Water pumps, thunderstorms, and pirated movies....

Greetings! Thank you all for the comments on last post....poor Tim is looking and feeling a bit better now that his beard is beginning to grow back. It may be a while before he totally feels like himself.

This post is an "everything" post...no specific theme, just news of what we're up to.....so we begin:

We've been having some water trouble...not sure why, but our water pump has been shutting off and it seems to do this when I am in the shower. I am very thankful for the opportunity to even TAKE a shower, but when the pump stops, the water stops and when your soapy and Tim has to run all the way to the street, turn on the water, run up the stairs, and then turn on the pump, we get a bit frustrated. We're trying to fix the problem soon as Steve and Christina (Tim's parents) are coming on Monday! YEAH! It'll be great to see them and show them around our new home. AND they will get to experience our awesome COLD WATER showers, too! Who needs a water heater when your body temperature heats the water as it hits you!?

In other news, we've been having the MOST AMAZING lightning and thunderstorms. They start at around 6 pm (just when it gets dark) and end around midnight! Sometimes the heavy rains follow it, which sounds like thunder....until you HEAR THE THUNDER! The loudest thunder I've ever heard! BEAUTIFUL! There aren't any tall buildings to block your lightning view, so the show is magnificent. It is so easy to marvel at the power and beauty of the Lord in the midst of the storms. He is FANTASTIC....what a wonderful Creator....AND we catch the rain water just in case we lose our water (like this morning!) and last night alone, we filled both our giant buckets half full!

Another amazing experience in the Philippines, is the pirated movie selection....now, in Canada, I would be opposed to buying such filth, but here, since we don't get movies, the pirated gems are a blessing....Tim and I have never watched much TV and we don't have one here, but the occasional movie on Tim's laptop is one of the greatest ways to "cool down" at the end of a busy day.....ahhhhh. Of course, some the pirated stuff is just plain hilarious...you can actually hear people talking during the movie and sometimes they drop the video recorder....it is quite the movie experience. :)

Are you bored, yet?

Continuing on, Tim's birthday is Saturday (he will be 28!) and I have to work....and so does he!! He is supposed to be taking photos on location at Outland Adventure Camp! They are having a weekend of high schoolers and Tim has been asked to document the experience for the directors. Great fun for him.....except yesterday he had a little accident and tore off a HUGE piece of skin from his foot...the wound is deep and bled a lot...and he is to be tromping through the wilderness today through Saturday...so we're praying it heals quickly.

My last night shift was a quiet one, no babies. But Ate Susan, my supervisor, and I had an amazing two-hour conversation about the Lord, how we got to Mercy, and the journeys in between. While we were talking, a small ant train began to form....little by little...from one end of the clinic to the other, the ant train began to grow...and grow...until it was a full ant SUPERHIGHWAY! I kid you not....that ant community was migrating right through the clinic! It was truly amazing. The queen even came out for the migration event! I looked over and nearly lost my breath as the millions of ants in perfect alignment, all traveling the same way, passed from one outside door to the other. Way cool! Ate Susan quickly got out the bleach and then the ants went nutsy and died. Poor, poor ant community. They lost some of their own that night. But it was cool! The picture is actually when the majority of the ants had passed and the few stragglers were left behind! The one with the ants swirling is the ant community protecting the queen (in the middle)! They continued heading towards the door while swirling around the queen! If I were an ant, I think I'd get dizzy! The other picture is of our dear clinic guard who helped fight the ants. He makes sure we midwives are safe....even from ants. :)

This week, I also found out my team members (the students and supervisors I will be with for this semester)! My supervisors are Jonna (pronounced "Jonah") from Oregon, who has been here on and off for 5 years, and Elai, a Filipina who may be taking a sabbatical, so I may not see a whole lot of her for a while. My peers are Heather, another married student on her second year, Lois, my dear friend, also in her second year, Josephine, a Filipina student who is an awesome worship leader, Medea, who is first year, but has a lot of experience being a nurse and all, me, and Serena, a student arriving in September! Our prenatal day is Wednesday and we will be in the birth room together, too. Please pray for our team as we desire cohesiveness, community, humility and grace.....patience for the supervisors who will be teaching us, peace in our dealings with each other, healthy relationships between peers and teachers, and joy in working together...please, please pray.

I think that's about all there is to report this week....thank you so much for all your prayers, comments, and encouraging words. Be blessed!