Seventy years ago, the village I am currently living in and the surrounding villages would watch for a certain tree to blossom. Rainy season would creep toward its slow end and then, sprinkled like bright beacons over the low ridges, little orange flowers exploded into color. When this happened, they knew head-hunting season had begun.
I'm told it was a rite of passage into manhood. When a boy brought back his first head from a warring village, he returned a man in the eyes of his people. Today, no signs of their violent past remain. The people don't speak of it. "We are ashamed of what we were," they say. "Why would we talk about it?" The old ways seem especially forgotten when, despite the orange flowers staring down from the treetops, we hike freely from one village to the next. We hike through corn ready for harvest and green rice fields, past flowering bananas and loaded coconut trees. Every now and then, we catch sight of another tree with orange blooms. It is a great reminder of where God finds each of us, especially as the missionaries here prepare to share the full gospel with this people for the first time.
God has also been reminding me of His great love through a seemingly endless stream of blessings:
1) Just as I was hitting a slump of "Yeah, I'm ready for a spinach salad, a Chipotle burrito, and a nice HOT bath," I received a package from home. Of course, the package didn't bring a spinach salad or a burrito or a bath, but it DID have lots of love and cream of wheat inside.
2) Then, I received and account statement from the office and discovered a very generous monetary gift. I inquired after who sent it, but no one seems to know! My hope is that, whoever you are, you read this and know I am extremely thankful! God bless you and yours!
3) Yet another blessing came my way just yesterday. When I packed up and moved to the Philippines, I had a pipe dream of learning the local language. As of yesterday, I am officially in part-time language study! Realistically, I know that I won't become anywhere near fluent in the seven months I have left, but I'm stoked to learn what I can. It is a humongous blessing to have the people helping me take time out of their busy schedules to learn a language I may never use again, just because I want to learn.
All in all, I'm a slightly snuffly, yet very happy camper!
TTFN (Ta-Ta For Now!)
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