Ever get the thought “I am going to remember me saying, I’m going to remember this moment.”? And three weeks later you remember yourself saying that? Wow that’s some serious Inception but it’s like remembering the moment of setting off on a journey when you are finishing it. Three weeks have gone by like a typhoon here and it felt like as soon as we landed we are taking off again, but this time home. The heat and our busy lives seemed to compress our time into a baked little brick.

Three weeks ago I was also a different man. Looking ahead I realized this was going to be hard and I honestly was not looking forward to spending myself out here. Yes, it’s hot and very sticky and there was stuff I didn’t want to do and if I had it my way, I would hole myself up to an internet hub and log out of this part of life. But there was another thing called surrender and as soon as I realized we would be in it for the long haul, I gave myself up, called myself a weak man and asked God for strength. It’s an amazing thing when we not only surrender our entitlement but also ask God to help us do it. He actually does! From there on afterwards, ministry became a lot more fun and exciting. It actually surprised me how so many times prior to, I had relied on my own strength and wisdom to convey the gospel. Sure there were results but I was so burnt out and unwilling to take more steps. But in light of actually including God helping me here has been a mind-blowing revelation! When we are weak, he is strong, oh so very strong!

The rest of our outreach pretty much revolved around the same schedule of and afternoon ministry sometimes accompanied with either a morning or an evening event. We continued to nurture the relationships we built and played all-hard-out with the street kids. They all knew us by name, I forgot most – they were so many! We continued to do more evangelism and started up playing basketball with the all-stars of Pali-Paran. We also started connecting with the churches and youth groups of the community, encouraging and strengthening their resolves. I had a great opportunity to preach one Sunday and wanted to let the Filipino church know the mission fields are not just out in the world, they are right outside our doorsteps. I could see the youth right here having so much potential to shine out loud in Pali-Paran. Our final night in this city ended with a three-hour youth service from four different churches. It was so cool to see such a unity and diversity in talent. But what really struck me was the Spirit of God on this place, no different from home, no different from heaven.

And so finally at the end of all things this outreach draws to a close, a good ending at that. There were times we so looked forward to coming home and now that home is very near we look back and long at the things we could have done. But that is alright. The most important part is ending off right. I feel so content packing my bags and playing Outreach UNO for the last time with my team. Now looking back I realize here was where I changed so much, yet again, and three weeks later.