Since we took our Spring Break trip, Steve has been on the road a LOT (and he's actually on another trip right now - to attend the annual Bugkalot believers conference). He doesn't do much for pictures when he travels, so I usually rely on pictures that other people take. This one was taken at the most recent Tribal Workers Gathering. This group comes together once a quarter and is made up of anyone who has a heart to reach tribal people in Bicol. Some of the attendees are our Bugkalot tribal partners. Others are from local Bicolano churches in the area who are reaching out in some way to the tribals in the area. Some are tribal believers from Bicol who have a desire to reach their own people group. It is always a sweet time of fellowship, prayer, mutual encouragement, and discussing strategy for how to reach the remaining areas in Bicol.
On the most recent trip Steve took to Bicol, one of our single Bugkalot partners was married! Jhun-Jhun is a now a married man. He and his bride will spend a year up with his church in Bugkalot, but they hope to return together to continue reaching the tribals in Bicol.
I have a prayer request to share with you all. This is Gary, and he is one of our partners in Bicol. He has been doing some survey work in a new area in Bicol over the last 6 months or so. He has discovered that there is absolutely no work going on with a particular tribal group, and we have all been praying about how to engage this group. (They would be classified as UUPG - unengaged, unreached people group.) Gary especially has a heart for these people, and he and his family would like to move to that area (you can see a pic of him surveying that area below). However, recently we discovered that there are 2 men from a great organization who are going to that area to reach out to that very people group! HUGE PRAISE! They arrived a couple weeks ago, but we just got word that the local authorities have denied them entrance to the area (the authorities are members of a local cult, so they don't want people who aren't member of that cult to have access to the people). Gary is headed up there this week to see if he can help these two men figure out how to get approval to get into that area, or how to get into another area of that people group. This group desperately needs the Gospel! Will you pray with us for wisdom for these guys as they try to gain entrance and for favor with the officials so that they can get in?
