TYPHOON TROUBLE

I wrote a quick email update today about some trouble we are having with typhoons right now. Just in case you didn't get it, here is a link you can follow to read it. Tnx for praying!!!

update

Prayers Needed!!!

So tomorrow morning we leave on another adventure. We will be roughing it in a mountain village for the months of October & November, and we covet your prayers! (For more info about where we are going, why, and some pics of the village where we will be living, click here .)

Here are some specifics that you can lift before the throne the next couple months:

1. For safety as we travel about 24 hours through congested cities, crazy national "highways" then precarious mountain "roads".

2. For good health and no injuries as we will be a long ways from good healthcare options.

3. For safe weather - we are in the midst of typhoon season, and we would rather not experience one in a village setting! The above map shows exactly where we will be, so if you hear about a typhoon, you can check it out on the link to the right (check the "tracks"), and know to pray!

4. For an extra measure of grace and strength as the schedule will be grueling for each of us.

5. For Steve to be able to communicate clearly as he teaches 6 days a week, all day long, in Tagalog.

6. For Jen & the kids to be able to accomplish what they need to in school despite the many distractions of village life.
7. For each of us to stay encouraged (especially me - Jen!) in spite of the isolation and challenging living/sleeping conditions. Steve and the kids usually thrive while camping in a village like this for months on end, but it is really tough for me, so I covet your prayers!!!

8. For God to do a mighty work in the hearts of the people there, that their hearts would be open to what He tells them, and that they would faithfully follow as He leads.

Exciting Posts

We are swamped this week getting ready to move up into the village for the months of Oct & Nov (see next post), so I don't have time to put together a post about the trainings we are doing with our new Bogkalot tribal teammates. But, our co-worker, Megan, just posted some great posts on her blog, so in lieu of re-inventing the wheel: http://meganinthephilippines.blogspot.com/

The post at the top is a video of the very first worship songs in the language of Buhinon (so exciting!), and the 2nd one is about the training we had this past weekend. We will have another one this coming weekend.

Appreciate your ongoing prayers as we prepare everything to head north 1 wk from today to camp in the mountains for 2 months. SOOO many details to work out! Figure out menu and buy the food (no fridge or grocery store!), kitchen necessities, bedding and other houseware goods, medical supplies, clothing, homeschool materials...the list is daunting. And to top it off, I (Jen) am not feeling well...thanks for praying!!!

Mobilization and Training

Several years ago, we realized that the most effective way to reach the Agta was to mobilize and train believers from another tribe to do it. Of course, the tribe that occured to us first was the tribal group where Jen's parents served for so many years. We dreamed big - what if we could mobilize them to send out some of their very own to reach the Agta? While this was an exciting prospect, the barriers were staggering. However, we serve a big God, don't we? No barriers stagger HIM whatsoever. He orchestrated the founding of Global Empowerment, and we have been privileged to partner with them in their first project - mobilizing and training the Bogkalot tribal church to send people out to reach the Agta tribe. This has become the focus of our ministry for a year and a half now, and the southern chapter of Bogkalot churches sent out 2 teams this past year. These 2 teams (2 families and 2 single men) are living in Agta village and studying language. Lord willing, they will be ready to start teaching in January!

Well, as God has been prompting our hearts, we have kept on dreaming big, and we are praying for 6 more teams to move here this next year. After we mobilized in the southern Bogkalot churches, the northern churches asked us to come and do the same thing in their area. Steve and my dad went up there last week to start the mobilization process with a seminar on the book of Acts. Here is the group of men... ...and women who attended the seminar.

By the end of Steve's time up there, it was evident that the northern churches are even more passionate about being involved in reaching the Agta than the southern churches were at the beginning. 7 families and 5 single men already approached Steve and told him that they would love to be sent out to reach the Agta. As a result of this level of interest and passion for the lost, our family will be moving up into that area to spend 2 months mobilizing and training the Bogkalot churches about how to send out their very own - it is critical that the churches catch the vision, not just the ones whom God is calling to "go". We did this same thing (spent 2 months there) in the southern area, and God used it mightily to provide some wonderful co-workers. We are praying that He will again move mightily, this time in the northern churches.

We will leave home the end of September, and we will spend the months of Oct and Nov in the mountains about 12 hrs north of Manila, based in the village of Wasid.
We will live in the village community center kind of building. It is located right next to the school in the middle of the village. Should keep us hopping!

This will be home sweet home for 2 months!

Steve will be traveling to different churches to teach/train every day during the week; and, at least on Sundays, we will all accompany him. Some of these trips will require a significant amount of hiking. Another one involves this river crossing on a raft - on which they load motorcycles!

He discovered a great place for a picnic while he was up there - the kids are excited to try it out!

Isn't it just beautiful?

This waterfall will be quite the hike from where we are living, but Steve can't wait to bring us there for a visit.

And these are some of the guys that he will be teaching the 2 months while we are up there. Exciting times!

