So, I’ve gone on many a Black Friday excursions. I remember going with Dad when I was young, helping him get gifts. That was when the stores offered doorbuster prizes to the first 100 or so people who went through the doors. Snowmen, gift cards, Matchbox cars…

I’ve also gone a few times by myself, mostly in the last few years. Most of those times I’ve waited in the Staples store line to get a hard drive or blank CDs. My most profitable year by far was the year I waited at Target for $100 Star Wars Lego sets that were on sale for $50. I got two of them and sold them for a total of about $250 on eBay- definitely worth that wait.

As each Black Friday comes and goes, I notice more and more how my mindset is so different than that of other people. I still go every year, and this is my list of priorities: 1) Buy something that I can later resell for more, 2) Buy something I could really use or a gift for someone else, and 3) Watch the chaos of greedy humanity.

First of all, Black Friday is one of my best chances to find low-priced items that people want and later sell it for more. So if I can replicate the incident where I made $150 with the Lego sets, that’s what I most want to do.

Secondly, sometimes I find things that would be really useful to me, or I find gifts that I want for others but at a lower price. Such was the case this year when I found something for a member of my family. But for the most part, I rarely find anything I can’t live without or something that I can’t go without until the next Black Friday. For example, I would like to have a laptop someday, but I keep putting off buying one because each year I decide that I can go one more year without one, and as year goes by, they just keep getting nicer and nicer and less and less pricey.

Sometimes I find things that I’d really like (usually computer-related stuff) at great low prices, but I quickly convince myself that I’ve lived long enough without it that I don’t truly need it. As for the things I do consider nowadays, they are usually photography-related items because I’m always looking to upgrade my photography outfit. But over and over again I realize that I can do just fine without many of the extra things.

The last few years I haven’t really had a lot that I wanted to get, so I’ve mainly gone out just to watch all the other people go wild. In fact, this year I woke up shortly after 4am and went to Staples without wanting to buy anything there. But I was first in line and I just sat down and worked on memorizing the book of James. Eventually I got pictures of the line as it formed and soon after that I left. First in line and I saved ALL my money!

After Staples I went to other stores just to take pictures, and of course, I also bought that gift for someone else. It was a fun time, and here are some things I heard other people saying.

“I figured you would want the couch cover more than the tutu?” (a man talking to his wife on the phone while waiting in line)

“They’re all teenagers! They shouldn’t even be out at this time!” (referring to all the people- she was way wrong though)

“I smoked three cigarettes while standing in line out there.” (makes me want to start coughing really loud!)

“I’ve stood out there since 10:00!” (a woman at Best Buy telling an employee how long she waited; the current time was 5:15am)

It’s just CrAzY to hear what people are thinking and what prizes they want to secure.

Ironically enough, one verse in particular from James really stuck out to me today as I memorized it: “For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there” (James 3:16).

Santa’s desperate this year as his elves went on strike

Black Friday epitomizes the concepts of envy and seeking self…and of course, it promotes chaos and confusion. Yet this is now one of the reasons many Americans look forward to Thanksgiving. They spend Thursday being grateful and they spend the next day doing just the opposite.

Anyway, having said all that, I still have fun going out on Black Friday even though I don’t plan to get anything.

Long gone are the days of door buster prizes. People don’t need those items to motivate them to line up anymore.

Each year stores open earlier and earlier…the recent trend is to just open the night before while people are still digesting their turkey.

But one thing that doesn’t change is watching people go CrAzY.

The Eagle’s Nest erupted with cheers as students heard the name of their school mentioned on national television. Thanksgiving break was only hours away, but the students at little-known Faith Baptist Bible College in Ankeny, IA were excited for a totally unrelated reason. FBBC, a member of the NCCAA Division II in athletics,

So, two weeks ago I traveled with my soccer team to Kansas for a couple of games versus conference foes. We played a game on Friday, stayed in a hotel on Friday night, played on Saturday, and traveled back on Saturday afternoon.

