Just a Glimpse

I know that there are many of you who would love to come for a visit but just can't swing it - for whatever reason. With you in mind, I tried to capture some of the every-day sights around the village where we are living right now.

My best friend up there gave birth to baby #5 while we were there this time, and we all welcomed him with open arms. Yes, it is a he - don't let the pink blanket throw you. :)

Only 24 hrs before she gave birth, her brother's baby passed away.

He was only 3 months old and died of pneumonia. My friend was not able to attend the wake because she had just given birth, so they brought the coffin by her house on the way to the burial site. Our hearts broke for this close-knit family as they welcomed one baby and buried another within hours of each other.
They asked me to take pictures at the funeral. An incredibly difficult task. I felt like I was intruding on their private pain, but they insisted they wanted the pictures. This was the final glimpse of the tiny coffin before they cemented it in.
In the midst of the emotional angst, life continued around the village. Most of the rest of these pics were taken from our porch - just a glimpse of the many sights we see everyday.
There is a broken-down jeepney in the center of the village that has become the local playground. Who need a jungle gym when you have this to climb all over?

Another jeepney comes through twice a day - once in the morning going down into the lowlands (about 3 hrs away), and once in the evening when it returns. Now, you would have to see the treacherous mountain roads that this jeepney will have to traverse to understand how wild this journey will be for them. Sadly, more than one vehicle has plunged into the ravine in the past several years. So we will NOT send you on this jeepney if you come to visit us - even if there is "always room for one more".

I LOVE how involved the dads and grandpas are in the care of the little ones.

No washing machines here, folks. Clothes are washed by hand in a tub then hung to dry. My shoulders ache and fingers tingle at the less-than-fond memory. It may look so idyllic, but it is plain old hard work, trust me.

The people up there don't have much money, but their true wealth is their children.

I love all the animals that come wandering through the village.

Except the dogs - don't love them much since they viciously attack anyone they don't know (us); and our kitchen/cooking area is outside so they love climbing up on the counters and leaving muddy paw prints all over everything. NOT a huge fan of the village dogs.

The baby chicks are cute though.

I have always loved people-watching, and the village is a the perfect place to watch beautiful people living out the paradox of a simple, yet hard, life.

Our porch overlooks the path to where many of their gardens are so we watch them head out to their fields everyday. This old man has one of the traditional deer-hide backpacks.

The ladies all carry these baskets. When she comes back later, it will be full and overflowing. Steve has stopped to give them rides back from the garden when he passes by on the way home, and he is shocked by how much weight these little old ladies haul around - often more than a 100 lbs!

Then there are the little baskets for the little ladies.

This is the wife of the recently-deceased village elder. He was the father of the church here in this village, and his 7 sons are now all in leadership. Unfortunately, her mind is no longer clear, so all I ever get is scowls in exchange for my smiles and waves. But she is a dear woman of God who raised a Godly family.

Life revolves around rice.

Planting rice, harvesting rice, pounding rice, winnowing rice, cooking rice....

Every afternoon, you can hear the sound of rice being pounded by hand to remove the husks.

This is what it looks like before the husks have been pounded off.

They will often pound in pairs - or even 3 at a time. The bowl is quite small, so you have to get your timing just right.

After it has been pounded, you put the kernels and the husks all into a flat basket to be winnowed. You then throw the rice up into the air, the wind blows the chaff out, then you catch the rice again. It is harder than it looks.

Mikayla actually spent quite a bit of time learning how to pound and winnow rice this past time. Our friends have a little guard around the bowl of their pounding bowl, so that helps.

She even got the hang of winnowing the rice...

...and only fed the chickens a couple of times.

Thank you for your continued prayers. To be honest, we are tired. It is all going amazingly well, but we are being stretched for sure. God is truly at work in hearts here. Currently there are 8 families/singles who are seriously praying about moving to Bicol to join us in reaching the Agta. Please pray for these men and women as God works in their hearts, that they would be sensitive to His leading and faithful to follow Him, regardless of the cost. We have also uncovered some serious spiritual warfare going on, and we covet your prayers for wisdom in how to deal with it in a Biblical way - and to help the believers to do the same. We covet your prayers as we press on here!

We are only down in the city for a couple days - Steve had a 2-day seminar to teach down in Bicol. So we drove down to Manila late Thurs after he taught up in the village, then he caught the 6am flight Fri down to Bicol. He will fly back to Manila late on Sat, then we will drive back up into the mountains on Sunday. Pls pray for renewed strength, and rejoice with us in all that God is doing.