Life in the Mountains

Early Sunday morning, we headed up into the mountains, and Steve spoke at one of the 1st villages in Bogkalot territory. There we found out that it had been raining non-stop since we left for the weekend, and they didn't think we would be able to make it to the village where we live since the river we have to cross is up. We continued on anyway, just to check it out and make sure. Well, instead of finding this quiet mountain stream...

...we discovered this:
Instead of this...

...it was this:

So we turned around and headed to a nearby village to crash with one of the pastors until the river went down. But then the car started acting weird so we decided to go down to the nearest town with a mechanic and get it looked at while we waited on the river. That mechanic couldn't fix it, so we headed a couple hrs further out to a bigger town...and we are still here 3 days later. :( However, we are SO THANKFUL for God's protection in this because while the mechanic was checking out the one issue, he discovered that our steering linkage was about to go out! Now, I don't know much about cars, but I do know that having steering is important on the tiny mountain roads we have been driving! We are HOPEFUL that all issues will be fixed by noon tomoro, and we can head back up - PLS PRAY WITH US!!!

Ok, while we are stuck here, I decided to post a few more pics from our time up in the mountains. The first few are just some random shots I got around the village.

When was the last time you took your pig for a walk?

Love this pretty little house - they have used river rocks to decorate their front yard.

One of the saddest things we have seen up here is all the destruction from the 2 typhoons that came through right before we arrived. Bridges, homes, corn crops, even 4 people...all washed away. This pic was taken from a porch that was underwater during the flooding. From here, you can't even SEE the river from here right now, but this whole valley was under a roaring river! 3 homes were washed away right in front of this house; this one held firm, but it was under several feet of water.

These ladies washing dishes right outside their house. Do you know what stood out to me in this pic? The water rushing out of the hose into the basin. It's all a matter of perspective, I guess, I had to guard my heart against jealousy when I saw all that beautiful water running right outside their house. Oh, we have running water too - 3 of them, carrying little blue jugs. :)

Despite the challenges, there are some gorgeous views living in the mountains!

The kids and I go with Steve when he teaches as much as we can,while keeping up with school. But sometimes the hike followed by long hours of listening to your dad teach the same things in a different language can be a little exhausting...

This is how we spend most of our days in the village - school first!

This is Steve & my bed under a mosquito net - the kids' looks identical, but with 3 pillows. You can also see my folding chair on the back side, with books spread on the floor. This is where I teach the kids their lessons.

One of the things that takes up a TON of our time in the mountains is cleaning. Since there are no screens on the windows, and LOTS of bugs and dust, things get dirty pretty fast. I sweep multiple times every day; this is the pile of dirt I swept up in ONE room, less than 2 hrs after the last time I swept.Once we had filled our trash sack, we asked the villagers what we should do with our trash; they promptly came and took it away. Convenient, yes? Until we noticed our trash strewn next to the trail going to the river. Hmmm. We decided to burn our trash from then on.

One of the other things we do is evict critters from our house. You saw the ant colony in another post. We have also had multiple varieties and sizes of lizards, many large spiders and other bugs, as well as dogs and a rooster. Then one night this little guy flew in and couldn't get back out.

My least favorite so far (though the big spiders and flying cockroaches do give them a run for their money) are these tree frogs. They get in all the time, they can climb to the tops of the walls, then spring to the other side of the room. Since you are never sure where they might land, this is NOT my favorite game. Especially when I am in the shower without a light... enough said.

Our temporary house is right next to the concrete slab where everyone dries their corn in the sunshine. Whenever it starts to rain, everyone scurries to get the corn back into the sacks before it gets wet. The kids get to help with this fairly often.

We spend a lot of time at this river. At least once a week, we do laundry by hand. Last time I ended up with FOUR bleeding sores from scrubbing so much laundry by hand - I will be SO thankful to get back to our washing machine at home next month! The kids are a huge help though, and we are making memories for sure!

After scrubbing, rinsing, and wringing everything out, it is time to haul it back over the rocks and up the trail to our house so that we can hang it out - then watch for rain so that we can run and bring it in...then put it back out...then run and bring it in... then put it back out... I think you get the idea.

Something else we do at the river is bathe. Get all soaped up...

...then rinse it all off! I personally prefer a nice warm shower in the privacy of my home, but the kids don't seem to mind this way.

We've also had a lot of good play time at the river. Floating the rapids on tubes...

...swinging on vines like Tarzan...

...jumping off the rocks...

...and catching yourself on other rocks.

Here are my 3 goofballs, trying out their new rubber boots - which have made the 2 mile hike to the car MUCH nicer!

Mikayla found this home-made toy chainsaw on the side of the trail. Cute! And, yes, I know her outfit doesn't match - fashion is not on the top of our list here, and the villager's idea of "matching" is very different than ours anyway. :)

We do a fair amount of hiking to get from place to place. Beautiful views, good exercise.

So proud of these 3 kids. They have been through a crazy number of transitions this past year, they have worked hard and hiked far, but they are thriving and loving every new adventure. Thank you, Father, for the privilege of serving you as a family!

The Adventure Continues

(Looks like blogger is having some formatting issues...can't get it to remove the extra returns between the pics and the txt...so just keep scrolling down to find the next bit...sorry...)

