First Lost Tooth!

Ok, I know this is not the most flattering pic of Zach, but it shows something he is VERY excited about - he lost his 1st tooth last night! :) It has been loose for a while, and he has been wiggling it around, and last night he just decided he was going to get it out - so he made it happen.

Isn't it tiny? (It is shown in HIS hand, not mine!)
Zach was pleased when the "Tooth Fairy" (don't worry, he knows it is really Mom and Dad) left him P50 under his pillow last night. That is about $1 US. So how do the Tooth Fairy Rates here in the Philippines compare with the rates in the States or elsewhere? (Just don't tell Zach if they are ridiculously low - unless YOU want to make up the difference! :) )

A Rough Ride

Here is that video I told you about (see next post) that I took on our boat ride back from the beach. Hope it comes through ok. It was absolutely wild! The cracking noises we kept hearing combined with the waves crashing into the boat were very good for our prayer lives! O - and did I mention that this ride should have been just over an hour, but it took nearly THREE HOURS because of the waves?!?! One of the wildest rides we have ever been on - and it seemed never-ending!

Here is another video - of Mikayla catching a wave on her boogie board. We really did have a great time there - being stranded there just meant 2 extra days of catching waves! :)

Stranded on a Deserted Island...

The storm became fierce overnight, the wind lashed the coconut trees, and the waves violently thrashed the beach. The pounding rain threatened to consume us. There was no escape; we were trapped on this remote tropical beach with no food or water. We considered escaping by land over treacherous mountain roads, but the way was blocked by dangerous rebel insurgents. Formidable waves prohibited escape by sea. We were stranded on a deserted island.

Ok, so maybe that is over-dramatizing it just a bit. :) The kids and I went with a friend and her family who were visiting from Australia to visit a remote beach resort. We had only planned to stay for 2 nights, but a typhoon off the coast delayed our return by 2 days. However, we quickly discovered that there are much worse places to be stranded than a nice beach resort, complete with air-conditioned cabins, hot water, and a nice restaurant! Money did prove to be a little bit of an issue since we had not brought enough to pay for the extra days' accommodations and food, but we managed by buying some ramen noodles, crackers, bread and jelly in town to get us by. All in all, we had a great time there, and we were very thankful for God's protection on our journey back over still moderately rough seas.

The boat ride to the beach was very peaceful though and absolutely gorgeous. This is my friend, Sheril, from Australia and her baby, Zeph. Her husband, Reuben, and Steve were not able to go with since they had other responsibilities during that time.

The views from the boat were spectacular.

Ben's smile was just as enchanting as the scenery - at least to this mom!

Check out this little white sand island. Amazing!

We arrived at the port and got off the boat for the 40 minute shuttle ride to the beach.

Here is the little cabin we stayed in - it was just Jen and the kids plus our good friend Sheril and her 2 little ones in this cabin. Her family from Australia (4 adults and 1 baby) stayed in another cabin.

The six kids had fun playing together and were great sports as we spent quite a bit of time TRYING to leave but not succeding - many early mornings and frantic packing sessions followed by long, hopeless waits at the pier.

Here is a shot from right outside our cabin - see the ocean in the distance? We had some nice little picnics on those steps. I had a great time with my 3 kiddos. They were great through it all, and we had fun just being together. The kids had a blast catching the waves - both body surfing and on a boogie board. The first day the waves were pretty small (more Ben-sized!), but then after the typhoon rolled in, they got bigger. Mikayla and Zach got quite proficient at catching them. They also had fun playing on the sand. You'd think that living on a narrow peninsula on the Pacific Ocean that we would get more chances to go to the beach, but it is actually quite rare and a nice treat.
Playing on the rocks.
The kids spent a lot of time hunting for crabs.
They even caught this whopper hermit crab. Though it didn't compete with the one that Steve and I found when we went to that beach in August (see the post called "Gota Beach" in August), it was still pretty impressive - and I was pretty impressed that Zach had the guts to carry it around!
Ben was so very proud of himself when he caught his very first crabs. They were just tiny ones, but he caught three of them, and he was beaming from ear to ear over his accomplishment. Unfortunately, with his hands busy with crab-catching, he wasn't able to keep his shorts pulled up... When we were FINALLY able to catch a boat for home after our 2 day delay, the ride was INCREDIBLY rough. I will try to post a video of it in another post. Thankfully, we arrived safely at the port, but then to our dismay discovered that the tide was out so they couldn't pull the boat all the way up to the pier. The solution? Men came out and carried people to the pier on their shoulders! Here is a pic of the kids being carried in.
However, the adults in our group were not keen on the idea of being carried on the shoulders of a small Filipino man (Filipinos are much smaller than westerners). And since we were already wet anyway from the waves splashing into the boat, we just dropped down into the water and walked in. However, we quickly discovered that the ground was thick mud, littered with broken bottles. I actually cut my foot on one, but it is not too bad. Here are some pictures of one of our party being lowered into the water then making her way through the mud. This was their first overseas experience, and they definitely plenty of experience bang for their buck!
We made it home safe and sound, just a little tired and water-logged. This week we are all fighting colds and coughs, but that is not that surprising considering what this past weekend held for us.