Well, we assigned ourselves in groups of four to various rooms, and I led my group up to our hotel room, #316. I used my card key to unlock the door, and we walked in and started to unpack. About half an hour later as I was settling in and reading a book, our door opened up. A stranger peeked in and said in a startled voice, “Oh, I’m sorry! This is the third time I’ve had to go to the front desk and get a different room.”

Startled ourselves, we assured him that it was no big deal, and he closed the door. We laughed about the whole situation but we felt bad for the guy who kept getting other people’s rooms.

The evening progressed and we fell asleep one-by-one. Trying to get a lot of reading finished, I was the last one to call it a night. But before I got in bed, I left the room to go refill my water bottle. I found some refreshing distilled water in the fitness room and then I journeyed back to my room.

I inserted my key into the lock, and voila! It didn’t work! What in the world? So I knocked and knocked some more, but my roommates didn’t hear me. I looked at the room number, and yes, it was room #316.

I walked downstairs to the front desk and asked the lady to reset my room key. Well, doing her job correctly, she asked me what room it was and looked it up in the computer to make sure I was being honest. “There’s nobody in your room,” she said.

“Um, that’s weird. Because I just came out of there.”

“Are you sure it’s #316?”

“Yes, it is.”

“What’s your name?”

“Joshua Huang. But I’m with a soccer team, so the room is probably under my coach’s name.”

“What’s his name?”

“Gary Backous…or maybe Lance Augsburger.”

“What school?”

“Faith Baptist Bible College.”

“Ozark Christian College?”

“Um…no. That’s the team we played today in soccer.”

“Well, it looks like your booked under that name.”

“Oh, okay. I don’t know how that happened.” By now, I was even more confused than ever!

She asked for my name again, and this time she found it in the computer. “This says that you’re in room #369, on the far end of the hall.”

“Um, no, I didn’t even go down there at all.”

“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone in the rooms around you either. Were the other guys near you?”

“I think so. I don’t know for sure, but I think they were.”

“Well, it looks like your coach is in #315.”

“Okay.”

“JJ Parkhurst…Ryan Poorman…”

“Yes…”

“They’re also supposedly in #369 with you.”

“Um, no, they’re not with me and they’re not even in the same room together.”

Genuine ministry is always fun, right? After all, if it wasn’t fun in one way or another then it can’t be ministry because God doesn’t ask us to do thing in which we will not eventually find joy. Well, once again I enjoyed the privilege of having fun while serving at Iowa Regular Baptist Camp for the summer.

2012 was the fourth summer at IRBC for a full eleven weeks, and it was my 10th summer overall on staff at IRBC. After 8 summers I wasn’t sure if God would lead me back to IRBC, but He did! After 9 summers I was almost sure he wouldn’t bring me back again, but once again He did! Oh, what

It is now about 9:14pm (10:14am Philippine time), a little over one week after we left Uncle James’ house for the Manila airport. It was a fun, educational, and eye-opening vacation/experience.

I enjoyed getting to know most of my relatives a little better- even those that I didn’t know I had. I liked going to visit all the pastors and learn about their ministries- especially Pastor Amar’s prison ministry. It was fun driving on the roads and seeing how everybody drives. The rice terraces were awesome and the roads leading there were almost just as fun and scary at the same time.

It was interesting to see how everyone lives- their houses, their hobbies, and how they make a living. Everything is so cheap when you convert it to US dollars, but the average daily wages is around five dollars. It is a very poor country but it is slowly modernizing. The country is very religious, but not many people have a real relationship with Christ.

I am thankful that we were kept safe the entire time. I believe it was a very worthwhile vacation and I hope to go back again someday soon. However, it is good to be back home!

Well, there you go…that was the journal of my trip to the Philippines back in 2005. I would love to go back again, and seven years later, it still feels like I was just there. Someday I hope to return and bring some friends with me. The Philippines is part of my heritage, and God worked in various ways there that eventually brought about me, Joshua Huang.

God bless the Philippines 🙂

Thanks for reading!

As we came in sight of the city of Seattle, we tried to find anything that looked familiar to us. We had our best landing of the trip at about 2:15pm PST (5:15am Philippine time, 4:15pm CST) not having found anything familiar. I took a last look at one of my favorite airplanes, the 747 Jumbo Jet, owned by one of my favorite airlines, and then we moved on.

