Merry Christmas

Dear Family and Friends,

We want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas this year. It is amazing how fast this season approaches us. As the song goes, “this is the most wonderful time of the year”.

Christmas will be different this year for the Keating family in the Philippines. The weather is noticeably different for us. The temperature is ranging in the 80’s and 90’s, which is little different than the present Chicago weather. Something just doesn’t seem right wearing shorts and t-shirts during December. Another difference is that we won’t be with the Keating family for Christmas, as well as our church family at Warrenville Bible Chapel. We will miss all of you during Christmas time. We very much enjoy being with family at Christmas and participating in the Christmas programs at church.

We are very thankful that we are able to go up to the mountains in Baguio to be with Kim’s parents, Great Aunt, and a new “adoptive” family member, a teacher at Faith, Holly Lucas. This is truly a blessing. We are also looking forward to the cooler weather in Baguio, as it will be 60’s and 70’s.

At this time of the year we often hear or say remember the reason for the season. When I think about this I am reminded that cooler weather is not what is important, nor is it celebrating with family. The important thing is that we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is why we celebrate Christmas.

I am so thankful that He is our Immanuel, God with us. We have truly felt that God has been with our family this past year. With our move to the Philippines in July, you could say that our world has been turned upside down. Being in a new country and having our family grow from four to seventeen in a very short time can be overwhelming. We are able to say that we are doing well. It has taken several months to “settle” in. There have been many challenges but also many blessings. I don’t think this would have been without God being with us as well as the support we receive from your prayers.

Tyler and Abby are doing great. They are growing like crazy. Tyler just turned 4 in November and Abby turned 2 in October. They are “normal” toddlers. They get all of the attention when we go up to school or out in public. Tyler and Abby are also been a big impact with our ministry with our 13 dorm boys. It is so fun to watch the big boys play with our small children. We enjoy being apart of the lives of these 13 young men. Please continue to pray that we strengthen our relationships with our boys. Pray for wisdom, strength, and grace as we work with them in daily situations. We consider it a privilege to serve God through our work with these boys at Faith Academy in the
Philippines.

We trust that you are also thankful that God is with all of us in our daily lives. I hope that you will have joy as you celebrate the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ.

With Love.

Larry, Kim, Tyler, and Abby Keating

Smiley Face

A couple of weeks ago our neighbor texted Kim and said, "did you see the moon?" She said, "It is a smiley face." We weren't sure what to expect. We went outside on our back porch and sure enough we saw the smiley face. It is pretty cool because it is right above Faith Academy. So God is smiling down on us. Probaby one of the coolest things I have seen.

Funny/Interesting Stories

I love hearing missionary stories. They are usually different and it is interesting to hear different cultures. Over the past few months we have had some funny experiences that I thought you might enjoy.

This is not very funny but was a culture experience. Just this past weekend Kim couldn't find her cell phone. So I called it to see if we could find it. To my surprise a Filapino male answered the phone. I asked how he got the phone and he said that it was a lost phone. I told him that it was mine and would like it back. He wanted my address so he could deliver the phone. That is not a really good idea. He told me to text him later. So the next day I texted that I would like to meet him at a mall to pick up the phone. His response was ok sir. I texted him 3 more times that night with no response. Say good bye to the phone. Kind of interesting but frustrating.

Last week one of our boys injured his ankle. He was limping pretty bad the next morning with increased pain. So I told him that we should get an x-ray to have it checked out. We go to the hospital. We ask for the radiology department. Then we go to the radiology department and ask for a x-ray. We fill out a basic form. She gives us a slip of paper and tells us to go to the cashier. We go to the cashier and pay for the x-ray. It was about $10. Then we go back to radiology and waited for about 15 minutes. He got his x-ray and then I picked up the films and report the next day. A little different than the states. By the way the x-ray was negative.

A couple months ago our TV was struck by lightening. In this country they fix everything before they buy something new. So I took the tv to a repair shop. He told me it was an electrical problem and it would take 3-5 days and he would call me when it was done. On the 6th day I hadn't heard anything so I gave him a call. I asked about the tv and he said it was under observation. Immediately I thought of a patient in the hospital. Apparently they had fixed it but had to make sure it was working so it was under observation. We could just picture them just watching our tv for a few days. I did get the TV back and it is working well.

It is funny to see the culture differences. I am sure that I will think of more stories.

Thanks!

