St, Paddy's Day

Last week I had the amazing opportunity to travel half way across the world to the Philippines for a missions trip. It was definitely the best thing that has happened to me this year. I had the pleasure of meeting any people who I will most likely never forget. This blog, however, is going to be about one in particular who has made a great impact on my life.

You would think, after my last statement, the person whom I am referring is a Filipino orphan or widow living in the slums with no hope in the world. Their lives utterly terrible and no way to ever overcome their poverty and misfortune. But this is not the person whom this blog will be about, even though, those people's grief will never escape my mind. Peter, is a nutty Irishman who has a passion for loving and caring for those people. At the tender age of 24 he has visited 41 different countries, most of which were on missions trips, and spent a great deal of time trying to change poverty stricken family's lives. Being raised by a medical missionary in the Congo, his father would let Peter assist him with gruesome surgeries, most of which consisted of amputating cancers from varies parts of sick bodies. Currently, Peter, is working for International Care Ministries in the Philippines organizing missions groups to come in a build houses, assist in the medical and dental clinics, and play with children.

Now that I have given some background on Peter, I will explain how I met him and how he changed my life. It was my fourth day being in the Philippines, which also happened to be St. Patrick's Day. Our group was grabbing some breakfast before heading to the building site to floor some buildings, when I noticed a man wearing a bright green shirt with "Ireland" written across the chest. "That is so awesome. I have to meet this guy." i thought to myself. After breakfast we were walking to the building site when I noticed the Ireland guy in front of me, so I jogged to catch up to him and said in a friendly voice "Hey, I'm Elisabeth. I don't think I've met you yet." he turned to look and laughed "Funny how you don't meet someone 'til the fourth day of a trip like this. I'm Peter." He spoke with an Irish accent, which was awesome. When I learned he was from Ireland, I informed him I am half Irish and he became very excited. We talked the rest of the way to the building site and he told me a little about himself. I decided he was definitely the most interesting person I had ever had the pleasure to talk with.

Later that night at dinner, I decided to sit next to him to hear more about his intriguing life. I told him of my desire to be a medical missionary and his face lit up as he informed me his father is a medical missionary in the Congo. For the rest of the week I asked him so many questions and would listen as he told me disgusting stories of surgeries and encouraged me in my walk with God and following my dreams. He even offered for me to travel to the Congo and work with his dad. What an amazing opportunity!

Meeting Peter really encouraged me in my life to follow my dreams and passions with all of my heart and never give up. It also made my goals seem much more real and attainable. I could write pages on my conversations with Peter and the impact he had on my life, but it's very personal and I would feel awkward sharing it over the internet.