Craigs in Cauayan

This past week I was again given the sad duty of telling one of our much-loved missionaries that his father had died.  In a poorer country with regards to worldly means, such as the Philippines, this is unfortunately a more common experience than it should be.  Thirty two of our young missionaries have sadly lost close family members since our arrival here 16 months ago.  This week’s loss was particularly difficult because the loss of his father at age 50 has left this young man orphaned. His mother died a few years ago.  His two surviving siblings are working and studying in Manila and cannot come to the burial because of severe travel restrictions caused by the pandemic.  Our brave young missionary must face this sorrow alone.   He is one of the missionaries  we received into the mission not long ago.  He was serving in Africa but was evacuated home at the start of the pandemic.  I find it interesting that our Father in Heaven, with His perfect foreknowledge, had him come home and sp

It has been said that the only thing constant is life is change.   At home, the regular change of Seasons is often a welcome change, as each Season brings with it a refreshing new start.  Even here in the Philippines, where it is always hot and always green, there are subtle changes in the Seasons.  We have been enjoying a much welcomed cool (80F) and rainy few days, and I have appreciated the change. Sometimes we look forward to change, and other times we dread it.  The only real flurry of events this week had to do with unexpected changes.   We have a list of things that we need to do in order for a missionary to return when their mission concludes.  We used to just print the boarding passes, weigh their luggage, and send them home with the rest of their batch once every 6 weeks.  Easy.  This last couple of weeks we have had multiple departures, all having different requirements according to where they were going.  We thought we had the drill down, get a travel pass and medical clear