It has been pretty busy around here lately. This past weekend Aparri Bible Seminary had it's "3rd Grand Alumni Homecoming." That was certainly an interesting experience for me. It reminded me of my first month or so here in country when I met about a million people and couldn't remember anyone's name. It was very similar to that, although there were some folks that I had met before that I recognized like Pastor Domingo and Pastor Ibarra. I also got to meet some family members of my current students which was also interesting. Mostly I felt bad that I couldn't and definitely wouldn't remember all the names. Of course there were some people that I finally got to meet whose names I will remember, like Sir Danison who is the "favorite son" of Ma'am Linda and Sir Tony Columna.
Very soon I will actually be in the States for a short time. It's Nate Reeves' fault. Hopefully I will manage to make some visits to some special people. I'm going to be very interested to see how I feel being in the States. I don't know if it will feel like it always did or if it will feel different or if it even should feel different. This is by far the longest period of time that I've ever been away from even the Greater Cincinnati area not to mention the United States. I absolutely cannot wait to see my family and friends. I know it will be an enjoyable time, I'm not really looking forward to the "basically travelling halfway around the world and back within a week" part of it, but such is life and I know I have obligations here that I need to fulfill. Said obligations are another reason why it has been so busy; I've been making sure my students will have something to keep them occupied while I'm gone.
The best part of preparing for this trip has been all the students "discreetly" asking me to bring them a souvenir. I'm hoping I can find something suitable for all of them. The best was the student who asked me to bring her some food. I have a running joke with this student that when we eat as a group she is always one of the first three or four in line to get food, so I was "very laughter" when she turned my joke on me. Other common requests are to come along in my baggage and/or pockets. One of the students who asked could probably fit in my baggage, but I don't feel like carrying her around, lol.
Please pray for my travels; I would appreciate a safe trip there and back again very much. Also, please continue praying for my immigration status. I'm hoping to be pleasantly surprised when I return to the Philippines, otherwise we're going to be scrambling a little bit to get things arranged. I tried to email the bureau of immigration the other day and the address came back as undeliverable; which is awesome by the way. A lot of things are dependent on my immigration status, not the least of which is the immediate future. Also dependent are the "not-too-distant" future and the future future as well.
My favorite story of the past few days comes from Mr. Norman Peneyra, a member of the Aparri Church that I just met last Sunday. We had a nice conversation which included the following snippet:
Sir Norman: I heard you had a girlfriend in Buguey (a nearby town), is that true or is it hearsay?
Me: Pure hearsay Sir, I'm quite surprised to hear it.
Sir Norman: I thought you had a Filipina girlfriend.
Me: I don't think I could handle one Sir.
Both: (Very Laughter)
The "marrying a Filipina solves your immigration issues" solution has been bandied about quite a bit since I arrived, my opinion on the matter has not changed.
Thanks again to you all for all the support. God Bless.
Nick
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