marayan sheets christmas videos

the Christmas videos are finally here,we've been so busy with stuff that i didn't have the time.
well its done,i think it turned out pretty well since it was in dark lighting.
we had a great time as you will see in the videos,they said it was the best family Christmas party
ever.well I'm glad and happy for that.theres 11 videos in all,the link is here to see the rest.
enjoy.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://www.youtube.com/user/marayanchristmasvids

vila de mercedes open house

we went to a very nice and or rich neighborhood open house,its on the side of the mountain as you can see,with a great view of the Davao gulf.
and its nice there because its cooler and there infinity swimming pool is awesome.you can get a house there starting at only 6million pesos,or a 120 thousand
American.that's not actually bad if you got the money,but we don't got the money.its nice to look though i guess.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/VilaDeMercedesOpenHouse

crash landing resort

we got invited to go to a resort by ken and Ella.the resort is owned by Ella's work mate,they built the resort after they found 2 gold bars on the property,from the second world war.
they say that there are gold bars hidden all over the Filipino islands when the Japanese were here .
we had a great time,great food ,and great people.and the resort was very nice to,fresh spring water being pumped into the pool.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/CrashLandingResort

kids internet cafe

we were supposed to do the Internet with all the kids on Christmas eve,but you know how Filipino time goes,way later than we thought.
so we had some of them over on the next possible day that we could,so they could play there games and update there friendster.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
lhttp://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/KidsInternetCafe

marayan and sheets christmas party

happy belated merry Christmas.we've been so busy i haven't had time to update the pictures.
we had a great Christmas party at the house with the whole family,we think 35 plus in all,in our tiny house and yard.
it was a great time,great people,and excellent food.wow ,that was a lot of food and gifts.and they had to play games
to get half of them.it was a excellent time.
and of course the Internet and Internet phone so they could talk to there brother in the USA ,who just had a new baby
boy not to long ago.and of course theres new baby's here,so they were showing and comparing kids.they were on the
Internet phone for 2 hours.i thought the battery's were going to die,but it made it.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/MarayanChristmasParty
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/ChristmasParty

all nations church christmas party

all nations church christmas party
what a great day,great church,great people,and of course good food,i mean munchies.
they had many games as you can see,nida had a great time participating.
the next day she felt it though,she had muscle pain,but it was worth it.
this is davaos school for the missionary's kids.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/AllNationsChristmasParty

nidas solo at church

nida sang a solo number for morning service.then at night they had matina baptist christmas cantata.
it was a long day sunday,but she made it.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/NidasSolo
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/ChurchChristmasCantata

matina baptist church christmas cantata practice

matina baptist church christmas cantata practice

yes,more practicing,more cantatas,more eating,etc etc.yes they asked nida if she could at least sing one solo number for the cantata at matina baptist church,her family's home church.
as you can see her sister denah behind her is sleepy,its been a long day,week,etc.
also if you've never seen it before,they like to do the black light and do the hands show.its a nice show if you've never seen one done.
and last but not least, her best friend ella ruth, in the dark blouse is doing much better after almost having both of her kidneys shut down.god really does answer prayers, we and she didn't think she was going to make it she was so bad.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/MatinaSongPractice

nidas niece useing the computer

From matina song practice

nidas niece using the computer,
she went shopping with the whole family for christmas gifts.nimrod, her brother from the usa,was the sponsor for that.
and then her niece luv luv helped nida get the stuff home.and then she got to update her friendster with pics from the picasa
picture sites we have for the familys.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines

christmas cantata

christmas cantata,at leahs new church here in mintal.
they asked nida if she could at least sing the solo part,because they know she is so busy, that she just has time to practice for that.
it was a good concert good food good people.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/CristmasCantata

doble kara

doble kara is dressing up half man half woman,then they have to sing males voice and then switch to female voice.they do it to have fun.
and its not even halloween.thats nidas brother in law joseph.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/LeahTeachersDay

kids haveing fun with the camera

kids having fun with the camera,nidas brother bought them a family camera,meaning if the family wants to use it they can.so for a couple of days they enjoyed poseing ,poseing.heres the links.

