Into the Mountains Again

After the long drive from Manila, we started climbing into the majestic mountains for another week in the village... ...amongst beautiful people...

...whom we have come to love dearly...

Our time there is always full of fun and adventure...

...the kids enjoy playing in the river...

...and on the big rock...

...building little play houses...

...cooking root crops in a tin can over a little fire...

...playing with their hand-made tops...
They also help out with family work - de-kerneling corn here...

We also hosted a couple of wonderful visitors this week. This is Shawy, and she is praying about how God may want her to get involved in what He is doing here.

And this is Megan. She served on our team as a volunteer for almost a year and has now returned as a member of our organization to serve for a couple years.

We also attended a clan reunion - the 1st of its kind. Members of that clan came from all over Bogkalot territory.

They asked Steve to share from the Good News from the Word since there were people there who were not believers.

And Ben thrilled the whole crowd when he attempted their traditional tribal dance with the other kids.

Steve also had some important meetings this week to set up the schedule for our return up there in January -- that's right, we will be going back up there in January, this time for 2 months. Steve will be teaching through the rest of the book of Acts, and he will travel to each of the 4 village churches 2x a week. M-Thursday, he will teach a day-long seminar in a different village everyday. Then he will also share two Challenge messages in each church on either Sunday am or pm - challenging them to change their thinking and send people out from their churches to serve long-term amongst the Agta, not just on short-term trips. We will also do a couple 2 day wkend seminars where we pull all the churches together. It will be a very busy time for all of us, but we are excited about it because they are excited about learning what God has for them during this time.

Please pray with us that God would burden their hearts during this time that we are gone, that they would feel a stirring to be involved in what He is doing outside the Bogkalot territory. Pray specifically that God would call several families to step out in faith and follow Him on this journey. There are several whom God is already working on; pray that they don't become distracted or discourged but would continue to listen to His voice. Pray that when we return north in January that they would be more passionate then ever to reach out beyond their boundaries and bring the Truth to another people group, the Agta people.