Vision Trip

In June, we were privileged to host a young couple (my dad came with them). They feel called to serve overseas, and they are seeking where God will lead them. They were here for about 2 weeks. We first went up to visit the Bugkalot mountains and the coffee plantation.

Then we headed down to Bicol to meet up with Steve. We spent a couple days in Agta villages, and God used their testimonies in a mighty way. Then we spent a couple of days on the new land where we are building the Tribal Bible College. 

This young man was attacked by a wild monkey, and the bites severed a tendon in his foot. The doctor is saying it will be a year before he can walk on it again. Pls join us in praying for healing!

We were so blessed by our time with this couple, and we unreservedly offered them a spot to come join the team full-time, if God should lead them this way. We can see where God could use them in a mighty way here, and it was amazing to see how well they connected with our tribal partners. Please pray with us for them as they seek God's will in this...we of course want them to go where He is calling them, but selfishly, we are praying it's here because we desperately need help.

 

On the other side of the pond

I can't believe all 3 of our "kids" are now on the other side of the world from us. While it is so hard to be so far away, we are so proud of them, and we are thankful they were able to get together right when Ben first arrived, then again over the July 4th weekend at my parents' house in Missouri.

Mikayla & Zach are working together at the camp where Mikayla has been on staff for a couple years now. It is a ministry that serves a variety of kids, but their focus in kids who are in residential care because they don't qualify for foster care due to discipline/anger/etc issues. The camp uses adventure therapy to help the kids work through these issues so they can hopefully be placed in foster care. One week during the summer they also get to work with another group of special kids - ones on the autism spectrum. It's a great ministry, and we're so thankful that they are able to serve there together this summer!

Ben is doing great this summer. He's living with my parents, and he is working for a landscaping company. He is enjoying the work (thought he is definitely wiped out at the end of the days!), and he is also enjoying his new (to him) truck that was a gift from a pastor who has been following our updates since we met him when Ben was 3 years old! Ben got his license as soon as he got back to the States, and he is doing well this summer.

Something that really blessed my momma heart was a text I got from a close friend in the States. She also has a graduate, and since I can't be there to help Ben get set up for college, she wanted to take him when she took her daughter to buy stuff for dorm rooms. Such an incredible blessing to have friends and partners in States who stand behind us in such tangible ways!

Our Graduate

 The 1st week of June, we put our baby on a plane back to the States, and we officially became empty nesters. Wow, what a journey. 

While we grieve the many opportunities that Ben missed out on by having 2 years of his high school career be online and under lockdown, we are so thankful for the things he was able to do in the last couple months of his senior year as things opened up a little here in the Philippines. He was able to play some intramural volleyball, practice & compete on a men's rugby team in town (they even won the tournament, & he got MVP!), have a senior banquet/prom, celebrate the first in-person graduation ceremony at his school since 2019, take a beach trip with his friends, and visit an orphanage on another island.

We were so proud of how Ben handled the many challenges of a covid lockdown highschool experience (the Philippines was the very last country in the world to prevent in-person classes, and even when they went back to school, only a tiny percentage of students here were actually allowed to be in-person!). It was a long, lonely time, but he showed incredible strength, and God worked in him in mighty ways through this difficult time. 

While we know Ben is a pretty awesome guy, academics are not his strength, so we weren't expecting him to win any big awards at graduation. However, we were so surprised when he won the top award (we had never known it to go someone who wasn't top tier academics). It's the "Senior Boy" award given to the top senior guy who most fully embodies the kind of student that Faith Academy wants to produce. We were so crazy proud of Ben when they called his name!

God has big plans for this guy, and, while we miss him like crazy, we can't wait to see what God is going to do through him in the years to come.

Broke Ground!

Last month, my dad was finally able to come again after borders being closed for 2 years. We went down to the new Bible College land. We hiked the perimeter (quite a trek!) to get a good feel of the whole area and discuss possibilities. Ultimately, we decided to go with the initial plan we had developed for where to put the various aspects of the project (Bible college, livelihood/church planting training, etc).

While my dad was still here, we gathered a BIG group - about 90 people! - to discuss the plans and establish some groundwork for the project. This group included our Bugkalot tribal partners, the Mangyan tribal Bible teachers, as well as Agta tribal leaders from the Bicol Tribal Church Association. We spent time walking the area where the Tribal Bible College will be, figuring out the location for the classroom building, teacher & student houses, and the cooking/dining area. 

In the pic below, I'm standing where some of the teacher cabins will be as well as the girls' cabins. The group is standing where the classroom building will go, and then the kitchen area is just below it, with more teachers and the guys' cabins below that.

After walking the area, we spent time discussing how the construction plan will work (trying to share the work opportunities between as many Agta villages as we can) and who would be in charge of what.

And of course, we ate lunch together!

This is Steve talking with our Mangyan tribal partner, Isaias, who will be the president of the Tribal Bible College. 

This house is one of the newly-finished cabins for some of our Bugkalot tribal partners who moved to the edge of the land to begin outreaches to nearby Agta villages. This house will be the same kind of cabins that we build for the Bible college teachers and students.

Another exciting thing that happened this week was two land development experts from one of our organization's ministries on another island came to help us think through the other aspect of the use for the land - the livelihood skills and church planting training. We worked with them to scout out where we could build for that training campus, and we talked through the various aspects of what that program could look like.

All in all, a VERY profitable week for sure!

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Then last week, Steve went back down to Bicol, and a couple of days ago, we BROKE GROUND for the Tribal Bible College! More pics and stories to come in the next posts, but just wanted to let you know so that you can rejoice with us and praise God for all He has done and is doing!

Our Graduate

It's hard to believe that our bunso ("youngest" in Tagalog) is graduating. We're about to be empty nesters...and, no, I don't want to talk about it. :)

Ben has been through so many disappointments in his final 2 years of high school with the incessant pandemic lockdowns (he had TWO FULL YEARS of no in-person classes, sports or other activities!), but we are so proud of how he has handled everything, and we know that God has big plans for this guy.

CONGRATULATIONS, Ben! We love you more than you know.

Annual Believers' Conference

We were blessed to be able to join the Bugkalot Tribal Church for their annual conference. There were more than 1000 adults in attendance!

Steve was one of the speakers so had to go for meetings before and after, but my dad was visiting and wanted to go for a day, so I drove him up there, and we had a great time visiting with everyone. It was good to see my  dad catch up with old friends; it had been a long time since he saw them.

My dad was asked to say a few words before we left to head back to Manila so he could catch his flight.

Ok, you can probably see this pic better if you click on it, but it's pretty cool. Those banners each have the name of one of the Bugkalot churches on it; the different colors are for the 3 different "chapters" (associations) of churches. When we first started mobilizing the Bugkalot to send out some of their very own to partner with us to reach the Agta, there were 16 churches. Now there are 32, plus additional outreaches on their way to becoming churches. It has been amazing how God has worked in their hearts; as they've caught a vision for how He wants to use them to reach the Agta, He has also reignited their passion to reach those who live closer to their boundaries. 

Here's a video of the banners. To GOD be the glory!

Beach Memories

Last month, we took a quick trip to the beach for one final visit at our favorite family vacation spot before Ben graduates. 

Lying in a hammock on this beach, reading & watching Ben and his friends play spikeball, is one of my favorite things to do.

It was a great couple of days, and it was so good to see Ben having fun with friends, while also making some final family beach memories.

And of course, the sunsets were as amazing as always! I love this infinity pool.

Thank you, Lord, for this blessing!