Family Trip

Last week was the kids' fall break from school, so we headed down to Bicol.  First, we enjoyed a couple days vacation with some friends at the wake board park.  It was so fun to watch the kids riding again - and admittedly a lot of fun to watch our friends make some spectacular wipe-outs!  (To be fair, by the end of the time, several of them were riding quite well too. :) )

 Zach was especially fun to watch as he was going crazy hitting the big obstacles and doing huge tricks.

 After a couple much-needed days relaxing as a family, we headed out to the mountains for a training with our tribal partners.  The guys have finished the training center, and it looks great!

 It was such a blessing to be back with our tribal teammates.  Before we started into the training time (going through 1st Timothy), we spent the morning sharing reports about what God has been doing in each of the areas where the teams are working.

 After each report, we broke into groups to thank God for the things He is doing and to pray about the challenges that each team is facing. Such a wonderful time of fellowship and joining our hearts before the throne!

 Meanwhile, the kids enjoyed hanging out with their friends again.  For the first time, Mikayla brought a friend with us to the training.  Miriam is new to the Philippines, and village life is just a little different than Manila life, so we weren't sure how she would handle it all, but she did great!

 The kids played a lot of games together.  Some were games the tribal kids taught to our kids, others were ones our kids taught them.  Was fun to watch them laugh together when I slipped away from the training to get a couple pics.

 And, as usual, the girls helped wash the dishes after we ate together.

 We actually brought tents and had planned to set them up in front of the training center.  However, after it rained all day, this is what that nice flat area looked like.  We decided to crash on the floor instead.  :)

 The next morning, we finished up the training time, then we gathered for a time of worship together.

 This sweet girl read the Bible passage for us.  Such a great reader!

 Then her dad shared a message with us from Galatians about how we as believers should treat one another.

 Then another of the men led us as we shared communion together.

After we finished the training and worship time, we said goodbye to our tribal partners to start the looong 12 hour drive back to Manila.  Before we hit the road though, we dropped in on some friends in the village.

Very thankful for this safe and productive trip as a family!

Storying Trainings

My computer doesn't recognize "storying" as an actual word, but it is one that we use around here quite often.  We teach chronologically through the Word, using stories as we go to teach specific truths about God and how He interacts with mankind; this is called storying.  After telling the story, the group discusses together what the story means and how to apply it.  Our tribal partners have found this to be a very effective way of teaching, and they requested that we do some seminars for the churches that sent them out and train them to teach using storying.  There were two purposes for their request.  First, they think that it would be good for any future partners that are sent out to already be familiar with this method and know the Bible stories; that way, they won't have to learn the stories at the same time as they are studying the language of the place where they are sent.  Second, they felt like it would be helpful for their church leaders as they teach in church, small groups, Sunday School, etc.  They sent this request to their churches, and the churches welcomed us with open arms.  We were excited about this because it is our hearts' desire to fully equip the Bugkalot churches to train the ones that they will send out in the future, in such a way that they don't have to rely on any outsiders or outside group (us included!) to train those whom they send out.  This seminar was one of the first steps in our passing this training to the Bugkalot churches.

Steve spent most of the month of September in the Bugkalot mountains, doing this storying seminar in 8 different churches spread over a wide geographic area.  Each seminar lasted a day and a half, and they were well-attended.  Even more importantly, everyone interacted well with the training, working hard to learn the stories in their groups and to apply the principles for how to use these stories to teach the Word effectively.  It was a very encouraging time for Steve (though exhausting!), and he was blessed by the deep discussions that came out as they worked through the stories together.  Because it is our passion to fully equip the Bugkalot to train the ones they will send out, independent of outsiders, Steve worked closely with one of the Bugkalot leaders and trained him how to do this storying training.  Felipe traveled with Steve to all of the different seminars.  Initially, Steve led the seminar while Felipe observed.  But Steve gradually passed more and more responsibilities to Felipe until, by the final seminar, Felipe was leading the whole thing while Steve observed!      

