about

Maayong adlaw! Good day!  I'm Barbara, the main contributor to this blog. Together with my husband Mark and our three precious junior members, Amy, Elise and Michael, we are us5earthenvessels.

We're delighted that you stopped by to spend some time with us here today!  Thank you for gracing us with a visit.

Who are we?  We are an ordinary American family; raw material full of imperfections, (just ask any of our neighbors!) but housing an unspeakable treasure: the gift of God's amazing grace.

We are expats, living and serving since July 2009 on the island of Mindanao, in the Philippines, somewhere out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. 

Because of sensitivities in the areas where some of our colleagues work, we've restricted our blog to just cultural and family news. That's frustrating to us sometimes since we'd love to share more about what God is doing around here. 

But if you want to know a little bit more about our ministry, we'd be happy to send you our quarterly newsletters.  Just leave us a comment somewhere on this blog with your email address, stating that you'd like more info, and we'll get you on our list right away.

by grace alone,
barbara