Okay, okay I know what you're going to say by the end of this ... "Aren't you guys supposed to be on a missions trip?" And yes, the time in Palawan was pretty much awesome, but it was more than just a vacation! I promise!
We started off in Puerto Princesa, where the heat, sandy beaches, and blue/green shores were a beautiful change of scenery. We found a great little Bed and Breakfast type place to stay in called Saint John Penthauz. It was quiet, very accomodating and most importantly adequately air conditioned! It really was a blessed place to have a time of RnR, but also a time to just sit down a process all the stuff that's been going on in the last couple months!
We started our time there just taking in some sites around Puerto Princesa as well as meeting Pastor Sam's twin brother Jonathan! They certainly have their similarities but they're also definitely different. On our 3rd day we hit up Honda Bay and went island hopping! It was gorgeous... We snorkeled, read on the beach, and even had a massage! To top it all off we had an encounter with a couple jellyfish which left their mark (literally) on Brittany, and then Chris. Due to their excruciating pain (this may or may not be exaggerated) we sought to utilize the one remedy we knew to treat jelly fish stings. It happened. Yeah, that's team unity.
After a team to have a retreat in Puerto, we moved on to our blitz visit of Brooke's Point, the home of Pastor Sam. There was some hesitation at first to going there because of a couple risks. These included reports of a "fund-raising" campaign that was going on by the local Muslim extremist group (of whom targets foreigners) as well as a nearby outbreak of Cholera. We heeded the advice of Pastor Sam and Jonathan though who decided it would be safe enough for us to go, and boy we are glad we did. Even with a bumpy 4 hour van ride, and only staying in town for about 24 hours we had a fruitful time there. We were able to share with a group of youth, that to be honest we had no idea what to expect. We thought maybe a few kids would show up but there were something like 30 who came out! We shared on the beach of Tagusao where Pastor Jonathan's church is located and it was such a blessing to be able to encourage some young people with the little time we had there. We wanted the words we shared to build up the existing believers, but we were told that some youth in the are were also Muslims. And so I felt compelled to really tell them about who the person of Jesus is and also emphasize the love of God that is shown through him. All in all it was an great time to share with each other our hopes and dreams, where we felt we were being called, and just pray together. Good times.
Afterwards we had the chance to meet a whole bunch of Pastor Sam's family including his mom, sister, and some other family friends. We had an awesome dinner with them with tons of fresh seafood and rice cooked in atleast 4 different ways. After a great time of fellowshipping and eating with our hands we rolled ourselves back to the hotel and took a much needed rest. The next day we had the idea to catch a sunrise in the morning which was a great way to wake up and see the town start to buzz and come alive. It was a pretty small town all in but we had a blast.
We headed once again back to Puerto and we were all eager to go on this subterranean river tour we had heard so much about. We were not dissappointed! We made a stop on the way to go spulunking in a place called Ugong Rock that was pretty amazing. The caves were known to "hum" and they did! We trekked our way through to the top... and took a zipline on the way down =)
We then made our way to Sabang beach where we chilled out on the beach a little and then got onto a boat to the underground river tour. The place was just gorgeous and we couldn't really ask for more. It's crazy how there's just an endless list of things on this earth where you just look at it and say "Only God could have made this" and "He did a real good job!" This underground river was one of them. We took a boat down into these caves that had bats flying around everywhere and rock formations that were pretty bizarre to look at! It's really hard to describe in good detail but stay posted for some pictures... most likely to appear on facebook haha.
With that we took the 2 hours van ride back to our hotel and the next day made our way back to Baguio. It's funny how at the beginning of this whole TREK experience we were a little uncertain of what it would be like to live in a hours with 9 other people. By the end of a 1 week trip we were already missing the whole house and the community. Can't believe that 3 weeks from now we'll be heading back home...
Until the next time I feel compelled to sit in front of a computer for several hours,
Mo.
