Steve has been traveling a ton these last few weeks; he's actually only been home a couple days at a stretch in between trips since mid-December. Today he arrives home again, and this time he will be home 4 whole days before leaving again - the longest stretch at home in 7 weeks! :) Then after the next trip, he should be home a little longer...I think...
Since he doesn't take pics on his journeys, I am dependent on pics that others take. :) Thankfully, for two of his recent trips, he had people traveling with him, so I have some pics to share with you.
(Photo credits to Henleys and Chris.)
One of Steve's recent trips was back down to Bicol to do some strategy planning with our partners down there for the livelihood side of the work. Duane and Nathan traveled with him. Duane is the one who went down with our family and his family (he has kids same age as Mikayla) over Christmas break. He is a consultant for livelihood and community development projects, and he very graciously agreed to come and help the Henleys evaluate plans for 2017. Nathan is from the States but is visiting SE Asia and checking out different ministries to see if he might be able to fit in and be used by God over on this side of the world.
They actually did the consultation in the guys' hotel room. Duane uses some great charts to help people evaluate and see where the holes are in their plans.
That trip was very profitable, and it will be exciting to see what God does through it.
A few days later, Steve and Nathan headed north to visit the Bugkalot area. We wanted Nathan to see that end of the work as well, and a friend from Manila, Chris, joined them.
They hiked to one of the Bugkalot church outreach areas on Sunday morning.
The guys got to share some testimonies, and Steve shared a message during church.
The Bugkalot always feed their guests well!
After lunch, it was time to hike back to the first village.
This village (you can see the houses through the trees above the river bed) was where I spent my early growing-up years. The dry river bed they are walking in was a river at that time (until the dam was built).
Once in that village, they visited with the people, and the guys enjoyed seeing the process of how rice is pounded and winnowed to remove the chaff.
The Bugkalot villages are overflowing with children!
Supper before the evening service.
The guys were pretty tired by this point; the day started at 530am with a hike to the church outreach, and this evening service ran until 10pm!
After the service ended and they said their goodbyes, they still had to drive about 30 mins back to our tribe house for a cold bucket bath before bed. A long day to be sure!
The next morning they were able to take it a little slower while they checked out the coffee plantation.
So thankful for the privilege of serving in such a gorgeous place!
