We attended our first groundbreaking this week. In fact, I can’t remember if I have ever been a real part of a groundbreaking. As a first experience, I’m not sure this could be topped. This was a groundbreaking for a new “house” for the Lighthouse Sanctuary NGO. They have a facility in the very northern part of the Philippines and they will have a second location in Tarlac, which happens to be in our area. This will be very close to the Rise and Rebuild farm, so it’s a great synergy. This is a home for children-survivors of sexual abuse and sex trafficking. The Hernandos are the founders of this wonderful organization. They literally left their lives behind in Utah and following inspiration, came to the Philippines to set up this home. Junell is from the Philippines originally then went with his family to the U.S. when he was 15. It was a pure act of faith on their part to move here with their 4 children and embark on this venture. It hasn’t been easy for them, but they just keep following their hearts and their feelings that this is what they are supposed to be doing. The facility in Tarlac will be a wonderful refuge. During the ceremony, we heard from both Julie and Junell Hernando, from Elder Bangerter, the Area President, and most importantly, from a resident of Lighthouse Sanctuary who shared her own touching story and rescue. There wasn’t a dry eye as we all listened spell-bound. I am always so touched and amazed when regular folks are willing to give so much of themselves to help others. The Hernandos talked about how the journey has been rough and at times they really wanted to give up, but hung in there realizing it wasn’t about them, but about the girls who needed to be rescued. What an example of Christ-like Service.

The above pictures are from an area office activity afternoon. We didn’t really have time for this, but it was great to rub shoulders with employees here and do some team building. One of the activities was to build a tower using paper and tape. You can see that our team’s structure was very simplistic compared to the carefully engineered one next to us. Don’t be fooled, though. Our simple design took second place! I’m sure there is a lesson to be learned here. Lessons also from the activity where one team member had to guide the other teammate through a maze of chairs as they listened carefully to only that person’s voice. The Filipinos are such a fun-loving people and they didn’t disappoint during these activities! Happy to be a part of such a great group of people.