The Major Tribe

Hi everyone!

So we are coming up on two weeks since we arrived. Here is a quick rundown of where we are at and what we are doing.

We are still at the NTM Guest House here in Manila. We will hopefully be signing the contract for an apartment today. Please pray everything goes well with that.

The rest of the week will likely be filled with purchasing appliances and furniture, sorting through the items we shipped, and moving in. We have really enjoyed our time at the guest house, meeting lots of new people, but we are also excited about getting settled into a place of our own.

In the coming weeks we will be going on a few “cultural excursions”. Basically these are opportunities for us to venture out and start getting more familiar with the sights and sounds of Manila and Filipino culture. We look forward to sending ya’ll back some pictures!

After that we will be ramping up into Tagalog language study and buckle down for the next year and half as we work towards proficiency in Filipino language and culture.

Below are a few photos from this last week.

I (Jared) had the opportunity to go with another couple here who are planning on using their 4×4 truck to help bring in supplies to some of the tribal works that have access by road. Those “roads” are not always passable and so we went out for a test of their vehicle’s off-road abilities. This isn’t their truck but every vehicle in the group ended up taking a run at this particular mud hole. Lots of fun!

This is a jeepney. They are one of the most common forms of public transportation here. You pay around 25cents to ride the route. They all seem to be very personalized with different decorations, paint jobs, horns, and lights.

Taking a jeepney ride to go look at a few apartments. The lady sitting beside Bana is Sesil Morris. Sesil was a huge help to us in finding apartments to look at.

This is a picture of us headed to church on Sunday. It looks like we are walking through a shopping mall… because we are. There are some churches here that meet inside shopping malls.

Here at the guest house Ed and Debbie Jerimas take care of the day to day operation of things. On Sunday’s after church they usually stop off to pick up some fresh fruit at a local fruit stand. That’s Ed in the background. We certainly can’t complain about fresh pineapples, mangos, bananas (real bananas that is), etc. for breakfast every morning.

Thank you all for your prayers! We will try to keep you updated as we get the opportunity.

Just wanted to let you know we did get in safe and had a busy day today, our first full day here. Lots of introductions, looked at a place to live, bought two cell phones, rode a Jeepney, ate pansit, and (drum roll please) CROSSED THE STREET! That part is more exciting than you might think. Anyhow we hope to send out some pictures soon.

Thank you for your prayers!

The Major Family

So the big flight is over, we are sitting at the gate in Hong Kong getting ready to board our last flight into Manila. I had a minute so I thought I’d write and say thanks for the prayers! The girls did really good and each one slept a good amount… mom and dad didn’t get so much but we are glad to be here and the excitement definitely is carrying us through.

We’ll let ya’ll know when we get settled in! Thanks again for your love and lifting us up in prayer!

The Major Family