The next step was going through the U.S. Customs. I had expected it to be a difficult and long ordeal based on what others had told me. However, we went through it quite quickly and were surprised when we were directed up some escalators and found nothing at the top. We proceeded to our exit, which was only a few yards away, where we were the first to check-in to our flight, Northwest Airlines flight 172.

We left then, and basically went around to different areas of the airport. We also stopped frequently as Dad called numerous people.

At 5:25pm (7:25pm CST), we boarded an A320 SR on the last flight of our vacation. We were headed for my home and Dad’s third and current home.

It was a good feeling to be heading home but yet I still missed the Philippines and I hope to go back in the near future. As we flew toward the Midwest from the Pacific, we were treated to a beautiful view of the mountains and most remarkably, Mt. Rainier. There it stood in all its majestic beauty while we watched it with awe from an almost cloudless sky. It is a beautiful sight from land, but from the sky it is twice as splendid.

That was one thing I saw that the Philippine mountains couldn’t match. You can’t find a snow-peaked mountain there. It’s a good reminder of how everything is beautiful in its own special way.

Coming into Minneapolis, we saw another wonderful thing from the sky. We were flying in at around 10:00pm CST (8:00pm PST, 11:00am Philippine time) so we got to see fireworks from above in the night sky. It was neat, seeing them from a totally opposite angle than you normally do.

Those were the only firecrackers I saw that weekend, but I couldn’t have asked for anything more. We got off the airplane and were greeted by a deserted hallway in a nearly empty airport. The TVs showed that Northwest was only running about one-eighth of their regular flights.

We met Uncle Don at the only baggage carousel running and he helped us pick up our three pieces of luggage before loading up in their van. We stayed overnight at their house and then left in the morning, officially ending our almost three-week-long vacation.

[Because the Philippines is half a day ahead of the US, we left the Philippines on Sunday, July 4, and arrived back in Minneapolis over 24 hours later on the same Sunday, July 4. I will split the return trip into two blog posts.]

This morning, we left the Philippines. Dad had stayed up most of the night packing our stuff. All we had left to pack when we woke up were some shells that we had collected from the ocean beaches in Sta. Maria. However, at breakfast, Uncle James told us that there were some shells that we should not take with us.

He said that if the U.S. Customs found us bringing in certain shells, we could be fined $5000 for bringing back endangered sealife. We washed all the shells and coral, but we had to leave the largest and the nicest ones.

We also took pictures of the house and of everyone who lives at Uncle James’ house. After all that, it was finally time to leave. We arrived at about 10:30am (9:30pm, Saturday, CST), only to find out that our flight had been delayed two hours and thirty-five minutes due to an airplane rotation.

On Saturday morning- today- we came to the dental office for one last visit. On the way here, we went by the house where Dad was born and first grew up in. It was not much compared to the house we’re staying in that he later lived in. The bakery that used to be across the street from them, Moonlight Bakery, is not there anymore. Dad said that he didn’t even recognize the street anymore.

Right now we’re sitting in the waiting room at the dental office, waiting for Dad to get done. We are going to meet Pastor Palotes, but Dad doesn’t know if we’re going to the prison or not.

Pastor Benjamin Amar came into the waiting room and started reading a magazine. I didn’t even recognize him until Dad came out and they started talking.

We went to his car, and he told Dad about his history as a pastor and presently as a missionary to the prisoners. He took us to a shopping mall where we had an American lunch. I had a slice of Chicago-style stuffed pizza and I decided to have Coca-Cola Light (Diet Coke in America), just to say that I tried it.

Next, we went to the prison for the service that afternoon. Before we could go in to see them, we had to get our arm stamped with the seal of the Department of Justice- Bureau of Correction. Pastor Amar jokingly warned us to not try to erase it. Without the seal, you aren’t allowed to leave the prison unless you’re good at escaping (and then you’d never get out if you’re caught). Every once in awhile, I would see my arm in my peripheral vision and it would look like I had a tattoo. That was really weird. I wonder how people can stand having those things permanently on their skin. It would drive me crazy after awhile.

