Retreat Time

September was pretty crazy. 3 volunteer teams, 2 different retreats and a total of like 75 people. The first retreat was with our Global Empowerment team, and a couple of volunteers joined us to help with the kiddos. We spent a couple of days training with a smaller group who are doing church planting with tribal groups, then a couple of days with the larger group doing strategy planning as we move forward. Such an encouraging time!

Next, we had a retreat with our tribal team in Bicol. Another group of volunteers came in to help with kids, teaching, worship, small groups, & activities. Everything went very well, and we were all so encouraged by the time!

Getting ready to welcome the team

Worshipping & studying His Word together. The topic for the retreat was the love of God.

The kids had a great time while the adults were in session.

In the afternoon, we had some group activities, including the "snake story" and a rousing game of duck duck goose that included cups of water and some wet people!

This retreat was such a blessing to our entire tribal team - and wow, it's a big group now!

As the retreat was ending, another group of volunteers arrived on a vision trip to discuss possible future partnerships. It was great to be able to show them around the property and for all for both volunteer teams to join our partners out in the village for a couple of days.

So thankful for partners both here and from the States!

Ministry Moving Forward

It has been exciting to see God continue to work with the Agta tribal groups, as well as our partnerships with Philippine churches being deepened. In August, we attended meetings with the various conventions of churches in the Philippines, and Steve did the official greeting from our organization as well as a testimony from what God is doing in the tribal work.

Meanwhile, our tribal partners have continued with outreach Bible Studies and have recently had some baptisms! Praise God for how HE is working!

Steve also got to speak at an Agta church leader training, and it was cool to see Joshua, the son of one of the first Agta believers, sharing about the power of teaching the Word using the Bible storying method.

We are so incredibly thankful for all our partners, and blessed to be a part of this team. Saying good bye to Claire as she finishes her term of service has been tough!

Summer Ministry

In addition to attending a lot of meetings this summer that were full of networking, we were also back and forth to Bicol several times. On one of the trips, Steve had the privilege of speaking at the Agta Church Leaders training. It's always a blessing to see what God is doing in all their hearts.

On our trips back and forth to Bicol, we also had the joy of spending some time with our two Nehemiah Teams that were with us for the summer. We enjoyed some fun times, time in the Word & prayer/worship time together as well. A great group of young men and women who we are confident God will continue to use in the future.

Sadly, Mt Mayon (our famous volcano) didn't cooperate for the picture, but still a great time with a wonderful group.

Young People

Any ministry that plans for the future must be intentional to invest in their youth. We've been having regular tribal youth retreats, and it's fun to watch our team come together and invest in our tribal youth. It's also been so good to see the growth in these young people. 

We hoped and planned for about 100 youth, but around 220 showed up! Good problem to have but did have us scrambling a little. :) Pray with us that God would call up many from their midst to step out in faith and follow Him whole-heartedly.

This one isn't specific to youth, but there is a Filipino pastor in the area who has a heart to reach the tribals and has a long-standing ministry. We've partnered with him through the years, but we'd love to see a more solid partnership where they even send some of their youth through our Bible School and Boost programs. Steve spoke at their church, and we had some good fellowship with them. Pray that God would work through this friendship.

Lastly, we are once again partnering with Nehemiah Teams this summer. They send college-age young people from the States to serve on our teams for a couple months. This year we have 2 teams. The ladies will serve on our Boost farm and join in local outreach groups. The guys will travel to more remote areas, doing survey and broad seed-sowing to see where the response is the greatest, so that our teams know where to focus the follow up for church planting. Pray with us for health, safety & for God to work mightily both IN and THROUGH these young people this summer!