Up a Tree

Every day you can find Mikayla and Zach up in the mango tree in front of our house. Actually, Mikayla likes to head out there during part of her school day. She has time every day for journaling, and she often writes letters during this time. Lately she has enjoyed writing her letters up in that tree. So Papa and Grandma are soon to receive letters from Mikayla that were written in a tree!

Zach likes to climb the tree too, but just for fun, not for writing.
Ah, the joys of home-schooling!
Ben is too little to climb the tree with them, a fact which causes him a lot of frustration. But today he got his new-to-him bike out instead and rode around the neighborhood. He is growing up so fast!

Just to keep you posted...

...no pun intended! :)

Ok so this pic doesn't really have anything to do with this post, but it is a cool pic that I took while we were up at the amazing Banaue rice terraces last month. And Steve is meeting with a tribal group on a different island today... anyways, thought you may enjoy the pic.

As I said, Steve took the ferry to a nearby island today to meet with a tribal group who has an established church and has done outreaches amongst the Agta in Bicol (who we will be working with) to see if there is anything we can learn from them and what they have done already. He hopes to return on the ferry tonight.

Also, you can read in our recent email update (let us know if you didn't get it) details about our week of curriculum development last week - thanks for praying. While it was exhausting, we did accomplish a lot.

We leave on Monday the 6th of Nov for a week of house hunting down in Bicol and getting to know the area down there a little better. It will be the first time I and the kids get to see where we will be living! Thanks for praying for house hunting success and safe travels while we are gone. We plan to return home on the 12th.

On the Road Again

Well, we are off again. This time our family is going to a nearby retreat center in Rizal, Laguna for a week of strategy and curriculum development (please refer to our latest update for exactly what we will be working on so you can pray more specifically). We are hoping to accomplish a lot in this next week (Oct. 23 - 27) as we get away from the normal demands of life and just focus on strategy and curriculum. Someone there will help watch the kids there as we meet all day. One of our co-workers here is going with us in hopes of developing some curriculum for their team to use as well. Please pray for unity, wisdom and perseverance. We cherish each of your friendships and the way you intercede faithfully on our behalf. Thank you!

Housing Update

As I write this, Steve is on his way home. While we are all so very excited to have him home, the housing news from Bicol is not very encouraging. He did find a couple places that may kind of work, but they are pretty small and need a lot of work. If nothing else comes up before we move down, he is thinking we may move into one of them temporarily and then keep our eyes out for something else.

Renting a house here is not the same as in the States; there are no realtors you can go through or classifieds you can scan. You just have to drive around looking for houses for rent. The problem is, they won't necessarily have a sign out front... So it is more a matter of getting the word out that you are looking and then see if anyone comes forward with an option.

Please continue to pray fervently with us that some more options would come about before our second trip down on November 14. We know that God has a perfect plan for all this and that He has the perfect place for us to live in Bicol. Pray that He would guide us to it and help us to recognize it when we see it (His plan for our home may be different than ours...) Pray too that my heart would come to FEEL what my head already KNOWS - that the house we live in is not as important as why we are going...

These are just two of my favorite pics from this month. Thought I would share them with you...

Please Pray!

We desperately need your prayers this week. Steve left yesterday for a week in Bicol to start the massive job of house hunting. He just texted -- he has only been at it for a couple hours, and he is already worn out. He said it is exhausting work, particularly with the required specifications, the language barrier and the cultural differences. Please pray for strength for him and that God would lead him to the perfect house quickly. Please pray that God would lead people across his path who can help him with this enormous task. We here at the home front need your prayers too. Being a single, home-schooling mom on this side of the world is a real challenge. Please pray that I would be able to sleep tonight - I only got about 5 hours last night. Please pray for patience with the kids and the craziness of life despite the lack of sleep. Thank you for your faithful intercession on our behalf!