http://picasaweb.google.com/denahbenton/DenahKidsPlaying

http://picasaweb.google.com/leahprovida/LeahsKidsPlaying

the mountain people

the mountain people,
every year the mayor brings the mountain people to the city for christmas.they get money, food and clothes from the mayor and from the people.we have some staying in our little town at the local gym and park,as you can see they shower and do the washing of the clothes in the local river.
nida said this is the most shes ever seen,i said maybe they need to stop having babys,she said theres nothing to do in the mountains when it gets dark so they have extra curricular activity's when it gets dark.
andrew and nida sheets,mintal,davao,philippines

himig singers concert

we went to the himig singers concert last night and it was great food and a great concert.we were the representatives for the himig singers that now live in the usa.
nida also used to sing for them for one year,her brother sang with them for many years.but he now lives in the usa,and is working on getting his own little group of himig singers going there.
the himig singers are known world wide in the singing competitions,they have won many times.
last nite was a christmas theme and do you know jesus theme,it was very good.they are mainly known for acepella singing .the link to all the pictures is here,
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/Himig
andrew and nida sheets ,mintal,davao,philippines

virus infected computer

ken has been here only 6 mths,yet he has had major computer problems 4 times now.and this is where i come in,like ive stated before,my family is helping me,so i am helping others.even expats,because its true,we are not all rich.
and more than half the the time the service techs here did not fix his computer and steerd him wrong, and overcharged him for what they didnt fix in the first place.
i will admit,the last time i had his i couldnt get it reformated.well come to find out one service techs found out that another service tech just sold him the wrong memory chip and thats why it was throwing errors.
so that was half the problem,and i just figured out the other problem wednesday.his hard drive is so messed up i had to use linux to reformat it into a linux format,and then back to a windows format.and now finaly it worked like a charm,no errors.
remember like mom always said,it takes all kinds of people to make the world go around.meaning we all have a diferent job in gods world.we all cant be preachers,somebodys got to specialize and fix the computers.
even jesus was a carpenter first.
andrew and nida sheets ,mintal,davao,philippines

leahs open for business

Neda's sister Leah has just opened for business,it was her grand opening party.she will have a booth/ store, selling fruit flavored drinks to start with.and then possibly expand into selling plastic bags of all sizes.so basically whatever they can do or sell to make money.i hope it works out for them.
and yes i help them with there computer to,they bought it from me at less than cost.they have a lot to learn on it,but are fast learners.like the boys have learned you can play a lot of games on it.and yes i help them with that to.i just upgraded there virus software and got them the video of the the Manny pacquiao fight,and put the pictures from the grand opening on there computer.
so it was a busy day,everybody wanted the Manny pacquio fight,so i was running around getting it to the family and friends.even though i don't think it was worth watching,because Dela hoya didn't fight.
Andrew and Neda sheets,Mintal,Davao,Philippines
ps,heres the link to the pictures
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/LeahsOpening

our friends arrive

our friends arrived,after not seeing Pete and Adelfa for 2 years,we finally get to see each other face to face.
so here's the quick story,Pete is my best friend in AA.and when he met my wife Neda,he was so impressed,he said i want to marry a Filipino to.
so we set him up on the same christian web site that me and Neda met on.
and the rest is history,he met his great wife Adelfa.and we've been friends ever since.
the other lady there is Flossy,that's Adelfa's sister visiting from Australia.they like to travel the world together.and they have finally traveled to Davao.
they were hesitant at first because of all the things they heard from there friends,but now that they've been here,they agree with me,its a great safe place in the Filipines.
Andrew and Neda Sheets,Mintal,Davao,Philippines

bible study

bible study was a great time.good people, good food,nice house,and of course,good bible study.
peter bollant the pastor is a good preacher and a nice guy,his whole family is good people.

