Another Adventure

After we flew up from Bicol with the volunteer team (scroll down to see next post), we picked up a couple more volunteers and started driving north for our next adventure.  This time, our team consisted of 5 Hagens, 4 volunteers from Missouri, 2 of Mikayla's friends from school, and 1 Filipina volunteer from our partner church in Singapore (our ministry partner, Joseph, also joined us for the first couple days).

It was a great group, and we are so excited by all that God did during our time in the mountains!

For the first couple of days, we stayed in our tribal-style house in the mountains.  We traveled from village to village, doing archery presentations and sharing in churches so we ate what the people prepared for us and (for the last part of the trip) slept in whichever home was brave enough to host 13 foreigners. :)

We had two presentations that we did in each village - an evangelistic presentation that comprised of an archery demonstration (drew a big crowd!) with testimonies as well as a presentation geared to encourage believers and vision cast for the use of small groups for discipleship church.

(Click on any picture to see a bigger copy.)

 

 Since Mikayla just got back from her trip to the Himalayas (see post HERE), she also got to share with the churches about her trip.  It was so cool to listen to her share her heart and encourage the believers!

Mikayla also got to help with the archery demonstration!  The idea was to encourage others that they could try the bow and arrow as well.  I mean, if a teenage girl can do it, then surely these tribal guys can do it, right?  Some of the guys were actually quite good, but it ends up that Mikayla is a pretty decent shot herself, so it was fun when she actually showed them up. :)

We saw some breath-taking scenery and some even more beautiful people.

 And the people in one village blessed us with a Bugkalot cultural dance presentation!

One afternoon, we bathed in the river, and several of the group took the challenge to jump off the rock.  Unfortunately, one of the volunteers held his glasses in his hand, and the lens popped out and got lost!  God was SO gracious to us though because the next day, as we traveled through a TINY town, we were able to find an optometrist who figured out his prescription AND was able to cut him a new lens in about an hour!!  Absolutely amazing since, even in the city (or the States!), glasses often take 1-2 wks!  Such a God thing!

It was a wonderful team, and we so enjoyed spending time together - not only serving together but also in prayer and studying His Word.

I was especially impressed with the "kids" on the team.  Before the trip, someone very graciously offered to keep our kids for us so that we could focus on working with the team.  While I appreciated their thoughtfulness, I told them that our kids are key members of the team, and I NEED them on these trips.  Mikayla's friends from school, Drew & Karis, jumped right in too, and they all worked their tails off carrying gear, loading the topload, setting up and breaking down the archery demo equipment, sharing testimonies with and playing games with village kids and even sharing testimonies with adults!

 Someone asked me recently if I think it works to have teenagers on adult volunteer teams.  It definitely depends on the teenager, but I would take any of these back in a heartbeat!  They were a HUGE help! 

We traveled more than 1,000 km (650mi) on this trip, and keep in mind that the roads here are just a little bit different than in the USA - take a LOT longer to travel the same distances!  While we spent MANY hours (40ish) packed into these two vehicles, we used other modes of transport too...

We rode on a raft to get to one village...

 ...and hitched a ride on a massive truck!

We also did some old-school hiking.

However, most of the traveling was done in our faithful 4x4s.  So very thankful for these great vehicles!

 Some of the mountain roads were very sketchy - really more of a trail than a road - and they required some crazy intense 4-wheeling to get where we needed to go. While we were in the one village, it started to rain, so we weren't sure how we would be able to get back out on the wet roads.  We got to one part where there was no way we couldn't do it without 4-wheel drive.  Well, the one vehicle's 4x4 was working great (the one I - Jen - was driving), but the other vehicle's 4-wheel drive would not engage.  There was no way we were going to make it out without it, so we just gathered and prayed, and the 4-wheel drive engaged for the first time in 6 months!  We put some weight on the back and drove right out!  God showed Himself faithful so many times on this trip, and this was a shining example. 

