Rachel Hampton

Goodbye Manila…for now March 30, 2009

Tomorrow morning we sail from Manila and head on to Taiwan. It is the first time since joining the ship that I will be out of the Philippines. I’m excited to go to a new country, but know it will be more of a challenge. We were blessed that many people in the Philippines speak English. We’ve been told very few in Taiwan will. But language barriers always make for great stories so you will have to check back here often to see what happens

I really enjoyed my time in Manila! It has been exciting to see part of the city where I will be living for a year starting in February. Two very exciting things happened while in this port. For one, i was able to travel about an hour away (due to traffic) to see the office where I will be working next year and, more importantly, the people I will be working with. It was amazing. Carola and Crystal (both from Australia) went with me because A. they are good friends and B. we aren’t allowed to leave the ship alone. I have been corresponding with Dawn, my future boss, through email for a long time. She was probably doubting that I would ever come. I got to sit and chat with her as well as two girls that work in the office for about an hour before Dawn had to leave for a trip to Thailand for business. After her departure, Aileen and Erlene (that won’t be confusing!) took me and the girls out for a bite to eat.  It was afternoon so we walked to Aileen’s apartment and got some ice cream, chips, and drinks at a store nearby. It was like a sleepover without the dark or the pajamas.  We chatted and stuffed our faces for a few hours before the girls and I had to head back to the ship. It really encouraged me to meet everyone. I think I’ll really enjoy working there next year. It was a blessing to get to meet them before my actual move. Is God good or what? And today Dawn surprised me by showing up at the ship to say hello and goodbye (for now anyway). She brought me a really cool Monsoon mug and also introduced me to a guy that I will be working with in the office next year. His name is Kenji and he is from Japan but has lived in Canada for awhile. His wife and adorable son also made the trip.

Another amazing thing that happened….I met one of my sponsored children! I began sponsoring Carla a few years ago, knowing that one day I would be in Manila and hoping I’d get to meet her. Well, I emailed the director of the program here and she emailed me back saying they would visit the ship on Friday. All day I was waiting in expectation. They didn’t tell her where they were going but just said it was a surprise. They said as soon as she saw my face she recognized me from pictures. She was as sweet as can be and gave me plenty of hugs and beaming smiles. Though she doesn’t speak much English, we had a great time together. Her mom also came along and was so kind. We ate dinner on board and then walked through the bookstore, hung out on deck, and took some photos. Then they had to head back home because it was quite a journey for them.  We’ve already talked about getting together when I’m here next year. They told me they’d take me out for Balut (please google it and you’ll understand my apprehension). Another thing on my list of “to do” things while on the ship can be checked off. I’ve only been on board for about two months and already God has blessed me tremendously. Man, I love Him! He’s the man.

In ministry-related news, I had two really difficult e-days. Tuesday and Thursday of this week I had edays. More than usual. The first day we went to a slum area and did a children’s program for about 20-30 kids. Highlight? They loooooved Father Abraham I have a video of us doing it that perhaps I can upload one day….maybe.  At the end of our program we got to hand out packets of soap, toothpaste, washcloth, toys, etc to them. There was so much joy on their faces as they clutched the bags to their chest. It was difficult prying it away from them so I could get them to show me what was inside. It was like they were afraid we would take it from them. It’s just heart-breaking to see such poverty. But Thursday was even worse. We went into one of the worst slum areas in Manila. When we pulled up one girl in my group commented, “I don’t want to go in there.”  We did another kids program. Only this time we had nothing to give them at the end. I left feeling discouraged and that we did nothing to really help them. We showed up with our full bellies and clean clothes (or clothes at all), sang some songs, told some stories, played some games, and then left. Yes, we talked about Jesus, but we wanted to do more. We wanted to help the tremendous physical need that was before us. You may hear about extreme poverty but to see it is something completely different. And I saw some in Ecuador, but this was so very different than that. I pray that God will continue to break my heart for these people and to give me an opportunity next year to do something to help. You’ll hear me mention this same issue in my upcoming newsletter (soon, very soon) because I think it bears repeating. We are so much more blessed than we ever understand. So I found a cockroach in my food….I HAD food! It’s amazing what poverty does to your perspective. If you haven’t done it today, thank God for his blessings. They are abundant!

Until next time…from Taiwan!

