Footprints

This past week, Steve took a trip to a nearby island.  His trip included driving a couple hours in the car, a couple hours on a boat, a jeepney, a tricycle, and finally a short hike.  There are 6 tribal groups on that island, and 135 churches between the 6 groups.  Steve was invited to meet with the combined leadership for these churches as well as attend the annual conference for these churches.  He was excited for this opportunity because these tribal churches have worked together to send out a couple of their very own to reach tribal groups in another area!  Those of you who know us, you know that this is our heartbeat, so this trip was such a blessing! Steve had the privilege of sharing his heart with them during the conference, and we are excited to see if God will provide opportunities for partnership in the future with the goal of equipping them to send out even more people than they are right now.

On the final day of the conference, the leader of their association of churches pulled Steve off to the side and asked him a question (in Tagalog), "What do you do when you're walking?"  Steve wasn't sure he understood the question, but the repeat came back exactly the same.  After a few failed guesses ("move your legs?" "breathe?"), he said to Steve:

"Footprints.  When you're walking, you leave footprints behind you as you go.  You hiked up into this village and shared your heart with us, and you have left footprints up here.  God has used you, and we will keep remembering what you talked about, even after you leave because your footprints are here.  And I don't think you are done.  You need to come back and leave more footprints in the future."  So thankful for the privilege of leaving footprints in this place for HIS glory!

Meanwhile, Mikayla headed off to the Himalayas last week!  That's right, our "baby" girl is in the Himalayas!  While she has helped so much with our ministry here, this is her first trip where she has traveled by herself to a dark area to shine His light in that place.  We are so excited for all that God is going to do in AND through her there.  Please pray with us that she will walk closely with her Savior and that God would use her mightily in that place.  

Pray that she would leave some footprints for HIM in the Himalayas!

Vacay time!

Our family enjoyed some vacation time a couple weeks ago.  After our couple of days visiting Jen's siblings, we put the kids on a plane to an island in Indonesia (aren't there days you wished you could do the same with your kids? :) ).  Seriously though, the kids got to fly to Indonesia by themselves to attend a summer camp.  Camp Miki is one of the highlights of the year for our kids as it is a camp comprised of other kids in our same line of work and is staffed by our colleagues from around SE Asia.  Because many of the kids & adults live and work in secure locations, we can't post a lot of the pics from their time there; but here are just a few...

 The camp is held at the foot of this volcano.

 The kids have made some life-long friends (really more like family!), and the "hellos" are always so heart-warming.

They enjoy playing lots of fun games....

 ...acting like crazy people...

 ...going on hikes and camp-outs under the stars...

...studying and memorizing the Word together...

(each year is a Spiritual milestone time for the kids!)

...playing hard enough to get injured... 

(Ok, so maybe they don't enjoy that part, but they sure do it every year! As Steve says though, if nobody gets hurt, you probably weren't playing very hard.  This year they mostly had skinned knees and elbows, but Zach also got butterfly stitches to add another scar to his already-full-of-scars eyebrow.)

 We are all so very thankful for Camp Miki!

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And while the cats were away...

Steve and I flew to a different island in Indonesia (where we had meetings the following week; the kids joined us there after camp).  We spent the week just the two of us!  Another couple (whose kids were also at camp) joined us, and we had a wonderful time relaxing and encouraging one another.

 They upgraded our room to a swim-up room!

 And gave us this delicious cake. :)

 We enjoyed several activities around the island, including watching the "water blow" again...

 ...exploring "Monkey Forest"...

 ...and trying out a flow rider.

 We had such a wonderful time!

The next week, the kids flew to the island where we vacationed, and we all attended a week's worth of meetings with our company.  It was a refreshing time, and we came home ready to jump right back in to work - which is good because we hit the ground running!

Appreciate your prayers in the weeks ahead as we have 2 volunteer teams coming, the boys have 2 weeks of another camp, and Mikayla heads to the Himalayas.  Things are crazy, but God is at work, and we are so thankful to be in the middle of all that HE is doing!