More House Pics

Ok, so it is not actually official yet, but many of you are asking for some more pics of the house we found, so here they are. :) Thanks for praying for the meeting on Friday, it went really well, and they now have a verbal agreement to rent the house. However, they were having fax issues on Friday so the contract has not yet been signed. So there is still a chance it will fall through if there are things in the contract that we can't live with, but hopefully all will look good. We should know by early next week - which is good since we move a week from Friday!

The house is actually located in a gated subdivision about 10 mins from the airport in Naga (and the wakeboarding place too!). The neighborhood is quiet with not much traffic, so it should be safe for the kids to ride their bikes and play with friends!In addition to being in a gated subdivision that has a security guard at night, it is in a compound with 2 other houses. One of the houses is the other half of the duplex from ours. We have not yet met the family who lives there, but we have mutual friends. The other house is not yet rented so we are praying it will either stay empty or we will get good neighbors on that side.

Here is a pic of the front gate to our compound - you can see our neighbor's side of the duplex in front.

Here is a pic of the empty house (taken from the front corner of our house) behind our half of the duplex.

The apartment itself is much smaller than we have right now (about 1000 - 1200 sq ft), but it is in great shape. This pic is taken from the front door, looking at the dining room then through to the living room. The door to the tiny kitchen is to the right, and the stairs going up to the bedrooms are behind that wall on the left.
There are actually only 2 bedrooms, which poses a little problem. First, Mikayla is getting old enough to need a separate room from her brothers. Second, we need a place to do school. This is the largest of the bedrooms upstairs, and we are planning to put up a divider to create a room for Mikayla in the back of it. Then we are hoping to buy/build loft beds so that their school desks can fit UNDER their beds. That is really the only way we can fit it all in.
While the inside is nice (in a cozy way), it is the yard and neighborhood that we are excited about. The compound feels like a private little subdivision within a subdivision, so it will be very safe (that was one of our main concerns as Steve will be traveling a lot next term). Here is a pic from our back door of the little house that is separate from the duplex.Check out this big back yard that is shared by the 3 houses!
We are hoping to get a trampoline for the kids while we are back, and they are SO excited to have one in their back yard. They are also excited to finally have other kids in the neighborhood to play with as we have been isolated from others these last few years.

Thanks for praying for the perfect place for our family - God answered your prayers! Please continue to pray that if this is the place that God has for us, that all the details will go through smoothly.

We Found One!!!

You prayed, and God answered! We found a house that we really like today. It is pretty small, but it is in good shape, and it is in a secure area. Please continue to pray Thurs evening US time as Steve meets with the owner to discuss some details. Then if it all looks good, our business manager in Manila will call the owner to set up a contract to sign. Just pray that if this is really the house that God has for us, everything will go through smoothly! It is actually just part of a large duplex so it is just the apt to the left in the picture. Will give you more details about the place when/if it goes through. Thanks for praying!

just for laughs

So the eggs you buy at the market here are not all sparkly clean like the eggs you buy at the grocery in the US - the ones here are dirty, sometimes with globs of...junk...all over them. So we often wash the eggs before we use them, but one night after the helper had purchased eggs and put them in the fridge, I went to get one out to fry it up for Steve and noticed that she had forgotten to wash them. I was intentionally avoiding several of them that looked particularly nasty, and reached for another one while still looking at the nasty ones (kind of that "can't look away" syndrome at accident sites). Well, once I had the egg in my hand, I noticed a movement in my peripheal so I very quickly refocused my attention from the dirty eggs to the egg in my hand. To my absolute shock, there was a TAIL sticking out of the end of the egg. And to make it worse, it was wriggling wildly!!! Not joking here. Somehow I managed to put the egg down on the counter without breaking it then went into a little "that is so disgusting!" dance in the kitchen. So before you all think i overdosed on my pain meds and am imagining things, what had happened was a small lizard had lost its tail (we have these small lizards everywhere in the house, and their tails easily come off then continue to wriggle for several hours afterwards - the boys love to play with them, much to my chagrin). ANYWAY, a lizard tail had become separated from its owner and somehow got stuck on the end of an egg - wonder if Zach had anything to do with that... - then put in the fridge for me to discover later. What fun.

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setting: small restaurant

Steve: "do you have hard-boiled eggs?"

waiter: "yes"

Steve: "how much are the eggs?"

waiter: "10 pesos each" (about 20 cents)

Steve: "great, we will have 8"

when the bill came, we were surprised to see we had been charged 30 pesos for each egg instead of just 10. when we asked about it, we were told that the eggs ARE p10 each - unless you want them cooked, THEN they are P30 each.

okay....how do you respond to that kind of logic?