Larry

Hello from the Keatings

We want to continue to thank you for your continued thoughts and prayers. We are so thankful for all of you! We miss you all very much!

We are starting to fit in really well here at Faith Academy. Relationships are growing and we are starting to feel needed and appreciated. Most of our boys seem to be comfortable with us. Of course we have moments but overall we are doing well.

The other night I walked in the house with a huge box. Most of the boys were sitting at the table doing home work. One of the boys said, "you got us a plasma tv"! I said, "yeah"! That got all of the guy's attention. Then I said, "no, not really". But what was in the box would be very useful. I opened the box and they saw the portable massage table. They were very happy and started fighting to see who could get on the table first. I started massaging at 9pm and finally stopped at 11:45pm with about a 5 minute break. At the end I was ready for bed! I have been pretty busy seeing missionaries for injuries from the Faith Academy community. I have been treating about 5+ people a week. Massage on the couch and me on my knees wasn't working out very well. So the massage table will be very useful.

Last week the new quarter for school started and we are very busy. We had 12 out of 13 boys try out for second quarter sports that includes basketball, rugby, and tennis. Coming up this quarter is banquet at the end of the month and the Christmas play next month.

One of our boys and two other boys from Faith Academy made the under 20 Philippine International Rugby team. They were supposed to play in a tournament in Korea (all expenses paid) but two teams dropped out. So they had the tournament here and Guam came to play us. The experience included four intense weeks of practice. Two of the days included 3 practises a day. They had two games this past week on Wednesday and Saturday. Wednesday Philippines won 19-17. I went to the game on Saturday and we lost 24-19. It was such an experience. Rugby is such an fast pace game and very intense. Especially at this high level.

Please continue to pray for our 13 boys, for wisdom, and our strength. We continue to be challenged daily but have been lifted by your prayers.

With Love,

Larry, Kim, Tyler, and Abby

A bit busy...

Hello everyone. We continue to thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We are starting to "settle" in and feel comfortable. I am not saying that it is easy but it is going well. Our kids are starting to be more comfortable and happy. That makes mom and dad happy too. We could not do this without our Lord and your prayers.

The last week has been very busy. The new multi million dollar auditorium opened last week. Faith Academy as a whole dedicated this auditorium to the Lord through ceremony, dinner theater, and praise and worship. It is absolutely beautiful and we can't wait to see how the Lord will use this for His Kingdom.

Last week one of our boys went to Thailand for a Varsity volleyball tournament. The Faith team took first in the tournament! The soccer and cross country also have tournaments in other countries in the next 2 weeks.

Yesterday we celebrated Abby's second birthday! We can't beleive that our little girl is two already. We had a little party with grandma and grandpa Hardisty and some friends.

In two weeks is October break. Some of our boys will be able to go home and visit with their families. Some boys are not able to go home so will spend time with friends. We are planning to visit Kim's parents in the mountains in Baugio. We are looking foward to a break and cooler weather. The later half of the week we have a retreat with all of the CMML missionaries. That should also be enjoyable.

Thank you again for all of you prayers. We will try to keep you updated as much as we can.

Thanks!

Larry

A Weekend as Dorm Parents

Hello everyone! I just wanted to give you an idea about the work we are doing. So this is what we did this weekend:

Saturday- I woke up at 5:15am to take my dad to get a taxi to go to the airport. Went home played with tyler for a bit and fell asleep for about 30 minutes. Took 2 boys to school at 7am to get ready for Shoppers Day. Shoppers day is a big thing at Faith. They have outside vendors come to sell all different kinds of goods. Also the classes do many fundraisers. Went home and got ready to leave again. Took Kim and Kids to the school for shoppers day. Shopped a bit and watched kids as Kim shopped a bit. Then went home to get the rest of boys at 10:15am. Picked up 10 boys and returned to school. Shopped again till about 1pm. Relaxed a little bit with Kim's parents. Kim started to get sick. We all had a stomach bug this week that just was not pleasant. It was Kim's birthday present. Went with Kim's dad to pick up our TV that was struck by lightning. Then returned to school to pick up the boys and bring them home from shoppers day at 3pm. Went home and helped out with the kids. 5pm drove 4 boys to a birthday party. Came home and had dinner. Got kids ready for bed and put them to bed. Answered many phone calls and texts, caught up on email and face book. Went to mall to develop pictures for dorm activity on Sunday. Came home did more facebook. Talked to one of our boys till about 12:10am. Went to bed at 12:15am. We had 4 guys sleep over. Abby woke up during the night at 2:30am wanted milk.