When we went into the prison, some of the inmates were there to greet us. Some of them had umbrellas that they used to shade us as we walked toward the church. The prison was nothing that I had imagined it to be. In fact, I never really tried imagining what it would be like. It was just like a small city in there. Wives would bring goods for their husbands to sell, so it was just like downtown Manila. People would have little shops set up where they would try to sell things. There were at least three basketball courts and a tennis court too. It was pretty exciting to have the privilege to see it all.

We got to the church and found the good-sized building to be a little small for all the members. They have two buildings, one for the services and one for the baptisms. They are hoping to build a new building since their church is growing so fast. Through the ministry of Pastor Amar and an annual basketball tournament in the prison, the church has really prospered.

The service was really great, especially during the singing time. I would never have known that all those guys were inmates if someone hadn’t told me already. When they sang, you could tell that they really meant what they were singing. I could see why Pastor Amar likes them so well. There was a lot of life in there. The only instruments allowed in there are ones that don’t use electricity (such as an electric piano) because of all the money the government puts out for electricity. Therefore, they only used a guitar, but that worked just as well. Dad gave the message, and though I don’t know exactly what he talked about, I do know it was over Colossians 3:1, 2, and I think it might have been more of a salvation message. Afterwards, Pastor Amar had us bow our heads. He asked those who wanted to get saved to raise their hands. After he had prayed, he said that eight people had raised their hands, indicating that they had just gotten saved. They took an offering and received 248 pesos ($4.51). The money was going to go to some of the older inmates as another way to reach out to them.

When the service ended, we all went outside the building and had our picture taken in front of it with all the church members. Then they took us on a tour around the prison. We went by many other churches, a school, and a building built specifically for those who were artists. The art that impressed me the most was the wood burning pictures. I don’t know how they did it, but they made life-like portraits of people by burning wood in different shades of black and brown. If there was anything I didn’t like, It was probably when we had to walk past the death row building. I was told that there are about 1000 inmates in there. No one in there is allowed to come out or have the freedom that the other prisoners have.

Right before leaving, Pastor Amar drove us around outside and showed us everything else there was to see. We saw the death hall where the prisoners on death row are executed through lethal injection. There were fields of corn and other things that some of the prisoners planted beside the small road we were on. There was a special prison for those who only had to serve a few months in prison. There was also a place for those who had only one month or less left in prison. It was an interesting experience and if I ever get a chance to go back, I probably will.

On the way back home we stopped at two places. The first stop we made was at a body shop to have one of the van’s tires fixed. It had a screw or nail in it and needed to be repaired. We spent about one hour watching the Filipino way of repairing tires. I don’t know how we do it in America but I’m sure it’s a lot different.

In the Philippines, a body shop is called a vulcanizing shop. There can be hundreds of them along the sides of a country road. They are easily recognized by the painted tire out front that says “vulcanizing shop”. They don’t use a lot of machinery in their shops, but what they do have is very old. We watched a guy fix our tire and then use his hands to put it back on the rim.

After the tire got finished, we went back to the Festival Mall again. It was similar to Mall of America- it had four floors and even a small amusement park- and Pastor Amar said that it was bigger than the Mega Mall. We basically just looked around, but we also bought a couple things.

For supper we went back home and ate with Benjamin Amar and his friend who had driven us. That was our last full day in the Philippines.

Meals:
Breakfast- Rice, chicharone, patupat, fried bananas, pan de sal w/ Star margarine, banana

Lunch- Sbarro’s Chicago style stuffed pizza, Coca-Cola Light

Supper- Rice, fish, chicken adobo, vegetables (some kind of cole slaw), banana, papaya

This morning, Friday morning, we woke up and left the hotel around 8:26am (7:26pm CST) after eating breakfast at Chow King again. I thought we were going to go straight back to Manila, but it turned out that we had more relatives to go see.

This time we went to meet Jessie Rose’s inlaws. They had a very nice seven-bedroom house in Urdanetta. It was more like a normal house you would expect to find in America. We had a tour of it and everybody talked for awhile.

