The Philippines

Sometimes people ask me why I've decided to live in the Philippines. It's really something that is really hard to describe. Often times people from all over the world visit the Philippines and they are not affected by the country the way I have been because westerners will almost always visit westernized tourist resorts or resort cities, places that are built and designed to cater to the western culture. So they might visit the Philippines yearly but they never really experience the real Philippines. Sure there are bad things about the country, but this is the case with every country, right? But what has affected me more than anything is that in America we are often so obsessed with things and statues. Even when we are not successful or wealthy we bury ourselves in debt in order to Keep up with the Joneses. We are so obsessed with what other people think of us, how we project ourselves to others. In the Philippines everything is so simple, things are clearer, there are much fewer fakes. People are what they appear to be. Of course there are always exceptions to this but the vast majority of people are who they appear to be, for good or for bad you know who they are. There are not all of these facades to hide who they are. When people are worried about where their next meal is coming from, they tend not to think or care much for what the neighbors think.The simplicity of life, without all of the pretension, this is what really inspires me here. Growing up in America I heard about different ways of life, I heard about people that left the comforts of life to live abroad, I heard about the people traveling to the ends of the world to spread the love of Christ. I heard about these things but here I see these things, I experience these things. There is such a HUGE difference between hearing a report of missionaries in the field during Sunday service, and traveling out into the jungle to a beautiful Ranch style orphanage and seeing it first hand, hosting a dinner for the children, interacting with some beautiful giving people. Coming from a country where everything is about “Me” “what do I get out of it” it's such a beautiful thing to see people who place HIM above “the mighty I”, who place the children above themselves. Come visit the “real” Philippines and maybe you can better understand why I have stayed here. Check out this video of some of these wonderful people.