Just a Glimpse

I know that there are many of you who would love to come for a visit but just can't swing it - for whatever reason. With you in mind, I tried to capture some of the every-day sights around the village where we are living right now.

My best friend up there gave birth to baby #5 while we were there this time, and we all welcomed him with open arms. Yes, it is a he - don't let the pink blanket throw you. :)

Only 24 hrs before she gave birth, her brother's baby passed away.

He was only 3 months old and died of pneumonia. My friend was not able to attend the wake because she had just given birth, so they brought the coffin by her house on the way to the burial site. Our hearts broke for this close-knit family as they welcomed one baby and buried another within hours of each other.
They asked me to take pictures at the funeral. An incredibly difficult task. I felt like I was intruding on their private pain, but they insisted they wanted the pictures. This was the final glimpse of the tiny coffin before they cemented it in.
In the midst of the emotional angst, life continued around the village. Most of the rest of these pics were taken from our porch - just a glimpse of the many sights we see everyday.
There is a broken-down jeepney in the center of the village that has become the local playground. Who need a jungle gym when you have this to climb all over?

Another jeepney comes through twice a day - once in the morning going down into the lowlands (about 3 hrs away), and once in the evening when it returns. Now, you would have to see the treacherous mountain roads that this jeepney will have to traverse to understand how wild this journey will be for them. Sadly, more than one vehicle has plunged into the ravine in the past several years. So we will NOT send you on this jeepney if you come to visit us - even if there is "always room for one more".

I LOVE how involved the dads and grandpas are in the care of the little ones.

No washing machines here, folks. Clothes are washed by hand in a tub then hung to dry. My shoulders ache and fingers tingle at the less-than-fond memory. It may look so idyllic, but it is plain old hard work, trust me.

The people up there don't have much money, but their true wealth is their children.

I love all the animals that come wandering through the village.

Except the dogs - don't love them much since they viciously attack anyone they don't know (us); and our kitchen/cooking area is outside so they love climbing up on the counters and leaving muddy paw prints all over everything. NOT a huge fan of the village dogs.

The baby chicks are cute though.

I have always loved people-watching, and the village is a the perfect place to watch beautiful people living out the paradox of a simple, yet hard, life.

Our porch overlooks the path to where many of their gardens are so we watch them head out to their fields everyday. This old man has one of the traditional deer-hide backpacks.

The ladies all carry these baskets. When she comes back later, it will be full and overflowing. Steve has stopped to give them rides back from the garden when he passes by on the way home, and he is shocked by how much weight these little old ladies haul around - often more than a 100 lbs!

Then there are the little baskets for the little ladies.

This is the wife of the recently-deceased village elder. He was the father of the church here in this village, and his 7 sons are now all in leadership. Unfortunately, her mind is no longer clear, so all I ever get is scowls in exchange for my smiles and waves. But she is a dear woman of God who raised a Godly family.

Life revolves around rice.

Planting rice, harvesting rice, pounding rice, winnowing rice, cooking rice....

Every afternoon, you can hear the sound of rice being pounded by hand to remove the husks.

This is what it looks like before the husks have been pounded off.

They will often pound in pairs - or even 3 at a time. The bowl is quite small, so you have to get your timing just right.

After it has been pounded, you put the kernels and the husks all into a flat basket to be winnowed. You then throw the rice up into the air, the wind blows the chaff out, then you catch the rice again. It is harder than it looks.

Mikayla actually spent quite a bit of time learning how to pound and winnow rice this past time. Our friends have a little guard around the bowl of their pounding bowl, so that helps.

She even got the hang of winnowing the rice...

...and only fed the chickens a couple of times.

Thank you for your continued prayers. To be honest, we are tired. It is all going amazingly well, but we are being stretched for sure. God is truly at work in hearts here. Currently there are 8 families/singles who are seriously praying about moving to Bicol to join us in reaching the Agta. Please pray for these men and women as God works in their hearts, that they would be sensitive to His leading and faithful to follow Him, regardless of the cost. We have also uncovered some serious spiritual warfare going on, and we covet your prayers for wisdom in how to deal with it in a Biblical way - and to help the believers to do the same. We covet your prayers as we press on here!