and yes of course computer work here to,i had to check there internet speed.its only 500 k download speed,and thats 5 people on the computers.thats not enough.then one computer mite need some work,they just got the sowar virus,its nasty.even though you kill it ,it has already messed up youre files and system.basicaly you need to reformat youre computer,and start all over again with good virus software and firewall.the virus here is really bad ,so many people afected.
till next time thanks or reading,
andrew and nida sheets ,mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/BibleStudy

we found a new church,its nice and it has air conditioning.but i know thats not what counts,its the people and whats being preached that counts.and from what ive heard so far,he speaks the truth.
andrew and nida sheets mintal,davao,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/NewChurch

happy belated thanks giving

we had our own american/ philippino thanksgiving thursday on our front lawn.it was a great time,great people,and great food.youre going to hear that a lot becuase its just true.
that british looking guy in the green shirt,is a british neighbor of ours that we have just met.they are a great couple that have retired here in the philippines.so if youre looking for a cheap place to retire where they actualy speak english,then this is the place.the exchange rate is 48 pesos to one dollar right now.you almost cant beat that any where in the world right now.
so come on down half way around the world and come visit,but be careful you mite like it.
andrew and nida sheets, mintal ,davao ,philippines
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/ThanksgivingParty

kens birthday party last nite

we had a great time at kens birthday party last night.he said he hasn't celebrated his birthdays since he was a kid,but the Filipino way is to always celebrate something.especially birthdays,and of course its another excuse to eat and socialize,and of course sing karaoke.
ken is from Tennessee,hes the one with the birthday cake,and that is his newly married bride Ella.we met ken at an expat meeting,there a great couple.ken is here working on his papers for his wife to go to the USA,hes a Christian,and he is a cabinet maker.
the other guy is James,hes our neighbor in the back of our neighborhood.hes from Texas,we have known them for about a year now.he is also a christian,and was in the military.he has been married for a while now.that is his wife marge sitting next to him.she is a teacher at a good university here.they are also both good people.
and as you can see there are working on having there first baby,and working on paperwork for marge and the baby to go to the USA in the future.
we also met Ella's daughter and her boyfriend,i got to see of the few 4 wheel drive land cruisers in our area,very nice.makes me miss my jeep i used to have.
well that's enough for now on that,till the next one.
Andrew and Nida sheets Mintal,Davao,Philippines.
http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1/KensBdayParty#

wana b technical missionaries

From kano party

My name is Andrew B. Sheets and my wife name is Nida. We are living in Davao City, Philippines. We are here working on fixing my wife paperwork with the US government, as most of you know the US government has clamped down on immigration since the 911 incident, because many of the hijackers abused the system.
what unfortunately happened is a Filipino friend of my wife had a company filing paperwork for Filipinos, he said he would file ours for free as a wedding gift. We didnt know what was needed so we said go ahead. Well we unfortunately came to find out to late at our interview, that he filed the totally wrong paperwork, and we have to go back to the Philippines to refile.
So we did what our government told us to do, we sold everything in America and moved to the Philippines, and this time hired a real immigration lawyer. Who charged us double the normal amount to file the paperwork we needed to file, because it was a hard case, so we agreed. But half way through refiling our lawyer informed us that she did'nt know the full details of our case and was now not sure if she could get us back.
we did tell her the full truth before she took the case, so this was a lie. And now she said she might be on the banned list. We will find out how long she will be banned in our up coming interview in Manila, it could be 3 yrs to 5 yrs to 10 yrs, we don't know. If its 3 yrs, that's fine, we already have a year and one half done, so we could do another year and a half. Thats not a problem.
But if longer, we don't know. If longer, we have talked about going to Canada, at least that' s near my family in Michigan, but now that the world economy is bad, we don't know if that's possible. I I am a jack of all trades, electrician, plumber, machinist and computer freak. And a lot of those are gone.
Especially in America, here in the Philippines i cant legally work, and what they pay the electricians and plumbers is not worth it, 300 pesos and or 6 bucks a day. Two people cannot live on that. We already are trying to live filipino, we drive a motorcycle, we rent a house for 3500 pesos and or 73 bucks a month. We have airconditioner just in the bedroom, we have phone and internet to keep in touch with the family and the lawyer. We also eatfilipino food, not American food which is expensive and then lastly we pay 1500 pesos a month for visa extensions.
so we are shooting for a monthly budget of 20000 pesos a month and or 416 bucks a month.
You might ask why is'nt Nida working, well she told me that even before we got here shes to old. I didnt understand what she meant until i got here. But she was right, they only hire young college girls. She said that why when a Filipino gets a good job they usually keep it for life and she did used to have a good job, she used to work as a book keeper for the Southern Baptist Convention for 14 years. But she quit that when she came to America and they now have a new book keeper of course, because its been 3 years since she's been there.
When we first got here we looked into many little businesses, small grocery store or small eatery but the failure rate is extremely high.
So when our family in the USA heard that it was'nt that easy to make money in this third world country. They asked the whole family if they could each put a little in the pot to help out here, till we can make it back and we have absolutely appreciated that. and yes we do have some money from the sale of the house, but a large part is to pay the lawyer and yes we are trying to save most of that money for going back to America and restarting, which as you know is expensive.