Last Edition - Vacation Pics

Well, we made one more stop on our vacation adventure - at a small flight base in northern Luzon where we spent many growing up years as well. It is still owned by New Tribes, and we got to stay in one of their guest houses - it happened to be our old house! Here is a pic -

One of our family traditions growing up was having pancakes for supper every Sunday night. True to tradition, we had pancakes together there. It brought back memories to be cooking pancakes on a Sunday night in my mom's kitchen! Ben was my helper that night - and pretty happy about his position.

This was the same swing set I played on as a kid - now my boys are playing on it! You can see the school I went to for elementary in the back...

There is so much fun stuff to do there for kids - it was a wonderful place to spend some growing-up years, and it was amazing to get to share it with the kids. They had a ball. One of their favorites was the giant trampoline.

Go Zach!

One of my favorite things to do as a kid was to climb trees, and here is Zach in one of the great climbing trees up there. There was another little 4-year-old boy up there, and he and Zach hit it off great. They came running up one day to tell me that they were not only the same size and age, but they could "jump the same high" too!
We took a couple little excursions from the base. One was a hike across the rice fields to the little hill you can see below. Behind it is a river. We had Sunday worship by the river as a family then had a great time swimming and riding the rapids. Unfortunately for you, we ALL jumped in and swam so no pics of that part. There were several exciting parts on our little hike. The kids did great - even at one part where we literally had to throw them across the stream into Daddy's arms!
We also drove a couple hours up to see the Banaue rice terraces. They are absolutely gorgeous - a picture doesn't do it justice. Here, Mikayla is trying to help Ben look up at the camera. :)
This one shows the amazing view from the base itself. Brought back so many memories. A good childhood. We had a blast at Aritao. We stayed 5 days, and it was so relaxing. It is clean (a real treat!) and green grass is everywhere - we went barefoot the whole time! And it is all fenced in, so the kids just ran and played with their friends, and we didn't have to worry about them. We all had a blast. So very thankful for such a great vacation and visit with my brother and his wife. God is so good to us.

Up into the mountains

Next we headed up into the mountains to visit the small tribal village where my family spent many years when I was a child. When we lived in the village, it was accessible only by small bush plane or by hiking for 2 days on small trails like this one you see here; the trails were so difficult in places that even a horse could not make it.

Now, however, there is a logging road that goes right up into the village! While we were thankful for 4-wheel drive several times, it was a great road - better than the government roads down in the "lowlands". As far as we are concerned, there is no place on earth more beautiful than "our" mountains - it is absolutely spectacular up there. Pictures of course don't do it justice... We were amazed when we even saw a roadsign directing us to our village!Here is the little village we grew up in. Where grass huts used to stand, now there are concrete buildings, and where there was only a river crossing, now there is a bridge. So much has changed, but it still had the feel of home.
Ok, I REALLY didn't want to put this next picture in - for obvious reasons. The traditional skirt I was wearing that folds in the middle adds 20 lbs, and the camera added another 20... But I decided to show you anyway because it shows my best friend, Solyn, from when I was a kid. She now has 4 little ones of her own. When we pulled up into the middle of the village, people came running up from all over to hug on us. Even though they did not know we were coming and hadn't seen us for 10 years, people recognized us and came running up from all over to hug on us. We were amazed at how many people were still there in that same village - it was wonderful to see everyone again.
It was also so fun to be able to show the kids my favorite places as a kid. This rock was our slide when I was little. And we spent hours in this river, playing in the rapids and jumping off the rocks.We spent the night in an empty house (ours has long since fallen apart since it was only made of bamboo and grass). It was a little hard to fall asleep since we did not have mosquito nets, and we saw lots of cockroaches and a bat inside before we went to bed. Neither of those bothered us at all, but we all got chewed up by the mosquitos - the kids were particularly bad. Zach was the winner (loser?) with 63 bites - just on his face! His legs were just as covered, but I didn't have time to count all those.

In addition to showing off our favorite places, we also spent some time visiting with some of our favorite people. Here is a picture of Ben with my best friend's youngest child. Both boys had fun holding these tiny puppies - I don't know if the puppies enjoyed it as much...