We are only down in the city for a couple days - Steve had a 2-day seminar to teach down in Bicol. So we drove down to Manila late Thurs after he taught up in the village, then he caught the 6am flight Fri down to Bicol. He will fly back to Manila late on Sat, then we will drive back up into the mountains on Sunday. Pls pray for renewed strength, and rejoice with us in all that God is doing.

Village Kids

Ok, so this post is more about our kids in the village than the village kids, but hopefully you will forgive me if the title mislead you. :)

Our first 2-week stint up in the mountains went pretty well. It is wonderful to see how God is at work in hearts up there, and we can't wait to see what He will do in the weeks ahead. We have managed to keep up with the rigorous schedule (pls keep praying for Steve as he is teaching just about every day of the week - tiring enough in your own language, more so in a 2nd language). Health-wise we did ok at first, but for the last week, we all fought with a vicious stomach bug and lost. We seem to be recovering now and appreciate all your prayers. We head north into the mountains the day after tomoro - yikes! - after catching up on email and attending a couple important meetings here in Manila.

All the pics I got this time around were of our kids and the beautiful scenery up there. Next time I will try to get some pics of the meetings and interactions with the people.

For Christmas this year, we gave the kids each a large rubber inner tube to ride the rapids. As you can see, they were a big hit.

This piece of grass growing in the rocks next to me caught my eye. The beauty of life.

Ben hauling water

Steve ended up with 1 day off in the 2 weeks we were up there, and we took the opportunity to get away from the village for a family picnic.

The beauty of God's creation took our breath away.

Since we are always surrounded by people in the village, it was great to be "just us" for a couple hours.

See the kids on the rock off to the right? This has got to be the best place for a family picnic EVER.

The kids built the fire for us, and Zach used his new knife to sharpen up some hotdog sticks.

Thank you, God, for some wonderful family memories surrounded by your handiwork.

Ready or not...

Tomorrow we leave for the mountains up north again - this time for 2 months. Can I be super honest with you? I really don't want to go. Sure, I am excited by all that God is doing up there, and I know without a shadow of a doubt that there is where God wants us for these next couple months. I know that this is incredibly shallow - but I am going to miss our creature comforts. I am going to miss our comfortable bed, our washing machine, hot showers, our privacy, running water, regular electricity, internet (FB & email), our sanitized, screen-inned house, bookshelves and desks for the kids' school, pre-filtered water, nearby grocery store & restaurants... The list could go on and on. I know that I am being silly - what do those things matter in the grand scheme of things? And I know that we are still going to have a cushy life compared to how millions in the world live everyday. Suffering for the cause? NOTHING compared to what other believers go through on a daily basis to share their faith. But even still, I would appreciate your prayers for us as we go. It will be a LONG 20+ hr trip up there, and our schedule there will be grueling. Pls pray for endurance and good health, that God would work mightily in hearts as Steve teaches 6+ days a week, and that God would work in MY heart as well so that I would be content and just enjoy the adventure that He is leading us on.

A Decade of Christmas Joy

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007 2008
2009

2010

Merry Christmas from the Hagens!

Dreaming of a Sandy Christmas

While many of you were battling sub-zero temps last week by adding several layers, we were also adding layers - of sunscreen that is! You know how easy it is to get sunburned on a tropical beach after all. Sorry, I know that was mean, but there are definitely some advantages to living in the tropics. Jealous? Then come visit! :)

Last week we got to get away for a couple days of sun and fun at a local beach. Nothing fancy, but we had some precious family time and made some great memories. My dad was in the country on business, and we were thrilled when he was able to come join us for part of the time. Actually, my brother and sis-in-law came for a visit from their country, and we had a blast hanging with them too. But since they live in a secure place, I can't share any of the pics with them.

Here the kids are digging a very deep hole with Papa.

And daddy is getting ready for another adventure in the background.

Ok, so our family is a little nuts. Steve had the crazy idea to let the kids wakeboard in the ocean by pulling them behind the car along the beach.

Ben is ready to ride

It was a group effort to get up and going.

