Our Baby is 6!!!

Steve arrived safely after some great meetings up north, and he brought my dad with him for a few-days' visit! We have been so enjoying having Daddy home and Papa here too. Here is a pic from the first afternoon after they arrived - soaking off all the traveling in the volcanic hot springs.

Today we celebrated Ben's bday. His actual bday is next week, but the kids and I will be in Thailand at a homeschool conference so we wanted to celebrate now, in the brief window that we are together as a family this month.

Here is a pic of our tradition - opening presents on Skype so that Grandma can see. Ben got the Lego StarWars he had been wanting. He was so excited that it was hard for him to keep talking to Grandma after opening it. :)
After our skype calls to both grandparents, we left for Lago del Rey - a lake with inflatable floating things for climbing on. We all had a great time jumping and climbing. Odd how much harder it is for us older, heavier people than it is for the little ones.
the birthday boy

excited about the hotwheels crashing thing (not sure the official name :) )

The Buchanan family joined us for the party as did our coworkers, Terry and Michelle. These are the 3 Buchanan kids - sure are going to miss them when they move back to Australia next month!!!

Happy Birthday, precious boy. We love you more than you can fathom, and we can't wait to see the amazing things that God is going to do in and through you in the years to come.

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We are off to Thailand on Sunday am for our annual homeschool conference. Pls pray for safe travels, good health all week and that the kids would relax and be confident for their testing so that it would show us what we need to work on.

In the Village

Before we went to celebrate Mikayla's bday (see next post!), we headed out to the village for the day as a family. In one of the villages, the believers want to start a Bible study in the village where they are originally from and where their family still lives. They invited us to come meet everyone and have lunch with them. It was a good day, and we learned a lot about the difficult situation that will be facing these dear believers as they try to start teaching in this new area. It is a long story involving a lot of baggage from a previous group that was there. Please pray for Mariano, Maria, Alvin & Raquel as they desire to follow God in this.

Mikayla hanging out with the ladies

One of the guys there makes home-made kites. The kids had a ball trying them out.
This precious old man caught my heart.
drying fish for lunch

yum!

watching the kites

Raquel has had a difficult time getting pregnant and has lost a couple babies. Here she is with her long-awaited baby, Nikol. You have never seen a happier mom.

Ben took this one - we see water buffalo (carabao) everywhere we go.

Thanks for continuing pray for the Agta!

Please pray specifically this week for Steve as he is in Manila for some important meetings that will impact our strategy for reaching the Agta. Pray for wisdom, clear communication and unity for all who will be in discussion. Please pray as well for the kids and I as we are alone here for the next 11 days!

She's a Tween!

We have been blessed with some wonderful neighbors in our new home, and they invited us to join them at their get-away house to celebrate Mikayla's 10th birthday. It is only about 1/2 hour from here, and it was a beautiful place on a hill with a spectacular 360 degree view.

We tried to get a shot of all the kids (our 3 + their 4 + their 2 cousins on either side of Zach), but their eldest son decided to hide behind Mikayla's legs. By the time we got him to cooperate, the youngest 2 were very done. O well, it was a nice thought. :)

The birthday girl with her brothers.

It was a peaceful place and wonderful for just visiting and getting to know our neighbors better.

The big surprise for Mikayla was that we brought her bike back from the States. We packed it in the shipment without her knowing it, and it arrived just in the nick of time! She was thrilled; she and Ben have been sharing a small bike since we got back so this will be perfect for her.

Mikayla and her new buddy, Sophie

Ben has become quite the little photographer the last couple months. He is always happiest when he is documenting our adventures, and he gets some great shots.

Party time! Nothing like roasting hot dogs and making smores to celebrate your birthday.

Trying a strawberry smore - the marshmallows here come in a variety of flavors.

We stopped in our old town on the way back from the village to let Mikayla pick out a cake (SO cheap here, I never have time to bake one, and the kids love picking one out). Since it would be a big group, she got to choose 2. The chocolate one was actually the best store-bought cake I have tasted here. Didn't actually try the mocha one with strawberry frosting.

Presents. Her favorite was the P1000 ($22) she got from our coworkers Uncle Terry and Aunt Michelle.

Happy Birthday, our precious Mikayla. You light up our lives, sweetheart, and God is using you to shine His light to the Filipinos too. We know that He has amazing things in store for you and He will use you in mighty ways to glorify Himself. Keep pursuing Him first! We love you, Koodles!

Blue Basket or Big Cart?

After 38 frustrating days of broken promises and poor service + $450 in "fees" paid to customs, our shipment arrived! We are so incredibly relieved to finally have it in our possesion and FINALLY be able to start school. Thanks so much for praying!

Also, Ben's toe is healing up wonderfully with no infection so far (which is HUGE in the tropics!) We are soaking it often in hot salt water which is always a big help.

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A new mall/grocery store opened in our city just before we returned to the States, so we have been thoroughly enjoying the amenities it provides since we returned. However, they do have a funny rule that we can either get frustrated by or laugh off (we alternate between the 2!). As you enter the store, you have to choose whether you want to use a "big cart" (regular grocery cart) or "blue basket" (those smaller carts with 2 baskets). The deal is, when it is time to check out, you can only get in the line designated for that kind of cart.

