Village Visit

Those of you who have been following what's going on with our organization know that we have been going through some massive changes.  One of the changes for us personally (besides losing more than half our colleagues here in the Philippines) is that we have a new supervisor.  He came to the Philippines recently to visit the works here so that he can more effectively offer guidance as we proceed.  We are so thankful that he is taking the time to understand what's going on BEFORE he starts to give input!

Steve and I traveled down to Bicol to help him get a glimpse of what God is doing among tribal people in the Philippines.

(Another man from within our org who traveled with him, but since they both travel and work in secure locations, I will protect their identities in this post.  The first 4 pics were actually taken by one of our visitors.) 

 We did a little hiking with them, and they both enjoyed getting to venture out into the  more remote areas.  Looks like Steve is "going tribal" in the pic below since he is hiking barefoot.  He left his hiking flip flops in a village up north on his last trip.

 They got to experience LOTS of different kind of transportation!

 Beautiful views from up on the mountain!

 The pic below is cool because you can see part of our group at the bottom of the picture, but if you look at the top, you can see the rest of the group ahead of us on the trail.

 Lunch with our tribal partners.

 Sweet time of fellowship and testimonies with our tribal partners.  We really sensed God's presence as we shared our hearts during this time, and He used our new supervisor and our friend to challenge our partners to take bold steps as HE leads.

We are not sure exactly what the outcome of this time will be, but we are encouraged by the fact that our new supervisor took the time to come and see what God is doing, and we are excited to see what the future holds.

Outdoor Ed & Banquet

The boys recently got to go on "Outdoor Ed" with their Middle School.  It is a program that has been going on for MANY years now (I actually attended when I was in Middle School!), and the boys had a blast camping with their friends for the week on the island of Corregidor (and learning all about WWII and survival skills).

 They especially enjoyed exploring all the WWII tunnels. This is the biggest one on the island, but the smaller (read: claustrophobic-inducing) tunnels were even more fun.

 All the kids were divided into "squads" with their classmates, and they traveled to different camp sites with their group.  This is Zach's group - see him towards the back on the left side of the bridge?

 Ben had a lot of fun playing in the old cannons.  I love this pic that a friend took of him.

 On the 2nd day of Outdoor Ed, Zach took a fall while playing basketball, and he hurt his arm.  It had already been bothering him from a fall off a skateboard the previous week, and it was a lot worse at that point, so he had to go for an xray.  Turns out, he broke his arm!  Since it was a small, rural hospital, he ended up with an old-school plaster cast that he had to maneuver with for the rest of the week.  The hardest part for him though was that the trip to the hospital took him away from his squad for a day, and he missed 1 night of camping on the island.

 The day after the boys got home, Mikayla had a banquet at school.  Here's a pic of the 3 of them just before her banquet.  See how clunky Zach's cast is?? It was soooo heavy, and it started falling apart pretty quickly after he got home (in fairness, not guessing it got much TLC during Outdoor Ed!).

 The theme for the banquet was "Swingin' Sadies", and it was decorated like a 50's diner.  Mikayla had a lot of fun with her friend, Isaiah.  (Photo cred to his mom, Kristi!)

 The day after the banquet, I left to join Steve in Bicol for a ministry trip (pics and info in the next post, see above this one).  Since our time was so tight after Outdoor Ed before I left, Zach had to put up with the plaster cast for a week.  However, as soon as we got home, Steve brought him in to get a new cast.  Zach was thrilled (sooo much lighter and he can kind of play guitar with this one), and I was too (this one's not leaving bits of plaster everywhere he goes).

February has been busy for us so far (more posts to come), but we are so thankful for the safety God has given and the things that He has done.