While Steve has continued to struggle to control his asthma (appreciate your prayers!) and has had to cancel several trips as a result, he has been able to do some traveling in the last couple months. As we've talked about before, while tribals reaching tribals is still our primary focus, God has blessed us with several new opportunities in mobilization and training. One of these is as a consultant for One Sending Body as they send Filipinos internationally. Another is as the representative for SE Asia to the Globalization Advisory Council as our organization works to partner with more and more countries as they send workers into the harvest. Steve took at trip to a neighboring country for training for this.
He was also asked to accompany someone from our organization to a seminary up in the mountains to connect them with the president there. The first attempt was cancelled due to the volcano eruption; the second attempt was cancelled due to travel restrictions for the pandemic (before the lockdown). However, for the second attempt, it was scheduled over the seminary graduation, so Steve was supposed to speak at baccalaureate, and our friend at commencement. Even though the purpose for the trip had changed, Steve couldn't leave them hanging at the last minute without speakers for the two big events...so he went and spoke at both. It was a great time of developing relationships and networking as well as a blessing to see how God is at work there.
Another trip was to a southern island in the Philippines to speak at a convention of tribal churches there. He was able to cast vision for how they as tribals can be used by God to reach other tribals and help them start thinking through what that might look like. He only took this one picture on the trip, so doesn't look very exciting, but it was an exciting trip. :) We also took at trip to yet another island for a retreat time with our colleagues. However, I can't post pics of that time, so you'll just have to take my word for it. :)
Another trip was to the Mangyan on an island just south of us. Some of our Bugkalot partners went with Steve to meet with the Mangyan tribal church leaders to further discuss a partnership between the two tribal groups to reach the Agta in Bicol. It was cool to see the map they had developed to show the areas that need the Good News and their desire for how a partnership could make this happen more effectively. Sadly, the lockdown has meant that the next meeting with this group to develop some concrete plans has been cancelled for now. We will trust God to move this forward in His time.
Excited to report that the Mangyan officially decided to partner with the Bugkalot to reach the tribals in Bicol. Taking tribals reaching tribals to the next level!
Another trip Steve took was with the Global Empowerment team here in the Philippines up into the Bugkalot mountains to meet with the church leaders in conjunction with key ones they have sent out. The idea was to evaluate how "sending" has been going and develop a plan for the best way to move forward together. It was a productive time, and they all felt good about the next steps. Unfortunately, two different important meetings to move this forward had to be cancelled for the lockdown, so we are now in a holding pattern. A big prayer request is about the support for the Bugkalot who have been sent. A foundation had been partnering with them to help them send their missionaries, but more recently a church in Manila had indicated their desire to partner with them. An important meeting between that church's board and the Bugkalot church leaders was cancelled, and the church cannot proceed without that meeting...which can't happen until the lockdown is lifted. They have enough support through the end of May, but April and May are the summer months here, so if there won't be support for them for next year, they need to know whether to move their school-age kids back home over summer or not (cannot transfer school mid-year here). Anyway, many things affected by the lockdown; prayers definitely appreciated as we trust His timing and plans when so many of ours are being uprooted.
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