the move

This move marked the 20th major move for Steve and I as a couple, and it was by far the most difficult one we have done (and it is really only 1/2 over as we still have to UNpack when we get back!). But it is OVER, and we survived it, and we are thankful.

So what made it so terrible? Well, this is prob way more info than you want, but I just have to document this adventure (for those of you who want the condensed version, just skip to the end where the pics are)...

* Because of my recent wrist surgery, I couldn't help much at all with packing, etc, and Steve was ridiculously busy at the end with ministry things.

* Mikayla was running a fever and throwing up for the last few days before the move and Steve and Zach were fighting a nasty cold.

* The night before the truck came, Steve we were sitting around the table making a game plan for the next day when Steve scooped Zach up to tickle him. He turned him upside down and put his head down - just then the plastic chair collapsed! So Steve and Zach came down squarely on Zach's head. As a result of the accident, Steve bruised his tailbone and Zach got 2 lacerations on his tongue, cut his hand, and bruised his fingers and toes - not to mention the massive lump on his head and headache for 4 days afterwards.

* While we were calming Zach down and evaluating his injuries, we heard a massive CRASH from the other room. Our pantry cabinet consists of 2 pieces stacked on top of one another. The top half is about 4ft tall by 3 feet wide with sliding glass doors. Well, Mikayla accidentally pulled on a string, causing the top half to come toppling down. Thankfully, she had the presence of mind to step back so she was not hit. However, when we all ran to the scene, we realized that Ben was missing!!! Thinking he might be UNDER the cabinet, we started frantically looking for him, when he creeped back in from the other room where he had run to hide when it fell (he had been in that room but ran when it started falling). While a lot of stuff was ruined/damaged by the falling cabinet, we were just so thankful that no one was injured. It really shook us all up.

* Once we all calmed down and were able to sleep, morning came very early as we got up at 5am to strip beds, wrap mattresses, etc so we would be ready for the truck when it arrived at 8. Steve was suddenly in a LOT of ear pain and took a bunch of meds to get him through the day.

* Well, the truck never showed up. Found out that the driver's wife had gone into labor. 2 pastor friends when on the hunt for another truck - said they knew a guy, and they would ask him to be to our house by 1pm. By 10:30 we still had not heard a confirmation from them, so we tracked them down and found out they had not been able to find anything and were too embarrased to tell us. Steve started driving around hunting for a truck to rent.

* It POURED rain off and on all morning due to a passing typhoon. Steve kept popping pills so that he can stand the pain enough to supervise the move.

*At 3pm, Steve finally found a truck, and by 4pm, the guys were loading it - in the rain still.

* Despite the fact that I am not supposed to drive for another 2 wks (our car is automatic so I just used my left hand), I left with the kids and 2 American volunteers who had come to help us (a huge praise!!!) to drive up to our new area, and make a few drop-offs along the way of fridge/food stuff etc.

*At the first stop, one of the American girls fell into a sewer ditch and blew out her knee. She was in a lot of pain, but we knew that going to the ER down here was not a good idea if we could help it, so we started making phone calls to try to get her on the next day flight up to Manila. As we made phone calls and arrangements, we continued driving to our various stops.

*We finally arrived at our new house at 8pm and worked together to unload the inside and topload of the car. Since it was just Anna, me with my injured wrist and 3 kids, it was quite an adventure. We finished unloading at 8:30, but poor Ella was in a lot of pain with her knee and soaking wet from the ditch she fell in, we still had not had supper, my arm was KILLING me by this point, and the truck had still not even left Iriga to drive up to where we were.

*We made the decision to head back to the hotel and let Steve supervise the unloading by himself (poor guy, but we needed to get Ella lying down). By the time we got back to the hotel, finished making arrangements to get Anna & Ella on the am flight, got the kids scrubbed up and in bed, it was 10:45pm.

*Steve finally got back to the hotel at 12:30 am. He slept fairly well, but Zach tossed and turned and woke up a lot.

*I had planned to take the girls to the airport in the am, but Steve was awake and insisted on doing it since I shouldn't drive any more than absolutely necessary so they left at 5:30am. Zach woke up in tears from ear pain.

* Turns out they had not quite gotten all the stuff the night before, so once Steve got back from the airport at 7:30am, we headed to our house to finish up the last load. By the time we finished up everything, dropped that load off at our new house, and moved some boxes and furniture around so that they wouldn't get destroyed if the windows leak in a storm, it was 2pm.

*Steve and Zach were still in a lot of ear pain despite lots of pain meds and decongestant so we called the dr and got on the list to see the ENT that afternoon.

