New Areas Opened!

First, I apologize for the glut of posts all at once. Between the whirlwind of travel over the summer, followed immediately by coaching soccer when school started up, I had gotten behind on posting. So now I'm shooting a firehose of pictures and stories at you!

As usual, Steve doesn't have a lot of pictures to show for the trips that he did in July, August and September without me (since I'm the photographer). However, he is currently on a trip where others have taken some pics that I have been able to steal off FB so at least you can get a glimpse of this trip.

Part of why Steve doesn't often take pictures is that a lot of his trips constitute mainly of meetings, so they don't make for super exciting photos. These pics he took at a meeting where he is a consultant to a board who are hoping to help churches in the Philippines work together more effectively to send people overseas to serve. We are excited to see how God uses this group!

This week, Steve flew down to Bicol to join a team from the States in helping our Bugkalot partners open new areas where they recently relocated. 

They are working together to survey new areas to find where the tribals in this new province are located. Our Bugkalot partners are with them, and they will be the ones to follow up on the doors that this team opens. They are traveling from village to village, finding out where the tribals are and sharing their testimonies to open doors. Much of their travel has been by boat, and some has been by 4 wheel drive.

 Thanks for praying with us for the people in this new area, that God would soften their hearts and give them an eagerness to hear the message of the Word. 

Spartan Race

So a Spartan Race came to the Philippines for the first time, and Steve and Ben were both able to join (the other 2 wanted to, but they couldn't because of their soccer schedules). They both ran with a friend, and it ends up that Stephen ran with Stephen and Ben ran with Ben. :)

The Bens ran in the kids' version (not as muddy or as difficult but also a LOT cheaper :) ).

 Go, Ben!

 Ben ended up getting 2nd place for all the kids!!

 Meanwhile, the Stephens didn't die on theirs, and they even finished it, so they counted that as a win. :)

Proud of my guys!

Back to School

After a whirlwind summer of constant travel (only home a few days all summer!!), we started school back up the beginning of August.

Mikayla is on the student council this year, so she has lots of leadership responsibilities with that.

 She is also keeping busy with college applications, including skype interviews like this one. It can be tricky to arrange the time for an interview when it is a 13 hour time difference! She has been doing great on all her applications though, and she has currently been accepted at 2 different schools (and offered their top academic scholarships besides!).

It's not ALL work and no play though; spirit week costumes are always fun.

Ben was a jester for one of their theme days....

...and he and a friend made a bobsled and went as Jamaican bobsledders on another day!

 Mikayla is also one of the captains of her soccer team this year, and she enjoys leading the team in devotions before games.

One of the things that we have been blessed by this year is watching the friendship between Mikayla and Zach develop. In their younger years, they got along fine, but not much of a real friendship. But this year, they have started really connecting and appreciating one another. Here they are totally wiped out after soccer games. They are both playing center midfield this year for their teams, and they have both played every minute of every game so they are pretty tired afterwards!

 Because of a uniform error, they ended up with the same number for one weekend.

So blessed by this young man and young lady!

Volunteers: Down South

Next stop: Bicol to visit our Bugkalot partners who are church planting amongst the Agta tribe. The plan was for the team to share testimonies as they went from place to place to open doors for our partners to follow up by teaching the Word in that place.

We started out with a training on prayer walking at the training center. That was the primary tool that we used as we went from village to village and shared what God has done in our lives.

We traveled by lots of different modes of transportation to get to the various villages. Boats, tricycles, jeepneys, motorcycles...and LOTS of hiking!

Since there were so many of us, it was more strategic to divide into smaller groups to cover more ground (and be a little less overwhelming to one place!). Our kids were divided up on the teams as well, and they were a huge help in each group. Each team also had several of our Bugkalot partners with them.

Mikayla actually served as one of the primary translators for her team! So proud of how hard she has worked to get her Tagalog to the point where she could be an asset like this!

 

 At the end of our time, we enjoyed sweet fellowship, worship and debrief with our Bugkalot partners. They are the ones who will continue the work, and follow up on the doors that were opened through this time serving together.

 So thankful for this great group of men and women who came so far to serve Him. 

Volunteers: Up North

The end of July brought a team of volunteers to partner with us in the work. They came from two different churches that partner with us, one in Camdenton, Missouri and the other in Wichita, Kansas.

 So thankful for people who are willing to make so many sacrifices to come and work together for HIS glory!

 Early the next morning after they landed, we drove up north to visit the Bugkalot tribe. 

 One of the highlights of this team was than my (Jen's) dad was a part of it! We enjoyed getting to hang out for almost 2 weeks and serve together...and get some extra hugs!

 We always start with orientation time with our volunteer teams, just to make sure that our purpose is clear and that we are all on the same page as to how we are going to work together. This time we got to enjoy some beautiful scenery while we had orientation...until it started to rain, and we had to move to take shelter under the bridge. :)

 Our trip up north was a whirlwind quick one, just to give them a glimpse of the culture of the Bugkalot people, who are now sending out some of their very own to reach the Agta tribe in Bicol (where we would go next). We spent time telling them some stories about where the Bugkalot have come from, and it was a precious time remembering all that God has done in those mountains.

 The Bugkalot also put on a cultural presentation for the team.

 And they had a little language study session to get an idea of what it is like to learn another language.

 While we hadn't initially planned to have teenagers on this team, several dads who were coming wanted to bring their teens. It ended up being a GREAT group of young people, and God used them in a mighty way!

Thankful for this team, and excited to move on to the next leg of our journey...down to Bicol!