Summer

The summer vacation for school here is April and May and is also the hottest time of the year. So needless to say it is nasty hot now.

Youth: 2 weeks ago we rented out the basketball court again and about 25 youth came. Mostly boys because we played basketball, but I feel it was a good turnout and fun was had. Then last week we didn't have an event because of Holy Week (ministries shut down during Holy Week, an oxymoron, I think so but more on that later). Then his past Saturday we took the youth to a water park, a small one but non-the-less a water park. It had a couple of slides and a wave pool. About 25 youth came out again and everyone had an awesome time.

This past week our YM team were up in a rural mountain village doing a DVBS. About 100 kids were in attendance ranging from 5-14 years old. The theme was on taking care of God Creation and I feel it went really well. We all had so much fun with the kids. Every evening we went swimming in the stream with them which was great fun.

Holy Week: Since everything was quite in the city (and it truly was, almost like a ghost town on Friday, this is because every leaves the city to go visit family) John and I went to the beach with a couple of our friends that were visiting. Needless to say we had an amazing time which seeing old friends and having a short vacation.
So Holy Week here can get really crazy. The Philippines is considered a Catholic nation because they were colonized by the Spanish back in the 1500s. I think it is from Catholic influence that they really identify with the suffering of Jesus and spend all their focus on the Friday instead of the Sunday (although I have heard it could be from some of the cult like practices as well). Anyway on the Good Friday they have big parades and plays that go on all over the country that deal with stations of the cross but still seem to miss the real point of Jesus' death. Also in some areas (mostly rural) people take it up a notch and do self-flagellation (flog themselves with bamboo whips) and some even get nailed to the cross (but not until death). They feel if they suffer like Jesus did they will be rewarded more, that they can identify with Him more. Or that they can pay for there own sins and buy their way into Heaven. In which is totally reading the scripture all wrong because Jesus died for us and paid the price so we never have to. It was a gift and all we need to do is accept it. It was out of his never ending love that he did it not out of ritualism as I feel a lot of these people do it for.
Also one thing I noticed was on the other side of the Easter, the Sunday, when Christ has risen isn't that big of a day. I feel they put all their time and effort on Good Friday that Easter Sunday is just like any other Sunday. Where I feel more of our attention should be on Him Rising. Yes Jesus had to die to take our sin away but Him rising from the dead made all the difference. He defeated death and lives in us and this is a reason for celebration.

Thank you for all your love, prayers and support. You are all so great. Take care and God Bless.

Jared Peter