Beautiful Feet

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news."

Isaiah 52:7

I know these feet don't look very beautiful to you (and I thoroughly agree with you!), but in God's eyes they are beautiful.

On Sunday, we drove to the end of the rough road and then hiked as a family up into the mountains to the village of Antipolo (ahn-tee-POH-loh). While the hike was only a couple of miles, it was very steep and incredibly muddy so it felt like a whole lot further. We also discovered that we are not in as good of shape as we used to be. :) That mud was something else! The pic below was taken just before I wiped it and landed on my behind. Thankfully I had the camera, so there is no pic to record that event.

The kids did so well! We were so proud of them. On the way there, a guide showed us the way. That was nice, but it meant the pace was a whole lot faster on the way there than we chose on the way back. Mikayla and Zach hiked almost the whole way, and Ben actually hiked a fair amount of it too.

See how steep and muddy it was?!? On the way back we stopped for a picnic lunch on the trail. Ben's face kind of sums up how we were all feeling by this point. It was exhausting but worth it.
We had a great time visiting with the chieftain and his family while we were in the village. The kids had a blast with the little puppies there.Zach sang to this one until it fell asleep in his arms.
This baby was too cute. And who needs a fancy crib anyway?
The scenery simply took our breath away. Or was it the hike that did that? :) Check it out though - we felt so blessed to be in such a beautiful corner of creation.
On one of the little creek crossings, we saw this guy hunched over under a rock. He was talking non-stop under there. We have no idea to whom he was speaking or what he was speaking about. He was so absorbed in whatever he was doing that he never even saw the 5 whiteys that walked right over his head (and our passing by seemed to be the best entertainment of the year for everyone else who saw us). :)
The highlight of the day was definitely the visit we had with this chieftain and his wife. They are neat people, and really seem to be people of peace who are eager to help us study the Word in their village. We set up to return to Antipolo on Thursday afternoon, and they said they will gather the village to listen to us teach! Please pray with us on Thursday morning Central time that it would not rain, that the hike would go well, and that the Bible Study would touch lives in the way only His Word can do.
After we hiked back to our truck, there was a group gathered at that village to study the Bible. There were about a dozen adults and a dozen kids. We were so exhausted from the hike we could barely stand up, but God gave us the strength to share the 1st lesson with this dear group of people, and it went really well. Many of them jumped in on the discussion time. Thanks for praying with us! They invited us to come back again next Sunday afternoon. Please continue to pray with us during this critical time of our ministry. Even today, Steve is out doing some survey work in the mountains, trying to figure out where the different villages are, and which places would be the most strategic locations to start teaching 1st.
Please also be praying for health and strength as we have been fighting some intestinal troubles and colds. Steve has been feeling very weak the last few days, and he was looking at possibly doing quite a bit of hiking today. Then tomorrow we hike as a family back to Antipolo. We covet your prayers!

Medical Clinic

Thank you to all of you who were faithfully praying for our medical outreach yesterday. It went really well, and it was obvious that God was at work. First, let me introduce the team that made it possible. The Christian Light Foundation provided the Filipino medical and dental staff, and they brought over a team of 18 volunteers from the States who assisted them with the medical/dental as well as helping with other things for the clinic. Countless volunteers from local churches helped with all the logistics - from registration to food preparation. The clinic was held on the compound of a Korean missionary lady, and then of course there was us. Quite the diverse team - it was amazing the to see the unity that God granted!

In the pic below, Steve is speaking to the staff 1st thing in the morning. You can also see some local volunteers helping with registration and some of the stateside volunteers helping with presenting the Gospel and counseling with people as well as providing VBS for the kids while their parents were busy.

