Summer Ministry

In addition to attending a lot of meetings this summer that were full of networking, we were also back and forth to Bicol several times. On one of the trips, Steve had the privilege of speaking at the Agta Church Leaders training. It's always a blessing to see what God is doing in all their hearts.

On our trips back and forth to Bicol, we also had the joy of spending some time with our two Nehemiah Teams that were with us for the summer. We enjoyed some fun times, time in the Word & prayer/worship time together as well. A great group of young men and women who we are confident God will continue to use in the future.

Sadly, Mt Mayon (our famous volcano) didn't cooperate for the picture, but still a great time with a wonderful group.

Ben & Katye

Aren't they just the cutest?! They're engagement pics turned out so well, and it was so fun to see their smiles. They are deep into wedding planning now with the big date in October. We'll be heading back to the States the end of September for the wedding. Thanks for praying with us for this sweet couple as they prepare for their marriage & future. Katye has one more year of college, and Ben plans to start seminary in January as they are hoping to serve on the field someday.

Fun with Kids!

We have been LOVING having some kids on our team, and we got to have some Uncle Steve & Aunt Jen time while their parents went out on a date.

They took a date with Uncle Steve...and got just a little muddy!

Then we also got to see these other "kids". The goats are new arrivals at our livelihood project, and we got to go visit them at feeding time.

So thankful for all the kids! :) Such a blessing.

Summer Time

This summer was busy with travel and LOTS of meetings, but we did get to take a couple days of down time on one of our favorite islands in SE Asia.

We love this "blowhole" where the waves come in and shoot out in a spout. Such a beautiful place.

It was a very busy summer, but the meetings we attended were very fruitful, and we were encouraged by seeing some amazing places and catching up with some wonderful people.

 

Young People

Any ministry that plans for the future must be intentional to invest in their youth. We've been having regular tribal youth retreats, and it's fun to watch our team come together and invest in our tribal youth. It's also been so good to see the growth in these young people. 

We hoped and planned for about 100 youth, but around 220 showed up! Good problem to have but did have us scrambling a little. :) Pray with us that God would call up many from their midst to step out in faith and follow Him whole-heartedly.

This one isn't specific to youth, but there is a Filipino pastor in the area who has a heart to reach the tribals and has a long-standing ministry. We've partnered with him through the years, but we'd love to see a more solid partnership where they even send some of their youth through our Bible School and Boost programs. Steve spoke at their church, and we had some good fellowship with them. Pray that God would work through this friendship.

Lastly, we are once again partnering with Nehemiah Teams this summer. They send college-age young people from the States to serve on our teams for a couple months. This year we have 2 teams. The ladies will serve on our Boost farm and join in local outreach groups. The guys will travel to more remote areas, doing survey and broad seed-sowing to see where the response is the greatest, so that our teams know where to focus the follow up for church planting. Pray with us for health, safety & for God to work mightily both IN and THROUGH these young people this summer!

Tribal Team Training

We gather our tribal time 3-4x/year for fellowship and training. For this one, we had some guest speakers in for a couple days and some folks came to help with the kids program. We started out with just part of the group, split into two. The Bible school and Boost teachers spent some time continuing to modify their curriculums to incorporate more orality principles. Our friend Cameron & his family came in to help lead this time. Then there are 2 couples and a single guy who are getting ready to deploy to new areas for church planting, so we had some strategy review time with them. 

Then the rest of the group came in and joined us, and Cameron started us off with a day of orality training. Good thing we scheduled that first because Steve and I found out that morning that we needed to make a quick trip up to Manila to immigration for our visa! We booked a ticket and flew up, went to immigration, and then flew straight back. What a whirlwind, but thankfully the training was able to continue without us.

We studied through Philippians as a whole group, then we had quite a few group activities, including some planning and mapping time as outreach teams. The ladies also sang happy birthday to Steve while the guys greeted him, and we enjoyed a fun dinner to celebrate his birthday together.

So very thankful for this team!