come and be part of our story

April 26, 2012

Dear Friends and Family,

We’re home in Seattle and have been enjoying our time reconnecting.  We’ve also tried to take advantage of any opportunities for rest after such a whirlwind of a year.  From moving overseas, to working amongst the urban poor, to building new friendships, to getting engaged, this year has been full – and full with what we could have only just barely imagined before.

We’ll be getting married later this month!  And, after the wedding, we’ll be flying back for another year in Manila.  So, amidst the wedding preparations, we also find ourselves preparing and raising support for this year to come.

It seems strange and somewhat alien to once again be soliciting gifts, as we have very little to offer in exchange.  But we hope that as we share a glimpse with you of the year past and of our hopes for the year to come, you might find in yourself a desire to be part of our story.

Sarah has found joy in her classmates and at her school, Asian Theological Seminary, where she studies Transformational Urban Leadership.  She has completed two semesters of her four-semester program.  Her lessons inside the classroom have covered topics like: theology of the urban poor, microfinance, sustainable development, and church planting.  She spent three days in silence waiting for God, and another three days sleeping under a bridge with the urban poor.  She and Dale did a two month internship in an urban poor community, learning and helping as a new church was planted.  They also spent over seven months in language school, doing their best to learn Tagalog.

Starting in June, Sarah will begin the research process for her thesis, which will explore how broken relationships are the leading cause of poverty and how Jesus came for reconciliation.

Dale has spent much of his time with Precious Jewels Ministry, working with children and families impacted by HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.  The bulk of his time is spent with five children in particular – kids who have lost so much in their short lives, and yet are living lives full of joy and wonder.  Dale’s arrival at the house is always received as a jubilant event, and his departure as a prolonged, unacceptable eventuality.  He has seen the children grow and, with them, his relationships with them have grown.  The last several months have also been spent engaging in preparations for PJM’s 25th Anniversary, including the production of a commemorative anniversary video.  Dale is trying to learn what it means to live a whole life in pursuit of God, in all areas and in all ways, from his relationships with the children at PJM to the people he meets on the street.

In the coming year, Dale will continue his work at PJM with the kids and expand on it.  After the anniversary in October, he will be working with the organization to update and standardize their technological presence.  This will include work on their website, letterhead, filing systems, computer systems.  He is hoping that his giftedness in this area will bless PJM in a place where they have expressed a deep desire for help.

We want you to know how thankful we are for your friendship.  And, should you choose to partner with us this year, we would be grateful.  If you are interested in committing to supporting us in prayer on a regular basis, please contact us at the email given at the end of this letter, and we will make sure to update you periodically throughout the year.

If you are interested in supporting us financially, you can send us a check directly to the U.S. address listed below.  For more transaction options, including tax deductible or online options, please visit our website listed below and click “partner with us”.

If you would like to know more about our time in the Philippines, we would be excited to talk with you personally!  Please contact us!  Please also feel free to read more on our blogs.  You can find them here:

http://www.malaman.net/

http://sarahinthephilippines.wordpress.com/

We will be missing you all during this upcoming year, and we will be holding you in our prayers.  Thank you again for your friendship and love – it is something that, we have discovered, is more rare and more valuable than we had ever realized.

Grace to you and peace,

Dale Bustad and Sarah Ryer (Bustad)

tel: 425.533.2266

email: daleandsarah@malaman.net

website: www.malaman.net

USA                                        Philippines

12926 NE 131st PL                 19B Masigla St.

Kirkland, WA 98034                Bgy. Central

Quezon City, Philippines

thoughts on chaos and poverty of the heart…

Poverty is not an economical condition. It is in our souls, in our hearts, in our minds, and in our spirits. The poor man may be richer than the rich man but these are just labels we put on people. Labels are not helpful, neither are stereotypes, we need God, desperately, to come in and break down walls that we cannot break down.

