This was my second time to The Philippines. I went about a month ago on a skate mission trip with Des, James and Dan.
We got hooked up with 10 decks and heap of stickers from 360 project to give out while we were over there. The Philippines is such an amazing place filled with beautiful people. It was great to go back and see everyone from last year, it felt like a second family, like I was coming home or something. For our time there we stayed at the mission house of the Upright Generation just outside Naga city, Bicol. Upright Generation is the local youth group of the church there. They are very talented and gifted young people. Ranging from music, dance, games, drama, skateboarding and everything else in between.
We arrived on day three of the Kingdom builders camp no. 3 its run by Upright Generation, which was pretty awesome to be apart of again this year. God did some amazing things on the camp and it was so good to hear people testimony's at the end of it. Just Great way to finish a camp. Giving God the glory. I like that quote that says "My mess is His message, and my test is my testimony"
After a few rest days from the camp and running some little skate comps around Naga, we headed off to Bagasbas for a few days to visit some skaters and run some comps. While we were there we hungout with the locals, did some surfing and skating. Though that we got testify our stories and show love to those around us. One of the things we did was help judge a skate comp run by the locals. Then afterwards there was skate party at local bar, where bands played and Des got to announced the winners from the skate comp and shared God's love with them all. It was pretty awesome they we got share in a bar. We Also met this local guy called Baker and he invited us back to his surf shack for some ginger tea and we just chilled out and chatted about life and what not. By the end of it, we prayed with him that God would rock up in his life and show him love and to fill his loneliness.
So yeah that was pretty cool. Also we hung out with some of the “upright gen” and taught them how to swim and surf.
After coming from Bagasbas we had a couple of days to chill and to prepare for the Skateboarding discipleship Project at the mission house. In that time we cleaned up a bit and cemented the church floor and painted it blue. So the skaters and nice smooth place to sleep and even play skate. This year we thought we would try A Skateboarding Discipleship Project over two days. It was aiming at teaching theses skaters what it takes to follow Jesus and show them How much God loves them and what he has done for them. Overall the two days went ok. The first day went pretty good I thought but the second day no one turned up, which was a bit of a let down. Thats ok though allot of them didn't know where it was or forgot it was two days long. So after waiting for a while we decided to go into the city to find the skaters and have a game of skate there. The games of skate are always a big hit with the skaters because they get a chance to win a 360 deck and a skate bible dvd, Which there pretty stoked on.
So the trip was coming to the end. We decided to head to the beach with the “upright gen” and Pastor Pat's family and other family's from the church. The “Upright Gen” are the local youth from Pastor Pat's church.
It was a great way to end a trip having fun, relaxing and James got baptised at the beach which was awesome to see and yeah we just watched the sunset over the mountains and reflecting on what God has done. Such an amazing time. Overall the trip went really well - different from last year, but awesome at the same. This year just focus more on building those relationships we had built from last year and just doing life with people and hearing their stories and seeing God move in different situations. It awesome to look back on and see God work even though you might not think so. Gods love is real and more powerful then we can ever comprehend. 1 John 4:19"We love because he first loved us"
Just want to say thank you to all those who support me in this trip with prayer. Be blessed
Here is a little video of what happened
The Philippines from tom guest on Vimeo.