Zach went to town with it, jumping the waves like a pro.

There was an international kiteboarding competition held while we were there so it was fun to watch some great riding - and big wipeouts too.

The waves were perfect for kids - big enough to be fun but not so big as to be dangerous.

Papa got an upper-body workout throwing kids into the waves again and again and again...

Ben had a blast playing this game with Papa. Papa would try to write #s 1-10 in the sand, but Ben kept "erasing" it with the waves. So then Ben would assure Papa that he wouldn't erase it this time...but Papa always dawdled long enough for a wave to come in and erase it again. Glad my dad is patient cuz Ben kept wanting to play again and again and again... :)

Boogie Down!

We also rented a surf board, and we all had fun testing our balance.

A little family fun on the beach was precisely what we needed after the craziness that has been this past year.

SO very thankful for the chance to be refreshed in this beautiful corner of creation.

At War

The kids have been memorizing the verses in Ephesians about spiritual warfare and the armor of God, and it has prompted some great family discussions, especially because of some cool things that God is doing in the hearts of some of our Agta friends lately.

In the village where Jose (one of our leaders) has planted a church, they recently did a study on spiritual warfare. After the lesson, one lady approached Jose with a request for guidance. She told him that she was a medicine woman, but that she has no knowledge for how to heal people. She said that when people come to her for healing, an evil spirit possesses her, and it is the spirit who heals the people. She said that she has chosen to follow Jesus now, so she doesn't want this spirit to come to her anymore. She asked Jose how she could keep the spirit away now. This is a huge deal, because this healing power provided income and status for her family. It was so encouraging to hear her step forward in faith and turn her back on the old way and ask for help in knowing how to follow Christ alone.

In another village, Christopher (another of our leaders) has been sharing with his cousins. Christopher said that one of the young men had understood and believed a while ago, but that he recently got sick (stomach ulcer?). They prayed for healing, but the sickness continued, so he went to a spiritual healer. The sickness went away, but now he is having trouble sleeping and "his thinking is always confused, like it is far away". Steve and Christopher went to visit him, and they had a great conversation about where that healing came from (evil spirit) and why his thinking is now in such turmoil (can't serve two masters!). The young man began to cry when he realized what he had done, and asked, "Now that I have sinned, all is lost. What will I do?" He figured it was all over at this point. So Steve shared with him the story of the Prodigal Son and how God is yearning for him to come back to Him. He removed the little charm the shaman had used, crumpled it up, and threw it away. Wow, what a moment.

After talking about how we are at war and telling the kids these stories, Steve asked the kids if the spirits that are healing people are good spirits or evil spirits. They all agreed that they are evil spirits. So Steve asked why evil spirits would do good things like heal people of sickness. Zach answered, "Because if they only ever did bad stuff, then people wouldn't follow them. If they sometimes do good stuff, then people will think they are good and want to be on their side. They do it to trick them." So cool to see our kids begin to understand this spiritual war in which we are ALL engaged - whether or not we realize it.

Back in Bicol

Well, we arrived home in Bicol and hit the ground running - SO much to catch up on. We have been busy re-connecting with the Agta believers and catching up on their lives and ministries while we have been gone. We spent a day visiting all the villages as a family this week, and our new team member, Megan, took these pics. As you can tell, Ben is as crazy as ever. Our hearts go out to the church in Ipil as they are in the midst of a very difficult time. We have had a ton of rain down here, and so their village is flooded. In addition, the flooding stirred up a sulfur deposit from the nearby volcano which poisoned all the fish in the lake. They are all dependent on these fish for both their food and livelihood so this has been devastating for them.

See that arch in the background? The boy is sitting on the boat over the sidewalk that winds its way all the way to that arch which is normally about 4 ft above the water level - so i think the water is up about 7 ft? And this is after it has come down some.

The ones who live the closest to the water have had to move out until the water recedes - but it has been up for weeks already.
Since his house and "yard" are now under water, I guess the boat is now the logical place to play.

Please pray with us for the people in the village of Ipil as they try to put their lives back together. We are planning a Christmas party and church planting training in this village the end of December and are praying that it will be an encouragement to them.