These are all great ideas. I see and understand the importance of relationship, of how God will simply take charge of these things. I learned lessons from Thomas Green about floating along in a river and letting the current take me where it will. I’ve attempted to learn to sit in silence, I’ve read books, I spent the weekend sleeping in a landfil. I’ve learned about why God can still be clean inside of me, about why the Psalms are us telling God what he’s taught us. I know about how Evil is still at large in the world and will come into our life’s whether we invite it in or not. I now see that the Bible must make more sense to the urban poor than it does to the wealthy man. I know that “poor” and “rich” are economical terms, and not really realistic words. The rich might be rich in money but they are poor in their hearts, and poor may not have physical things, but this does not make them poor. I see that greed is a word given to the outpouring of broken relationships, and that the church is sometimes only interested in upward mobility. I understand that my pathetic attempt at solidarity must be done out of conviction because otherwise I am climbing the ladder of downward mobility, still making myself feel good. I see that there’s no such thing as a quick fix, especially when you’re talking about poverty, of the heart or otherwise. I am beginning to understand that God likes chaos, and my heart is chaos which is why he probably loves me so much. I learned that relationship is vulnerability, and we’re frighten of it yet we preach from the alters about a God who made himself vulnerable and then torn himself from his own heart in order that we might return to him. We seem to have missed a major factor in this situation, Jesus was vulnerable, really vulnerable. And not just because he was naked and nailed to a cross, but because he came to earth and lived as a human did. That meant that he probably got his feelings hurt a lot, he probably got physically hurt too. He had to hurt people too. We forgot that part of the story. Or we were never taught it, maybe we never stopped and thought about it. I learned a great deal from my work on the streets in Seattle, and many lessons from my last four months in Manila. Both inside and outside of the classroom. I have walked the pathways of my heart, I have sat in silence, I’ve slept under a bridge. Yet, even though I have done all these things, I still know nothing.

One of my favorite worship songs is by a band called Addison Road it’s called, What do I know of Holy? Perhaps one of the most striking lines in that song is, “where have I even stood but the shore along your ocean…” To me this is the most striking image. There’s this place back in Washington my parents used to take me and my sister when we were children. It’s called Long Beach, adequately named for its vastness of ocean and sandy beach. The waves can get pretty high there, the water will numb your feet the moment you step in it, and you can walk for miles and never reach the end of the beach. You can strain your eyes for hours and you will never see anything beyond the horizon other than clouds far out at sea. I love the ocean. As a child I would run right up to the waves as they broke and then run away from the eddies as they ran up the beach. I’d try not to get wet because it was so cold and I dislike being cold. Sometimes I would run after a piece of wood that was caught in the waves, just about to come on shore, but not quite. It looked so small floating there, so I would run in and grab it, but when I started to try to drag it out I would find how heavy it was. I could hardly lift it because it was half my height. I was always surprised by this, it looked so small in the ocean! I realised not long after this that if the ocean had eyes, I was about as insignificant as that piece of driftwood. I weighed nothing, I  could be tossed around and no one would notice really. My mother warned me of the currents in the ocean and not to be caught by them because I could drown because against the power of the ocean I was helpless. So small, so powerless, standing on the shore of this mighty vast expanse of water too big for my eyes to take in, or for my mind to comprehend. Just like God is. Too big for my small mind, heart, and soul to make sense of. Even things Jesus said and did I can’t understand. I have had all these experiences, learned all these lessons, heard this many sermons, made friends with these people, and still where have I even stood but on the very tiny tip of the vastness of God’s love?

Yet I will stay there. I will wade into the ocean of chaos inside my heart and inside the other persons heart even if it’s cold like the waves, even if I dislike it sometimes. I will make myself vulnerable, I will seek inner silence, I will keep pulling drift wood out of the water even if it’s bigger than I am. I will keep chasing the waves. I want to stand on that “shore along your ocean” and I want to breath the name of God, YHWH over and over until it becomes engrained into my heart. And someday I hope someone comes with me to stand near me on the shore so we can look at the vastness of God’s chaos together in relationship bound together by the deepest pathways of our hearts.

 

In which I attempt to learn Tagalog

I majored in Linguistics, which sometimes is a blessing when learning another language, and sometimes the most unhelpful thing in the world. It’s good because the bizzare way Tagalog conjugates verbs is not strange to me, but unhelpful because instead of learning the vocabualry I become distracted by why the stress moved in the syllable. My language teachers just move on whenever I point it out. It’s not the point anyways, the point is to learn to speak. Which I am slowly getting better at.

I just want to share some of the funnier things I learned in class.

Tagalog has desided that it can conjugate verbs however it wants, and it can borrow English verbs, and use Tagalog conjugation to turn them into Tagalog words. Thus the “taglish” that many people speak in Manila.

