So I never write blogs....

So I (Brian) have gotten a bit of flack recently for not ever writing on our blog. For all those disappointed souls out there I must say that I have been writing. Actually, I have done a great job, blogging every week with highlights, poignant thoughts, and reflections over the past week's experiences in Julie's and my life. However I came to realize I was not posting them on our blog site but rather posting them to the garbage can.... Ok, that's not entirely true.

Usually I don't think that I have much to say. I did take a trip to Korea this summer but that's boring and nobody wants to hear about that. I could tell you about my classes but usually I have to either be reading for them or running off to them and cannot write. I meant to tell you about what life is like living with a pregnant wife, but Julie won't let me. That's private and censored.

So I will leave you with this one nugget to ponder until I actually get around to doing this again. This is a pearl of wisdom, like the beatitudes or parables that can be reflected upon one's whole life:
"A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush."

Ok, so I didn't make that up either. What? Are you going to sue me?

Dream Vacation Project

One of the new exciting things in my life (Julie) in the Philippines has been the opportunity to become trained as an ESL (English as a second language) instructor and teach some English classes. This is something I NEVER thought I would do, but I have found that I absolutely love it! So, last January, I taught my first class to some students from Korea, and I'm now teaching two classes and tutoring other students, also.
Twice a year students from Korea Nazarene University come to our seminary for a 6-week intensive English study program. We're in the middle of one of the sessions now, and I can't describe how much fun it is to have college students on campus and get to interact with them in the classroom every day. I recently gave them an assignment to do an oral presentation on a 'Dream Vacation.' As usual, they overwhelmed me with their creativity and hard work. I must admit my favorite part was when the group that presented a trip to Kenya had 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight' playing during their oral presentation! It was so much fun! Here's a picture of my class and the posters they made for their projects...

Please pray for my students as they enjoy the last few weeks of their cross-cultural experience in the Philippines. Not all the students that come are Christians, so many times, this can be a life-changing experience! Pray also for myself, the other teachers and tutors, and students on campus as we interact with our Korean friends.

16 weeks....

Well, finally we are giving you a much-requested pregnancy update! Sorry our communication has been so pitiful recently. We have come through an absolutely crazy summer only to enter a much crazier school year. :) The school calendar in the Philippines is different from the states, so our semesters run from July-October and November-March. So, we are back in classes, working, and continuing to enjoy the exciting adventures God has for us this year!
Thankfully, morning sickness ended just as school was starting, so that part of the pregnancy is over. So now Julie is just tired and hungry ALL the time. :) And suddenly in the last 2 weeks, everyone has been exclaiming how she is 'starting to show!' so we figured we better start taking pictures and letting the rest of our friends and family see how things are progressing. So, here are a few baby pics from the last 16 weeks...

*6 weeks*

*16 weeks*

*Baby Woolery at 9 weeks*

So, one of our Korean professors told us the other day that it seems disturbing to refer to the baby as 'it' since we don't yet know the gender of the baby. As we were discussing, we decided it's much nicer to use Tagalog (Filipino) language in referring to the baby. In Tagalog, there is no difference between he and she, like we have in English. You use the word 'siya' (pronounced shya) as he or she, and it can mean either one. So, we now refer to the baby as 'siya'. :)

1st Trimester Cravings...

So, here's a quick update from the growing Woolery family. :) Pregnancy has definitely made life interesting. We're now in week 9 and are learning to manage the joys of morning/evening/all day sickness. Most of the time, it's not that bad, but we've definitely had some memorable days. :( But definitely worse than the nausea is the food cravings... I've been away from the U.S. for four years now and I have NEVER had cravings like this before! Now every day, I dream of my parents house, their refrigerator, and the meals they make. I also have very specific cravings like Lumpia, Beef Salad, and Crispy Noodles from Truong's in Guam, Vegetable Curry from Jamaican Grill in Guam, Tortillas and salsa from The Alamo Cafe in San Antonio, and Chicken soft tacos from Nopalito's in New Braunfels.... just to name a few... :) So, for those of you who are lucky to frequent those places, please eat some food for me and the baby. :)

Not that I'm going through withdrawal or anything... I LOVE Filipino food, and we have TONS of restaurant choices here, it's just that my hormones are going insane... so that's life these days... revolves around food, in addition to my summer class, volunteering in the field office, tutoring, piano lessons, etc.