I had cheesefries!!!!!! March 15, 2009

But before I get to that (I’m seriously still on cloud 9) let me tell you what else has been happening. I swear, there is some fascination of things happening that involve my rear-end. Tuesday I had another eday. The morning was spent doing ministry training but that afternoon we were on the “car deck”. It’s the front part of the ship where people pass through as they are leaving with their purchases. Many edays consist of hanging out there and ministering to the people. We do dramas, face painting, introductions, and other things while people pass through. Well, two guys came up and wanted a picture. The first guy put his arm around my shoulders. I’d rather they not touch but, ok.  Then the second guy comes up and puts his hand…ON MY BUTT! I was like “woah, how about we put your hand up here” and moved it to my shoulder. Who does that? There are many guys here who just give you the heebie jeebies sometimes. There are also some amazingly awesome people here. So friendly! One prayer request is that there are many guys who cross dress. And I mean A LOT. Sometimes you’re wondering if it’s a guy or girl until you hear them talk and you know. Like anywhere in the world, there are just many lost people so please pray that God will work in their lives.
Friday evening we had swing dance practice again. I hadn’t been able to go in three weeks so was excited to get back into it. I finally got up the courage (with Adam’s necessary prodding) to do an around the world.  That is when the guy is holding you and then swings your legs behind him and then you swing your upper body back around to the front.  It was terrifying and probably looked horrible, but I did it! In fact, I’m pretty sure I didn’t do much swinging. Thinking back, I’d really like to see a video of that. It’s probably Adam just holding my legs as my body slowly moves around to the front.  Maybe I’ll video the next time.  Not that you guys would necessarily see it…the Internet here being what it is and all.  I promise I’m going to upload photos at some point in this lifetime!

One day this week, I was working at the ticket booth when I white guy approached.  He spoke and I could tell he was American.  He asked where I was from and then mentioned he was from Arkansas.  When I told him I lived there for two years we found out that he had lived in Harrison too!  Not at the same time but still.  It is a really small town, what are the chances? I met someone in the Philippines who lived in Harrison, Arkansas.  Sometimes I’m amazed at how small the world really is…

Saturday evening after work, Carola and I planned to go out and watch “Taken” at the local theatre.  Then we found out a guy on the ship had it on his computer.  I asked how it was possible that he had a new release on his computer and he claimed it was an accident….sure!   Anyway, so we watched it in my room.  Good movie! All I’m saying is I will not mess with Liam Neeson anytime soon.  Since I’m sure to run into him in Manila. Those guys were such punks. It’s sad to believe sex trafficking like that is really going on.  Go see the movie if you haven’t.  And actually, I was reading in Ezekiel today a passage that mentioned how we shouldn’t want bad things to happen to our enemies or those that do wrong but pray that God would change their lives. I felt really convicted. I mean, you root against the bad guy in movies but what about in real life? I have to be honest, I want evil people to get what’s coming to them. I don’t ever find myself praying for them that God would radically transform their hearts.  There is one guy in particular that has hurt someone in my family. I have not once prayed that God would work in his heart.  Instead I’ve been thinking bad of him and hoping he gets hurt in some way.  I know that’s not how Christ wants me to react. At the same time, I’m not sure I’m in a place to pray for him sincerely.  But it’s definitely something to think about and adjust in my way of thinking.  No one is beyond the Lord’s reach. Think of Paul…he did amazingly horrible things to Christians before he, himself became a Christ follower.  If his life before Christ was made into a movie, I’m sure we would be wishing he was killed brutally.  BUT look at what he accomplished once God got ahold of him. Wow.  His books in the Bible are among my favorites. How many Christians back then were praying for his salvation? Maybe there were many and look what happened. Our prayers can move mountains. Instead of thinking bad about those who hurt me or my family, I pray that I’ll be able to consistently pray that the Lord would get ahold of them.  Tough lesson, whew.
Let me move on to something more light. Yesterday was my day off.  In the morning I went with one of our local volunteers to her church.  She is the sweetest girl, Elisa. We went and got breakfast (yay pancakes finally!) and chatted for awhile before heading to church. She is 33 but looks about 21.  We got to talk alot about God keeping us in this period of singleness and just encourage each other to wait on God’s timing.  It was a really great time.  Her church was really nice.  The people were all very friendly and welcoming. It was more charismatic so definitely different than I was used to. The first song of worship was upbeat and they had four girls enthusiastically doing a choreographed dance in the front.  That was cute.  And the pastor was hilarious.  He spoke in Taglish, a mixture of Tagalog and English.  So I caught about half he was saying.  I didn’t agree with all he spoke about regarding conservative churches and charismatic churches, but I enjoyed being in the fellowship with other believers.  I came back to the ship afterwards and then headed out with a small group to go eat at TGI Fridays.  Adam and I were aching for some American food.  Also with us were Carola, Crystal, and Alex (all from Australia) and Josh (American/Korean/Chinese…too hard to explain). Oh. My. Gosh.  The food was sooooo good.  I had a nice, juicy, huge cheesy bacon cheeseburger.  Yum.  And they had CHEESEFRIES! I could hardly sit still i was so excited.  There is no ranch in this country and as everyone knows…the ranch is essential to good cheesefries. I thought “well, it’s an American restaurant…maybe…”  And they had it!  And they were delicious.  We had fun just hanging out and talking and then walked to a differnt part of the mall (oh yeah, we were at the mall of asia) to watch people fall at the ice skating rink.  And we did catch some good ones.  It was fun just to watch the beginners struggling to stay standing.  There was one girl who apparently face planted by the wall (sadly, I missed that part).  Well the whole rest of the time she just stood against the wall, not moving. After awhile I commented that she wasn’t exactly ice skating.  Adam pointed out that yes, she was instead ice STANDING.  We had a good laugh about that one.  It will be the next Olympic sport.  “And now representing the Philippines in Ice Standing…”  After awhile hanging out there we stopped at the Hypermarket ( a huge supermarket) for some junk food and then headed back….with the craziest taxi driver known to man! I seriously thought I might die.  But I didn’t.  I lived to create another amazing blog post for the masses.  And now I’m off to lunch.  This girl is hungry!