Our time in the village, short though it was, was priceless. We definitely hope to go back soon. We told the church leaders there (that my dad spent so many years discipling - the church there is doing GREAT by the way) that Steve and I are headed down to plant churches amongst the Agta in Bicol, and they expressed interest in partnering with us in that by sending some men. Who knows if it will actually come to be, but we hope the next time we go up to do some training and recruiting. It would be amazing if God would use the church my parents established in one tribal village to partner with us to reach a different tribal group.

Corregidor Island

Many battles of WWII were fought in the Philippines, and many of these happened on Corregidor Island, a small tadpole-shaped island north of Manila. Now the island is a tourist destination, and you can go check out all the forts, huge guns, memorials, and even Malinta Tunnel (where HQ was - a tunnel through the mountain). My bro and I had camped there several times as kids, and we decided to do it all again. So we drove down to the southern tip of Bataan Peninsula (check out your map) and took a bangka (canoe with outriggers) across to the island. The waters looked deceptively calm when we set out; by the time we arrived, we were all drenched to the bone. It was all we could do to keep the cameras and cell phones dry. Thankfully the stuff hadn't gotten as wet as we had so we set up camp and started cooking supper over the open fire.

While you used to be able to camp anywhere on the island, now it is restricted to this one area. It is right on the beach, but it was stinking hot and pretty trashy. But we made the most of it...

The next morning we set out to explore the island, and we found some pretty amazing guns and bullets (shells? - I'm not very gun savvy, try though Steve might to teach me).

The kids had a lot of fun climbing all over the equipment and "shooting" the big guns.
It wasn't just the kids having fun...
Check this one out...

While we did not get much sleep, we did have a lot of fun together. Camping is not exactly relaxing with little ones, but the marshmallows over the fire almost made it all worth it. :) Even though we did have fun, we were very ready to leave after 2 nights on the island. We took the bangka back - this time in our swim suits with everything in plastic - and this time we did not get even a splash! Go figure. Then we were off for our next adventure into the mountains...

I'll post pics of that one soon. :)

Abby Renae Carver

Just so our newest little neice doesn't feel left out, just wanted to announce her birth. Steve's sister, Christine, and her husband Jason just had their first baby on September 20th. She and the family are doing great. Congratulations, Carvers, and welcome to the world, Abby!

A Few More Typhoon Pics

I thought you may enjoy a few more pics of the clean-up crew after the typhoon. Yes, I did help some too - when I wasn't taking pictures! :) Since we arrived here, Mikayla and Zach have received lots of instruction on the proper (safe!) use of a bolo - a large knife used for every imaginable purpose. They have gotten quite good with them (like all Filipino children), but (unlike Filipino children) they are still not allowed to use them without close supervision.

Even though all the schools in the area were closed for the typhoon, homeschooling continued (we just came off a 2-week vacation!) despite the lack of electricity. But we did finish up early to clean up the yard. Mikayla's comment: "I like typhoon days!" Something you don't hear everyday in the States...

Up and Running

Amazingly, our electricity came back sooner than expected and we have been up and running for a couple days now! Mikayla took that a little too literally on Friday night as she ran around the corner - and slipped in a puddle of water on the floor. The first time there were just a few tears with no real injuries - it was when she ran around the corner on the way BACK and slipped AGAIN that she got hurt. She hit her head on the step and got a gaping cut by her eye. We immediately saw that she needed stitches (our normal Liquid bandage and butterfly routine wouldn't cut it this time!) so we started calling around to see if there was a Dr. in our city who could stitch it, hopefully a plastic surgeon since it was on her face and could leave a nasty scar. All our Dr. acquaintances said, if she was their daughter, they would take her to Manila to have a plastic surgeon stitch it. So we dropped the boys off with friends and headed up to Manila as quickly as we could. The trip up there was quite the adventure with all the flooding and typhoon damage, but we made it safely, and they were able to reach the plastic surgeon across town despite the city-wide power outtage. He eventually made it through the torn up city to the hospital, and he did an EXCELLENT job stitching up Mikayla's nearly 1-inch cut. He put on dissolvable stitch down deep, a running stitch of sorts above that, and 2 regular stitches on the top. Mikayla was a little trouper through the whole thing and didn't fuss at all! We were so proud of her. Please pray with us that it would not get infected as it heals.

