philippines trip posts

Man, over a month since the last post. Once again the blog has fallen by the wayside. So much time needed to do stuff and so little time to commit...

It's been customary of me to post trip reports from my trips here - not saying much given that I've only taken one other trip to new places since my blogging career began - so I'll do the same for the Philippines trip. But since that one was so lonng and so packed with stuff so much more meaningful than a touristy vacation, it'll have to be done over several days methinks.

Well, it turns out that, at the urging of our pastor/team leader, I conveniently kept a journal - an amazingly good idea that I had once hoped to apply on a regular basis but have long since given up all hope of actually carrying out - during the trip. This means I have a short report of every day of our work there. And, the first "real" day of the trip was a Saturday, which happens to be exactly three weeks prior to today. So my game plan is to copy my journal over to my blog (editing portions as necessary or as I feel like), one day at a time, in successive days. It should be easy enough for even me to remember.

Trouble is, it will also require amazing diligence for 11 consecutive days. Doing something consistently for 11 days in a row is completely unheard of in my life. I honestly can't think of the last time I did a simple activity (pure leisure stuff and basic needs like eating excluded), even reading the Bible (why isn't this in the leisure stuff category?), for that many days straight. Perhaps I never have. Well, okay, my freshman and sophomore years of college I did the regular Bible reading thing, but that's been a while. But 11 days in a row without missing...that I can't be sure of. Heck, I know there haven't been 11 straight days in my life that I did homework on. I'm not even confident I've ever been to 11 classes in a row (at least not since freshman year) either of the same class or different ones back to back. I've tried to exercise regularly, but that regularly? Ha! Try three or four. I mean, anything...prepared my own meals...spent meaningful time in prayer...talked to someone for longer than 15 seconds...never happened.

So, such a thing as this would be a feat. Sad as it may be, it'd actually be somewhat of a milestone in my life. Geez, how's that for starting somewhere? And there you have it, Jesse's Encouraging Note of the Day...or as close as Jesse comes to encouragement, anyway.