Quite an update! March 9, 2009

Sorry it’s been so long. Have you missed me? Well I hope you have ample time because I have a lot to say and might be kind of long-winded. We are now in Manila. I am still having a ridiculously good time. It almost seems unfair sometimes.  Last week I introduced a couple games to some of my new friends. For those who know we played the dice game and picture telephone. And man, were they a hit! My favorite picture telephone started out as “I got my butt massaged in the Philippines” (if you read a few posts ago, you understand). Well, when it got to Adam he drew a guy sitting in a chair with someone behind him giving a massage. The guy sitting had an american flag on his t-shirt.  Well, the girl who got that one obviously thought that the guy sitting was in a wheelchair because she wrote “America is disabled”. We had a good time laughing about that one.

Before we left Bacolod, Philippines, we were able to go one night to visit a local orphanage. The American couple that started it 21 years ago met some of the crew from the Doulos when it was there 21 years ago. They have been praying for the ministry ever since and wanted as many of us as were able to come to dinner. Well, about 100 of us went and it was amazing!! The couple that started it came to the Philippines to be church planters. God placed two children with them and it just grew from there.  They treat it as a family and say that all the kids are their children.  The children call them mom and dad too.  It’s a huge family too….150 kids!  It was just so amazing to see people be completely open to whatever God wanted for them. You could see the love of God radiating from every face in that family.  It was so encouraging to see. And the dinner was amazing! There was so much food and it was delicious.  We definitely left there feeling more blessed than we felt we blessed them.

Also, I fulfilled one of the things on my “to do” list….being outside at night-time and staring up at the stars while we are sailing from one port to another.  All I can say is…wow.  I was out with a few other girls and we just sat out on the deck talking and gazing at God’s amazing creation.  We actually stayed out past curfew (shhh).  It was so relaxing and I was just overwhelmed with how small I am compared to all that God has created.  The stars were brilliant and sometimes would appear to be jumping right out of the sky when we stared at them so long. What an amazing God we serve! And to think that little ol’ me gets to serve him…how humbling.  Oh yes, we also saw an amazing shooting star! It was bright orange and huge.  It crossed such a huge portion of the sky we could do nothing but yell “ahhhhhh!” We’re quite an articulate bunch. So needless to say, that was one of the best moments on the ship thus far.  I wish you could all have been there to share it with me.  I’m looking forward to the voyage from Manila to Taiwan because we’ll be away from the coast and should see even more stars.  There’s an opportunity for 7 people a night to sleep out on the deck.  I may take advantage of that!

The following night, while we were still sailing, we had a fun night.  They usually plan one during each voyage. The theme was “20 years from now”.  Many people dressed up but I couldnt’ think of an interesting enough costume. Well, one of the funniest things was a mock funeral.  See, earlier in the day they had a man overboard drill. They have a dummy made out of rope that they put a life vest on and throw into the ocean.  Then they have to rescue him.  Well “Drew the dummy” was lost at sea.  Moment of silence.  They were unable to rescue him.  So at the beginning of fun night these guys in black carried in a black box and they mourned the loss of Drew. They really played it up and it was so hilarious. There are definitely some interesting people on board.  I feel like I fit right in

Then we arrived in Manila! It is so cool to be here and see the city where I will be living soon. One of my friends from church has a friend that lives here and we have been exchanging emails, planning to meet.  Well she came to the ship Friday and took me and a friend out.  Her name is Rhoda and she could not be sweeter.  We went to the mall of Asia (the biggest mall in Asia) and ate lunch, and just walked around hanging out.  Then we went to a market area. It was just a nice, relaxing day and I enjoyed making a new friend! We hope to see her again soon.

Work is going well.  I was on night shift this past week.  We start at 4:30pm and go until we are finished.  Well, Saturday was quite a day. There were so many people who came to the ship and they made a huge MESS in the bookstore.  We closed at 10pm and then had to clean up.  It took quite a while.  After that, we had to go down into the book holds and pull all the books we sold that day.  And man, were there a lot!  I think we pulled 76 bins full of books or something like that.  Whew.  Then we had to put them all away.  We finally finished at 2:30am.  We were so exhausted.  We don’t usually finish that late.  So yes, it is exhausting but so much fun.  I just wish you could all experience it with me.

Well, today is my off day and I plan to go lounge around and be lazy.  I hope you made it through all that and feel a little closer to me today.  Love you all!