In September of 2017, we arrived in the Philippines for a new chapter of our missionary lives. None of us have ever lived in a foreign country before and for us it was like going on to live a new adventure that this life of following Jesus would guide us to.
From then to now, we have had the opportunity of getting to know this culture in all the possible ways through food tasting, as of almost every day in the 6 first months that we lived in a farm located in a province named Masbate and even after that, experiencing the most famous delicacy of the country called balut. Also, we have had the chance of going to different museums, art galleries, concerts and film festivals offered for free in the capital, a good and interesting way of getting to know our new people! And one of us even have lived an immersion time of one month in a Filipino house with a Filipino family!
When we meet new people, as we talk to them, or tell them about our lives, we can listen to their stories also and realize that their way of thinking is different from ours in so many ways! Then, that’s when the mixture of cultures happens and we can learn so much from each other! It has been a pretty happy time, but also a really challenging one.
As much as we love to get to know new cultures, new people, new ways of thinking; it’s completely normal to miss so much more our own culture, our own families, the special people in our lives, since we are in the other side of the World! And when we have this moments, it’s exactly when we are more certain that we live everything only because we are in love with Jesus and we want to live His Will more than our own will.
Some people from our community came to visit us in the early months of this year, and, as they prayer for us and with us, God made them understand that these almost 2 years that we have lived in this country until now represented a new incarnation of Jesus in us. In a way, God wanted to give us a new experience of incarnating the Gospel and the Charisma, because, only then, we would be able to show the truth to the Filipino people.
And now, we still don’t feel ready, but God gives us really special people for us to take care. Just like it says, that when you are faithful in the small, God gives more. Even though, it was not always that we have been faithful, God is always merciful with us and He is giving us a new time in our mission! This new time comes with new people arriving to also commit their lives and their prayers for the Filipino people and with the beginning of a time to actually live the apostolate God has entrusted us!
So, Jesus was born in us once again and we can see His Face shinning inside of us through everything that we live in our daily lives. God has given us a way of Cross and Resurrection, just like He has given it to everyone that is called to be Shalom throughout the World, we have only learned once again to identify His Works in us! And now, we just need to spread it to the people He has entrusted us.