You Are Welcome!

Welcome. What a lovely warm word. There is no better feeling than to be in someones house or someones company .. and feel truly and warmly welcome. Guess what? The Filipinos are the absolute best.

I feel sad for the Filipinos in some senses; take sports. They are non-football playing (can you believe that?), they are not very involved in the world's major sports - rugby, American football, baseball etc. - and, although they are unbelievably skillful at basketball, their height is never going to make them world beaters. In recent Olympics, their ambition is to win a medal. They have only won 3 bronze and 2 silver since 1936 ... the last medal being way back in 1996!

But, if there was an award for being the most welcoming nation, the Philippines would win by a long way. My goodness, they could not have made us more welcome if they tried.

We arrived in Manila last Tuesday night. We spent a couple of days getting our visas organised and buying 'pasalubong' (gifts to Filipino friends after a long journey). This is a normal part of Filipino life .. so we had to buy around 110 gifts for all our staff and kid at Sefton Village. And you thought Christmas shopping was hard!
On Saturday, we picked up our car from the garage and headed up north. Winston was with us and the first thing we encountered was a massive traffic jam on EDSA, the busiest road in the Philippines! One hour! Murder. Never mind, we were soon on our way again.

We travelled up and arrived in Santiago at 4pm. When we turned into Sefton Village, we could not believe it. There were around 100 staff and friends there to welcome us .. with a big 'Welcome Home' banner at the centre of them. they sang songs, gave 'words of encouragement', hugged and kissed us and the tears were flowing. What a welcome! They made a special 'merienda' for us ... Josiah's favourite - Congee! It was great to catch up with everyone and see how much the children had grown!.

Just when we thought it was all over, we discovered that the Women's Ministries in Cornerstone Church had cooked a meal for us and all Sefton staff. Again, it was our favourite stuff - sweet & sour pork, chicken curry. They are stars!

On Sunday we went to Cornerstone Church, and again was given a lovely welcome. Today, we were invited by three different groups of parents from the school to come and have a 'Welcome Merienda' with them. So we went there at 9am, 1pm and 3pm and met three different groups of parents. They sang to us, welcomed us and they had cooked lovely food .. again!

The kids are so happy about going 'home' again. Lydia was off to school this morning ... beaming from ear to ear. Josiah is constantly surrounded by his two big bros - Abe's sons Angel & Renz. The pictures tell their story.

Tomorrow, we have another 'Welcome Home' party at the Bible School. Can you believe it? These Filipinos might not be the sportiest folk on this world ... but they have to be the nicest, kindest, most hospitable, caring and lovely people God has ever placed on this earth.

Don't believe me? Come on over ...

You are, and will be, made very welcome!