Thought you may enjoy these pics from around the house. Mikayla has been enjoying setting the table all fancy for our dinner as a family, complete with centerpieces that she creates. While she is busy with that, the boys are usually playing cars together. Since they don't have many playmates here, they really have become great friends and play exceptionally well together - at least MOST of the time anyway! :)
When we got home, our guest for the week had already arrived. He is also working here in the Philippines but with a different organization. He is actually working with a sister people group to ours further north on the island, and he wanted some training for how to more effectively reach them. He came down for a couple days, and he and Steve spent many hours discussing strategy and the Biblical principles that drive it. I got this picture the 1st day we were home, then I took the bottom one on their last day of meetings. Guess all that talking tired both of them out!

Well, that is the story of how we were stranded on a deserted island - kind of anyway. :) And some pics from "regular" life this past week. Several of you have asked for an update after the last post about the rabies exposure in one of our villages. Thankfully, no one has gotten sick yet. While that doesn't mean that they won't get sick (it can strike up to 2 years after the exposure), it is a good sign. Please continue to pray with us for God's mercy on these people. There is still a chance that the dog only had distemper instead of rabies (they could never test it since they ATE it!!!). Still can't believe it.

WHAT?!?!

***This post is not for the faint of heart...or stomach***

Ok, so Sunday after that amazing Bible Study (see my previous post), Steve called me to pass on the exciting news then he said he would be a few hours late since he was getting a late start heading to the 2nd Bible study. He ended up being even later than he thought, and when he arrived home, he had 2 people with him. Well, it turns out that there was a rabid dog (they are assuming it was rabid) in the village, and it bit 2 people - a man who attends our Bible Study and a little neighbor girl. With rabies, it takes 10 days to 2 years to begin to show symptoms of the disease after a bite, but by the time you begin to show symptoms, there is absolutely nothing medical science can do to save your life, it is 100% fatal in humans. You must have a series of shots BEFORE you start showing symptoms to prevent the disease and death.

The only problem is that the tribal people here rarely go to the doctor unless they are on their deathbed - they simply don't have the money to go otherwise. We checked into it and found a place in Naga (about 1 hr away) where they can get the shots for free (otherwise it would cost more than $500 for the course), and we offered to pay their transportation to go up there for the shots (7-10 times). We also explained how critical it is that they get the shots BEFORE they get sick. The problem is that it is not just the cost of the injections and travel that is preventative for them, it is the work/school that they will miss in order to go to Naga to get the shots. The little girl would likely miss so much school that she would have to repeat a year, and the man's family would not have money to buy food the days he couldn't work. So we encouraged them to catch the dog so that it can be tested for rabies (if it doesn't actually have rabies, then they can skip the rabies shots - we already got them tetanus shots).

Well, Steve got a text from him last night saying that the dog had bitten another person, and everyone in the village is sure it has rabies. Then he told us that they had killed the dog - which was bad news because it makes it difficult to find out if it had rabies or not. But it gets worse. He then told us that THEY HAD EATEN THE RABID DOG!!! WHAT?!?! We couldn't believe it and have no idea why they did this, but if that dog did have rabies, the chances are very high that everyone who ate it was exposed to the disease. I couldn't find any info on the dangers of eating a rabid animal (seems like a no-brainer to us so who is going to write about it?), but I did find that they say that the body should be buried at least 3 feet under the ground so that other animals are not infected by the body. Now, I don't know if cooking the body makes it no longer contagious...