I thought that we would only be there a few minutes, but that turned into about one hour and forty-five minutes. Then, at 10:45am (9:45pm CST), two-and-a-half hours after breakfast, we ate lunch with them. Finally, after they had talked a little longer, we left at about 12:00pm (11:00pm CST).

This time we headed straight back to Manila. We went with Uncle Job and Aunt Josie to the Greenhills Shopping Center again to finish getting what we needed for people back home. We also got some pastries. I think it’s funny how they give you discounts of five pesos if you buy 25 five-peso pastries. Most of the discounts they give you for bulk purchases are not really discounts at all!

Whenever you walk by a “store” those who are selling the things always call out “Yes sir, watches sir” or “Yes maam, toys” or something similar. I noticed a long time ago that almost everyone sounds the same, no matter what they say.

I also think it’s funny how they sell so many “name-brand” things so cheap. If any of these guys went to America, they would probably make a lot of money. Nobody over there would be able to tell the difference between what’s real and what’s fake. Just because the shirt says “Made in France” doesn’t mean it’s really made in France.

At home, Uncle James and Aunt Lisa and all the other adults talked about the meeting with Uncle Joseph. I got a few things done, but then I got so tired that I just had to go to sleep.

Meals:
Breakfast- Rice chow, shanghai eggrolls, pineapple juice

Snack- Lansones, tropical punch

Lunch- Rice, chicken, fish, shrimp, mixed vegetables, sweet rice, tropical punch

Snack- Sinuman, banana

Supper- Rice, adobo chicken, mung beans, fish, pineapple, chico, banana

It’s 7:02am Thursday morning, and we are headed toward breakfast. I slept better last night, although I had to wake up earlier today than I had to yesterday.

After eating breakfast, we headed toward Baguio. Uncle Job had gotten hold of Uncle Joseph and he had said we could come. We took the Marcos highway and it didn’t take us long to get there.

When we arrived, Uncle Joseph’s wife and his 8-year-old daughter, Josephina, welcomed us in. Uncle Joseph waited inside and by the time I got inside, he was on the couch talking with Uncle Job.

The inside of their house was like a big gift shop. They had bookshelves and display cases stuffed full of Barbies, Hello Kittys, Legos, Coca-Cola memorabilia, Chinese things, and much more. They had statues of Buddha, Jesus, and Mary all over the house. Next to the couch where Uncle Joseph and Uncle Job were sitting, there was incense burning.

Uncle Job talked with Uncle Joseph for awhile while we got a tour of his house. Finally, after we had been there awhile, we went out for lunch. We rode in two separate metered taxis to the SM mall there in Baguio. On the way there, Josephina asked us if we knew what the ozone layer was. She explained how it was a protective layer of the atmosphere that keeps the sun from burning us up.

When we arrived at the ginormous mall, everyone was in the mood for Chinese, so we went to Mann Hann, a restaurant in the mall. We had a good meal and the adults talked a little longer.

After going back to his house, we took some pictures before leaving. Those who hadn’t seen the house yet also had a quick tour. Everybody is hoping that it won’t be long before Uncle Joseph softens his heart towards the whole family.

That evening we went to Urdanetta where we got a hotel to stay in. This one was more like the way a real hotel should be. However, before we got too settled in, Dad and Jennifer and I went to the adjoining Chow King for supper. We were going to go to Jolibee earlier, but for some reason I suggested Chow King. If we had gone to Jolibee, that would have been our third time going to that particular Jolibee. Anyway, we went to Chow King and had supper (which included eggrolls). It was kind of fun because four times the power to the hotel and the restaurant went out.

Afterwards, we took our showers and went to sleep.

Meals:
Breakfast- Rice, fish, shrimp, patupat, pan de sal, Filipino sausage, egg, squid, Milo Hot chocolate

Lunch- Fried rice, squid, chicken, baked oysters, egg noodle soup, tofu, rice ma-chang, green tea

Supper- Rice chow, shanghai eggrolls, regular double-size halo-halo, Sarsi