Paglalakbay ni Steve

"Steve's Travels".

The Tagalog sounds so much more interesting. :)

A couple weeks ago, Steve traveled about 12 hours north to attend a tribal believers' conference as well as tribal church leadership meetings.  He was very encouraged by the time he spent with these dear brothers and sisters, and we are so excited by the ways that God is at work in their midst. 

 After the conference, Steve and several of the leaders headed off into the mountains for a leadership retreat.  

 They hiked several hours (5?) through some gorgeous terrain.

 After a couple hours, they started following the river bed up into the mountains.

 That waterfall waaaay up there is their destination.

 Quite the venue for a retreat, yes?

 They camped out by the waterfall overnight, then this was breakfast the next day.  Little minnows, frogs, and eels.  Yum!

 And, of course, don't forget the rice!

 The next day they lowered themselves down into the waterfall basin.  Thankfully, Steve had brought some ropes to make this a little safer.  Don't want to lose any leaders at the retreat!

 Absolutely gorgeous!

 They spear fished for eels in the pool under the falls.

 Doesn't get much nicer than this for a retreat venue!

 

 The bottom pic is actually waterfalls; the pool in the above pics is located between the two falls!

 The men had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of God's creation, connecting with one another, and discussing future direction and vision for their tribal church.

Shared Heartbeat

If you scroll down through the next couple posts, you will see that this summer was pretty crazy for us, with lots of travel and adventures.  Well, in between a couple of the trips that we took as a family, Steve took a trip with a friend to another island.

You know that our heartbeat is tribals reaching tribals, and we love when we get an opportunity to mobilize tribal churches to send out tribal partners to unreached tribal groups.  Well, Steve had the amazing opportunity to be the speaker for a tribal church conference on another island.  It was actually a gathering of the churches from 6 different tribal groups on that island, and he was so encouraged by his time with them!  These churches are already working together very well, and have sent out some of their very own to bring the Gospel to unreached tribal groups around the Philippines.  It is such a blessing to spend time with this tribal group that shares our heartbeat, and we are looking forward to opportunities to partner together to help one another be more effective in the Task to which God has called us.

The trip was quite the adventure, including travel by private vehicle, boat, tricycle, jeepney, and hiking.  Steve's not very big on taking pics, so I don't have any to show from their travel. They slept wherever they could find room - here is a pic of one of the places where they stayed.

 They started out their time by attending a board meeting for the leadership for the churches from the different tribal groups on this island.  Steve was so blessed to hear their hearts and encouraged by their interaction with him and one another.

 

Then the group proceeded to travel further interior to attend the conference.  Steve was given several hours to share his heart, and they welcomed him warmly.  It was in this place that the "footprints" comment was made (scroll down to find the post about that or click HERE).

 It was so encouraging to hear their hearts.  We share a passion to mobilize tribal churches to reach the unreached tribes, and we are prayerfully considering how God can use us to encourage these tribal groups in this Task.  Will you pray with us to this end?  God is doing some amazing things, and we are so excited to see what He has planned for the future!