Other than thinking about food 24/7, unfortunately our summer is rapidly coming to a close. I have 1 1/2 more weeks of my summer class left and then it's just 2 1/2 weeks till the regular semester starts! Brian will be gone for the rest of the summer... He's doing various NYI trainings and travels all over Asia, so please keep him in your prayers as he connects with youth leaders and seeks God's guidance for the youth on our region. But I'm definitely busy while he's gone... in addition to the numerous things listed above to fill my day, some of our dear friends are letting me borrow multiple t.v. show seasons to fill my nights while Brian is gone. So, I will frantically be filling my nights with as much 'veg' time as possible before school starts again. :)
Thanks always for your prayers - they're so needed... and keep the baby name suggestions coming!

We're Pregnant!!!!!

Well, for those of you that haven't heard our news from our overly-excited family, WE'RE PREGNANT!!! Yes, much to our surprise, Baby Woolery is on the way and will enter the Philippines sometime around January 3, 2008! Of course we're very excited, but still a little shocked as we can't even begin to imagine the wonderful changes this will bring to life! Unfortunately there's not a lot of time to think about it right now, cause we're back in summer classes. So far, Julie's feeling fine, just a little tired. So, more updates will soon follow, but just wanted everyone to hear the good news! Please keep us in your prayers, and we welcome any and all name suggestions! :)

Returning to my first loves

So, now that we've started this blog, it has me constantly thinking of things to add or stories to relate. While there are many we need to share from our first year in the Philippines, I thought I'd share what's on my mind today... and the fact that I feel like I'm 12 years old again...

If you didn't know, our school calendar here in the Philippines is quite different from the states, and we are currently on summer vacation. I will take a couple summer classes in May, but our next semester doesn't start until July. I'm realizing that I haven't really had a free summer vacation since high school, so it's a very different feeling. Before classes finished, I made long lists of all the things I wanted to accomplish this summer, and of course, now that we're in our second week of vacation, I haven't even come close to getting any of them completed. But, the thing I'm finding myself spending a lot of time doing and thinking about are the 2 things I couldn't get enough of when I was growing up: reading and playing the piano.

This wouldn't be a surprise to everyone that knew me before 2003, but my life has been void of these two loves significantly in the last few years. Yes, I played the piano for our church in Guam, but it was definitely more out of necessity than desire. My wonderful friend, Melissa, who is a talented artist, is about to start working with some Filipino street kids in teaching them art. She shared with me the other day that she was feeling convicted about starting to teach art when she feels like she hasn't been using her talent very much in the last year. And I realized that is exactly how I feel about my piano. About 2 months ago, I started teaching piano to one of our professor's 2 children, and I immediately felt convicted about my lack of playing and practicing since college graduation. But recently, I have been very inspired to start exercising my fingers again by practicing my scales and arpeggios and digging out my old pieces. And, for the first time in a long time, I'm playing the piano because I want to, not because I'm expected to or someone else needs me to. And I'm having such a blast teaching piano again... here's a pic of a keyboard I made that we're using to play games and help learn theory... it's just a plastic tablecloth and black duct tape, but it's tons of fun! :)

I've also been on a reading binge this last week. A few weeks ago I organized our bookshelf and placed all the books I have but haven't read on one shelf and was overwhelmed yet excited by the number! So many of my memories when I was growing up include getting lost in book after book during the summertime, and it's SOOO wonderful to have the opportunity to do that again. Of course, I should be finishing a curriculum project for a professor, volunteering in the field office, helping Brian prepare for a youth event next week, studying Tagalog, preparing for my teaching next semester, and numerous other things that are on my 'summer to do list'... but what am I doing instead? I bought an additional 3 books from a bargain sale at a bookstore yesterday to add to my collection of books to read! :) So, after I finish writing this, I'm going to start a new book and play the piano for a while... what a change from the last 5 years! Unfortunately, it won't last for long, but I'm going to enjoy it while I can. So let me know if you have any good book recommendations!

