Merry Christmas!

Sorry to blast you with 2 posts at once...December has been so busy that I haven't had time for blogging.  Scroll down for the post I just put up about our last trip up into the mountains.

After our trip up into the mountains, we arrived home on Christmas Eve and had a wonderfully quiet Christmas as a family. 

 Ben read us the Christmas story this year.

 Lots of smiles as we opened presents.

 A friend of mine accidentally told Mikayla what she was getting, so I wrapped up a can of tuna in a box to throw her off (her gift was too big for any of her wrapped gifts).  This was her smile when she read the note on the can of tuna that said where to go find her gift. :)

 The boys are just too cool with their personalized sports bags.

Merry Christmas from the Hagensn in the Philippines!

Christmas Adventure

After school let out for the semester, we headed up into the mountains with some friends for a couple days.

 When we arrived at our little tribal house, we discovered that the typhoon the week before had dislodged our water pipe.  So Steve and some of the kids headed out to hike up the stream to find and fix the problem.

 They spend quite a bit of time fixing the pipe...only to discover that they had been fixing the wrong line!  Ooops. :)  Thankfully, one of the tribal guys happened by and showed them how to get our water going again.

 The next day we headed to the village of Lipuga to visit with people there.  Steve had some important conversations that he needed to have with the community and church leaders, and the rest of us enjoyed walking around the village and visiting with people there.

 Several of our group joined the village kids for a game of bulaklak (flower).

 I had such a nice time with these two precious ladies, Roberta and Shelley.  Here they are visiting in my tribal friend's kitchen.

 My friend Solyn prepared a delicious lunch for us.

 Rice and kalabasa (squash)

 The recent typhoon cause a LOT of damage, including wiping out this road (you can see the road across the gully where we are throwing rocks).  While there was significant road damage, the real problems will be the fact that many of our friends' farms were washed away, and they lost their whole harvest. :(  They don't know yet where their food will come from for this next year, but they are trusting that God will take care of them.

 We spent a lot of time hanging out (pun intended!) in the hammocks that Steve's dad sewed while he was here in the Philippines in October.

 Despite the crazy cold temperatures (for us anyway!), the kids took turns sleeping in hammocks out on the porch.  The temperature dropped down into the 50s at night, with a pretty good wind chill, so they bundled up for warmth.

 And this is what they looked like in the morning. :)

 The kids also renewed their Christmas tradition of making a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, just like last year: Click here to check out last year's.

 While it rained for much of our time in the mountains, we were blessed with a gorgeous afternoon of sunshine, so we headed to the river for a hot dog roast.

 Steve brought an inner tube along, so the kids (and adults!) enjoyed shooting the rapids.

 Apparently those rapids weren't exciting enough for some of the crew though, and they headed off in search of more excitement.

 And they found it!

 We enjoyed several times of worship together as a group while we were up there.

 And then it was time to go home.  Check out how much these two ladies are carrying on their heads.  Go, Mikayla and Z! :)

I love this pic that Roberta took of our house.  See the grass roof in the distance?

 So thankful for a wonderful visit in the mountains with friends.  Please pray with us for our dear brothers and sisters in the Bugkalot villages who lost their harvest.

OOB Report

Our company has a policy that when we will be traveling anywhere overnight (Out Of Bed: OOB), we have to file a report with our supervisors and various other people.  The purpose of this OOB  report is so that they know where all their personnel are in case of an emergency at home or crisis in that country. This way they know where we all are and how to contact us if necessary (for example, after the 2004 tsunami, they needed to confirm that all our company personnel were accounted for, so they used the OOBs to determine if anyone was in that location at the time of the crisis). On an OOB, we have to record where we will sleep (very specific location) as well as contact information in that place and mode of transportation, who you are traveling with, travel logistics, purpose of the trip, etc.

Anyway, since Steve travels a LOT, I file many OOBs in the course of a year (several a month!).  He recently had a week of travel that took him to 3 very different places with 3 very different purposes for the trips.

(And now we have come to the portion of the blog where Steve travels from place to place and tries to remember to take at least a few pictures...let's just say that taking pics is not exactly his focus during his travels, which is exactly as it should be...after all, he doesn't work for Nat Geo.)

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The 1st part of his trip took him to a youth camp where he had the amazing privilege of challenging several hundred young people to get involved in the Great Commission.  They had some wonderful worship together.

 The pastor of this fellowship is a dear friend of Steve's, and they have worked side by side both up north with the Bugkalot as well as down in Bicol.  He is a true partner, and the two of them seem to share one heart.

 As the culmination of the youth retreat, each participant was given a puzzle piece.  They came forward to put their piece into the puzzle in the front to symbolize that we ALL have a part to play.  The finished puzzle revealed a collage of tribal people from all over the Philippines.  Such a blessing to have partners like this who are excited to be involved in reaching the remaining tribes in the Philippines!

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The 2nd part of Steve's journey took him on a ferry across the ocean to another island in the Philippines.  This trip was something we have been looking forward to for a long time (read about it HERE and HERE), and Steve was thrilled to have several of our Bugkalot partners join him for the trip.

