Back to School

After a whirlwind summer of constant travel (only home a few days all summer!!), we started school back up the beginning of August.

Mikayla is on the student council this year, so she has lots of leadership responsibilities with that.

 She is also keeping busy with college applications, including skype interviews like this one. It can be tricky to arrange the time for an interview when it is a 13 hour time difference! She has been doing great on all her applications though, and she has currently been accepted at 2 different schools (and offered their top academic scholarships besides!).

It's not ALL work and no play though; spirit week costumes are always fun.

Ben was a jester for one of their theme days....

...and he and a friend made a bobsled and went as Jamaican bobsledders on another day!

 Mikayla is also one of the captains of her soccer team this year, and she enjoys leading the team in devotions before games.

One of the things that we have been blessed by this year is watching the friendship between Mikayla and Zach develop. In their younger years, they got along fine, but not much of a real friendship. But this year, they have started really connecting and appreciating one another. Here they are totally wiped out after soccer games. They are both playing center midfield this year for their teams, and they have both played every minute of every game so they are pretty tired afterwards!

 Because of a uniform error, they ended up with the same number for one weekend.

So blessed by this young man and young lady!

Volunteers: Down South

Next stop: Bicol to visit our Bugkalot partners who are church planting amongst the Agta tribe. The plan was for the team to share testimonies as they went from place to place to open doors for our partners to follow up by teaching the Word in that place.

We started out with a training on prayer walking at the training center. That was the primary tool that we used as we went from village to village and shared what God has done in our lives.

We traveled by lots of different modes of transportation to get to the various villages. Boats, tricycles, jeepneys, motorcycles...and LOTS of hiking!

Since there were so many of us, it was more strategic to divide into smaller groups to cover more ground (and be a little less overwhelming to one place!). Our kids were divided up on the teams as well, and they were a huge help in each group. Each team also had several of our Bugkalot partners with them.

Mikayla actually served as one of the primary translators for her team! So proud of how hard she has worked to get her Tagalog to the point where she could be an asset like this!

 

 At the end of our time, we enjoyed sweet fellowship, worship and debrief with our Bugkalot partners. They are the ones who will continue the work, and follow up on the doors that were opened through this time serving together.

 So thankful for this great group of men and women who came so far to serve Him. 

Volunteers: Up North

The end of July brought a team of volunteers to partner with us in the work. They came from two different churches that partner with us, one in Camdenton, Missouri and the other in Wichita, Kansas.

 So thankful for people who are willing to make so many sacrifices to come and work together for HIS glory!

 Early the next morning after they landed, we drove up north to visit the Bugkalot tribe. 

 One of the highlights of this team was than my (Jen's) dad was a part of it! We enjoyed getting to hang out for almost 2 weeks and serve together...and get some extra hugs!

 We always start with orientation time with our volunteer teams, just to make sure that our purpose is clear and that we are all on the same page as to how we are going to work together. This time we got to enjoy some beautiful scenery while we had orientation...until it started to rain, and we had to move to take shelter under the bridge. :)

 Our trip up north was a whirlwind quick one, just to give them a glimpse of the culture of the Bugkalot people, who are now sending out some of their very own to reach the Agta tribe in Bicol (where we would go next). We spent time telling them some stories about where the Bugkalot have come from, and it was a precious time remembering all that God has done in those mountains.

 The Bugkalot also put on a cultural presentation for the team.

 And they had a little language study session to get an idea of what it is like to learn another language.

 While we hadn't initially planned to have teenagers on this team, several dads who were coming wanted to bring their teens. It ended up being a GREAT group of young people, and God used them in a mighty way!

Thankful for this team, and excited to move on to the next leg of our journey...down to Bicol!

Camp Life

After the reunion, we traveled to Thailand to be a part of a summer camp for expats like us. Steve & I were actually in charge of the recreation time for all 200 people, so it was quite the undertaking! We played lots of fun games on the beach, and the kids seem to have a lot of fun.

 Zach has definitely learned to carry his own weight on a team...and then some! :)

Even Ben was carrying friends through the obstacle course.

 It wasn't all just fun and games though; we also gathered to study the Word and seek Him together.

 Our favorite sign on the property...

 While I was in charge of developing the plan (Indiana Jones theme), I was SO thankful for Steve being there to help implement it. He did an amazing job of creating obstacle courses and activities with whatever we could find lying around. 

 Giving the group the battle plan for the day.

 Such a gorgeous place to play!

If you were successful in catching the sock-filled-with-flour, you scored points for your team...and got a face full of flour as it went through the colander!

 While he's had a lot of experience at international futbol, Zach enjoyed trying his hand at American football on the beach. 

What a week!

Family Reunion!

We are so blessed to have my (Jen's) siblings serving in SE Asia. This means that we have the privilege of seeing them a little more often than our family in the States. Since Mikayla will be graduating this year, she asked if we could do one more family reunion while she's still living at home. So my parents flew over and joined us for a wonderful time of reconnecting as a family at a great little beach resort.

 Look at the size of that jellyfish! They were everywhere, so we weren't able to do much (any) swimming in the ocean, but they were sure cool to look at!

 One day we headed to another area to enjoy His amazing creation.

 There were monkeys everywhere. Some of them were pretty aggressive so you had to watch your stuff. :)

 The boys helped some local fishermen and were rewarded with some fish. They were great grilled with the hot dogs.

 Everyone enjoyed playing in the pool!

 Was so fun to see all 7 cousins hanging out again.

 At the end of our time, we spent a couple days in KL. The Petronas Towers are so beautiful, especially at night.

Cousin pyramid :)

 

So very thankful for this time together, and was so good for our hearts to see my parents with all their grandkids in one place.

Thank you, Father, for blessing us with this time together!