Life these days...

Well, since we've proven ourselves to be some of the worst friends in history at keeping in touch with people, we've decided to try a different approach... :) So, we're starting this blog where the goal is for us to post short updates on happenings in our lives as they occur... and not in a mass twice yearly email where only boring highlights are given. Having said that, here's the typical quick update of our lives in this last year....

In May 2006, we said a tearful goodbye to our beautiful island of Guam. After three of the most incredible years of our lives - filled with new friends that became family, experiences that ended in laughter and tears, and our amazing God stretching us and showing us His grace and love in ways we never dreamed - we felt God leading us to change direction in life and move to the Philippines to attend seminary. So, after a few weeks of visiting with family and friends in Texas, we arrived in Manila in the middle of June. Going from our home island of 150,000 people to a bustling city of around 13 million people was quite a change. But the biggest change came in leaving our jobs and beloved church to becoming students again and starting over with many relationships and adventures. In addition to starting school at Asia-Pacific Nazarene Theological Seminary, Brian was also offered a position with our church's regional staff as the Youth Coordinator for the Church of the Nazarene in the Asia-Pacific Region. After much prayer, he accepted and has immensely enjoyed this opportunity along with going to school full-time. APNTS has a policy that couples that live on campus must both enroll in classes, so since we felt we really needed to become as much a part of this unique cross-cultural community as possible, Julie is also pursuing a degree.

So, what has this new life been like for us in the last 9 months? Well, God is of course blessing us and stretching us again in ways we never imagined. Brian has been thrilled to get back in school (pursuing a Master's of Divinity degree) and has also fallen in love with the incredible youth leaders he is working with and learning from on a daily basis. He coordinated the participation of 36 youth leaders from our region to attend a global youth conference in South Africa in January (separate blog with those details soon to follow), and the impact of that experience on their lives and our region is immeasurable. Now that we're finished with our second semester, he is forging ahead with plans of visiting other countries on our region and continuing to coordinate communication, vision, and leadership between the youth in Asia-Pacific. Please pray for Brian as he seeks God's guidance for effective youth ministry on our region and as he balances responsibilities between work and school.

Julie has also found herself in much different roles compared to life in Guam. Being obligated to go back to school was quite difficult at first (pursuing a Master's of Religious Education degree), but God has blessed her with incredible classmates and professors that have given a renewed energy and motivation for being in the classroom. She has also had the opportunity to be trained in teaching English as a Second Language, and this has led to many exciting opportunities. Twice a year students from Korea Nazarene University come to APNTS to study English, so in January, Julie was asked to teach one of their classes, and after falling in love with them and teaching English, she was also asked to teach an undergraduate English course for APNTS next semester. Again, this is something we would have never envisioned, but God always knows what He's doing... :)

We've also been overwhelmed by an incredible new group of friends that are quickly becoming family. It's such a privilege to be on this campus where we live with other students from all over Asia-Pacific and learn from them in how they follow God to reach out to others. We've also been blessed with an incredible church family and friendships with other missionaries here in Manila. We're attending a Tagalog speaking church, so we won't get lazy in always speaking English, and have been blessed with many friendships with the young people at our church.

Well, of course there are many more stories to share, but that's what we'll do in separate entries with pictures! So, more stories and pictures to follow, but know that we miss and love dearly all of our friends in Guam, US, and around the world. We covet your prayers as we continue to learn how to live in the Philippines, speak Tagalog, and follow God's direction for our lives here. Please keep in touch and let us know how we can be praying for you!
tons of love,
julie and brian :)