The Best Day Yet! sorry for the long post....

After Adam battled with food poisoning for a little while, he started to feel better and we were so happy because we did not want to miss out on the planned day of encouragement/sheparding visits that were organized for us on Saturday. 7 families were on the schedule in various parts of the country side. We met at the office at 8 am and proceeded in a caravan of 7 motor bikes and full day ahead of us! Many in our congregation and other friends sent us with photo cards, presents for the children and we had a bag of groceries for each family. They gave us a brief overview of all the families and off we went!

Our first stop was probably the most difficult, our sister was recently was left by her husband to care for 4 kids on her own, her youngest which is so very sick. He has been in an out of the hospital 3 times recently with heart disease and asthma they said. He doesn't want to go back to hospital anymore, he is tired of being stuck with needles and IV's and his poor little arm were all bruised up. It was so sad to see and made us cry.

He could barely breathe, could not talk or even smile, it was so sad knowing that he may not live that long.......we gave him and his mom some of the physical gifts we had and then the brothers also shared some spiritual gifts...

The sister broke down in tears and was very moved by the visit. She took her son off the machine for a group photo before we left...

Adam can't get this situation out if his mind, he has talked to overseers and we are going to try to rebuild her home while they are at the assembly this upcoming weekend as a surprise. Not sure if all the moving parts will come together but we are going to try:)

Another family we visited is a spiritual/fleshly family, 2 pioneer sisters who have been pioneering for so many years. The one sister has attended the pioneer school 3 times. They hid under floor boards in a raised floor part of their house during the typhoon and the roof was ripped off. Everything was lost but the house is repaired and they are back to their routine. What an amazingly happy sisters they are!

As you can tell from this photos, illness and infirmities plagued almost every house we went to. They deal with so much here and still served Jehovah faithfully and never give up. The spirit of the philippino's is incredible.

That is a huge tumor she has been living with for over 20 years.....she is using the reading glasses we brought, she has had the same old pair for 26 years  and they were so excited!

Here is when we gave the sisters headbands...

another family that lost their entire home that was at the edge of the sea was the next stop, we drove off the beaten path.....really felt like a missionary.....

walked along the seashore for 10 minutes

and came upon this really sweet family,there was a really nice interchange of encouragement!

and they loved their new glasses and cards from the friends back in the states!

underneath that tree is where their old house stood but the buildings you see in the picture are the new ones:) mom and dad wearing their new glasses!

Waving Adam off as we leave, it was so sweet...

Another family we visited the husband is our brother but the wife is a bible study. It was thought it could be a really fine witness for us to visit all of them! These 3 little ones greeted us...

the kiddies were scared when we first came but smiling before we left and we think it was a really nice witness for the wife. Many living around came over asking who we were and a fine witness was given to Jehovah, such a good feeling.

another stop was to visit a 93 year old sister, only to find her still working in the garden..

a beautiful reminder that when the truth touches someone's heart it doesn't matter how old they are. our sister was baptized in 2009.

There were other visits that we can share but we don't have great photos but another sister that really stands out is our sister who has a 6 year old daughter. She sought refuge during the typhoon with another witness family even though her fleshly family lives close by. The reason: her in law family is so angry that she has become a witness that they went to the local police station to try to have her thrown out of her home and constantly is persecuting her and would never want to help her. She is so faithful and young....she said to me the reason she only will have one child is because of the poverty/economic condition she has and that her only hope is to make sure her one daughter loves Jehovah and wants to serve him. Her long term wish which she said will take a long, long time is to get a portable dvd player so she can instruct her daughter using the society's videos......some of us there that day gave her what she would need to make that happen. When Adam read a scripture is Proverbs 18:24 about a friend sticking closer than brother, she broke down in tears....it was a touching moment for all of us, we all started crying...

We enjoyed a delicious lunch prepared by a local family in the country side in a hut of mussels, rice, crabs, bbq pork, we made another visit and made it back to the office at 7:30pm.

We are thankful to have had such a faith strengthening day and the scripture that sums up the entire day...

Rev. 21:3,4 "And God will wipe out every tear from their eyes and death will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore, the former things have passed away"