Megan

Well, we dropped Megan off at the airport this am for her LONG trip back to the US. She has been here for nearly a year as a volunteer, just helping out with whatever she could. She has been such a blessing to our family and ministry, and she will be sorely missed. She helped with school, loved on our kids, did Bible studies, played administrative assistant, did registration for trainings, recorded and edited audio versions of the Bible stories, and coordinated the translation of the Bible stories into 3 different languages. She kept very busy while she was here, and she made an eternal impact. Here are some pics from her time with us:

We'll miss you, Megan! Thanks for everything, and we will be prayin for you as you start on life's next adventure, whatever that may be!

some favorite shots

so what hav i been doing to stay sane while lying in bed with my right arm propped up so it can heal? sorting photos 1-handed! remembr when i mentioned a media team had come through for a week and followed us around w/ cameras? well, they got a lot of great shots, and i spent the last coupl days sorting thru 8,687 pictures - yes, they took 8,687 still pictures in 8 days - not including all the video shots. Here was what we faced that week:

Now, don't get me wrong, they were great peopl, and we really enjoyd them, just their cameras got tiring. As I told them, in one way, they were the easiest visitors we evr had, in other ways they were the most difficult. :) Nothing like havng a camera in your face all day!but once we got over the camera thing, we realy did enjoy getting to know thm, and they got some GREAT shots while they were here. They got some wonderful Filipino everyday life shots as well as some amazing face shots that we will be able to use while we are in the States this summer. They also got some great shots of our family "in action". here r just a few of them:

while the team was here, something VERY EXCITING hapened. u remembr the bibl study that jose (1 of our 1st believrs, seen in pic below) started in novembr? (check archives 2 jog ur memry and c pics) well, they had their 1st baptism there! 12 precious souls clearly understood what Christ did 4 them and made a public profession of that faith. what a thrilling afternoon!

tnx 4 ur continued prayers 4 us as we finish up here b4 heading 2 the US in less than 1 month! tnx 2 4 praying 4 my arm as it continues 2 heal, the pain level has been prtty good, and i am hopeful i will b abl 2 typ w/ TWO hands again soon. tnx 4 ur patienc and code-deciphring in the meantime. :)

"Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig"

that is what my mom always said when we arrivd home aftr a trip - we dont kno why. :)

we did arrive home safely earlier 2day, and i just wantd 2 take a sec 2 thank all of u 4 praying 4 us on our trip.

in case u cant tel i am back 2 1-handd typing. surgery went realy well tho and i shud bback 2 reg typing in coupl wks. so 4 now u get 2 try dcipher clode. :)

actualy whole trip went far bettr than expected - 1st coupl days were packed w more drvsits, lab work & time in dentist chair than we thot possibl in 2 days, and evrything turned out great - no medical concerns 4 eithr of us. then our time in singapor 4 the surgery went amazingly smoothly & the pain level since surgery has been much much bettr than last time. hereon the home front, everything went really well too, and the kids had only minor bumps & bruises while we were gone. all in all, a huge success, THANKS SO MUCH 4 PRAYING!!!

the kids had a blast while we were gone, and they got lots of pics of their advntures so i will try put some of those up soon.

hope u all have a very blessed easter celebration!

From the Hospital

Just wanted to let you all know that Jen came out of surgery fine. Her arm is still completely numb from the block that they put on her arm. We will find out in a couple of hours what the pin level will be, but we are really rejoicing that she did not react negatively to the anestetic like last time. Thanks for praying.

Steve

Answers!

If you haven't seen it already, you will want to check out the devotional that Mikayla wrote for the wakeboarding competition (next post).

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Thank you so much for your prayers on our behalf these last few days. Thanks too to those of you who took a second from your busy schedules to write and encourage me by saying that you are standing with us in prayer. What a blessing you all are to us!

You prayed for the rain to stop – and it did. You prayed for sickness to not keep anyone away – only 2 people ended up missing for illness despite many others being sick previously. You prayed for safety – it was a calm night in the mountains. You prayed for soft hearts, and open minds – and God worked mightily in the lives of the Agta church leaders. God answered all of your prayers, and we give HIM all the glory!!! Despite the fact there ended up being some last-minute schedule conflicts (they scheduled the elementary graduation ceremony for that afternoon – EVERYTHING is scheduled last-minute here!), the training time was a huge success, and they were able to have several key discussions. While not able to cover everything Steve had hoped to, they got a great start; and Steve assigned some things to discuss as a church while we are gone, then he will follow up with them when we get back. One fruit of the training is that they are planning another baptism in one church on Saturday for those who missed out last time. We won’t even be there, so it will be exciting to see if they go through with it on their own.

