Himalayas

So much has happened in this past month!  It has felt like we are in the midst of a whirlwind, so you will have to be patient with me for not posting for so long.  Last I wrote, Mikayla was in the Himalayas (scroll down to the next post for details).  She arrived home safely (after spending the night in an airport because of a delay), and we left 5 hours later on our next trip!

Her trip went amazingly well, and God worked mightily both in and through her in that place.  As part of the thank-you letter she will send out to those who made it possible for her to go on this trip, I put together this little collage of some of the incredible pics she took while she was there.  Thought you might enjoy seeing some of them.  Thanks for praying for her!

(Note: click on the pic to see a bigger copy.)
More posts to come in the next few days about the rest of our summer adventures!

Footprints

This past week, Steve took a trip to a nearby island.  His trip included driving a couple hours in the car, a couple hours on a boat, a jeepney, a tricycle, and finally a short hike.  There are 6 tribal groups on that island, and 135 churches between the 6 groups.  Steve was invited to meet with the combined leadership for these churches as well as attend the annual conference for these churches.  He was excited for this opportunity because these tribal churches have worked together to send out a couple of their very own to reach tribal groups in another area!  Those of you who know us, you know that this is our heartbeat, so this trip was such a blessing! Steve had the privilege of sharing his heart with them during the conference, and we are excited to see if God will provide opportunities for partnership in the future with the goal of equipping them to send out even more people than they are right now.

On the final day of the conference, the leader of their association of churches pulled Steve off to the side and asked him a question (in Tagalog), "What do you do when you're walking?"  Steve wasn't sure he understood the question, but the repeat came back exactly the same.  After a few failed guesses ("move your legs?" "breathe?"), he said to Steve:

"Footprints.  When you're walking, you leave footprints behind you as you go.  You hiked up into this village and shared your heart with us, and you have left footprints up here.  God has used you, and we will keep remembering what you talked about, even after you leave because your footprints are here.  And I don't think you are done.  You need to come back and leave more footprints in the future."  So thankful for the privilege of leaving footprints in this place for HIS glory!

Meanwhile, Mikayla headed off to the Himalayas last week!  That's right, our "baby" girl is in the Himalayas!  While she has helped so much with our ministry here, this is her first trip where she has traveled by herself to a dark area to shine His light in that place.  We are so excited for all that God is going to do in AND through her there.  Please pray with us that she will walk closely with her Savior and that God would use her mightily in that place.  

Pray that she would leave some footprints for HIM in the Himalayas!

Vacay time!

Our family enjoyed some vacation time a couple weeks ago.  After our couple of days visiting Jen's siblings, we put the kids on a plane to an island in Indonesia (aren't there days you wished you could do the same with your kids? :) ).  Seriously though, the kids got to fly to Indonesia by themselves to attend a summer camp.  Camp Miki is one of the highlights of the year for our kids as it is a camp comprised of other kids in our same line of work and is staffed by our colleagues from around SE Asia.  Because many of the kids & adults live and work in secure locations, we can't post a lot of the pics from their time there; but here are just a few...

 The camp is held at the foot of this volcano.

 The kids have made some life-long friends (really more like family!), and the "hellos" are always so heart-warming.

They enjoy playing lots of fun games....

 ...acting like crazy people...

 ...going on hikes and camp-outs under the stars...

...studying and memorizing the Word together...

(each year is a Spiritual milestone time for the kids!)

...playing hard enough to get injured... 

(Ok, so maybe they don't enjoy that part, but they sure do it every year! As Steve says though, if nobody gets hurt, you probably weren't playing very hard.  This year they mostly had skinned knees and elbows, but Zach also got butterfly stitches to add another scar to his already-full-of-scars eyebrow.)

 We are all so very thankful for Camp Miki!

 ****

And while the cats were away...

Steve and I flew to a different island in Indonesia (where we had meetings the following week; the kids joined us there after camp).  We spent the week just the two of us!  Another couple (whose kids were also at camp) joined us, and we had a wonderful time relaxing and encouraging one another.

 They upgraded our room to a swim-up room!

 And gave us this delicious cake. :)

 We enjoyed several activities around the island, including watching the "water blow" again...

 ...exploring "Monkey Forest"...

 ...and trying out a flow rider.

 We had such a wonderful time!

The next week, the kids flew to the island where we vacationed, and we all attended a week's worth of meetings with our company.  It was a refreshing time, and we came home ready to jump right back in to work - which is good because we hit the ground running!