****

Ater a brief time in "town", we headed back up to the mountains early on Sunday morning before light. Steve was the speaker for one of the little churches up there. So how do YOU get to church? Do you hike... ...then take a boat across the river?
So cool to see little groups of believers, worshipping God throughout the mountains.

After church, we drove to the end of the road to start the 1 hour hike to our village.

Don't drop the computer, Steve! Or the eggs for that matter...

The next week was consumed with "normal" life in the village - will post more pics of that next time. Then the next Sunday morning, we got up early to hike about half an hour to take a boat to a different village for church.

This little church is so beautiful.

After church, we hiked upstream a ways then hopped in a little boat to cross the river and continue upstream towards another village a couple hours away.
For the next couple hours, we went back and forth between riding in the boat and hiking next to the river, crossing the river to hike next to the rapids while the boatmen poled the boat upstream. In this pic, the kids and I were riding in the boat across the river while Steve and the men hiked. Aren't the mountains beautiful?!? Took my breath away.

The views were amazing, and we made some precious family memories.
After a couple hours, we left the boat and the river and headed up into the mountains. One of the first things we did was cross this little mountain stream. I love how the Bogkalot people help our kids along the way. This one was funny though because right after that next rock, Zach stepped down into the stream without waiting for help - he thought it was ankle-deep there. Ended up being up to his chest (the crystal-clear water makes it hard to tell depth). We all got a good laugh - him too. :)

When I say that we headed "up" into the mountains, I definitely mean UP. This part was practically vertical, and all of it was super steep. Good work out!

After a very long UP, they told us "we are almost there". Apparently "almost" is relative because that is the village waaay over there on the side of that ravine - which means a down then ANOTHER up. :)

At the base of the ravine was this charming mountain stream. The villagers had erected this little bridge in expectation of our visit. So sweet.

Finally arriving in the village. Our kids were the very first white kids ever to come to this village.

Not many churches in the US can boast this kind of view!

The people there spoiled us all rotten - they gave from their very best to feed and care for us. At one point while they were showering us with offers of coffee and candy and crackers etc, Mikayla whispered to me, "This group is even more 'over the top' than the last one!!!" The people there really were so sweet, and they are so very passionate about living all-out for the kingdom. I guess I could say that I haven't seen that many churches in the US that could boast of this either...was so inspiring to be with them.

This is the 10 ft square room where we all 5 slept, shoulder to shoulder. Or pretended to sleep and waited for dawn, as the case may be. :)

The next morning, the whole village gathered for the seminar. Nearly 100 people have been attending the weekly seminar (the wall-less new church was packed, and there were lots more in the old church, listening through the windows).

There are several in this church who want to be sent to reach the Agta, and the rest of the church is 100% supportive. Steve was able to have several great conversations with these 2 guys; they are some of the ones who want to be sent out.

After a 1/2 day seminar (Steve normally teaches all day, but he quit early to allow time for us to visit with the people and extra time for hiking home since the kids are with), we headed down to a waterfall in the ravine below the village. Gorgeous!

The kids and Steve jumped off and went for a swim in the icy pool.

We were all posed for a family picture when Mikayla spotted a snake on a rock where some girls were sitting and hollered "ahas!" I was so proud of her that, even in the panicked moment, Tagalog still came out.

Steve went to check out the situation with the snake, so we got a family pic minus Steve. :)

Here is a family pic at the base of the falls.

Then we headed UP UP UP back to the village. It was crazy steep - notice the guys up on the trail in front of Zach at the top of the pic - the trail zigged and zagged straight up the mountain.

Then they had a time of prayer for us before we left to head back to "our" village. Back across the little bridge they made, then over the mountains and streams to the river.

Once we reached the river, we again alternated between hiking next to the river rapids and riding in the little boat downstream. We got to stay in the boat through some of the smaller rapids. No problem for us - we are all strong swimmers - but I was nervous for the one lady with us who doesn't swim. For a couple of the rapids, everyone got out except the boatmen - and Kayla and Zach. The men said it was fine for them ride since they are light and very strong swimmers, and they loved the adventure of it. See them holding onto the crossbar? Home sweet home. We arrived home (see the little house in the background with the red roof?) exhausted but encouraged by all that God is doing in the village of San Pugo. The next week held some excitement as Papa came for a visit. He was only there for a day (to do a quick seminar about setting up some livelihood opportunites), we SO enjoyed our time together.

This last stretch up in the mountains was 3 weeks long, and we are pretty beat. But we are also encouraged by all that God is doing up there and excited to see what the next couple weeks will hold. Please pray with us on Nov 17 Philippine time (night of Nov 16 US time) as the Bogkalot churches gather for a time of prayer and fasting to make important decisions about WHO will go out to reach the unreached and HOW they will send them.

I will leave you with this pic of "our" river. Here is where we bathe, wash our clothes (pics to follow next time), and swim together. It is only a couple mins hike from our house, and we have made LOTS of memories here. In this pic, I caught Zach in mid-dive into the water.

Thanks again for praying for our family as we press on. Please pray that we will finish strong - we only have one more 2 wk stretch up there; we plan to head out on Nov 20. Thanks for standing behind us as you do and don't forget to pray on Nov 17 as they make some monumental decisions!