 

Through Their Eyes

In July and August, we had a couple teams of visitors who walked with us through Agta villages.  These times are always such an encouragement to us as we have the privilege of giving them a glimpse of what God is doing amongst the Agta; and, after 9 years here in the Philippines, it is refreshing to see these people and places through our visitors' eyes.  It also gives me an excuse to carry my camera and capture some of images to share with you all. :)

 The picture below shows one of the forms of livelihood for the Agta.  They build a fire underneath a shelf, then put split coconut shells on the shelf to dry them out.  They can then sell this smoke-dried coconut, which is used in pig feeds and to make oil.

 The above picture is the outside of the structure, the one below is the inside.  This young mom lives here with her 4 kids and husband.  The raised living/sleeping area for the whole family is smaller than a queen size bed, there there is an additional sheltered area with a dirt floor for cooking.  Kind of puts our daily stresses in perspective.

Thank you for your continued prayers and words of encouragement.  A special thank you to those of you who made huge sacrifices to come and visit these places with us; you were such a blessing to us AND to the tribal people here that we love.

Vision Trip

Last week, we had two men from a church in California visit us here in the Philippines.  Their church is interested in partnering with us and the Bugkalot tribal church to reach the Agta tribe.  They came on a vision trip so that they could check out the area and see how they could most strategically fit in to what God is doing here.  We so appreciated their hearts in wanting to see what God is already doing and how they can best be used by Him, rather than coming in with their own plan/agenda.

 Steve & I both traveled to Bicol with them to visit a bunch of different areas so that they could get a good feel for the area and people.

 We traveled in lots of different forms of transportation in the couple days we were together - airplane, hired van, jeepney, trike, boat, taxi, and quite a bit by foot.

 We spent time with each of our tribal partners in the villages where they are ministering.  The guys asked great questions and also took time to pray for and encourage these precious men and women who are making so many sacrifices to make His name known in this place.

 They also got to meet several Agta believers and church leaders.

 While on this trip, we got some bad news.  You have seen pictures of this building before on this blog (these two were taken in July); this is where one of the Agta churches meets for worship.  It is actually a large porch built onto the house of one of the leaders (the porch is by far bigger than the living area).

 But the recent typhoon knocked the entire structure down!  Both the house and the porch/church are gone (the tarp-covered hut is just a temporary shelter erected after the storm).

 While we were saddened to see that the church is gone (the people are currently meeting outside, which is only a fair-weather solution), we were relieved to hear that everyone had survived the storm.  When we asked about how they survived, they led us to a pit where they had taken refuge.  The pit is only a couple feet deep, and you can see it is not very big, but 24 people took refuge in there for 6 hours!  So thankful that everyone is ok, but please be in prayer for the people in this village (and others like it) as their crops took a terrible hit, and they have a very difficult year ahead.

 We got to visit several different Agta villages, and the guys got to know our Bugkalot partners quite well.  

 It was such a blessing to me personally to watch the Bugkalot interact with the Agta.  It is amazing to watch how well they connect; God is using them mightily here!

 After visiting several different Agta areas, we gathered with our Bugkalot partners, and the guys took some time to ask them some questions.  While we started working with the Agta a couple years before the Bugkalot came on the scene, the Bugkalot are most certainly the experts here, not us.  They live on-site in Agta villages, and, because of their shared tribal status, they understand each other in ways that we would never be able to.  So we encouraged the guys to listen to the Bugkalot and seek their advice for how they can most strategically fit in to what God is doing here.

 To finish off the day, we visited the training center that the volunteer team helped to build in July (scroll through older posts to read more about that).

 We were all encouraged as we concluded our time together in worship.  The Bugkalot shared some worship songs in their heart language as well as some that they have written/translated into the Agta languages.  

We are so thankful that God is raising up more people to partner in the work here, and we can't wait to see what HE has planned for the future as we follow Him step by step.