Here is another pic that shows the medical/dental team at work. Dr. Donna (top left) did all the medical evaluations. Then there was a surgical team, a dental team, and a team working in the pharmacy handing out meds.
We arranged 3 jeepneys (local transportation) to bring in the different Agta villages from all over the area. Jeepneys piled high with people arrived throughout the morning. Unfortunately, I was not able to get a pic of any of the ones that were really loaded down.
Dr. Donna saw more than 400 patients in just one day (!!!) - the highest number in their 2 week trip. She had actually been sick for a few days, and they had had to quit early the day before to allow her to rest. She was still not feeling very well, but she pushed through and did an amazing job. The surgical team completed 28 circumcisions as well as 10 minor surgeries. I have not yet gotten the numbers from the dental team, but they were just as busy as everyone else all day.
This was one of the "minor" surgeries. The man in the pics below had a large cyst in his back that they removed under local anesthesia. It ended up being very "stuck" though, and it took them nearly 2 hours to dig it out! Below you can see them working as well as Steve and a local pastor praying for success. The cyst ended up being the size of a large tomato.
While all the adults were doing fun things like being operated on, the kids were involved in VBS and just running around having fun. Our kids came up for a couple of hours to join in the fun.
Since the Agta are so incredibly poor, we were advised that if we did not provide food, they would not come because their need to find food for the day would supercede any need for medical attention. So we had the job of feeding 500 people. At the last minute, as the groups kept pouring in, we actually upped the number to 1000 and threw in some more food; but I have no idea how many actually ate.
Here are some pics of the massive job. Some local church volunteers were an amazing help as they did the majority of the work. On the top left, you can see him adding rice into the biggest rice pot I have ever seen. You like the lid they made in the picture next to it? Those are banana leaves! The "ulam" (whatever you eat with your rice) was a mixture of jackfruit, cut up fish (heads and all), ginger and tomatoes. Didn't look very appetizing to us, but it was a hit for everyone! Then we loaded the pots and pans (or buckets as the case may be) into our truck and brought them up the steep, bumpy hill to the site (did I mention I think we need to wash out the bed of our truck - pretty smelly back there!). We then passed the job off to someone else for organizing how to distribute the food. What they came up with was definitely different than what we would have done, but it worked. They just dumped the food out on 2 long tables, and then everyone pressed in to get some food. Thankfully, we ended up with more than enough, and everyone seemed happy with it.It was unbelievable how many babies were there! Babies, babies everywhere. And Agta babies have got to be some of the cutest in the world - here are some pics to prove it. :)
Our main hope for the day was to develop relationships with the Agta and make some contacts that will allow us to come into the villages to teach. That went amazingly well; it was such a God thing. We received many personal invites to peoples' homes, and several were saying we needed to come to their village 1st, before the others! We praise God for the way He blessed our time yesterday and allowed us to develop so many promising friendships - thanks for praying with us!
The biggest glitch of the day came as a result of the jeepneys we mentioned. A local pastor, in an attempt to be helpful, said that he would be the one to arrange it since he could get a better price than us white people - which is probably true. However, then he passed it off to an assistant who did not seem to understand what was needed. We had constant headaches with the transportation issue, culminating when the head driver went to the pastor and said they were all done - so the pastor paid him. However, there was actually still 2 groups that had been left behind; and the jeepneys would not come back now that they had been paid already. It is a long, complicated story, but they ended up waiting about 4 hours until well after dark. We waited with them, and they could tell we were doing all we could to get them home as quickly as possible. They were understandably upset about the situation (one old lady still had to walk several miles in the dark once she got dropped off - which ended up being after 9 pm!), but they were not upset with us, which was amazing. God really worked in that situation, and we really think that our relationships with those 2 groups are even better than with the others because of it. Here is a pic of Steve with the chieftain of one of the villages that got left behind. Please continue to pray for us as we begin to reach out to the Agta. This was essentially the "kick-off" for our ministry, and it went really well, but that just means that there is TONS of work to do now, following up and furthering those relationships so we can begin teaching.
Please pray as well as we are exhausted right now. Between Tuesday and Wednesday alone, Steve put in 32 hours of work. He left before the kids are up and came home long after they are in bed. I was with him all day yesterday. Today he left again before the kids were up to wrap up some details from yesterday and attend a clinic 1 1/2 hours away where there are supposed to be several Agta as well. Please pray for continued health and strength during this busy time.

A Lizard in the Fridge - and Zach turns 5!

We have hundreds of small lizards all over our house. They climb all over the walls and the ceilings and sometimes startle you when you open a closet or drawer. We actually don't mind at all because they are harmless, and they eat all the bugs. Actually, the kids love to catch them and play with them (which is normally fine, but the other day they accidentally dropped one on my foot, and the scared thing went running - right up my leg! I was not too thrilled... On my walls is one thing, up my leg is another). Anyway, I recently opened the fridge and was shocked to see a lizard IN the fridge - no joke. I have no idea how he got in there, but he was not allowed to stay. Needless to say, he was a little sluggish when we pulled him out.

But on to more important things - Zach turned 5 years old! To celebrate, we went to a great little swimming pool near Mt. Mayon, "our" volcano with our friends, the Allens.

We had a cake made at the local bakery with a spiderman web on it. It didn't turn out as well as I had hoped (they changed the colors on us), but I also made a box with a city around the sides and suspended Spider Man over the cake. Zach loved the cake and promptly proclaimed this his best birthday ever.

These 5 kids are virtually the only caucasians in Bicol. We are so thankful for the Allens who live about 1 1/2 hours away, and we get together with them as often as we can.

Grandma and Grandpa Hagen sent a cool card for Zach that Mikayla read to all the kids.

