Partnership

We are so excited about the partnership with Global Empowerment that God has dropped in our laps. Global exists to "strengthen the church where the church is, to send the church where the church is not". We are partnering with them to strengthen the church in the Ilongot tribe (where Jen's parents worked) and empower them to send out some their own to impact other people groups - people like the Agta tribe we are working with. So we have been splitting our time lately between working directly with the Agta and also mobilizing, equipping and training the Ilongot tribe to send some people down to partner with us to reach the Agta.

Doors have been flinging wide open everywhere we turn, and we stand in awe of what God is doing through this partnership.

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Last week, Steve and my dad (who started Global Empowerment) took a team of Christian businessmen from Manila up to Ilongot-land. These businessmen are incredibly excited about starting some businesses up there to enable the Ilongot to send some people down to partner with us.

The businessmen spent time evaluating the resources that the Ilongot have to work with.

They were astounded by the beauty of the location...
and enjoyed getting to know the people.

They also spent some time discussing with the Ilongot the possible business options.

They also got to witness a presentation by the Ilongot of their native dress, dance, and music.

The Ilongot love to have fun, and after the presentation, one of the guys approached Steve like this, trying to get him to dance too. Thankfully he got out of donning a loincloth, but he did try his hand (feet?) at their native dance.

Here is a shot of my dad with some of his close friends.

This guy was one of my friends growing up, and he is now one of the church leaders. He has spoken about possibly being one of the ones to "go" when the time comes - one of the ones to come down and work alongside us to reach the Agta.

We are so thankful for this partnership with Global Empowerment to empower the Ilongot tribe to send some people down to partner with us to reach the Agta. Gives me goosebumps to think about what God is doing.

Please pray with us August 12-20 as a team of Ilongot leaders comes down to visit the Agta on a Vision Trip to see how God wants to use their people group to impact others.