For example: to try
itry
itinry
itinatry
itatry

There is an added prefix i- and an added infix (sometimes) -in- so putting these prefix/infix on the English word is has become Tagalog! There is a lot more to it than that, I am over simplifying beceause I know not all of you are as in love with word patterns as I am.

I find this pheonemone rather funny, and Dale and I use it almost every day to make English verbs into Tagalog just because we can.

Additionally, I can make the sentance:
Hindi siya nag-alaga ng aso.
He didn’t take care of the dog.

If I change the congugation of the verb “alaga” I can make the sentence:
The dog didn’t care for him.
This slight changes results in endless laughter because most of the time I conjugate it wrong.

By far the funniest thing that happened in a while was today. We were making sentances using more than one verb.

Our teacher wrote the sentance:
Ano ang gusto mong kainin sa tanghalian?
What would you like to eat for breakfast?

Then he wrote:
Gusto kong kumain ng ________
I would like to eat ______

He said to me, “Sarah, ano…” (what)
I said, “gagamba” (which in English means spider)

He started laughing so hard he had to sit down. I think the randomness caught him off guard, plus Filippinos just love to laugh…

Really I only said it because “gagamba” is such a funny word to say…

Language lesson over. Consider you Tagalog vocab improved.

Love,

me

in which we get engaged

Ok first, getting engaged was never in my game plan…then again neither was moving to the Philippines…But both happened, and here is the story.

Dale and I have been talking about getting married for about a month or maybe just over a month. We’ve actually been planning for that long, as some of you already know. Really our engagement took so long ’cause Dale couldn’t get the ring here. No one would insure it. He finally mangaged to find someone who was coming from America to Manila who brought it over for him.

He told me on Thursday afternoon that he had to go somewhere, but didn’t tell me where. When I asked later he wouldn’t tell me, although I figured it wasn’t anywhere bad as he came back unharmed.

On Friday we went down to visit Steve Ruetchle, the man who Dale cared for in Seattle after the motor bike wreck. Most of you know that story. They live in an area of Manila where most of the people are extremely wealthy and therefore do not congregate on the streets to sell things, or be a “stand by” aka loiter. There is also hardly any trash, the water in the gutters drains down the gutter and is clear, we can breath since there is less pollution, it’s very quiet, as public transportation is not allowed inside, so basically it’s paradise to us. Quiet streets are a rare gift here, as is silence. Manila is very loud.

Anyway, we went for a walk, which also was nice as there was nothing to dodge on the streets, and no one called to us or followed as around. We were just talking while we walked around and around and I was getting hot. Finally Dale, who had change in his pocket to distract me, asked me “Sarah, do you love me?” and then I knew what was coming (not that I already had some idea before hand) “Yes, I love you very much.” I told him. Then he got down on one knee and asked me “Sarah Ryer will you marry me? Even though I think I already know what you will say…”
I started laughing, and of course I said yes!!!

When we went back to the Ruetchle’s house afterward we were bombarded by their children throwing paper balls at us and squirting us with water guns. This delayed the announcement until dinner time when we told them. They got really excited and then proceeded to spoil us rotten for the next three days. We were very blessed by them.

I now have a very pretty ring and a very real wedding to plan. The date is May 13th at Golden Gardens. Almost exactly one year after my going away party at GG. Not that I planned it that way or anything…

We’ll be back in Seattle in mid-April. We look forward to seeing each of you when we come home! Miss you all tons out here and we covet your prayers for safety, health, and strength and courage for our hearts. We need those things every single day.

Love,

Sarah

 

In which I reappear…

Sometimes I have fleeting moments here when suddenly I think “I live in the Philippines” and sometimes I think “this is my home”

They’re few and far between but they come at the strangest times. Like getting off the bus in on to a crowed street. Or today when I was going down the stairs to the street from my apartment. It has just been pouring rain and when I looked out over the roof tops the light was shining through the clouds in a bright gray short of way and I had one of those moments.

I look out over the tin roof tops every day, they have old tires on top of them to keep them from blowing off. But for some reason today when I looked out over this view it was one of those moments of love.

They come infrequently, but when they come I am filled with joy. Thanks be to God.