*Turns out that Steve's eardrum had ruptured the day before, and was in danger of doing it again. Zach's was about to rupture. We went and got them the meds they needed then headed back for the hotel and an early night.

*Steve had a VERY rough night and was in a LOT of pain. Didn't think he would be able to go to the last day at the Bible Studies today like he had hoped. Prayed long and hard for healing, and he finally got a few hours sleep then woke up feeling a little better. He left for the villages this am, armed with all his meds, and he has texted saying that he is in pain but hanging in there. He should be home in a couple hours - by 7 or 8pm hopefully.

Here are some pics of our adventures the last 2 days.

Anna and Ella were a HUGE blessing to us as they ended up here unexpectedly and worked incredibly hard to help us finish up all that we needed to do. They also took some time to love on the kids and play with them. :)

This is a pic of the cabinet that fell towards Mikayla and Ben the night before we move. The next picture shows what was left of the double glass sliding doors.

Boxes everywhere!
Once we FINALLY found a truck, we had quite the time getting it into our driveway to make loading faster. The truck actually moved the concrete gate post about 1 inch!
Steve lifted the power lines with a piece of wood to let the truck pass under.
The loading finally starts!
The kids enjoyed watching all the activity, and were thrilled when they got to check out the inside of the truck.
We are all absolutely wiped but happy to be done. Tomorrow we head up to a hotel closer to the aiport and finish up a few things at our new house (changing out locks, etc) before we fly to Manila the next am. Steve will have a root canal that afternoon (pray for him, it has been a tough couple days for him) then we fly to the States on Thursday morning!

last few days

First, I thought you guys might like to see the finished product of the oral story sets that we have been working on in 3 different languages. Megan did a lot of the leg work while she was here, and then Steve and I have been scrambling the last couple weeks to finish them up. Each of the 8 audio kits contains a small mp3 player, a portable, re-chargeable speaker, and the necessay plugs and cords. Each mp3 is loaded with whichever languages(s) that village needs to be able to learn the stories and teach them to others. These are designed to work as a tool to aid them in learning the stories better to teach them to new groups. In addition to the audio kit, each church will get the written version of the stories in their language. Please pray with us that these tools make them more effective in spreading the Good News throughout their people group!

Second, please continue to pray for our family as we finish up our last few days here in the Philippines before heading to the States for our first stateside assignment. Here are some specific requests for you to lift up:

1. On Friday and Saturday we will be moving about 1 hr away to our new house. Pray that the logistics for renting a truck come together. Pray that the current tenants can get out by Friday so that we can move our stuff straight in rathen than having to move it into the next-door house for storage, then re-move it later. Pray for GOOD WEATHER - there is a typhoon enroute to the western Philippines. Pray for dry days as we move!

2. Tomorrow and Sunday mark our last days in the village with the Agta churches until 2010. Pray for precious times of worship together as we say some difficult goodbyes.

3. On Tuesday we will fly to Manila. Pray for Steve as he will get a root canal that afternoon. Pray that he is able to recover quickly with no infection and minimal pain as we travel.

4. On Thursday the 14th, we fly to the US by way of Japan! Pray for smooth travel - no baggage weight issues, on-time flights and that immigration and customs would go well in DFW as we have only a short layover there. This may seem trivial, but please pray that our LOOONG flight over the water (18 hrs I think) has individual screens on each seat so that the kids can watch movies/cartoons to keep them occupied. It may seem silly, but that makes a BIG difference in how well the flight goes!

Thanks for your prayers in the days ahead!

More House Pics

Ok, so it is not actually official yet, but many of you are asking for some more pics of the house we found, so here they are. :) Thanks for praying for the meeting on Friday, it went really well, and they now have a verbal agreement to rent the house. However, they were having fax issues on Friday so the contract has not yet been signed. So there is still a chance it will fall through if there are things in the contract that we can't live with, but hopefully all will look good. We should know by early next week - which is good since we move a week from Friday!

The house is actually located in a gated subdivision about 10 mins from the airport in Naga (and the wakeboarding place too!). The neighborhood is quiet with not much traffic, so it should be safe for the kids to ride their bikes and play with friends!In addition to being in a gated subdivision that has a security guard at night, it is in a compound with 2 other houses. One of the houses is the other half of the duplex from ours. We have not yet met the family who lives there, but we have mutual friends. The other house is not yet rented so we are praying it will either stay empty or we will get good neighbors on that side.

Here is a pic of the front gate to our compound - you can see our neighbor's side of the duplex in front.