 The purpose of this trip was to meet with the leadership from the church in the Mangyan tribal group.  This tribal group has 135 churches on their island, and they have sent out several of their own to plant churches in other areas.  One of the families they have sent out is working near our Bugkalot partners in Bicol, and they wanted to challenge this group to send out more workers to reach the unreached tribes in the Philippines.  

These are the 5 guys who met up and went with Steve to attend these meetings.  Two of them are our Bugkalot partners who live in Bicol. Two of them are part of the church leadership team up in Bugkalot - the man who trains the ones the Bugkalot send out as well as the chairman of their leadership team.  The 5th man is the one that the Mangyan tribe sent down to Bicol.  

 The purpose of the meetings was for the Bugkalot to share their hearts to reach the Agta and ask the Mangyan to partner with them to send out more laborers..."the fields are white unto harvest, but the laborers are few..."  

The Bugkalot have seen how effectively tribals can reach tribals, and they are unashamedly asking for partners since the task is too big (there are currently more places asking for the Good News than they are able to send people to).

 The meetings went amazingly well, and it was so good to hear the Bugkalot share their hearts and to challenge this tribal group to partner with them to reach the unreached tribes in the Philippines.

 The end result was that the Mangyan church leadership are supportive of the idea of partnering with the Bugkalot, and they will put the challenge before the churches at the conference in December to see if anyone is being called to GO.  They hope to have names of candidates by March, and the Bugkalot could have new partners in Bicol by April 2016!

 One of the things that was a real encouragement to us on this trip was that the foreigner who is working in the Mangyan area (and has for many years) was so excited by this possibility and opportunity.  He believes that this will be a real help to the Mangyan churches, and is thrilled to see what God will do through the ones the Mangyan send out.  It was such a blessing to see his heart in this - not a hint of trying to protect his "territory" as it were. He asked some good questions but ultimately stood behind us and encouraged the Mangyan to seriously consider this great opportunity.  What a joy to stand shoulder to shoulder with someone who isn't worried about building his own kingdom here on earth but is instead focused on the kingdom of God.  It's all about HIM, and it's all HIS territory.  Sad to say that this man's response surprised us since this has not always been our experience...but Steve's interactions with him were such a breath of fresh air.

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The 3rd and final leg of Steve's journey took him on the ferry back to the main island of Luzon, back up through Manila, then he continued on north to the Bugkalot mountains.  He has been helping teach some leadership seminars to the leaders of the coffee co-op there.  He traveled with Joseph, our ministry partner who works with the coffee project, as well as another friend from Manila who wanted to see what God is doing up in the Bugkalot mountains. 

 Steve always enjoys time with the Bugkalot, and this trip was no different.  The group interacted well with the concepts the guys worked through with them, and they gave some great feedback for how they can apply those concepts, both in the co-op as well as in other situations that they are currently facing in their churches.

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So there you have it - a week of traveling with Steve.  You may understand why his OOBs can be a challenge to keep up with!

Break at the Beach

A couple weeks ago, the kids had a short break from school.  We had planned to take a couple of days vacation at the beach for some quality family time. About a week before we left, we got a call from Steve's parents to say that they had found out his dad needed some more dental work, and it would be cheaper for him to come have it done in the Philippines again - and he arrived 4 days later!  The kids were so excited that Grandpa got to join us for our time at the beach!

We stopped at this beautiful waterfall on the way there. 

 The kids enjoyed playing in kayaks in the (small) waves.

 Mikayla had a ton of homework over the break (boo!), but she at least got to do it while enjoying this amazing view.

 And some quality time with Grandpa - what more could they ask for? :)

 thankful for quality family time and opportunities to enjoy His beautiful creation...

Tribal Workers Gathering

Our tribal partners in Bicol recently hosted the first "Tribal Workers Gathering" where everyone who has a heart to reach the tribals in Bicol gathered together for a time of fellowship, prayer and training.  One of the main goals was to determine how we can work together more effectively to make sure that all the tribals in Bicol have the opportunity to hear the Good News.  Some of the ones who attended were our Bugkalot tribal partners.  Others were lowland Filipinos from local churches.  One couple is from another tribal group who have come to Bicol.  Others are tribals from Bicol who have come to faith and are leading others to serve Him and reach the rest of the tribals in Bicol. So thankful for each and every one of these precious partners in the Task He has given us!

We hosted the gathering at our training center.  Meals were shared under this tarp outside.

 Everyone just slept together on the floor of the training center (notice Steve is there on the far side against the wall).  They were packed in like sardines - which is a GREAT problem to have when you consider the shared passion and purpose of the group who gathered!

 The meetings themselves were also held in the training center (click on the pic to see an enlarged version of the panoramic).

 Steve invited Pastor Billy (in the white shirt) to come and share with the group.  Steve has been so impressed with Billy's heart for the tribals and his confidence in them as they follow the Spirit.  It is always so encouraging to hear what he shares.

 The group spent a lot of time in prayer together and sharing in small groups what God is doing in the area where they are serving and how they can lift up one another.

 

 

 

We are so thankful for these men and women who share our heart to reach the tribals in Bicol with the Good News!