To top it all off, nearly everyone up there is refusing the shots; they are simply not interested, despite our explanations, because they are obviously not sick. They "treated" the wound by rubbing it with the brain of the diseased dog. Thankfully the one man in our Bible Study is going to go through with the shots (no brain rubbing for him), and we will just pray that the dog was not actually rabid or that God somehow protects the rest of the people from getting the disease.

So, are you as shocked as we were by this whole thing?

Forgiven...

"Forgiven already...I am forgiven now...forgiven now..."

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Today was an exciting day in the village of Santa Justina (the one behind the rice fields for those who have visited us here). Today was the final lesson in the Bible stories that lead up to Christ, and they talked about His death, burial and resurrection - then went to Hebrews to talk about the fact that Christ's death was the perfect sacrifice, and it is a finished work, lacking nothing.

The captivated audience was in shock over what Christ had done for them and its implications. Jose (far left with the little boy in red, click to enlarge) just sat in stunned silence and repeated 5 or 6 times quietly to himself, "...forgiven already...I am forgiven now..." After that, Jose prayed and thanked God for sending Christ to die for their sins. He also said, "Before, the thing we were hoping in was wrong. Now, we really understand that Christ is the One who we need to hope in." This group has already chosen several new villages where they want to take the Bible Stories, and they are excited to be trained as teachers. "It won't be hard to explain because we really understand it clearly now!"

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The truly humbling thing about this experience is that we almost gave up on this group. At first, they were incredibly shy and wouldn't even come to the Bible study, even though they kept insisting they were interested. Then when they did come, they would just look down and never make eye contact or answer questions or even seem to be tracking. This went on for months on end. Several times, we evaluated whether it was even a prudent use of our time to continue there - it was just so frustrating and seemed like a complete waste of time. God burdened our hearts that we should continue even though it seemed like such a losing battle. Here's the cool thing that we were reminded of - THE BATTLE IS THE LORD'S. Even if it may seem like a losing battle to us, we need to trust that GOD will build His church and seek HIS direction for how He wants to use us every step of the way. Thankfully, we listened to the Spirit prompting us to continue teaching in the village of Santa Justina, and what a privilege it was to see them clearly understand the Truth for the 1st time and put their faith in Christ alone. And to think that we were ready to give up on them!

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Even though we were the ones who had the amazing privilege of being physically present to see this, many of you were there right beside us; you are praying for us, giving financially to allow us to be here, and encouraging us to keep on when the going gets tough (and it has gotten tough LOTS of times, as you well know!). Thank you for your faithfulness to fulfill the role that God has called YOU to in the massive task that we have ALL been given to make disciples in all nations. He is using you in mighty ways.

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To God be the glory for the great things He has done in the village of Santa Justina today! We can't wait to see what He does in and through them in the weeks and months ahead ~ please continue to pray with us for them.

Training in the Mountains

Thank you so much for praying for Steve as he traveled up into the mountains to do a church planting training this past week. Thanks too for praying for the kids and me, and thanks to all of you who dropped me a note the last couple days – it was WONDERFUL to hear from so many of you! It was so encouraging.

Steve arrived home safely, and he said that the training went really well. There were about 20 people who attended, and God is really at work in that mountainous area. While Steve didn’t get many pictures (in all fairness, he was pretty busy teaching!), he did get a couple. The first two are of the place where they had the meeting and the group of attendees as well as the 3 pastors who helped Steve teach.