we both have a long history of Baptist church in our family lines, so that is what we are doing here, we have many friends at many churches and of course have a large family here. We have no know kids, but her sisters and brothers do approximately 30 in the whole family all together so that also keeps us busy visiting them and helping them when we can.

So this is where i get to the wanna be technical missionary. As i told you i am a computer freak. I have 12 years of dealing with computers and the internet. I know how to build them, fix them and do the pictures cd's, video conversion,meaning the camcorder to dvd and of course we have the internet here, so we post the pictures and the video for them. We also do video chat and voice with the family back in the USA, american and Filipino. Her brother is there with his Filipino wife who is a nurse. When the family comes to visit we basically have a small internet cafe going for them.

We are the only one that have internet in the family line, so we are helping with that.
since we are being helped back in America, we are trying to help here. The Filipino here is charging a lot of money, so we help with all of the computer things i have listed, as an example to reformat the computer is 500 pesos plus, that is almost 2 days pay. To build the computer is 1000 pesos plus that is almost a weeks pay, the video conversion to dvd is 500 plus almost 2 days pay.

While we are being helped from the family back in America i am charging nothing or almost nothing, meaning just the cost of the dvd, 30 pesos. Or feed me if you can, i love Filipino food .How can i charge when it is so poor here, i will post the links to the pictures over the year and a half you will be shocked at some of the places we've been, there are people living in nipa huts.Not that there' s anything wrong with that, many here are happy just having that and enough food to eat.but coming from my country, i was shocked and almost cried my first day here because i was in such shock, that at this day of age it still is so poor and behind here still.

Literally there are like 10 years behind on many things, many are still very computer illiterate. So that is why the Filipino service techs are making so much money off the Filipino, because they have know idea about why there computer is screwing up and a lot of times there computer is fine, and they tell them they need a new one keep the old one and sell it and or the parts for profit. I know there are good and bad people everywhere, but there is a lot shady stuff going on here with the computer stuff. The virus attacks here are extremely bad, so many computers are screwed up and need help. People are loosing a lot of very important files because they are so infected.

So that' s where i come in, i will help try to save the files, reformat the computer and get good virus software on the computer and talk to them about different ways they should back up there important data. Many here still don't even have a cd burner or a dvd burner, or internet to back up there files.
what they do have are the usb memory sticks, but that is exactly how they are spreading the computer virus everywhere, even though they don't have the internet.I checked a usb stick that had a 100 virus infected files, we could hardly save any of his work. His business was computer graphics and he is very good. He is using a 500 megahrtz computer, 200 megs of ram, 20 gigabyte hard drive, windows xp. As you know this is way behind the rest of the world,but he still gets it done. If you need some work done, i recommend him, he can do it at a very affordable price, let me know if youre interested.

so that is our story, i will start this blog to let our readers know how were trying to help and if our readers can help us ta all that would also be appreciated.

So here is the links to our pictures, it will give you more of an idea who we are and what we are dealing with and trying to help.

http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets

http://picasaweb.google.com/andrewbsheets1

thank you for reading our blog
Andrew and Nida Sheets, Mintal, Davao, Philippines
the wanna be technical missionaries