On a side note, I (Jen) have had a large abcess growing on the side of my face. I have been on antibiotics for 4 days now, and it has decreased the swelling dramatically. But it is still not gone; please pray with us that it goes away on its own and does not require surgery to remove it.

Typhoon #2

I am afraid I have to break into the vacation pics to show some pics of the typhoon that just came through today. While we have had several typhoons come through near us, this was only the 2nd one that hit with much force. And, in keeping with tradition, a tree fell on our house again! This time it was a huge avocado tree in the back yard. We are all just fine (don't worry, Grandma!). Our biggest concern was when the dogs both ran away in the midst of it and couldn't make it back cuz of the flooding and wind/rain. Steve was out on a bicycle for more than an hour in the midst of the storm trying to find them. Thankfully, he was able to rescue both of them. Our electricity is out, and it will probably be for up to a week again. Thankfully though, we are borrowing a generator and will run it for a little while each day to keep the meat in the freezer frozen (so I should be able to check email daily too). So here are a few pics to tide you over...

After the storm stopped, we all worked together to try to clear some of the brush. Steve hacked away at the tree on the house to get it off the roof. He was really missing his chainsaw!
The kids had a blast helping too. Maybe next time I will even show you the pics of Mikayla and Zach wielding their own bolos (large knives). Just trying to fit in with the culture! :)

Horses and Tigers

Here is vacation pics, installment #1. I'm afraid most of the pics included my bro and sis-in-law so the options are limited. But there are still some good ones. After we picked them up at the airport, we drove down to Subic and went to the tiger safari again as well as rode horses to a little waterfall. The horse ride was about 1 hour long, part of it through jungle trails, and we all had a blast. Ben jabbered the whole way - "Big Horsey, BIG Horsey!"The kids looked adorable in the little riding hats we had to wear.

We walked to a little waterfall 1/2 way through the ride.

And we of course got to feed a baby tiger again.

The tiger safari part was great this time as the tigers were pretty hungry and playful. It got especially exciting when our guide got the chicken-on-a-string that he was feeding to the tigers stuck under the vehicle. So, he proceded to very nervously open the door to get it unstuck. I don't know that we would have been too concerned about it - except he was obviously VERY concerned. Quite the adventure. Thankfully none of the tigers were too close by...

Next installment: our visit to the WWII historic island, Corregidor.

We're Back!

Hello again! Did you miss us? :)

We safely returned from some wonderful vacation time with my brother and his wife. We traveled all over northern Luzon and visited many special places from our childhood, and had many adventures along the way. Here is a pic of our family in front of my family's old home in Aritao. I am planning to put up pics from our trip over the next couple weeks - a few new ones every couple days. So be sure to keep checking the blog. You more observant ones out there may notice that my bro and his wife don't appear in any of the pics - yes, they really were there, and, no, we are not mad at them. Just being careful - trust you understand.

Many of you have asked about the Ipod and that whole difficult situation. Thanks so much for your prayers and encouragements; this has been so tough. We are so thankful to be able to say that the warranty actually covered it, and we got a new one! What a blessing. After much investigation, we are also confident that our helper, Mhey, was not in any way involved in the plot to take or "return" the Ipod. However, she did have MANY things she was guilty of in the whole mess, and we have had some problems with her work lately... Anyway, so we decided to cut back her hours to just one day a week. It was difficult telling her this before we left, but it seemed like the right decision, and she accepted it, and was even grateful (we would have been justified in firing her for the role she did play, albeit unwittingly). But then we arrived home yesterday and opened up our phone bill to discover that she has (again) been running up our phone bill when we are not around. Since this is not a first offense with this, we will need to let her go after all. This will be very tough to do, and we still need to ask our teacher in the morning the culturally appropriate way to do it. Then I will need to find someone new to help out part time and to fill in when our other helper is sick.

