been trying to give back to that land, the land I fell in love with.  I remember seeing the extreme poverty and the living conditions and thinking there must be something I can do to help the land of my people and forefathers.  I'm so thankful to God that he's provided me an opportunity to help, even if it's in song.  

Please keep the team and myself in your prayers.  Please pray that we can touch and change lives, and that we are open to what God wants to do through us.

I leave you with a video of one of the teams Jojo took with him to the PI a few years back.  The team won't be this large, but there are a few people in this vid that will be with us this time as well.

God Bless!

Emilie Wapnick challenged people to post about their most embarrassing or memorable failure.  "I think that if we all took some time to praise failure and even encourage it on a regular basis, there would be much more experimentation, creativity and innovation in the world." --Emilie Wapnick  

We practiced and practiced and finally we had our first shot at a live performance.  It was a Thanksgiving service at a church up in NorCal, we got up and sang our first song with the track.  It went over well, then we tried our a capella number.  I remember it so clearly, the sanctuary had great acoustics, so our harmonies seemed to engulf the whole space.  All of the idle chatter died down, and as each note was sung, the crowd became more and more rapt with attention.  We started sensing the energy of the room and we sang louder and with more passion, each harmonic layer layed tight on top of the other.  The song built to it's crescendo, we deeply inhaled our breath for a final gusto bravado finale, and then....

...our harmonies crashed faster than an out of tune American Idol contestant.

And we just stopped and looked at each other in horror.  And then the audience laughed.  The laughed so hard we didn't know what to do, but leave the stage.  Many people came up to us later, and said good job, but they had that smirk on their face,  "Good job, except you guys failed horrible at the end" sort of smirk.

We kept practicing and practicing, the failure always on our minds.  Eventually, more and more churches and youth groups asked us to sing, and next thing you knew, we were singing every week all over California and Arizona.  Many people kept asking us if we had CD's for sale. And we always laughed it off thinking "Us!?  Why would anyone want to buy a CD of us singing?!"  But the questions grew and became more insistent.  So we pooled some money together and produced our own CD, we sold it at our concerts.   We sold out our first pressing and even years later, people ask us about the group.  At our final concert I spoke to the crowd and said a few words.  I looked out at the people gathered and told them that we were just a bunch of kids huddling around a boombox and we never thought we could do what we did.  We weren't a household name, we didn't sell millions of CD's, but even now to this day people come up to us and tell us how touched they were by one of our songs. 

"10 years of singing, and if we only helped change one life, it was all worth it."