To begin with...

I'm running over the past few days in my head and thinking about what all I should report on, and while I've been quite busy fighting jet lag and covering a visit from a delegation of congressman, the only thing that is really standing out in my mind is Sunday morning.

I've always enjoyed worshipping in churches internationally. It is such a picture of the Body of Christ to step into a gathering in another country and know that regardless of the language you are connected through the Spirit and the same belief in Christ. I love to sing together! Even if we're not singing in the same language, it's so incredible when I know the song, and can worship together.

I was blessed to be in a service that was actually in english, but what touched me this time about being amongst a different part of the Body of Christ than usual was just how passionate they were. This may not seem unusual to those that have been in church services in other countries, but here's what I thought as I stood there singing with them, and praying with them: I was thinking about the devastation that they have gone through. I didn't even come in the initial phase of the response to Typhoon Yolanda, but when I did arrive a month later- the destruction was still quite evident and impactful. Pictures don't create the feeling that walking into a city and being surrounded by torn apart buildings, missing roofs, twisted and dangling power lines, and crushed vehicles strewn about does. Many of these people lived through the storm here, all of them have been effected by it. All of them have lost neighbors, or known someone that died. To stand among them and hear their passion and praise overflow to the Lord- words can't describe that.

To leave what I know as home, my friends, my 'stuff', all of it seems diminished when you put it into the reality of the situation of the people I am now privileged to work along side. I have so much to be thankful for- and standing side by side with my brothers and sisters in Tacloban and singing just made that even more apparent. There are many needs and there is much healing that needs to occur for these people, but there is also hope in the Lord. Sunday I was encouraged and blessed with a fresh perspective.