Rachel Hampton

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!