Appreciate your prayers in the weeks ahead as we have 2 volunteer teams coming, the boys have 2 weeks of another camp, and Mikayla heads to the Himalayas.  Things are crazy, but God is at work, and we are so thankful to be in the middle of all that HE is doing!

Ready, Set, Go!

At a recent conference that Steve attended in the mountains, he had to drive through this river.  The water came half-way up the doors, and it made for a difficult crossing.  It was only on the way back that he was told that the road actually goes under the walking bridge.  So if you drive straight from the one road to where the road comes out on the other side, it gets deep. If you stay to the right, under the bridge, that's where the road actually goes so it is much more shallow - just can't tell this from looking at it.  This is an example of why it is important to plug in to local leadership; the people who are from that place know what's really going on - even under the surface! We outsiders will come in with a plan...and just try to drive straight from one road to the other, totally unaware that it would be a lot easier (safer) to drive a different route.  They see things we don't because they know the people and place in ways we don't.  We need to listen.

 With that in mind, one of our tribal partners who is from the churches up there has been working to train the next batch of people whom the Bugkalot churches will send out to reach other tribal people (like the Agta in Bicol).  So Steve spent time training Felipe, and now Felipe has been doing a wonderful job of working tirelessly with this next group of people (several single men, one couple, possibly a family), training them for the job ahead. 

Steve happened to be present for the "final exam" for this young man. Mel just finished the pre-req training, and his final exam was to be able to story through the Bible in his heart language - covering almost 20 stories from Creation to Christ.  We are excited to see what God will do through him and the others who are getting ready to GO!

Family Time

We are so blessed to have my (Jen's) siblings living in SE Asia!  We had meetings in Indonesia the last couple weeks, so we stopped through to see them on our way there.

 Cousin time!

 While we were there, Steve celebrated his birthday.  He's not big on cake, but these lamb satay were right up his alley. :)

 We got to spend his bday in a historic city a couple hours from where they live.  We had a blast walking through the old streets together.

 

 It is a port city, so we climbed to a lookout point to enjoy the amazing view of the harbor.

 

 We also enjoyed some activities like these funny bikes.

 And of course a trip to the park to swing.

 There was lots of goofing around and laughing - a good day!

 We walked a loooong ways in the course of the day, so some of the smaller ones caught a few rides...

 ...but most of us had to walk the whole way - which led to some pretty tired people.  We stopped for an afternoon coffee, and several of the group sacked out while we waited for our order.

 We had a wonderful time re-connecting with our family!

 At the end of our time there, 6 other youth flew in to join us for a night.  They were attending the summer camp with our kids in Indonesia, so they stayed overnight with us on the way. We made for quite the sight as we maneuvered through the mall - all of these plus 1 more kid and 6 adults!

 After our time with my siblings, we headed on to Indonesia for the kids' summer camp and our meetings. (I will do a post about that time soon.)  

Then after our meetings, we headed home by way of Singapore.  The kids enjoyed seeing the Marina Bay Sands and giant ferris wheel.

 What made it even more special though was that we got to meet my dad there!

 Our main reason for going through Singapore on the way home was to see our friends and ministry partners at a church there.  It was great to catch up with everyone and give them an update about all that God is doing amongst tribal people in the Philippines.

 

 The next day, our flight wasn't until the evening, so we spent the day on Sentosa Island with my dad.

 We got to enjoy several activities, including jumping off this 5 story "parajump" (that's Zach up there!) and racing the luge carts down a hill.

 After riding the luge, we took the ski lift back up to the top and enjoyed a view of Singapore's harbor.

If you look between Steve & me, you can see my dad and Zach in the chair behind us.

Everyone's favorite activity was the aquarium. 

 We spent several hours amazed by the underwater world.

We spent quite a bit of time at the predator tank.  Such a weird feeling to watch a shark swimming right at you!

 God's creation is amazing!

 Then we were off to the airport.  By this point, my dad's fit bit already showed us as having taken more than 20,000 steps for the day so we were pretty wiped out.  Zach fell asleep sitting on his bag.  When my dad (AKA backstop) moved, Zach actually rolled away when the bus slowed down.  Made for a funny video. :)

 We had such a sweet time with my dad in Singapore, and it was great to connect with our ministry partners there.

We are so thankful for the opportunities that God provides for us to spend time with family on this side of the world.  We definitely cherish every moment!