Thanks for your continued prayers with this. And keep coming back to see some great pics of our trip in the next few days!

Oh - and I want to announce the birth of Abby Renae Carver, Steve's sister's first baby. She was born on the 20th of September, and both she and Christine are doing great. I will try to put a pic on once we get one...

Going on Vacation!

Well, after this past week, our upcoming vacation couldn't come at a better time - we are certainly feeling the need to get away for a while. The kids smiles in this picture show how excited we all are. We leave on Sunday the 10th (right after Steve preaches his first sermon in Tagalog - out of Romans 6!), and we will go and pick up my (Jen) brother & sis-in-law at the airport. Then we will drive all over the northern Philippines - Zoobic, Corregidor, the tribal village where Dave and I grew up, a flight base where we spent many childhood years as well, possibly even up to the famous Banaue rice terraces. We are so looking forward to some down time and wonderful time with family. Thanks for praying for safety for us as we travel and try to find our way around. We will be back in Manila on the 20th for some Dr. appts and meetings. We plan to come home the 23rd.

As for the stolen ipod -- we still don't have the whole story, just suspicions. There were 3 people there, and 3 different stories as to what happened. All claim to have no idea what happened, but we know some of them are lying about parts... The latest development is that it was "returned" - in the sense that it was chucked over our gate outside so that it broke (or was broken before it was chucked?). We will try to send it in to see if the warranty will cover it, but it has seen a lot of abuse in the last few days, and we are not sure that they will honor the warranty because of that. Please be praying for us if you think of it - we still don't know if our one helper is on all this or not. So tough to know how to handle it with her...

This week has been awful as we have tried to wade through this mess and find out what really happened. It has been good language and culture experience, but miserable. To make it worse, Steve was gone in Bicol for nearly all of it, and our other helper was home sick! What a week!

PTL, Steve's trip to Bicol went well. We have not come to a final decision, but we at least have a town that we are leaning towards locating in!!! Thanks for continuing to lift us up in prayer - we need it more than you know.

A Trip to the Fortune Teller

Well, today has been quite the adventure. Yesterday we went out for the afternoon and left one of the housegirls alone in the house to finish up then go home. She then called some friends to come over and keep her company while she "worked". Going against the house rules, she invited them into the house, and - long story short - my new Ipod MP3 player (that Steve just bought me for our anniversary on Aug 22) was stolen. Steve went with our helper and her one friend to the school of the other guy, the one we don't know and suspect took it. He ended up in the middle of a big ordeal there at the school as the principal and guidance counselor got involved and ended up searching every student there. After that exciting cultural experience, Steve and the 2 girls left, and Steve thought they were headed to the guy's house to check his room. They arrived at his house, and there were a lot of people hanging around out front and in the foyer of their house. Steve kept asking these people questions - indirectly, in keeping with the culture - trying to get to the bottom of the situation. But he just got vague answers. He then asked what all the people out front were doing. He was told that they probably lost something too and need to know where it was. It ends up, our helper's friend had taken him to a fortune teller to find out who took it! So here Steve was sitting in the waiting room to have his fortune told to find out who took the Ipod! Much to the bewilderment of all, he walked out before it was even his turn.

The day continued to be a roller coaster adventure but with the end result being a missing Ipod and no hope to get it back. The guy has certainly sold it by now. Steve finally did leave (3 hours late) for Bicol for his survey trip there. I continued to try to track it down but to no avail. Today has been quite the adventure, full of language and culture exposure, one that we will not soon forget.

As for the Ipod, I am trying very hard to view it as "just stuff" (to quote my husband). While I know this in my head, my heart is arguing...

Please be thinking of us as we try to figure out how to handle the situation with our helper who asked her friends to come in when she knew better. She has now disappeared off the face of the earth. I am not sure if and when she will come back nor what I should say to her if she does. To top it off, our other helper is sick and Steve is gone and I have a big trip to plan and pack for! Life is an adventure...