Zach got some cool presents, but he really liked this super hero t-shirt from his buddy, Caleb. Some others were a spiderman thermos, 2 spiderman puzzles, some spiderman school supplies...are you sensing a theme here? He also got the game Clue Jr. from us and his grandparents.

We had a blast hanging out as a family and swimming in the pool. A torrential downpour actually started in the afternoon, but we still had a good time - the kids playing in a little hut and the adults visiting. Nothing like a cookout in the rain! :)

No, this is not a picture of a drowning child. I asked Steve to take a pic of Zach swimming (he has become a little fish in the last 6 months), but I forgot that he swims entirely underwater now. So here is the pic anyway... :)

As I glance by over our blog, it occurs to me it that it looks like all we do over here is play. :) Believe it or not, that is not actually the case - it's just that the pics of curriculum development are not as exciting as fun swim days. :) Actually, last week we did go as a family and visit a couple of Agta villages, and we had a blast. I would have loved to have taken some pics, but I didn't want to seem like a tourist with ulterior motives on our 1st visit. I will try to get some of those another time.

Please pray with us today and tomorrow (May 29 & 30) as we are very busy with the medical clinic. Today is prep day (we are feeding 500 people tomorrow in addition to the medical clinic!), and tomorrow is the big day. Please pray that all the planned details come together and that we are able to make some good relationships with the Agta through this clinic. Please also pray as there is a volunteer team from the States working with the Filipino medical team. They are here to share the Gospel, and their goal is 11,000 decisions for faith in 10 days. While this is a noble goal, it doesn't take into account several facets of the Filipino culture. And since it is a high goal, Steve observed some of them being rather aggressive, even pushy, in their style as they share the Good News. The Agta are already suspicious of outsiders and easily "turned off". Please pray with us that they don't "scare off" the Agta tomorrow; we are hoping to start some relationships through the clinic tomorrow that will grow into an opportunity to really teach them the Word. Please pray that we get an opportunity to share our hearts with the volunteers before the clinic in the morning in a way that will communicate clearly but not create tension. We truly appreciate them coming all the way over here to help the Filipino people; we would just like to help them communicate in a way that will be less offensive in this culture. We covet your prayers!!!

Family Time

Mt. Mayon is reputedly the most perfect cone volcano in the world. It is ablsolutely breath-taking, and it is only about 1 and a a half hours away. We visited it when some friends came to visit us from Manila with their 3 little kids (the baby isn't in this pic). We had a great time when they came; Zach especially loved having his best bud Kenny here for a couple days.

Do you see the smoke coming out of the top?
For PE in school, we have been trying to teach the kids the basics of baseball. It has made for some fun family times in the back yard. We found some kids' gloves and a batting tee in Manila. I love this shot of the guys.
We actually do have a kids' bat as well, but it seems too heavy for the kids so Steve fashioned one out of bamboo for them to practice their form.
Hot Stuff!
The kids are actually doing pretty well with it. I wish there was some kind of league or something they could play in. But I am guessing that if they had a league, then we wouldn't play as much as a family so I think it is working out all right.Our meetings in Manila went really well. You'll have to check out our update for more info on that, but thought you may enjoy these few pics of us ice skating! Yes, I said ice skating. 2 of the malls in Manila have ice skating rinks, and the kids have been dying to go. Ben bowed out, but both Mikayla and Zach did amazingly well with it - they were skating all over by the time the hour was up. Unfortunately the pics didn't turn out that well, but you at least get the idea.
Steve was rounding up the kids for a last-minute photo opp when they had a little accident when both kids fell at the same time and Steve's skate hit Kayla's hand. The cut was not bad, but it was a bummer to leave on that note. The kids did have a blast though and want to do it again next time we are in Manila.

Summer Fun

Summer is in full swing here in the Philippines. Even though it is hot enough to swim year-round, in the summer, it is a necessity to keep cool. Here is some fun pics of us enjoying the summer. Our friends have an underwater camera, and here are some they took of the kids. I love the one of Ben especially. How many 3-year-olds do you know who would go underwater and look at the camera. Crazy kid.

I love this pic of Zach. No, that is not mud he is playing in, it is actually black sand. A lot of the beaches down here have black sand because of the volcanoes.
Cool Dude!

Ben's 3rd Birthday

Well, I am playing a little catch-up today since I have finished my work and Steve is still gone. I never got up any pics of the kids' birthdays so here are some of Ben's. His birthday was March 1, and we had our friends from Legaspi up for a fun party at the house. I love the mischeivous smile in the 1st pic, followed by the frosting around the mouth in the 2nd one...

We all went to the little pool down the street, rented a 2-story cottage, and enjoyed some pizza together. The kids had fun eating upstairs.
Papa and Grandma Jackson sent some $, and this is part of what we got with it. Ben has fun driving around and honking the squeaky horn. Our "baby" is 3 already!