Steve texted and told me the sunsets were amazing up there, and here are some shots he took. The mountain you can see in some of them is the volcano that our town is named after, Mt. Iriga – we call it “our volcano”. It is right next to our little town, and it really is beautiful.
Steve said that he definitely had a hard time sleeping as he shared a double bed with 2 other men – and the “bed” was just a board with no pillows or mattress. Steve tries not to bring too much stuff with him (like a mat) because he hates to show up with more stuff for a 2-night stay than they own altogether. Besides the tight sleeping quarters, there was a large fluorescent bulb hanging a few feet over the bed – that they left on all night both nights for some reason! I am guessing my man will sleep well tonight after 2 nights of that, followed by teaching all day in Tagalog! :) I may have to leave the light on just to see if he notices. :)
One of the pastors who was helping teach has a medical condition that seems to be like gout or arthritis??? Anyway, it was acting up pretty badly so he was not able to walk. However, that didn’t stop him – a friend just carried him to the meeting place!
The kids and I had a good time here together. We got a lot done, but we also enjoyed some play time together. Here is a picture that Mikayla took of Zach with a leaf he found in the back yard.
Thanks again for all your prayers and words of encouragement this past week!!!

Training on Catanduanes

This past weekend, Steve had the privilege of accompanying the Terry and Michaelle (the other couple from our company who recently moved down here to Bicol to work with the national Bicolano people while we focus on the tribal people in the mountains - you can check out their blog at www.bicol4christ.blogspot.com ) to a nearby island to do a church planting training there. Since Steve has done several such trainings with local pastors in the past year, they asked if he would come and assist with this one, and he was so blessed during the weekend to be able learn from their many years of experience. They left Friday morning and returned on Monday, and we can thank Terry and Michaelle for the pictures since Steve doesn't usually bring a camera, and when he does, he normally forgets to take pictures. :)

The training was held on the island of Catanduanes. Even though I am sure that ALL of you study your map of the Philippines everyday and know EXACTLY where that is, I included a map here just for kicks. :) The circled section is the region where we live and work, the peninsula of Bicol. The arrow points to the island of Catanduanes where the training was held.

They drove a couple hours to the port city of Tabaco, then parked the car and boarded a ferry to take them over to the island. There had been a typhoon in the area a few days before this, and we had been praying that it passed through quickly so that they could make it to the island (the ferries don't run if there is a typhoon in the area). Thankfully, the weather was beautiful the day they were scheduled to travel there - isn't God good?!?

Here was the group that attended the training (Steve is taking the picture with Terry and Michaelle's camera). For those of you who follow our blog regularly, you will recognize the banner behind them from other trainings we have done - it is II Timothy 2:2 in Tagalog, and it has become the theme verse for our trainings ~ "And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others."
While Steve and Terry and Michaelle all took turns teaching during the training, the attendees also had a lot of time to talk through the new information and apply what they were learning as they were divided into small groups for discussion and application.

The training went very well, and everyone said they had learned a lot, and we are excited to see how God will use it in the weeks and months ahead to start some new groups on the island of Catanduanes. One of the exciting results of the training and their study of the Word was that several of the attendees who had been believers beforehand decided that they wanted to be baptized in obedience to Christ, and the pastor agreed to baptize them (he had been reluctant to do so until they had "proven" their faith through an extended period of good works but after seeing examples from the Word decided that, if they wanted to, they were ready to be baptized as symbols of their faith in Christ). So a baptism service was held before they left the island, and the pastor baptized 3 members of his church.
Steve was so thankful to be able to be involved in this training. He was only home for 2 days, then he left this morning at 6am to help with another 3-day training, this time in the mountains. He will be home on Saturday. This one is with some of our local Filipino partners who have asked to be trained to plant churches in remote areas. One of the exciting things about this training is the fact that some of the pastors who we have trained in the past are helping him teach this time! Also, instead of doing the training here at our house, they are going out into a village about 1 hour away to do it. All the attendees will bring food, and they will sleep wherever they can find a place to do so in the village. What makes this exciting is that it means that this training will be very "reproducible" for them - which just means that they will be able to continue doing it this way long after we are gone because we are not providing any of the $ or accommodations. The pastors are excited about this idea and are already planning what villages will host future trainings. While this is very exciting, please do be in prayer for Steve as his sleeping and eating arrangements will be an adventure for the next couple days. Pray that he will be able to get enough rest and food to teach effectively and for health and safety in that remote village.

