Ben & Katye

Aren't they just the cutest?! They're engagement pics turned out so well, and it was so fun to see their smiles. They are deep into wedding planning now with the big date in October. We'll be heading back to the States the end of September for the wedding. Thanks for praying with us for this sweet couple as they prepare for their marriage & future. Katye has one more year of college, and Ben plans to start seminary in January as they are hoping to serve on the field someday.

Family Time

Ben graduated magna cum laude from college! So very proud of him, especially with all the learning challenges he has faced. Wow, he has learned to excel in spite of challenges! 

We were sad we couldn't be there and instead watched online in the middle of the night, but we were thankful for those who were able to celebrate with him, including Mikayla & her boyfriend, my mom, and Ben's fiance & her family. 

It was strange how graduations worked for our kids - they all had only 1 sibling who could attend, but they alternated who that was. Zach attended Mikayla's, Ben attended Zach's, and Mikayla attended Ben's. :)

A few weeks later, Ben & Katye went to visit Mikayla and Austin in Michigan, and they had a lot of fun. Sad we couldn't all be there, but thankful they take the time to invest in one another like this!

Ben & Katye also got their engagement photos done. These are just a couple of them, but we are so excited for this sweet couple and how God is going to use them together in the years ahead. 

Also in May, Steve spent most of a week in the hospital. Thankfully, the myriad of tests ruled out some really scary possibilities, and we were left with a fungal infection...it seems like treating that has been helping him get his strength back. Pray with us that this is all it is and that he'll be back to full strength soon!

House Celebration!

As you all know, we've been working on a building a house on our compound in Bicol where our teammates will live, AND it will provide a place for us to stay when we're down there that's NOT a tent. :) After almost a year of construction, our teammates were able to move in, and we had the house celebration on the roof. We are so thankful for this place and pray that God will use it mightily.

The finished product!
The door on the right is McCoy's 3 bedroom, the middle one is for our journeyman, and the one on the right is the studio where we will be able to stay when we're down there.

One of our tribal partners who are doing church planting with the Manide tribe posted this cute pic that I thought you all would enjoy. :)

Since Mikayla has posted about this now, we also wanted to let you all know that Mikayla has been dating a wonderful Christian man for about a year now.  Austin came over to meet us in January, and we had a great time getting to know him. Pray for guidance as they seek Him together.

Ben & Katye

In the previous post you'll see we got to spend a little time in the States recently, and one of our main reasons for making the trip was to spend some time with Ben before he graduates from college. It was absolutely wonderful to spend some time with them and get to know Katye's family too. We got to know their church family at college, experience their first car breakdown with them, celebrate Ben's birthday, and go to a glass blowing place with them and Katye's parents. So very thankful for some precious time together.

Will you pray with us for these two as they look to the future of how God will continue to use them? Ben will graduate from college in a couple weeks, and they will be married in October. So excited to see how God is going to use them together.

Christmas & Congratulations!

We were so thankful that both Zach & Mikayla were here in the Philippines this year to celebrate Christmas with us. We love going to Baguio over Christmas because of the cooler weather - there are even fire places!

We had a wonderful time as the 4 of us, and there were other families (some of our teammates too), so we enjoyed a candlelight service together on Christmas eve and a potluck Christmas dinner. 

Over Christmas, we also got the exciting news that Ben and Katye got engaged! Katye is absolute gem, and we are so thankful that we go to serve alongside her all this past summer. We are thrilled to welcome her into our family and are confident that God is going to use this couple in mighty ways for His glory!

 

Sweet Family Time

As you know, the boys were here over the summer helping with surveys & other ministry needs. Mikayla was able to arrive the end of July, just in time for our whole family to spend a couple of days at the beach together! It was such a sweet time, made sweeter by the fact that Ben's girlfriend as well as our team were able to join us as well. It was a big, fun group, and we enjoyed sunsets, our favorite pizza restaurant, spikeball, worship time together & swimming in both the ocean & the pool. So incredibly thankful for this time together!!

This time was a gift straight from the hands of our good Father.

 

Summer Teams

One of the things that has recently been happening on "the land" (see post below) was summer teams. We partner with Nehemiah Teams for our student teams over the summers, and we highly recommend them! If you have any young people who might be interested in summer missions, we'd love to connect with you! We had a team of ladies who lived on the land for the summer, helping with the agricultural & livelihood projects during the week and outreach Bible studies on weekends. 
In addition to the "ag" team, we also had 3 interns who came independently and had various responsibilities, including helping to coordinate construction, surveying unreached people groups, then the interns & ag team joined together to do a couple of youth events where they discussed God's plan for relationships before marriage. 
We are so very thankful for these young people who gave their summer (and for those who supported them!) to serve so faithfully. God used them in big ways!

How cool that they got to be part of a baptism!?!

The youth events were well-attended, and we're praying that God uses those times in big ways moving forward. The topic was definitely counter-cultural, and a challenging one for them to shift to a Biblical model. Pray with us!

The survey team (you may recognize a few of them - it was wonderful to have our boys back for the summer to help with this! And then Ben's girlfriend Katye was here, and our teammate Claire joined in too. They split into different groups at various points in the summer to travel to new areas for survey; this pic is of the report-writing that was necessary after every survey to make sure we have good record of all the information.

A little time out in the middle of the summer to re-focus & worship Him together.

Many of the team said that their time with the Manide tribe doing outreach Bible studies was a highlight, and one of the ladies from the team is praying about coming to join us for a 2-year term. Pray with us!

A few final survey pics. Pray as we follow up on the surveys and determine the best ways to engage in those areas.