Outreach and Beyond

Hello everyone!
I am currently blogging to you from the hot and humid Philippines. I left for outreach about a week ago, the last couple days on base everyone was running around trying to pack away all their things and furiously clean their rooms for the white glove inspection that Faith Bible College had for us. I was the last of my roommates to leave on outreach, which was kind of sad being all alone in my room, though I got to sleep on one of my roommates bed which is the only one in our room with springs and all, not just foam. Score. It absolutely poured for the two days that everyone was leaving, so because of possible flash floods, our leaving time had to be earlier, so we all had to wake up at 5 am. Other than that, traveling was fine, being a leader made it a little more stressful since you constantly have to be counting everyone to make sure the students are all there, and  with 17 people that makes it kind of difficult. We're handling it though, haven't lost anyone yet.

First, we flew to Singapore and spent a few days having orientation classes and explored a bit around the city/island. I wikipedia-ed Singapore and, fun fact, it's the smallest country in the world with an area of 274 square miles and I heard it only takes half an hour to get from one side to another, so basically the whole country is the city we're in, though it still has 5 million people living in it and it's freakin rich. BMWs, Lexuses, and I even saw a Lamborghini just driving down the road. In the marina area they have this cool helix bridge, a massive lotus flower fountain, PLUS a floating soccer field. Just because they can. So ridiculous. It makes every American city look like crap. The food was super good, a lot of noodle dishes and other Asian things. All the girls were trying to cram in our fruit and vegetable intake since we wouldn't get much of that in the Philippines so we would get fruit and vege juices at stands and fruit at markets.

After about four days in Singapore, we flew to the island of Cebu in the Philippines where we would be spending the next 7 weeks of our lives. Like I said, super hot here. We can't really wear tank tops or short shorts in public (which I don't really understand why hot climate countries do that to themselves, just make it socially acceptable to be comfortable) and some of the places we stay at may not have A/C. I've pretty much given up on looking photo-ready for the next 7 weeks. The cities here can be kind of dirty with trash and half-concealed sewer lines, and tons of mangy looking stray dogs and cats, but the people are really friendly and the food is good so it's bearable. Cock fights are also a thing here, so I'm hoping we'll get a chance to observe one, just for the cultural experience.

As you may or may not know already (most likely you don't though), I have decided to stay another year as staff at YWAM New Zealand. I contacted my college about a month ago and they agreed to defer my enrollment and scholarship another year, and my parents were okay with supporting me another year, and the leadership here in New Zealand are excited to have to me stay on, so I figured why not? Yolo. I'm still young and college will always be there. It's beautiful in New Zealand, amazing speakers come though our base, I have some really good friends here, and I get to travel to other countries every 3 months. The only downside to this is that since I'm staying another year, I won't be able to fly home to Champaign for summer since it would cost too much to fly back and only stay a month, so I won't be able to see you guys until December when I come home for Christmas. I'm going to miss you all, but hey there's always Facebook and email. And Pinterest which I recently got, so hit me up. I may try to keep blogging every now and then, but I haven't decided yet. Though it really sucks that I have to wait so long to see you all again, I'm excited for the joyous reunion it'll be at Christmas when we can sweat to the oldies, make music videos, eat tons of food, and cruise around CU together. Love you guys!

P.S. if you ever have the urge to send a piece of mail to New Zealand and are looking for a recipient, I think I can help you out ;)

My address:

Abby Radnitzer

YWAM Bethlehem

PO Box 15134

Tauranga 3030 
New Zealand