I sent the camera with Steve, but we will have to wait and see if he takes any pictures or not! :)

Hagen Homeschool Chess Club

Megan is a long-term volunteer who has been helping with our ministry here amongst the Agta since May. One of the ways she has been helping is with the kids' school. Her primary responsibility in teaching is teaching science, history, thinking skills, art and music. The kids are LOVING having class with Aunt Megan every day. Well, for thinking skills class today, Aunt Megan thought it would be fun for them to learn how to play chess. So I introduce to you the newly-founded chess club at the Hagen Homeschool! :) We are so thankful for Megan's servant attitude and the many ways she has helped in the ministry here since she arrived in May. She just decided to extend until at least January 15, and she may even be able to stay longer than that! Praise the Lord for willing volunteers who want to be involved in what God is doing around the world.

Thank you, Megan!

Kayla Lands the Kicker!!!

Ok, it seems like all I am posting right now is play time pictures! Believe it or not, we actually have been super busy lately with ministry things in the village. However, we are trying to avoid bringing the camera with us out there all the time so that the people don't feel like we are representing National Geographic. So in the combined effort to help us to fit in more with the people, you will have to suffer through more wakeboarding pictures. :)

This video is of a big accomplishment Mikayla had this past Monday, something she has been working on a LONG time now. She was pretty stoked to say the least. :) Another cool thing that happened on Monday was that Mikayla met a 17 yr old girl who gave Mikayla her old wakeboard!!! It is even a girly wakeboard with flowers and butterflies. :) Thank you, Nikki!

Something else we are pretty stoked about is that the new Agta believers out in the village of Ipil just decided that they need to be baptized in obedience to what they are learning in the Word! The have set it up for next Wednesday, and we are excited to see what God will do through that time. In addition, the group that meets in San Augustina is nearing the end of the 1st Bible story set, and they are very excited to hear the culmination and learn all that Christ has done for them. Last week they even kept asking Steve for "one more lesson" until they had done 3 lessons instead of the usual 1! God is certainly at work in their midst, and we can't wait to see what He will do in the weeks ahead. Please also be praying for Steve as he heads to another island to do a church planting training this weekend. Pray for health (he has been fighting a cold), safe travel, and that he and our coworkers would be able to communicate clearly. Pray that those attending would be willing to evaluate what they are doing in light of what the Word says.

Gota Village

Steve and I just returned from our best anniversary celebration ever. This year marked our 10th wedding anniversary, and we had an absolutely amazing weekend at a beach resort - while the kids enjoyed some bonding time with Uncle Terry and Aunt Michaelle. :) The drive there ended up being much longer than we had anticipated over some incredibly rough roads, but the views along the way were spectacular. We rounded the corner at one point to see Mt. Mayon across the bay.

We were glad for our 4-wheel drive vehicle several times along the way. The drive got long (6 hours each way over bouncy roads!), but we so enjoyed the scenery together.
When we finally arrived, we were awe-struck by the beauty of the little resort village nestled at the base of some cliffs on the beach. Phenomenal.
This one is taken from the adjacent cove - you can see just a sliver of Gota beach.
A perfect place to grab a book and relax to the sound of the waves.
Here is the walkway between the two coves.
Steve had fun trying some impromptu rock climbing.

There were some HUGE hermit crabs scurrying around the beach at night. We wanted to try to bring one back to the kids, but it wasn't doing so well so we let it go before we left.
It was so cool how the cove was surrounded by tiny deserted islands. Gorgeous.
We actually swam out to the one straight out from Gota beach 2 different times - Steve figures it was about a mile away. We enjoyed the swim together, and found some great snorkeling over there besides.

We actually found several amazing snorkeling spots that had both great coral and sea life. Some of the creatures we saw were lots of star fish and brightly-colored fish, a sea horse, a sting ray, several jelly fish (1 large one), and an octopus!
We stayed for 2 nights, and God provided some beautiful sunsets both nights (guessing the sunrises were pretty too, but I can't speak from experience on those!).
The service was excellent, and they even set up a romantic dinner on the beach for us both nights - without being asked! There was hardly anyone else at the resort while we were there, and we so enjoyed the peace and quiet.
We are so thankful that we were able to enjoy this past weekend together, celebrating the fact that God has blessed us with the joy of being married for 10 years now. We made some great memories and came home truly refreshed.