I have vanished. That could be on account of many things. School one of them, the arrival of a distraction named Dale, and the fact that we now learn Tagalog four days a week for two hours a day. Sometimes when I get to come home at night all I can do is fall face down on my bed because I am tired. Unfortunately I can’t think enough to spell my own name.

But I was enlightened today by that moment looking over the roof tops while the smoke from outdoor cooking clogged the air. I miss all of you. It’s time I wrote again.

I think it’s ok to say that school is in full swing now. I’ve had some interesting experiences that I will highlight.

My Urban Spirituality took us on a silent retreat. That’s right, silent. We weren’t supposed to talk for two nights and three days. When did speak again my voice sounded so strange, even to me. We went to this place called Sacred Heart. It was beautiful. It was filled with green grass, trees, plants I’ve never seen, and swings hanging from trees. I spent the first day running around the whole place looking at everything because I’d never seen most of the plants that were growing there. The theory of the practice of silence is complex, but the general idea is that we sit and wait in silence not thinking about anything until God comes. Then when God comes he will tell us what he wants us to hear, not what we want to ask. It’s the opposite of most of our experiences. It’s a time of rest, of waiting, to not come to God with a shopping list but to wait. It’s strange, but it’s amazing.

My Urban Reality and Theology class seems bound and determined to teach me so much about the economy of the Philippines and the structure of the government that in the end I will know more about the Philippine government and economy than I do my own. I never had econ at uni, and didn’t pay attention in poli sci so perhaps this is good for me. Out of all of my classes I like this one the best. Mostly because I am forced to face issues I don’t understand, I learn a lot about why the Philippines is the way it is, my ideas are challenged, and the teacher is a geniuses even if he never starts class on time.

Writing Academic Papers is a class with quotable moments from my classmates mostly taken from the three sessions we spent on plagiarism:

“Sir, are doctors accused of plagiarism for prescribing the same medications?”

“Are their cases of misrepresenting and author?”
“Maybe sir, I don’t know.”
“There will be sir”
laughter
“Ok, next week I will lead a series of devotions on not plagiarizing”

“Did Luke plagiarise?”
“I don’t think so sir, because he cited the sources.”
“Really? Where?”
“Verse 4 sir.”

Introduction to the Bible is amazing. I like this class the most. I learn very important things, such as:
“Who wrote the book of 2 Samuel?”
“Samuel sir”
laughter
“Well it’s assured that Samuel didn’t write it because he dies at the end of 1 Samuel.”
“Foresight sir”

No really, I like this class a lot. It’s an overview of the Bible which means my teacher has four months to get us through the whole Bible. He talks for two and half hours nonstop. I take  a lot of notes. He is also very well read so he gives us lots of background information that I don’t know or have never heard.

 

Tagalog. As mentioned in my introduction Dale and I now go to language school four days a week for two hours. We are learning so much it’s amazing to me. I can have a conversation about my family, rooms of the house, introduce myself, explain where I am going and where I went today, where I’m from, where I live, count, name parts of the body, sing some random children’s songs, make sentences about where something is, what something is, and some other things I am currently forgetting. We can speak and we can understand our teachers. We’ve been going for about a month. It’s amazing. It’s because right now we are taught using TPR Total Physical Response meaning that everything we’ve learned we’ve physically done. This makes our brains remember things better. Dale and I are both quick learners and we see the importance of learning Tagalog. Our school is such a safe place. I can ask anything, make any sort of mistake, and I not ridiculed or hurt. I can’t think of a better place to learn than at this place. It’s truly a blessing. Right now we’re having a blast, when we start grammar though…well I’ll get back to you.

Dale and I learn every day how to live in this culture and every day we get more and more used to it. Please pray for us as we make this adjustment. The weather and pollution wears on our hearts and bodies, pray for our health and for teachable spirits and that we would be able to see God admits the chaos of our daily lives.

Thank you all for reading this. I would also like to say that I have internet and am more than happy to spend my early morning talking to any of you. Thank you for your prayers and continuing to be part of my story even when I am so far away.

