Family Time

We are so blessed to have our boys here this summer (and Mikayla has tickets booked to come back the end of July, so we'll all be together a couple of days before they take off!). And we are loving getting to know Katye (we hadn't met her in person before this - she's jumping right in!). 

Because everyone's flights arrived as scheduled (thank you, Lord!), we had 1 day with just us before the crazy schedule started. We enjoyed some wakeboarding, hot spring soaking, and getting caught up. Then after a week of ministry, we got to enjoy a day off together with friends in Manila as well. We are so thankful for the moments that He is blessing us with this summer!

Ag & CD Training & Survey team

May was a busy month! In addition to the training, visitor, & new teammates (see previous posts for those), our teammates the McCoys headed to a different island for some "Ag" (Agricultural) & "CD" (Community Development) training. In addition to their family of 5, two ladies went with them to help with kids during the class times, and two other ladies from the Bugkalot tribe also attended as they are hoping to use these principles in ministry. 

While they were down there, our summer teams arrived! We will have two teams this summer who will join us in the work. 5 ladies make up the Nehemiah Team that will be working at the BOOST training site (one of them is Claire's sister!); then we have 3 who will be helping with a variety of things, including a lot of survey work in tribal groups across the Philippines. Two of the ones on the survey team are our sons, Zach & Ben, and then Katye, Ben's girlfriend is also here and will be helping with survey as well as assisting Claire in supervising the NT team. So thankful for all these young men and women who are willing to make sacrifices to serve Him this summer!

Here are some pics from Ben & Katye's first survey trip. Thanks to those of you who have partnered with Ben through prayer and giving to make this possible!

Training Time - and new teammates!

Last month, we had some new tribal teammates move to Bicol to join our team. Two couples (each with 2 kiddos) and a single guy are the new additions, and we spent a couple of days doing on-boarding training with these new teammates (also pictured are some of our teammates who helped with the training).

Our team is growing! We're so thankful for each and every one of these precious teammates!

After our time with the new crew, we gathered with everyone for a time of training. The kids had a blast in their own program, and the adults had group sessions, small group study time, and games too!

Another Grad & A New Visitor

In May we were blessed to attend another graduation at the Tribal Bible College. There were a few students who completed the initial foundations course and 8 who completed the "Diploma1" out of 7 total. Such a blessing to hear them recite Scripture, sing special numbers, and share testimonies of what God has done in their hearts this past semester. Thankful for our tribal partners who make so many sacrifices to teach and disciple these students.

We also had a visitor, our organization's main leader for Asia. He was such a blessing to our team as he shared on spiritual warfare & spent time visiting with and praying for our team. 

Mt Mayon was showing off when Claire & I made an airport run - so beautiful!