Use your god-given Talents and Professional skills to 去产生影响 为着福音的缘故

“The reason that I am in the Philippines is to serve at Faith Academy, and because of that, I get to live in this beautiful country! Getting to teach awesome students on school days and explore during breaks? What could be better?

我最喜欢的地方之一是在马尼拉外的Sagada。几年前，我和朋友们在马尼拉以北乘坐夜班巴士前往Banaue，只为了去探索吉普尼往返Sagada的最后一站。我们不想与山间美丽的梯田失之交臂，我们请求坐在吉普尼的车顶上，在狭窄的道路上缠绕并徊转，穿过寒冷多云的，点缀着美丽的水稻梯田的山脉，这是我做过的最令人兴奋的事情之一。我把它比作骑在一张优美绝伦的明信片上。

住在菲律宾并不意味着我只能在“山区或是海滩”之间做选择。作为一名狂热的浮潜和深潜潜水员，我爱上了巴拉望岛上美丽、平静、温暖的Coron水域。我永远不会忘记退潮时游泳穿过石灰岩下的缝隙，到达一个美丽而宁静的海洋湖泊。Coron是我最热爱的潜水体验之家！我曾和朋友一起潜水穿过一艘二战时期被鱼雷击沉的，侧卧在海底的日本船只。我们在不同的楼层和房间里进进出出，穿过鱼雷洞，花了一些时间欣赏占据船只的美丽珊瑚。潜水真是太棒了！

I will always and forever love visiting the island of Corregidor! I love the history. I love the jungle-hiking. I love the pier-jumping. I love the hammock-sleeping. I love the monkeys (but not foolishly so – if you know, you know.) Ever since my first Corregidor Outdoor Ed, I envied the site staff who got to ride their motorbikes around the island all week, and this his past Christmas, I was able to fulfill a dream of mine by renting a motorbike for a couple of hours to shuttle people around Corregidor island!

While these are three of my favorite places to visit in the Philippines, in all sincerity, my favorite place to be is in my classroom at Faith Academy with my amazing students – the entire reason why I am here!”

“Music is part of my DNA, having come from a musically inclined clan. As early as 18 months old, I was singing songs with the right words and tune, and as I grew up, music became the language of my heart.

When I was 15 years old, The Lord called me to use my gift of singing to be part of our church’s praise and worship ministry. I may have loved music and singing, but I did not like doing it in front of a crowd. I was very shy and nervous, and did not think I was good enough to be singing in front of hundreds of people. I struggled and argued with God at first, unsure if this was what He really wanted me to do. He confirmed… many times, so I trusted Him and obeyed. I learned that if I am willing and obedient to His call, God will use me to accomplish things beyond my capacity and what I can ever think or imagine. With my obedience, the Lord opened many opportunities to serve Him through music.

在过去的10年里，我作为Gloryfall 乐队的一员 Gloryfall Band致力于通过敬拜培训、带领、以及福音外宣将真正的崇拜带回基督的身体。我们通过器乐/声乐训练帮助教会装备敬拜团队，并教授他们《圣经》中的敬拜原则。我们已经创作并发行了10张专辑，通过这些歌曲，我们能够用上帝的信息和爱触碰到世界各地的人们。如果你们想免费收听或下载我们的歌曲，我们的网站是 gloryfall.net.

信心学院一直是一个贴近我心灵的地方。我第一次来学校是在2000年，当时我的男朋友（现在是我的丈夫）带我参观了他所毕业的学校。我不敢相信居然有一所如此美丽的学校，场地广阔，维护良好，教室里展示了如此多的创造力和才华。在校园里走来走去的孩子们以及我遇到的老师都非常友好，他们彬彬有礼，在这个传讲基督的地方每一个人都表现出无与伦比喜乐的神情。我当时想如果能被呼召在信心学院这样的学校服事将会是一件很棒的事！我不知道的是，18年后，上帝会为我打开这所学校的大门，让我成为了其中的一员。

This school year, I started teaching Elementary Music at Faith Academy. I get so much joy and excitement to see children’s faces light up when I tell them we are playing with musical instruments in class or we are going to learn a new song. It is also an honor to teach the students not only the technical aspect of music, but to be able to share with them the heart of worship. It is a blessing to share with the children how God can use music powerfully in their lives just like He did in the Bible through the lives of David, King Jehoshaphat and many others who won battles through music offered in praise and worship to God!”

“很少有人知道我曾是一名电气工程师，并有机会在美国宇航局实习过。上大学时，我在华盛顿特区外的戈达德太空飞行中心实习。我的工作是将一个真空室自动化，这个真空室是在光学元件被送入太空之前用于测试。真空室是在一个干净的房间里，所以我工作时必须全天侯穿着连体防尘服和手套。现在我在信心学院教潜水，原来的连体防尘服变成了连体的潜水服。

What I love most about working at Faith is getting to help students figure out who they are and giving them lots of opportunities to try different things as they do that. There were a couple students I had in Bible study who went to a large state school in the US together. They both ended up getting involved with CRU there and they wrote back to me after a year saying that they never would have gotten involved in student ministries if we hadn’t had that Bible study. One of them works for CRU full-time now, so it’s cool to see them passing on what they have learned and helping disciple others.

最后，我希望我在信心学院的时光，能够让我看见我的学生们明白爱耶稣和影响世界的意义。“

“My most memorable experience while working in Middle School was my first time attending Outdoor Ed at Taal, Volcano for a hike. I had the chance to be on the island, not only that but they let me be involved in the ministry aside from working in the office. I loved being around the kids in the school ministry, singing praise songs, and sharing the word of God through storytelling.”