Love,

me

June 23, 2011

Phillipinos are so funny when it rains. They get really worried about getting their heads wet. I see men here walking around with towels on their heads while the rest of the is soaked. As long as their head is dry they seem to be ok. Or the kids, who don’t seem to mind, just run and jump in the puddles in the streets. There is no shortage of puddles, let me tell you. It’ll rain for 10 minutes and the streets are flooded. It’s crazy. I’ve never seen anything like it. There is currently water leaking into my bedroom on one wall between the crack of the floor and the wall. The same wall also has a crack in it and water is seeping through. But the landlord can’t really do anything until it stops raining…goodness knows when that will be. In the mean time I retreated to the top bunk of my bed and felt rather like Winnie the Pooh who retreats to a tree branch in one of the stories because it’s raining so much. At last I am able to fully experience the plight of my childhood love. One lifelong goal accomplished.

And as you may have guessed it is raining today.

I have been away from Seattle for about a month to the day, and in the Philippines for almost a month as well. It feels like a year. But that’s the way it is here, one day feels like a week and a week like a month and month like a year. That doesn’t add up but you get the point. I’d like to highlight some of the things I have been doing over the year aka month.

Office of the Quarantine:

You will all be pleased to know that I am not infected with any random disease according to my tests at the office of the Quarantine. In no way is this possibly an organized system. You go into a room and wait, and then into another room and wait again. They help you in some sort of order that I have no way of explaining or understanding. But I waited and waited, and waited, and eventually was cleared. I gave them 650P and they gave me a stamp in my passport. It took the whole day. I learned during this experience that I am all right just waiting when I have nowhere else to be, Philippino people travel very very far sometimes to get to work, air con is good sometimes, esp when in small enclosed areas. I was also informed by the person who was accompanying me that the old building had been knocked down, evidence of this was based on not only did my friend not know where to go, but also the huge pile of rubble in the court yard. “It’s a good thing” he told me, “there was mold growing on the walls.” Whether is this true or not I don’t know as I did not have time to pick up the pieces of the building and check.

School:

I began school at Asian Theological Seminary on June 13 2011. Right about when everything in the states is launching into summer vac I launched into grad school. I take the following classes:

Urban Reality and Theology. Last time we had class we were given a homework assignment that was to define salvation of souls, holistic ministry, and to read the book of Amos. This was after we spent about an hour and half trying to come up with a definition for the outcome of “urban ministry”. Needless to say we all found that our idea where a bit…well buss words.

Urban Spirituality. If this class doesn’t make my head explode I don’t know what will. I am expected to go on a silent retreat for 3 days in which I am not allowed to talk. I think when I come off that I will have forgotten how to talk…which would be odd…although in Japan I have memories of going for the whole day without speaking to anyone.  Seems like someone else’s life. Anyway, this class is pretty amazing. I kinda like a lot.

Writing Academic papers.” Sarah,” you ask in shock,” you have a BA why are you in this class?” Well, let me tell you why. I believe the last paper I wrote was in Shakespeare 300 and/or was some 10 or more page linguistic analysis of some complex theory I never understood why I understood. I need to take this class, plus I have the whole term to write a 12 page paper. Hear that a WHOLE TERM. That’s like 3 months. 12 pages later I will know all about the Philippine economy and prostitution. Consider me an expert. Joke. As a side note I am not allowed to use the internet and can only use books by Filipino authors. Great. That just made it twice as challenging.

Introduction to the Bible. In this class my professor is quiet funny and so was the student sitting next to me. It seems ok here to call out in class, although you address professors as “sir” or “mam”. It’s funny. I don’t think I will ever call out in class.

Samaritana:

Recommended to me by several people I have been visiting this organistation that works with women who are recovering from prostitution. I am not sure how much I am allowed to write about what who they are, but they pretty much run a training programme that trains girls in things like card and jewelry making, catering, housekeeping, and works with them to pass their GED equivalency test. They’re pretty cool. I kinda like them a lot, even though I am still learning a ton about it.

Tagalog:

I so far have managed to learn some very important things. *clears throat*

Po: please
Ba: questions form
para po: stop (useful when the bus driver goes past where you live)
Aso: dog
Queso: cheese
Alleric ako sa queso: I’m allergic to cheese
Allergic ako sa ista: I am allergic to fish (I’m not, I learned this for Dale- that’s right you owe me big)

I think that brings you up to speed. I know nothing. I’ll be going to language school at the end of July and in the meantime will make more of an effort to try to teach myself.

Apartment:

It’s great. My roommate is great. The dog is great. The rabbit is great. The shower is cold but we live really close to EDSA (a major road) and the MRT (train) We have water sometimes, a rooster lives in the complex, our neighbors are really nice, and the door is now easy to open. If it’s not raining we can climb out of our window on to the tin roof and sit outside since it gets hot inside.

