And the Adventure Begins!

Well, we are on the road again. I am typing this from Manila, but on Tuesday we will be headed up into the mountains in northern Luzon (just south of where that big typhoon came through this wk). We will be camping there off and on for the next month. Why, you might ask, are we going to go camp in a remote village with our family where we have to bathe & wash clothes in the river, haul water for drinking & cooking, and our bathroom situation is still as of yet undertermined? Well, the Bogkalot tribal people up there are really close to being ready to send out some of their very own to partner with us to reach the Agta! We will be doing some training and mobilizing and just helping them think through all of this. The Bogkalot church has really seemed to catch the vision for this; but there is a difference between catching the vision and people actually stepping forward to GO. This takes a lot of courage and a lot of faith, and it is a huge step. Please pray with us that this next month would be the time - that several Bogkalot believers would step forward and say, "We will go!"

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Also, pls be praying for good health for our family as good medical care will be far away and for safe travels as we will be on some rough roads recently battered by the typhoon. We will not have cell signal or internet up in the village, so our contact with the outside world (you all!) will be limited. But if you have time to drop us a note while we are up there, it would be hugely encouraging to have it waiting for us when we come back down to "civilization". We will miss you all!

Exciting News

Those of you who have been following the blog for a while will remember Jose and his wife MaryAnn. They are a precious couple whose lives have been radically changed by the Word of God. Before, if Jose ever happened to get work, he would spend the money on alcohol. If there was any left, he would give it to his wife to buy food for their 5 kids. Things are VERY different around their house now with God at the center. They are still painfully poor, but Jose is doing all he can to care for his family. His kids are even attending school now!

Jose is also one of the leaders of the small church that meets in their village. He has also started multiple outreach groups where he teaches the Word every week. This is actually quite remarkable because Jose can't read - but MaryAnn can! So MaryAnn reads the Bible to Jose every night (often for several hours) until he knows it well enough to teach it.

While we were on furlough in the States, Jose and MaryAnn started a new outreach group. They hike about an hour away early every Sunday am to teach. Sometimes some of the kids go with them, sometimes they stay with grandparents until their parents return in the afternoon for the worship time in their village.

Well, this past Sunday, this little outreach group had its first baptism!!! Five women were baptized, and three men came forward and said they were interested in joining the study as well. God is at work in this group, and we are rejoicing with the angels in heaven over all that HE is doing!

Allowance, here he comes!

In our house, the kids start getting an allowance (about 50 cents a wk) as soon as they lose their first tooth (that seemed to be about the right time to start teaching value of money, stewardship, etc). Well, until this wk, Ben has been the only one not yet getting allowance; but not anymore! He lost his first tooth tonight, and is very excited about it!