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.