Air con:

Still not a fan.

Public transportation:

Well let’s just talk about this for a moment. This is what it’s like to walk down the street.

The sidewalks aren’t even, so you have to look down, then you have to look up to make sure you don’t hit your head on a roof, you have to look ahead to make sure you don’t walk into anyone, and you have to look around to make sure no one is gonna pick pocket you. And watch out of standing water and power lines that are hanging down. When it rains add 16 to all this. AND in case that’s not enough just because the light is red doesn’t mean the cars are going to stop, and that rule about blocking intersections doesn’t apply here. The best thing to do when crossing the street is to wait for a moment of clear on one side and then walk half way across and wait for it to clear. If it won’t then hey, just wind you way through the vehicles and make sure they don’t run over your toes. Oh and watch out because once you get to the side walk you have to make sure about all those things I mentioned before… if tehre is a side walk, sometimes there isn’t and you can just walk down the road. But if it’s raining you have to walk in the middle of the road and get honked at. But if it’s sunny you’ll get honked at anyways, esp by taxis. And if you want to get on a bus or a jeepney, all you have to do is watch the road and when one is coming that you want just wave your hand and it will pull over. Get on fast and hold on because chances are they will accelerate hard core before you are even really on the bus. Or they won’t stop and you have to jump. That’s fun. Oh and a three person seat is a four person and a two a three, and anyone can get on just squish. Its fun let me tell you. It’s hot and polluted too, but all in all I don’t mind it. Beats driving by a long shot. I don’t think you could PAY me to drive here…you’d have to pay me a lot…

Well I need to go print off something for my class which starts in 20 minutes. If you made it through this whole thing I greatly commend you. If you’re laughing my job is complete. If you’re crying maybe you should email me. I promise to post more as time goes on. I‘d love to hear from you, even if it’s just an email saying hi. It would mean the world to me. I covet all your prayers and I wish you all the best and that God is alive in your lives.

Love,

Sarah

day 4

Ok. Today I was outside walking around going no where really and it began to rain. I was thinking, oh no, here we go. So I found some cover and proceeded to watch the craziest rain hammer down on the streets of Manila. It lasted for maybe 15 minutes all of which I spent under cover. Then there was water in the street because the gutters aren’t super great, that was probably above my ankles. Welcome to rainy season. It was amazing though, I was upset before it started raining and when it was over I was all right…it’s still warm here, even when it rains…

I’m so used to being around people all the time and now I am not…mostly I am by myself because I moved into the place I will live. It’s strange for me…I have to recall my memories and coping mechanisms that I used when in Japan and was by myself always…It’s so strange…Please pray for the condition of my heart.

Soon I will get connected at school and with a church. I will learn my way around this chaotic city and learn some Tagalog…I will go on trips outside of the city to the pretty places you see in pictures. Only I’ll be there.

I love you all and think of you often. I am praying for all the transitions that are coming in so many lives. Please take care,

Sarah

Ok…blog post one…

This is my first ever blog post in my life. Although that might not be true…I once got stuck in  Xanga drama…before the days of facebookand myspace…those were good times. But this is my first for real blog post…

I am in Manila now. It’s currently POURING rain. The roof of the house I am staying is in tin, so it’s quiet loud when we’re inside. And I imagine if I were outside I would be very very wet.

I am staying with a missionary family until some time tomorrow when I’ll move in to the apartment I will live in. They’ve been very helpful and kind. The father took me to ATS yesterday. I like it a lot! It’s so small and I know I will learn to call it home. I will live close by I think…within walking distance. Which is nice.

Manila is just chaos. The family I’m with has a car so they have been driving me places. It’s crazy. Like Grand Theft Auto…I’ve never played that game, but that’s what I am told…I don’t mind riding in the car, but I don’t think I want to drive! I think there is a lot for me to learn here, and starting with my way around would be an awesome one! There’s really no such thing as a map or order, so I just have to learn how to function/understand the chaos…I know I’ve done that before! I can do it again.

Thank you all for reading this. I know it wasn’t terribly exciting, but I will learn and get better, and tell more stories as they come. I love each of you and miss you all. Thank you for all you have done for me.

Love,

Sarah

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