Here is a pic of the empty house (taken from the front corner of our house) behind our half of the duplex.

The apartment itself is much smaller than we have right now (about 1000 - 1200 sq ft), but it is in great shape. This pic is taken from the front door, looking at the dining room then through to the living room. The door to the tiny kitchen is to the right, and the stairs going up to the bedrooms are behind that wall on the left.
There are actually only 2 bedrooms, which poses a little problem. First, Mikayla is getting old enough to need a separate room from her brothers. Second, we need a place to do school. This is the largest of the bedrooms upstairs, and we are planning to put up a divider to create a room for Mikayla in the back of it. Then we are hoping to buy/build loft beds so that their school desks can fit UNDER their beds. That is really the only way we can fit it all in.
While the inside is nice (in a cozy way), it is the yard and neighborhood that we are excited about. The compound feels like a private little subdivision within a subdivision, so it will be very safe (that was one of our main concerns as Steve will be traveling a lot next term). Here is a pic from our back door of the little house that is separate from the duplex.Check out this big back yard that is shared by the 3 houses!
We are hoping to get a trampoline for the kids while we are back, and they are SO excited to have one in their back yard. They are also excited to finally have other kids in the neighborhood to play with as we have been isolated from others these last few years.

Thanks for praying for the perfect place for our family - God answered your prayers! Please continue to pray that if this is the place that God has for us, that all the details will go through smoothly.

We Found One!!!

You prayed, and God answered! We found a house that we really like today. It is pretty small, but it is in good shape, and it is in a secure area. Please continue to pray Thurs evening US time as Steve meets with the owner to discuss some details. Then if it all looks good, our business manager in Manila will call the owner to set up a contract to sign. Just pray that if this is really the house that God has for us, everything will go through smoothly! It is actually just part of a large duplex so it is just the apt to the left in the picture. Will give you more details about the place when/if it goes through. Thanks for praying!

just for laughs

So the eggs you buy at the market here are not all sparkly clean like the eggs you buy at the grocery in the US - the ones here are dirty, sometimes with globs of...junk...all over them. So we often wash the eggs before we use them, but one night after the helper had purchased eggs and put them in the fridge, I went to get one out to fry it up for Steve and noticed that she had forgotten to wash them. I was intentionally avoiding several of them that looked particularly nasty, and reached for another one while still looking at the nasty ones (kind of that "can't look away" syndrome at accident sites). Well, once I had the egg in my hand, I noticed a movement in my peripheal so I very quickly refocused my attention from the dirty eggs to the egg in my hand. To my absolute shock, there was a TAIL sticking out of the end of the egg. And to make it worse, it was wriggling wildly!!! Not joking here. Somehow I managed to put the egg down on the counter without breaking it then went into a little "that is so disgusting!" dance in the kitchen. So before you all think i overdosed on my pain meds and am imagining things, what had happened was a small lizard had lost its tail (we have these small lizards everywhere in the house, and their tails easily come off then continue to wriggle for several hours afterwards - the boys love to play with them, much to my chagrin). ANYWAY, a lizard tail had become separated from its owner and somehow got stuck on the end of an egg - wonder if Zach had anything to do with that... - then put in the fridge for me to discover later. What fun.

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setting: small restaurant

Steve: "do you have hard-boiled eggs?"

waiter: "yes"

Steve: "how much are the eggs?"

waiter: "10 pesos each" (about 20 cents)

Steve: "great, we will have 8"

when the bill came, we were surprised to see we had been charged 30 pesos for each egg instead of just 10. when we asked about it, we were told that the eggs ARE p10 each - unless you want them cooked, THEN they are P30 each.

okay....how do you respond to that kind of logic?

Megan

Well, we dropped Megan off at the airport this am for her LONG trip back to the US. She has been here for nearly a year as a volunteer, just helping out with whatever she could. She has been such a blessing to our family and ministry, and she will be sorely missed. She helped with school, loved on our kids, did Bible studies, played administrative assistant, did registration for trainings, recorded and edited audio versions of the Bible stories, and coordinated the translation of the Bible stories into 3 different languages. She kept very busy while she was here, and she made an eternal impact. Here are some pics from her time with us:

We'll miss you, Megan! Thanks for everything, and we will be prayin for you as you start on life's next adventure, whatever that may be!

some favorite shots

so what hav i been doing to stay sane while lying in bed with my right arm propped up so it can heal? sorting photos 1-handed! remembr when i mentioned a media team had come through for a week and followed us around w/ cameras? well, they got a lot of great shots, and i spent the last coupl days sorting thru 8,687 pictures - yes, they took 8,687 still pictures in 8 days - not including all the video shots. Here was what we faced that week:

Now, don't get me wrong, they were great peopl, and we really enjoyd them, just their cameras got tiring. As I told them, in one way, they were the easiest visitors we evr had, in other ways they were the most difficult. :) Nothing like havng a camera in your face all day!but once we got over the camera thing, we realy did enjoy getting to know thm, and they got some GREAT shots while they were here. They got some wonderful Filipino everyday life shots as well as some amazing face shots that we will be able to use while we are in the States this summer. They also got some great shots of our family "in action". here r just a few of them:

while the team was here, something VERY EXCITING hapened. u remembr the bibl study that jose (1 of our 1st believrs, seen in pic below) started in novembr? (check archives 2 jog ur memry and c pics) well, they had their 1st baptism there! 12 precious souls clearly understood what Christ did 4 them and made a public profession of that faith. what a thrilling afternoon!

tnx 4 ur continued prayers 4 us as we finish up here b4 heading 2 the US in less than 1 month! tnx 2 4 praying 4 my arm as it continues 2 heal, the pain level has been prtty good, and i am hopeful i will b abl 2 typ w/ TWO hands again soon. tnx 4 ur patienc and code-deciphring in the meantime. :)

"Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig"

that is what my mom always said when we arrivd home aftr a trip - we dont kno why. :)

we did arrive home safely earlier 2day, and i just wantd 2 take a sec 2 thank all of u 4 praying 4 us on our trip.

in case u cant tel i am back 2 1-handd typing. surgery went realy well tho and i shud bback 2 reg typing in coupl wks. so 4 now u get 2 try dcipher clode. :)

actualy whole trip went far bettr than expected - 1st coupl days were packed w more drvsits, lab work & time in dentist chair than we thot possibl in 2 days, and evrything turned out great - no medical concerns 4 eithr of us. then our time in singapor 4 the surgery went amazingly smoothly & the pain level since surgery has been much much bettr than last time. hereon the home front, everything went really well too, and the kids had only minor bumps & bruises while we were gone. all in all, a huge success, THANKS SO MUCH 4 PRAYING!!!

the kids had a blast while we were gone, and they got lots of pics of their advntures so i will try put some of those up soon.

hope u all have a very blessed easter celebration!

From the Hospital

Just wanted to let you all know that Jen came out of surgery fine. Her arm is still completely numb from the block that they put on her arm. We will find out in a couple of hours what the pin level will be, but we are really rejoicing that she did not react negatively to the anestetic like last time. Thanks for praying.

Steve

Answers!

If you haven't seen it already, you will want to check out the devotional that Mikayla wrote for the wakeboarding competition (next post).

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Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf these last few days. Thanks too to those of you who took a second from your busy schedules to write and encourage me by saying that you are standing with us in prayer. What a blessing you all are to us!

You prayed for the rain to stop – and it did. You prayed for sickness to not keep anyone away – only 2 people ended up missing for illness despite many others being sick previously. You prayed for safety – it was a calm night in the mountains. You prayed for soft hearts, and open minds – and God worked mightily in the lives of the Agta church leaders. God answered all of your prayers, and we give HIM all the glory!!! Despite the fact there ended up being some last-minute schedule conflicts (they scheduled the elementary graduation ceremony for that afternoon – EVERYTHING is scheduled last-minute here!), the training time was a huge success, and they were able to have several key discussions. While not able to cover everything Steve had hoped to, they got a great start; and Steve assigned some things to discuss as a church while we are gone, then he will follow up with them when we get back. One fruit of the training is that they are planning another baptism in one church on Saturday for those who missed out last time. We won’t even be there, so it will be exciting to see if they go through with it on their own.

We covet your continued prayers for our family as Steve and I leave early tomorrow morning for Manila then on to Singapore. The kids will stay with Megan (the long-term volunteer who has been such a blessing to us) here in Bicol, and another friend will come to help her. Steve and I will spend the first couple days in Manila doing the thorough physicals, lab work, and dental work that are required before return to the US. Then we will fly to Singapore on April 5 for some consultations then surgery on my wrist to remove the 6” plate and screws on April 7. We will only stay in Singapore a few days after the surgery then return to Manila on April 10 and home on April 11. Please pray for safe travels and successful appointments/surgery. Please pray as well for the kids and Megan as they hold down the fort here – pray for a very UNEVENTFUL 10 days!!!

Thank you once again for the way that you faithfully stand behind us! We couldn’t be here without you!