Sunday- Tyler woke up at 5:30am. Got up about 6:15am. Woke up the boys at 6:30am. 6:45am took 15 boys to A4J (a children's ministry for the neighborhood kids from 7am-9am. About 400-450 kids show up each Sunday morning.) Got home about 7am and got Tyler settled. Kim woke up feeling much better. We got ready for church. Left for church at 10am and got home about 12:30pm. Had our Pastor and family over for lunch. So we had 22 people for lunch. They stayed to about 3pm. Got ready for all dorm event. All dorm event was 5pm-7:30pm. All 5 dorms met together for a BBQ and picture scavenger hunt (that Kim and I planned). Got home about 7:45pm. Put kids to bed. Now I have been emailing, face booking, and blogging. It is currently 11:07pm. I will probably will be up till at least midnight.

So... that was the weekend. Fun times. I just love weekends!

Christmas in September

About 1 1/2 weeks ago we received some boxes that we shipped from home. We founds lots of toys that Tyler and Abby were so excited to see. It was like Christmas. It was great to see them so excited. Larry and Kim were excited to see some of their stuff too.

The Boys

I just added a link for the boys. It has pictures and profiles for all of the boys. Check out the link on the right.

Let the Games Begin!

The sports season has officially started. On Friday Faith Academy played at ISM (International School Manila). Boys and girls volley ball and soccer had games. Eight of our 13 guys are on the soccer and volley ball teams. Uncle Larry was going back and forth between the soccer and volley ball games. The school had a beautiful astro turf field, yes they are NOT a christian school =). Saturday the JV soccer and volley ball teams had away games. This week we have home soccer games on Wednesday and Friday. Volley ball has a tournament on Saturday at home. Busy, busy, busy but Uncle Larry loves going to all of the games. Hopefully Aunt Kim, Tyler, and Abby will be able to go to the home games. Go Vanguards!!!

Family Home Weekend

This weekend was family home weekend. It is when each dorm spends the weekend doing various activities as a dorm to build relationships. Friday night we played youth group games. We had a fun time calling each other fruit names, duct taping each other to the wall, and throwing marshmallows at each other. Sounds like fun, eh? We had a good time.
On Saturday the boys painted their rooms two colors of their choice. They did a good job and the walls look a lot better with color.
Then on Sunday we went to church and then went out to lunch at Chili's. That was also a good time.
Monday was no school. Larry took the boys to the mall for school supplies. At night we met the other 4 dorms at the gym for games. Larry led the games which we think the kids enjoyed them. We had a very busy and fun weekend!

Some pictures

Here are some pictures of our surroundings. The scenery pictures are from our porch. Then you see the lovely traffic pictures. Then the mall, very American.
Thank you again for all of your prayers!

Larry

Settling in the Philippines

Hello everyone. Just wanted to give a quick update of what we have done the last week. It seems like we have been here much longer than one week. We have been busy and have accomplished a lot. We have been mostly shopping to furnish our apartment and unpacking our suit cases. On Sunday we went to a Filapino church with Ken and Joyce. It was quite an experience. They sang worship in English and Tagolog. But all of the preaching was done in Tagolog. It was a pleasure to be able to see them worship. As visitors they had us stand up in front and they sang a welcome song and then everyone came up and greeted us. A little over whelming but very nice. Today we visited Faith Academy. Kim saw a lot of familiar things that she remembered when she went to Faith Academy and a lot of changes.

Please pray for us as we continue to settle in and get ready for the 13 boys that will move in on August 12.
We hope to post pictures soon.
We are very thankful for you prayers! Love the Keatings!

In the Philippines

We have arrived safely in the Philippines. The flight was good but long. We were very happy to get off the plane. But everything went well. Today we will visit Faith Academy. We will keep in touch soon.
We love you all!

Home Sweet Home

We are home (for now)! We just back last night from our one month of traveling. We had a great time visiting churches on the east coast. It was great meeting people that encouraged us with their support and have committed to pray for us. We also had a great time at Greenwood Hills in Pennsylvania at the missionary orientation program. God confirmed that we are doing the right thing. We are more convinced that we are supposed to be at Faith Academy in the Philippines. It was great meeting with those that have the same desire to serve the Lord in a foreign place. We also had a great time visiting with Kim's family at a wedding.
We will be home for 2 weeks and then we fly to the Philippines on July 15. Please pray that these next 2 weeks will go smoothly as we prepare to leave. Thank you for your prayers. We love you all.

