Celebrations!

Top: July 4th = July 4th
Bottom: June 29th Baptism

Celebrations mean food! So for the 4th of July, we (Only Scott, Vicki and I; as the Hendersons were in Manila) scored some Australian beef to BBQ, made a big potato salad, and pulled out the blue corn chips where Vic had hidden them away for a special occasion! Avocados grow here, and tomatoes, so we were good to go for guacamole and salsa. Very Southwest American. Followed by an All-American Apple Pie. A very good Feast!

And although I am happy to honor Independence, I was even happier to celebrate Mildred's choice of Dependence on God. One of our young Filipina midwives decided that she wanted to publicly demonstrate her inward faith by being baptized. Pastor Toto is a long-time friend of Mercy In Action, and is pastor of the Baptist Bible Church just up the road from us. Mildred is in his congregation. We had a great service in Tagalog and English; and I was able to follow the lesson about Jesus choosing His disciples. And the little children singing is precious - so very cute! Then we all walked to the beach, where the waves were wild and it was starting to rain. It was a beautiful and inspiring time.

Then we went back to the church and celebrated with food! Kate made white carbonara sauce spaghetti, there was the Filipino sweet red spagetti, and I made a banana/mango/pineapple bread.

Yum.