We covet your continued prayers for our family as Steve and I leave early tomorrow morning for Manila then on to Singapore. The kids will stay with Megan (the long-term volunteer who has been such a blessing to us) here in Bicol, and another friend will come to help her. Steve and I will spend the first couple days in Manila doing the thorough physicals, lab work, and dental work that are required before return to the US. Then we will fly to Singapore on April 5 for some consultations then surgery on my wrist to remove the 6” plate and screws on April 7. We will only stay in Singapore a few days after the surgery then return to Manila on April 10 and home on April 11. Please pray for safe travels and successful appointments/surgery. Please pray as well for the kids and Megan as they hold down the fort here – pray for a very UNEVENTFUL 10 days!!!

Thank you once again for the way that you faithfully stand behind us! We couldn’t be here without you!

Devotional by Mikayla

Thanks for all of you who wrote and encouraged me and said you are praying for Steve and the on-going training in the mountains right now (see post below). The weather cleared (PTL!), and I will post more of an update when Steve gets home tonight. Thanks for continuing to pray!

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Mikayla was recently asked to write a devotional for a booklet to be passed out and used during the World Wakeboarding Championships held here last week. Here was what God laid on her heart to write and photos that were printed in the booklet with her devotional.

It blessed our hearts, hope it will bless yours as well.

-Jen-

A Fresh Start
Hi! I am Mikayla Hagen. I am 9 years old.
My family lives in the Philippines as missionaries.
I want to tell you how God can use anybody in His work, like the story of Saul (Acts 7:54-60, 8:2-4, & 9:1-31).
Saul started out persecuting believers, and he
Even helped kill some of them. But he came
to know God on the road to Damascus. After
that, he suffered many whippings and even a boat sunk under his feet, but he still trusted God. He became known as Paul the Apostle instead of Saul the Persecutor, and God used him mightily in His work throughout the world. Paul had been persecuting Christians, but God changed him and used him to bring the Gospel to many people. This teaches me that God can use anyone, no matter how shy, how sinful or how mean to Christians they are at first, God can change them and use them for His glory.
Mikayla Hagen
‘Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for believers in speech, life, in love, in faith and in purity.’
1 Tim 4: 12

URGENT PRAYER!!!

Ok, guys, we need you to start PRAYING! Steve left early this morning for the mountains to do a leadership training with our tribal church leaders. He will be up in the mountains until tomorrow evening (2 days and 1 night). We are praying this will be a powerful time for the Agta church as they are challenged from the Word to be faithful followers of Christ and to plant churches in surrounding areas. Here are some specific prayer requests over the next 2 days:

• Even though it is HOT season right now, it started RAINING this morning!!! Not usually a problem, but the location for the training is inaccessible when muddy! PRAY WITH US FOR THE RAIN TO STOP SO THE TRAINING CAN CONTINUE.
• There is a flu going around, and several of those who had planned to attend have been sick. PRAY FOR HEALTH FOR ALL THOSE WHO COME.
• It is a long story, but suffice to say that we really need your prayers for safety for everyone involved in the training. PRAY FOR SAFETY FOR THE GROUP AS THEY STAY OVERNIGHT IN THE MOUNTAINS. PRAY ESPECIALLY ON TUESDAY DURING THE DAY USA TIME AS THAT WILL BE THE NIGHT HOURS HERE.
• This will be one of the final times that Steve is able to spend time with these men and women before our furlough. PRAY FOR SOFT HEARTS AND OPEN MINDS TO HEAR WHAT GOD HAS FOR THEM IN THE DAYS AHEAD AND WILLINGNESS TO BE FAITHFUL TO DO WHAT GOD HAS CALLED THEM TO DO.

family fun

Remember how I mentioned in our latest updated that our family "starred" in some videos this past month? One of them was for a couple commercials for the wakeboarding place where we go on our day off - they wanted to show it as a fun family destination. We have really seen where the wakeboarding park has been a huge help to the province, so we were eager to help them out with this project. Well, here are a few of the pics they took during that time, thought you may enjoy them. :)