On our last afternoon up there, we ended up with a couple extra hours, so we took the opportunity to explore a cave that the people there have been encouraging us to check out for a long time.  It was phenomenal! The first picture shows the entrance from the outside, then the second one shows the hole (once you got inside) that you had to crawl down into.  Once you got down there, the cave was huge!  The people said that you could explore all day in there and not see all the tunnels.  After a while, you started wading through water.  Soon it started getting deeper and deeper until the only way to continue was to swim through the water.  It was the craziest feeling to swim through an underwater river like that!

 We had an amazing adventure with some wonderful friends!

And, best of all, we had the privilege of having front-row seats to see all that God is doing up in those mountains!

So very thankful...

Volunteers

In the overseas ministry world, there is an on-going discussion about the role of short-term volunteers in the Task that God to His church.  I'm not going to get into the ins and outs of that multi-faceted, complex discussion , but one of the points that is often debated is the purpose of short-term trips.  Some people say that it doesn't really matter that much what exactly the volunteers accomplish while there are on-site; the main purpose of these short-term trips is for the volunteers to see what God is doing in that place and be encouraged in their spiritual journey to go deeper and get more involved in what God is doing at home and around the world.  Other people focus not on what God does IN the volunteers as a result of the trip; they focus on what God can do THROUGH the volunteers.  As a result, some do not want to give valuable ministry time to coordinating volunteer teams because they see it as a distraction from more effective ministry; after all, the volunteers don't speak the language or understand the culture, so they can't be as strategic as long-term personnel.  I could speak at length about our thoughts on this topic, but the bottom line is that we see both sides.  We agree that God works mightily IN volunteers when they take a short-term trip, but we also think that he can work mightily THROUGH volunteers -- provided that there is careful thought that goes in to how they can fit into the on-site strategy.  As a result, we are very picky about volunteer teams with whom we partner; they have to be willing to ask the question, "How can we fit in?"  and they need to have the attitude, "We are willing to do whatever you need, whatever is strategic for the ministry." Once we determine a strategic role for a volunteer team (what God can do THROUGH them), then we put them to work with the assumption that God will work IN them at the same time as He is working THROUGH them.  Consequently, we work our volunteer teams hard; we have specific objectives for them to accomplish!  Coordinating teams DOES take a lot of valuable time, and we want that time investment to pay big dividends not only in what God accomplishes IN their hearts but also THROUGH them in that place.

All that to say, our volunteer teams work hard!  We had 2 teams this summer, and the first one was with us for 11 days. 8 of those days were ministry days (plus a fair amount of travel); 3 of those days were solid travel of 10+ hours each (not counting the days of travel to the Philippines and back).  In the course of those 8 ministry days, they did 15 evangelistic presentations and 11 presentations to encourage believers.  So that's 26 presentations in the course of 8 days!  By God's grace, He did work IN them during this time, but He accomplished a lot THROUGH them too.

This first team came from my parents' church in central Missouri.  As soon as they arrived, we traveled down to Bicol to visit the Agta tribe and our Bugkalot tribal partners.

We utilized a variety of public transportation options to get from place to place, including van, jeepney, bus, trike, motor scooter and boat.

We also did a lot of hiking, which caused quite the scare with one of the members of the team (age 71) as the hiking and tropical heat ended up being too much, and we were literally afraid he might die on the trail in the middle of nowhere!  It was a scary time, but God carried him through.

God allowed us to see some wonderful people and share the Truth with them.

The team had a 3-time world champion archer, and it was such a great tool to draw a crowd since tribal people are very interested in archery.  As a result, we were able to share the Gospel with so many people!  

We did archery presentations in a variety of places:

In small villages...

...in open fields...

...on basketball courts...

...next to homes...

...and the banks of rivers.

Our Bugkalot partners traveled with us from place to place, and they were so excited by the impact that the team had in each place.  We were also able to spend some time with our partners at the training center, encouraging one another.

After a couple action-packed days in Bicol, we boarded the plane to fly back to Manila and then drove north up into Bugkalot territory. (Stories from that adventure will be in the next post).

It doesn't really fit into this post, but I just have to share this pic that one of the volunteers took of Mikayla in Bicol.  She often has a baby in her arms in the village. :) 

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!