Milestones

This week is a big week here in the Hagen home.  The kids are finishing their first year in "real" school, and we are so proud of all 3 of them and how they have adjusted to this new world.  Ben is finishing 5th grade so will move up to Middle School with Zach next year.  Zach is finishing grade 7, and Mikayla is finishing her freshman year.

 Ben was part of the elementary worship team, and their group led the elementary in worship for their final chapel.

 Ben received his certificate and portfolio for graduating from elementary.  In this pic, his elementary principal is sharing a quiet word with him as he gave him his certificate.  We have been so impressed with Mr. Maxwell, and we couldn't have asked for a better principal for Ben.

 Ben has a great class!

 Also so thankful for Ms. Tam and all that she has invested in this group of students this year.  She has been an amazing teacher, and we will be sad to see her leave this summer...however, she will be back in one year, returning as Mrs. Chow with her new husband to serve at Faith!  So thankful for people like her who invest in our kids.

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Another big milestone in our home: we have another teenager now!  Zach turns 13 this week, and we celebrated the occasion with several of his new classmates. We played some fun games, including "pass the peanut".

 Zach has a great group of classmates!

 Happy Birthday, Zach Attack!

 Zach, we are so proud of you and can't wait to see how God will use you in the future.  But don't forget that you don't have to wait until you are all grown up to be used by God!  He can and will use you right now as you continue to seek Him.  We love you!

On the Go

Steve has been traveling a lot lately, heading both north and south of Manila.  A couple of weeks ago he had the privilege of attending the 61st anniversary celebration of when the Good News first came to the Bugkalot tribe.  Conference this year was held in the little village of Padit, about a 3 hour hike from the end of the road...which is about 13 hrs north of Manila.

Steve so enjoyed this opportunity to worship and celebrate with our dear brothers and sisters in Christ.

It is a tradition to call up several different groups to do spontaneous special numbers... "all the old men" or "all the people from ______" or "all the white people"...  Not sure which group this one was.

 What a privilege to partner with these people to reach other tribal groups!

 Steve's next trip took him north again, but this time to a different area, only about 6 hours from Manila.  This is the area where we have the coffee plantation, and they were doing some work on the new nursery area.

 

 They will be implementing some new agricultural procedures in the nursery, and I am told that these big containers will be for compost.

 The purpose of this trip was to help our partner do some training to help the co-op leadership to be more effective and to help resolve some unity issues they have been working through.  They all felt like the time together went very well, and we are hoping to see some changes take place that will help this project to be more successful.

Such a beautiful area!

 Steve most recent trip took him south of Manila instead of north.  He traveled about 14 hours south to Bicol to visit our Bugkalot tribal partners who have been sent out to reach the Agta tribe.  Several of the Bugkalot church leaders from up north met him in Manila and caught a ride with him down to Bicol. They were such an encouragement to our Bugkalot partners, and it was cool to see them really catch a vision for what God is doing through the Bugkalot in Bicol.  

 

They spent a day and a half or so in times of worship and training together.  Steve was talking with them about how God uses trials in our lives and what our response should be.  They also spent some time visiting with some of the Agta in their homes.

 

 Every year, we have tried to do some kind of retreat for our Bugkalot partners as a way for them to be refreshed and renewed.  While we have gone "big" some years with this and spent several days at a retreat location, this year Steve just took them to a local pool for a time of rest and relaxation as a group for the day.

 They had a lot of fun together, and the diving board was definitely a hit (though diving was NOT recommended as the water was only about 6 feet deep there!).

We are so thankful for this amazing group of men and women who serve HIM so faithfully!

 

 The day after this day at the pool, 2 of the families loaded up in a rented jeepney to travel several hours to a new area where they will be ministering to a newly-planted church.  The Bugkalot church leaders who traveled down with Steve accompanied them and will help them build their new little homes to use during this new phase of ministry.  Please join us in praying for these families as they adjust to this new area and transition to new schools and communities.  Pray that they would all connect quickly with the people there and that God would use them mightily to strengthen the church in that place so that it can effectively reach the 12 surrounding villages.

Thanks for partnering with us in prayer!