Family Trip

Last week was the kids' fall break from school, so we headed down to Bicol.  First, we enjoyed a couple days vacation with some friends at the wake board park.  It was so fun to watch the kids riding again - and admittedly a lot of fun to watch our friends make some spectacular wipe-outs!  (To be fair, by the end of the time, several of them were riding quite well too. :) )

 Zach was especially fun to watch as he was going crazy hitting the big obstacles and doing huge tricks.

 After a couple much-needed days relaxing as a family, we headed out to the mountains for a training with our tribal partners.  The guys have finished the training center, and it looks great!

 It was such a blessing to be back with our tribal teammates.  Before we started into the training time (going through 1st Timothy), we spent the morning sharing reports about what God has been doing in each of the areas where the teams are working.

 After each report, we broke into groups to thank God for the things He is doing and to pray about the challenges that each team is facing. Such a wonderful time of fellowship and joining our hearts before the throne!

 Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed hanging out with their friends again.  For the first time, Mikayla brought a friend with us to the training.  Miriam is new to the Philippines, and village life is just a little different than Manila life, so we weren't sure how she would handle it all, but she did great!

 The kids played a lot of games together.  Some were games the tribal kids taught to our kids, others were ones our kids taught them.  Was fun to watch them laugh together when I slipped away from the training to get a couple pics.

 And, as usual, the girls helped wash the dishes after we ate together.

 We actually brought tents and had planned to set them up in front of the training center.  However, after it rained all day, this is what that nice flat area looked like.  We decided to crash on the floor instead.  :)

 The next morning, we finished up the training time, then we gathered for a time of worship together.

 This sweet girl read the Bible passage for us.  Such a great reader!

 Then her dad shared a message with us from Galatians about how we as believers should treat one another.

 Then another of the men led us as we shared communion together.

After we finished the training and worship time, we said goodbye to our tribal partners to start the looong 12 hour drive back to Manila.  Before we hit the road though, we dropped in on some friends in the village.

Very thankful for this safe and productive trip as a family!

Storying Trainings

My computer doesn't recognize "storying" as an actual word, but it is one that we use around here quite often.  We teach chronologically through the Word, using stories as we go to teach specific truths about God and how He interacts with mankind; this is called storying.  After telling the story, the group discusses together what the story means and how to apply it.  Our tribal partners have found this to be a very effective way of teaching, and they requested that we do some seminars for the churches that sent them out and train them to teach using storying.  There were two purposes for their request.  First, they think that it would be good for any future partners that are sent out to already be familiar with this method and know the Bible stories; that way, they won't have to learn the stories at the same time as they are studying the language of the place where they are sent.  Second, they felt like it would be helpful for their church leaders as they teach in church, small groups, Sunday School, etc.  They sent this request to their churches, and the churches welcomed us with open arms.  We were excited about this because it is our hearts' desire to fully equip the Bugkalot churches to train the ones that they will send out in the future, in such a way that they don't have to rely on any outsiders or outside group (us included!) to train those whom they send out.  This seminar was one of the first steps in our passing this training to the Bugkalot churches.

Steve spent most of the month of September in the Bugkalot mountains, doing this storying seminar in 8 different churches spread over a wide geographic area.  Each seminar lasted a day and a half, and they were well-attended.  Even more importantly, everyone interacted well with the training, working hard to learn the stories in their groups and to apply the principles for how to use these stories to teach the Word effectively.  It was a very encouraging time for Steve (though exhausting!), and he was blessed by the deep discussions that came out as they worked through the stories together.  Because it is our passion to fully equip the Bugkalot to train the ones they will send out, independent of outsiders, Steve worked closely with one of the Bugkalot leaders and trained him how to do this storying training.  Felipe traveled with Steve to all of the different seminars.  Initially, Steve led the seminar while Felipe observed.  But Steve gradually passed more and more responsibilities to Felipe until, by the final seminar, Felipe was leading the whole thing while Steve observed!