As you can imagine, there a LOT of prep work that goes into moving your family into a VERY remote location for 2 months. We will be about 4 hrs from a grocery store/market, and we will not have a fridge so menu planning is a challenge to be sure! SOOO thankful for a sweet friend who sent me a bunch of canned chicken and some "instant" meals that will really help a ton. Then we have to pack up our schoolwork, bedding, kitchen stuff, medical equipment... the list is daunting. Please pray for us as we make all the necessary preparations. And we DESPERATELY need your prayers in Oct/Nov. We won't be able to be online much (we will go down to "town" once every 2-3 wks to download email and buy groceries), but whenever you think of us, please pray. It will be a grueling schedule and a challenging living situation in a remote location. Tnx for praying!!!

This Week

This past week has been hard. My (Jen's) Nana passed away. It was SO hard to be away from my family during this time, and it was made harder still by the fact that Steve was gone on a 2 week trip. We were doing ok, but let's just say that a LOT of tears have been shed this past week. Here is a picture of Nana (my mom's mom) and Mikayla with baby Zach right after he was born. Zachary Kenneth was named after Nana's husband who went to be with the Lord just before Steve & I were married. We will miss Nana so much but are so glad that she is no longer suffering on this earth but is instead singing hymns of praise in the heavenly throneroom.

Like I said, this past week has been really tough, and I was honestly dreading the kids' soccer tournament on Saturday. While they enjoy playing soccer with their teammates, the organization is not what I am used to for an event like this, and it is always confusing and stressful trying to figure out where to be when...and when you are trying to do that for THREE kids on FIVE teams, all in the same tournament, and trying to keep them all hydrated in this tropical heat... anyway, I was not looking forward to trying to handle all that without Steve. Not to mention, I have been asked to coach teams in tournaments like this before just because I am there. When you don't know the players' names, positions, or skill levels, this is a bit of a challenge and very stressful. ANYWAY... Steve showed up just as the tournament started and surprised us!!! We were SO incredibly thrilled to see him. He had driven through the night from up north to Manila, arrived just in time to catch the early flight to our area, then took a taxi straight from the airport. He got some huge hugs and massive smiles for his effort. :)

The kids played really well. I love the look of intensity on Zach's face here.
Mikayla has been doing great too. She currently plays on a boys' team, but yesterday she competed on that team as well as 2 different girls teams (1 for under 13 girls, the other for under 17 girls, but she was one of the few on either of those teams with any experience - one of the other best players on her team was only 7!). She was one tired girl by the end of the day, but we were so proud of her!

Since Steve had missed a whole night's sleep AFTER almost 2 wks of traveling through the mountains and not sleeping much, he was just a little sleepy through the day. He got his hammock out of his backpack and slept in between games.

It was STINKING hot all day, and since it was organized differently than what we would expect, we ended up with more than 3 hours at one stretch of just sitting and waiting. The kids did great, but the heat had just zapped all of our energy by the time the quarter finals and semi finals started up.

Mikayla's team lost in the semi finals, but they played well against a much more talented team that gets a lot more practice together.

Zach's team ended up winning their division! He played great defense, and we are so thankful for this opportunity for them to make friends and learn the life lessons that can be learned through sports. Ben's foot (which he hurt earlier this week) wasn't feeling well enough for him to be very involved this time, but there are lessons to learn from that as well. :)

Steve's trip up north went amazingly well, and we are VERY encouraged by what God is doing up there. I will do another post in a couple days to share it with you and hopefully encourage you as well!

Thailand Treetops

We recently spent a couple weeks in Thailand for meetings so I thought I would share some pics from our adventures there.

This is the main way that we got around town while we were there - it is called a tuktuk. Just like your average NYC taxi, right? :)

We made a lot of new friends while we were there. This is actually a long-time friend of my (Jen's) dad, and we were thrilled to finally meet him and get to hang out for a while - and he didn't seem to mind playing grandpa for a couple wks. :)
He treated us all to a day at the local zoo, and we had a ball seeing all the animals. The monkeys were one of our favorites.

Feeding the elephant was cool too.

We also saw this 2 ft creature on the sidewalk. At first we thought it was a snake or a worm, but it turns out that it was dozens of caterpillars, end to end, playing follow the leader.

cool stuff

The kids also posed with the elephant. But the trainer got the elephant to make a roaring noise just as they all posed, and I LOVE Ben's expression in response.

For Steve & my anniversary, we celebrated with a once-in-a-lifetime family adventure at Jungle Flight. Some new friends joined us, and we had a ball together with them. Here are the kids all harnessed up and ready to roll.

We had a short training session, then we started flying through the treetops. It was a wild experience! There was a total of 22 ziplines, 2 hanging bridges, and 3 free-falls.

Having a blast!

(Don't worry, Grandma, we were always latched securely to either the tree or the zipline!)

We were crazy high up in the tops of the trees.

Even though she is flying through the tops of the trees, Mikayla manages to look bored?!? Crazy girl!

That's better, Ben. At least make Mom think this is as nerve-wracking for you as it is for her! (Sidenote: we were supposed to wear shoes that strapped on your feet, but all I brought for the kids was flip flops...no problem, we just tied their flip flops to their feet with shoe laces! Click on the pic to enlarge and see their fancy footwear.)

Apparently flying through the tops of the trees is not enough for these adrenaline junkies - so they decided to try it upside down!

Here is the final free-fall - 40 m (120 ft) straight down.

It was a LONG drop!

Thankful for a "happy ending", new friends, and priceless family memories made in Thailand.