Day 1 - Monday, January 31

This morning started at 6am with a Filipino breakfast at the Smallville21 Hotel, 7am Mass in Santa Barbara, 8am flag raising ceremony...

...then it all began. And honestly, I was scared out of my mind!

I was scared because I didn't know most of the 150+ people on this medical mission, I wasn't confident that I knew what I was doing in the pharmacy, and I couldn't speak Tagalog or Ilongo.

"For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid,

but gives us power, love and self-discipline."

(2 Timothy 1:7)

After hours on my feet in the pharmacy filling patients' and families' medications, I forgot about feeling uncomfortable out of my element. There was so much work and service to keep us busy, and so much to be thankful for. Rather than all of us complaining about how hot it was in that small room crammed with 20 nurses and pharmacists, or how our feet hurt and were swollen, or how our tired bodies just wanted to go home and relax, the response each time we had more work to do was "Praise God!" I was truly inspired (to stop whining and see the world in a different light).

And praise God indeed, that He would bless us with the resources for all of this to happen and that He would call us to do His work on earth!