With arms wide open

With only twelve days left on this journey it has really started hitting me that I am going to have to leave soon. I can't stop picturing tiny rice covered faces, messy fingers, constant bed head, and those big brown eyes who think you hold the world. I hear in my head their laughter and squeals, recitation of the alphabet with letters that don't exist, a four year old "reading" The Giving Tree from memory, Ate (Ah-tay, term of respect meaning older sister) Bitnee, Ate up, Ate read, Ate kiss.. Soon I will rock them to sleep for the last time and give the last good night kiss and have to walk away, trusting God to take care of his precious little children that I have had the chance to love on for a little while. I think I can relate in the smallest way to mothers who have to leave their children somewhere, even though I know they will be well taken care of I long to remain with each of them or at least take a few home. This summer has been filed with so much joy and I have grown so much closer to God through it all. I wrote the following poem the other night and its just a little glimpse into how I feel about these little guys:

Can I borrow you for a little while?
May I hold you close and make you smile?
Come here and let me change your clothes,
and wipe your tiny runny nose.
I will sing to you and rock you to sleep
as long as I can listen to your little heartbeat.
I don't mind it when you cry
I only wish that I knew why.
Thank you for playing with me,
how I love hearing Ate read?
Come on let's go for a walk,
I can't wait until you can talk.
Soon I will have to say good bye
and this time I'll be the one to cry.
But it truly helps to know
that God is with you as you grow.
Child, did you know that you are loved?
Yes, even when you push and when you shove.
O what joy you have brought to my life
it has clouded out my trials and my strife.
One last kiss upon the cheek
now my knees are feeling weak.
As I pry your hands away
please know that for you I will always pray.
There is one who is greater than I
He always watches from the sky.
To him love knows no bounds
and he will always pick you up off the ground.
This is not the end you see
Because God loves you and God loves me.

I know God has hand picked a family for the kids and they will be so much better off there, it is the hope of God alone that makes my departure from here possible. My supervisor is convinced I will be back soon and even jokes about it with the kids (who are luckily too young to understand in case it doesn't happen).
There has been a lot of outside ministry going on this week and the boldness God has put in my heart is so unprecedented! Daisy has expressed the desire to be baptized! I walked up to a fence where a woman was working outside and asked her if I could talk to her for a few minutes, shared the gospel with her, she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart, and I will be following up with her tomorrow morning. I presented the gospel to another caregiver upstairs who is very confused about what she believes but she asked afterward if next time she worked we could have more bible time together! I was so happy when she asked that!! Tomorrow morning we are leading children's worship at the local church and it should be fun. I am so excited about what God has been doing this week and will be on the look out for even more for the next twelve days!
Thank you for all your prayers and encouraging words, God has also expressed his amazing love to me in new ways this week. I have truly grasped that his love is great enough to sustain me in all things and I pray that upon returning home I can continue developing this love relationship with the creator of the universe.
Friends, be faithful where you. Faithfulness in the little things is great in God's eyes. God doesn't expect us to save people, that is His job, He just expects us to be obedient. So, Go into all the world and make disciples!

Look what God can do

God has been working in great ways in the Philippines this week! God has blessed us with three days of rest and time to refocus. We met up with a team from another orphanage and we went to the beach for a few days.
We have been praying for evangelism opportunities with the caregivers, and this week God laid it heavy on Sarah's heart to talk to Daisy, a young caregiver at Ruel, about salvation. The day before our vacation Sarah and I were working the afternoon shift and it was a tough one, but after most of the kids were asleep we prayed together and God stepped in! Sarah and I teamed up and presented the gospel to Daisy. We told her a few ways that you cannot get to God and she interrupted Sarah and said "so what is the way?!" O how good it was to hear the hunger and longing in her voice. At first I wasn't sure she completely understood the decision she was about to make, but she prayed in Tagalog and I felt the Spirit's presence and a peace all around. Daisy looked up with tears in her eyes and asked us to teach her more so that she can get closer to God. Praise GOD! It is sad to think we have only three weeks left to disciple her and talk to others around us, and not to mention the grief of leaving the children but God has given all of us a peace about departing.
This week Sarah and I got to go to the tribal bible study again and I think it was even more adventurous this time! The trip there was interesting, we were crammed into a tiny truck bed with 5 long rolls of grass and 4 Munnions and then the hike across the muddy fields. This week Sarah spoke about Peter stepping out of the boat and I got to help out with the medical outreach. I took vitals and handed out medicines and multivitamins. I was overwhelmed at first since I have no training but the doctor taught me and I learned quickly and really enjoyed that experience.
Even though we are on vacation this week God has continued moving. When we got to the resort we met a group from California that was here for a couple weeks and leaving today. They are working with a ministry called threads of hope, where ladies are rescued from abusive homes or prostitution and make and sell bracelets as a source of income. I have heard of this ministry in the past and knew it was based in the Philippines. The whole time I have been here I have been looking for women selling the bracelets. Well God knew my heart and last night I met the founder of this ministry and I expressed to him that I really wanted to take some bracelets home and sell them and send the profits back to the women. I was prepared to pay a good bit to do this but this man of God said I will give you as many as you can fit in your bag and trust God that the money will get the money back to us. So I am coming home with 1200 bracelets to sell! I am really looking forward to seeing what God will do with that.
For group time we read a book of short missionary biographies and its main phrase is "Look what God can do through one life totally surrendered to Him." That phrase has become a favorite saying amongst our group and we like to randomly say it when we see God moving, so I leave you with that this week. Totally surrender yourselves to God, whatever the cost, and watch what God can do!!
Worthy is the Lamb!

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news

Thank you for praying for ministry opportunities! God has brought the rain in that area this week. Tuesday we had the chance to join a ministry called Mercy Link in their tribal bible study where five people committed to believer's baptism. We got to wade through muddy rice fields to get to this hut in the middle of nowhere to hold the bible study. It was moving to watch people from miles away drop what they were doing and coming quickly to the place where the word of God was being taught! Then on Thursday Meredith and I attended a local christian church's youth group meeting where we were asked to bring the bible study on the spot! There is something empowering about being put on the spot like that and I truly felt the Spirit speaking through me as I spoke from Philippians 4:4-8 teaching them about how even our thoughts should be Christlike. Also this week one of the full time caregivers asked if we would start a bible study there after the kids are asleep and I am excited to see where God will take that. We are finally to the point where we can walk down the street and people recognize us and call us by name and we are no longer the funny looking foreigners.
God has really intervened this week with my attitude, and numerous times he has made me aware of thoughts or intentions that didn't honor him so that I could refocus before any damage was done. I feel like my time here is running our and I pray that God will do great things in our last few weeks here. I pray that we will be intentional in our work here and I am praying the same thing for my friends and family back home. Next week we get a 3 day vacation and we are going to a beach resort to refocus our thoughts and minds as well as being able to rest in God for a little while. Keep on praying, thank you!
Brittani Clark