CMML

We have had a great time at CMML (Christian Missions in Many Lands) in New Jersey this past week. We have been visiting many churches and meeting many people that have commited to pray for us. CMML is a beautiful place. It is located just 10 minutes from the Jersey shore. The "house" used to be a mansion. It is now the head quarters for CMML. It consists of rooms for missionaries to stay while in the states, CMML office, clothing center, and many acres of beautiful gardens.

We praise God that we accepted an offer on our house today. Lord willing we will close on July 9. This is perfect timing as we leave for the Philippines on July 15.

Talk to you all soon!

Larry

Boys Dorm

We found out today that we will have a boy's dorm off campus that will have 14-18 kids ages 7th-12th grades. We are very thankful because we have been praying for a boy's dorm. We are very excited for this oportunity. Please continue to pray for us!

To the Philippines

Keatings to the Philippines. It's true. We plan on going to the Philippines on July 15. We are very excited about this opportunity.

This opportunity first came last July. Thanks to Kim's parents, they had an application sent to us from Faith Academy in the Philippines. They asked us to consider being boarding home parents at Faith Academy. Kim and I talked about the opportunity and we both wanted to consider it. So we prayed for a couple of weeks and we both could not stop thinking about Faith Academy and the Philippines. We felt a desire to serve at Faith Academy as dorm parents. We felt that God was leading us to take this step of faith.

We read the requirements of the position and felt that we would be a perfect match. There are four boarding homes at Faith Academy (a school for missionary kids) which house 7th-12th graders whose parents are away on the mission field. In each home there are 15-20 kids. Dorm parents take care of and are responsible for each child. Responsibilities include meals, homework, counseling, mentoring, fellowship, leadership, and much more. There is an apartment that is attached to each home for the family. They are looking for young families with experience with youth. Over the years as youth group leaders we have very much loved our time with young people. What a great opportunity to do this full time, serve God, and serve missionaries all at the same time.

We then talked to our elders at our church and told them about our desires. They had mixed feelings as they did not want us to leave but excited in the way the Lord would use us in the Philippines. They prayed with us and continue to pray for us. It is at this time that they agreed to commend us from Warrenville Bible Chapel.

The next step was to apply for the position of dorm parents at Faith Academy. We turned in our application on October 27, 2007. We then received our acceptance letter on January 16, 2008. During this time we learned patience and how to rely on God.

Over the past few months we have been making preparations for the move. Our house is ready and is on the market to sell. We have started packing/sorting our house. We have plane tickets and passports. It is has definitely been a busy time. In addition to the normal preparations we found out that my mom had cancer. She was first diagnosed with a malignant tumor in her left eye. After seeing multiple doctors the decision was made to remove the tumor and her eye. The surgery, which was on Good Friday, was successful. During this time additional tests were done to rule out any additional cancer. Through a cat scan a mass was found in the intestinal area. A biopsy was done which showed pre-cancer cells. Another decision was made to remove this mass before it developed and spread into cancer. This operation was successful as well on April 2. So now mom is once again cancer free. We are so thankful to the Lord for his healing. Please pray for mom and her recovery.

We continue to trust God during this time in our lives. We continue to feel the Lord's leading in taking us to the Philippines. Obviously this will be a huge change for us but we feel this is what God wants us to do. We would not be doing this if we didn't feel the Lord's leading. Faith Academy is looking forward to our arrival this summer. At this time we are making a two year commitment to serve at Faith Academy.

Our plans: My last day of work will be May 27. Then on May 29 we leave for New Jersey to visit our Mission home, CMML, for two weeks. During this time we will be visiting eight churches and sharing with them what we will be doing in the Philippines. Then we leave for Pennsylvania where we will be attending a Missionary Orientation conference. After that, we go to Connecticut to spend time with Kim's family and then on to Rochester, New York, for the wedding of Diane Brooks to Dave Smith. Then we will return to the Chicago area until we leave for the Philippines on July 15.

We appreciate all of your prayers and support during this step of our lives. We will continue to trust God as we follow Him. We give Him all of the glory!