The first time, we chose the big cart but when it was time to check out, the lines were huge at those but NOBODY at the "blue basket" lines. So the next time, we chose the blue basket, but the line situation was the opposite! So next time I came in, I checked the lines and chose the big cart even though I only needed a few things. But by the time I finished, only blue basket lines were open. Since I only had 4 things in my big cart, I tried to go through - didn't realize that is considered a felony (at least based on the reaction of all nearby cashiers and security guards). So I just got the 4 things out of the basket and carried them through. So the NEXT time (still trying to beat the system), since we were only getting a few things, I skipped the cart altogether and just had the kids help me carry. Well, apparently hand-carried items fall into the blue basket category because even though there were FIVE cashiers with no customers at all and long lines at the "blue basket" lines, we were NOT permitted to go through the big cart line with hand-carried items.

Lots of adjectives have come to mind, and my problem-solving skills have gone into overload with the ridiculous rule (including getting BOTH kinds of carts then just switching at the end when figure out which one I need, but Steve said that will be seen in negative way because only the impatient Americans are so worried about the lines and are willing to try to beat the system - he's right unfortunately).

So I have just learned to accept it as one of the oddities of life here and relax and *patiently* wait in line with everyone else (while we look longingly at the many cashiers currently waiting on NO ONE in the other class of lines!) And, at least this crazy situation is WAY better than trying to check out at the little grocery store in our previous town - there it could take 45 min - 1 hr even if you were the only customer checking out! No exaggeration, but that is a whole other story...

Poor Ben

Ben had a little run-in with some barbed wire tonight. The barbed wire won.

Poor guy is really hurting. Took a while to stop the bleeding, but it is cleaned up now. He has it elevated and is watching Star Wars. He was a brave little man.

And, yes, he is current on his tetanus vaccination.

Culture Study

The Agta people are believed to have been the original inhabitants of the Philippine islands. It is believed that they came over sea from Mozambique or somewhere else in Africa, which is why those with pure blood still have curly hair, darker skin and shorter stature (like the pygmies or bushmen). Culturally, they are a very non-confrontational people and nomadic. So when the polynesians and later the Spanish started arriving in the Philippines, the Agta simply retreated and moved away. After a while, land ran out and there was no longer any place to move away to, so many of the Agta have become intermingled with the rest of society. Unfortunately, they are very looked down on by their neighbors, and they lack any cultural pride so many of them seem to believe others' view of them. Their people name has become an insult - when someone does something foolish, you might call them "agta". If you comment on how pretty their daughter is, they will say "O no, she is ugly. She is just Agta." To them, "pretty" (or smart or successful) and "Agta" can never go together. They don't like being Agta, so they have tried to blend in to the culture that surrounds them and forget their indigenous culture. As a result, it has been very difficult to do culture study on their "old ways" - ways that are no longer practiced very often but still affect who they are at their core. While we know a lot about how the Agta interract now, we don't know as much about their "old ways".

Last weekend, Steve got the rare opportunity to attend an event where these old ways would be brought into the present - the dedication of some "ancestral land" given to them by the government.

The adventure began at 5am with a 2 hr motorcycle ride to the coastal village and continued with a ride on a jeepney a little further up the road where the hiking began. Unfortunately, his contact in that area - a new believer - was not able to accompany him up the mountain as he had responsibilities at the base of the mountain for the fiesta the next day. So Steve didn't know anyone in the group at the beginning, but he was able to meet a lot of new people and develop some good relationships.

It was an arduous but beautiful 2.5 hr hike straight up the mountain next to the ocean. All the pics he got of the "up" part of the trip included the behind of the person climbing in front of him so I included a pic from the return trip so you can see the beauty of the location.

Upon arrival at the top of the mountain, he discovered a tent that had been erected to house the attendees. More than 60 people slept the night in that tent.

They had also set up a beautiful table with plates of food and fruits/vegetables on the other end.

The ceremonies began with a mass and dedication by a Catholic priest. Then the oldest Agta chieftain in the area got up and spoke for almost an hour. While he was speaking in his local dialect, Steve was able to follow most of it and got it on video so he can hopefully study it further with some friends. The chieftain spoke about the need for the Agta to return to sacrificing to the spirits in order to be blessed by them and protected from the evil spirits.

He then sacrificed a white chicken and drained the blood into a bowl. Everyone then came up and dipped in a matchstick and drew a cross on their forehead and both temples.

There was much more to the ceremonies, but I am sure that those of you who are not culture buffs are probably done anyway so I won't bore you (that and I wasn't there so can't speak authoritatively about it!) I do know that there was a band that played songs they had written and used all home-made instruments - Steve said they were amazing.

After the ceremonies, everyone hung out then tried to get some sleep. With that many people crammed into the tiny space (remember the table? Steve was one of the 10 or so privileged ones to be given a spot to sleep on the table!) Talk about crammed in like sardines. But many didn't have even an inch to lie down on the ground and just huddled around the fire all night so Steve really was one of the fortunate few. He got up to use the bathroom in the night and lost his spot so joined the group around the fire for the duration.

The next morning, he had some good conversations with several of men from that area. Their conversation sparked a lot of spiritual questions. Pray that these questions lodge themselves in their hearts and minds and prompt them to seek the Truth. Pray for a way to start a Bible study up in that village - it is too dangerous (and far) for Steve to go on a regular basis, but there is a baby church with new believers at the foot of the mountain and down the road. Pray that God would raise someone up to go teach in this village - wherever they might be from.

While we are still studying their culture and learning their ways (especially the ancient ones), the Agta are dear people we have come to love; and we have a burden for them to know the Truth about the One Who cherishes them and sees in them so much potential. They are so much more than "just Agta" to Him; they were worth the life of His only Son.