Hilario's Zone: 01/02/2009

Friday, 20 February 2009

Joanna's High School Graduation

Joanna's " Early Graduation Photos "

Joanna and I will leave for New Zealand on March 1st 2009. Due to our departure date she was going to miss her High School Graduation Ceremony on April 7. However today while we were at her school collecting her transcript and school report card her High School Principal offered her the opportunity of dressing in the Toga and Cap so she could have her photograph taken. In this way she can join her classmates in the Grace Baptist Academy Year Book 2008-2009

So here she is! We are so proud of you Joanna!

WELL DONE!

We have been very busy here this past month preparing Joanna for her " BIG MOVE" to NZ. Here are some pics of her last days here......

Driving Lessons from Mel and how to care for a car .....

Packing up her room and .........

...selling all her belongings in a yard sale...one of the most amazingly fast and successful yard sales I have ever experienced!
Thank you for praying!

..............everything sold in less than three hours and for a very good profit!......

.........spending last moments and saying goodbye to good friends.......

........saying goodbye to classmates...........

.....playing the last game of basket ball.......

Yes as I said Joanna & I will be flying into Auckland , NZ on March 2ND.

For those of you who haven't heard Joanna is moving to New Zealand to live, work and study.
She will live with the Morton Family in Mount Maunganui .

I will help settle Joanna into her new life in NZ and will be there for almost six weeks. Mel will remain here.

Please pray for us while we are apart.

Initially Joanna and I will be in Auckland for a few days staying with our friends the Taylor family.

This is also where Jonathan is living at the moment.

We will then continue on down to the Mount and stay a night or two over the weekend of March 7 and leave Joanna's belongings there. Our plan then is to continue on down to Taranaki on the 9Th and stay until the 12Th of March where we will visit my Dad, sister and some friends. On the 13Th of March we will travel on to Palmerston North for the weekend to see my sister and for Joanna to visit friends in Masterton on the weekend (14Th & 15Th of March)..after that we are unsure of our plans.......However I know that I fly back to the Philippines on April 10 and leave Joanna behind at the Mount.

Well this is just to let you in on our tentative plan so far.

By the way belated Happy Valentines!

Sunday, 8 February 2009

Joanna's Last Day of School & 17Th Birthday January 30

Happy 17Th Birthday Joanna!

Breakfast at 7am before leaving for her last day of school!

Joanna at 6 months of age......1990

It's hard to believe that our baby is all grown up and is now 17 years old and leaving home soon!!!!

Getting ready to leave for her last day of school.

Joanna has been working hard all year to finish High School.

Finally on her 17Th Birthday January 30 2009 she attended High School for her last day!

Her classmates/friends surprised her with a surprise birthday/last day of school lunch.

To her delight the teacher had allowed her classmates to leave school for an hour and to bring back with them a special noodle dish and a birthday cake. Of course there was coca-cola to polish it off!

Oh no! Cake fight!

Tastes Great!

Final farewells to her Korean school mates

..and her little school friends as well.....

Well Done Joanna...You made it!......We love you!

Saturday, 7 February 2009

Friends from our home church in Mt Maunganui NZ visit

On January 20Th Mel and I took a trip to Manila to pick up two NZ ladies from the Manila International Airport arriving from Cambodia where they had been visiting other missionaries from our home church. Marilyn Sing is our mission's team leader and our other visitor was Rachel Morton. When Joanna moves to New Zealand she will live with the Morton family. Both of these ladies are from the Mt Maunganui Baptist Church in NZ

However the next day before we left Manila for Baguio we needed to drop by YWAM Balut where the YWAM Philippines National Leadership Team were meeting.

Mel outside YWAM Balut ( Mel is always our ever faithful and willing driver!)

Mel had been asked to share a little to the group meeting about our plans for the coming year(s). Here we are in YWAM Balut with the National leaders and others! (I am pictured in the middle front..Mel is at the back with our National Leader Rheo Loseo and Marilyn has her head between the two..thank you Rachel for insisting on taking this pic!

Some of the leaders prayed for us and released us into our next phase of ministry. After a few prayers and words from the Lord we left the meeting and continued on our 6 hour journey to Baguio.

On the way up to Baguio it was so warm.......what better way to cool off than to drop by a local resort and sample a nice cool Filipino desert called Halo Halo (Mix Mix)..its shaved ice, sweet assorted beans, pounded rice, jelly, leche flan (egg & sweet milk), nata de coco (lumps of fermented coconut milk) & ube (a root crop) ice-cream.

Marilyn, Rachel & I about to tuck into a Halo - Halo (Pronounced Hahlow)

Halo - Halo anyone? (Where's Mel's? ...oh he's started his already!)

After a walk around the resort and enjoying a stretch....

....we made our way back to the car via the only way in and out of the resort via a swing bridge ...we then continued the climb up to Baguio City....

Just before entering Baguio City we stopped for picture taking at "The Lions Head"

This is the first time I have done this although we have passed this Lion Head so many times!

Its good to be a tourist sometimes!

Finally we made it home ...looking very tired the next day at home eating breakfast!

It is always such an encouragement and well worth the trip to Manila to bring friends to visit "our turf " for a few days..Marilyn & Rachel were here with us for five complete days and had a good look around Baguio City, they were also able to see this years FMS students doing some ministry in the high school, visit Marilyn's sponsored child, catch up with those Marilyn had met two years ago, did some shopping (of course.....we wouldn't be ladies if we didn't now would we?)