Did all that really just happen???

Wow... it has been a day. There have been so many different emotions that I've gone through...enough things happened today for about 5 different blog posts...and I'm going to sum them all up in one.... yea, this is gonna be long...

This morning, on what we know in America as Good Friday is known here as Black Friday. In the filipino culture (mainly catholicism mixed with tribal religions), black friday is a very sad day, because it marks the beginning when God is dead. They truly believe that God is dead from Black Friday till Easter Sunday. The city is dead, because its too dangerous to go out, because they believe that if God is dead, then there is no protection.

There is also another tradition here...the penatensya. Which will be another blog post... I simply cannot combine this experience in this post.

On a lighter note, I went out and was taught how to drive a stick shift today! One of the guys, and of course a couple people eager to watch me learn, took me out to some country roads on the edge of town where I was able to learn and drive some roads that had very little traffic on them. And then, since the city was nearly dead due to it being Black Friday, I was able to drive home! It was so much fun!

Then later in the afternoon, a few of us went down to Old Manila and walked around. It was nice to see some of the old city and look at the statues and read about the original city. However, it was while we were out that I realized... that someone made an unauthorized withdrawal from my personal account. My personal account being my wallet and it being unauthorized... well because it wasn't by myself. Yes, I had money stolen from me. We figured out, by figuring out the time frame in which it was taken, that it was some visitors we had earlier that morning, but the truth is the money is probably gone already. It wasn't an extremely large amount, but when you're trying to be wise about everything, it was enough to be upset about. But... in the end God is sovereign, I have to trust that in everything, as crazy and upsetting as it gets sometimes, that He is still in control. He saw everything, He knows exactly which hands took the money and He knows exactly what I'll need in the future and He will provide.

Then after all that, we came home to a delicious spaghetti dinner!! (My favorite!)

What a day... but in the end... no matter what comes...

~ To God Be the Glory!