Tribal Workers Gathering

Our tribal partners in Bicol recently hosted the first "Tribal Workers Gathering" where everyone who has a heart to reach the tribals in Bicol gathered together for a time of fellowship, prayer and training.  One of the main goals was to determine how we can work together more effectively to make sure that all the tribals in Bicol have the opportunity to hear the Good News.  Some of the ones who attended were our Bugkalot tribal partners.  Others were lowland Filipinos from local churches.  One couple is from another tribal group who have come to Bicol.  Others are tribals from Bicol who have come to faith and are leading others to serve Him and reach the rest of the tribals in Bicol. So thankful for each and every one of these precious partners in the Task He has given us!

We hosted the gathering at our training center.  Meals were shared under this tarp outside.

 Everyone just slept together on the floor of the training center (notice Steve is there on the far side against the wall).  They were packed in like sardines - which is a GREAT problem to have when you consider the shared passion and purpose of the group who gathered!

 The meetings themselves were also held in the training center (click on the pic to see an enlarged version of the panoramic).

 Steve invited Pastor Billy (in the white shirt) to come and share with the group.  Steve has been so impressed with Billy's heart for the tribals and his confidence in them as they follow the Spirit.  It is always so encouraging to hear what he shares.

 The group spent a lot of time in prayer together and sharing in small groups what God is doing in the area where they are serving and how they can lift up one another.

 

 

 

We are so thankful for these men and women who share our heart to reach the tribals in Bicol with the Good News!

10 Years!

10 years ago today, our little family boarded the plane to fly to the Philippines for our first term.  We have had the amazing privilege of a front row seat to see all that God has done in the past 10 years.

 Crazy how itty bitty the kids were for that trip!  When volunteers arrive, complaining about how difficult the trip was, I tell them to try it with a 5, 3 and 1 year old, THEN we'll talk.  (Not a very compassionate response, I know.)  They look all cute and sweet here, but it really was a tough trip, mostly because Ben cried for most of the loooong flight over the Pacific.  When we finally landed in Manila, I told Steve, "I know they say the temptation to quit and head home during your first year is strong, but buckle up, cuz we're not flying ANYWHERE till these kids are bigger."  (Not a very spiritual motivation, I know.)

 This pic was taken just as we arrived in our new home.  I don't know that we have ever been more exhausted than we were at that moment.  And there was a plumbing leak that was spraying water everywhere, so Steve spent the first couple hours working on that.  Welcome to the Philippines! :)

 I went to the blog from those first couple months, and it was fun to read through our first impressions and adventures.  Here are just a couple of the pics I posted of the kids during that time.

 

Things sure do change in 10 years!  The kids are now 15, 13, and 11; and it has been amazing to watch God work both IN and THROUGH them in the past 10 years.  We are so thankful for the opportunity we have had to serve in the Philippines for the last 10 years, and we can't wait to see what God continues to do with tribals here in the years to come.

Paglalakbay ni Steve

"Steve's Travels".

The Tagalog sounds so much more interesting. :)

A couple weeks ago, Steve traveled about 12 hours north to attend a tribal believers' conference as well as tribal church leadership meetings.  He was very encouraged by the time he spent with these dear brothers and sisters, and we are so excited by the ways that God is at work in their midst. 

 After the conference, Steve and several of the leaders headed off into the mountains for a leadership retreat.  

 They hiked several hours (5?) through some gorgeous terrain.

 After a couple hours, they started following the river bed up into the mountains.

 That waterfall waaaay up there is their destination.

 Quite the venue for a retreat, yes?

 They camped out by the waterfall overnight, then this was breakfast the next day.  Little minnows, frogs, and eels.  Yum!

 And, of course, don't forget the rice!

 The next day they lowered themselves down into the waterfall basin.  Thankfully, Steve had brought some ropes to make this a little safer.  Don't want to lose any leaders at the retreat!

 Absolutely gorgeous!

 They spear fished for eels in the pool under the falls.

 Doesn't get much nicer than this for a retreat venue!

 

 The bottom pic is actually waterfalls; the pool in the above pics is located between the two falls!

 The men had a wonderful time enjoying the beauty of God's creation, connecting with one another, and discussing future direction and vision for their tribal church.

Shared Heartbeat

If you scroll down through the next couple posts, you will see that this summer was pretty crazy for us, with lots of travel and adventures.  Well, in between a couple of the trips that we took as a family, Steve took a trip with a friend to another island.

You know that our heartbeat is tribals reaching tribals, and we love when we get an opportunity to mobilize tribal churches to send out tribal partners to unreached tribal groups.  Well, Steve had the amazing opportunity to be the speaker for a tribal church conference on another island.  It was actually a gathering of the churches from 6 different tribal groups on that island, and he was so encouraged by his time with them!  These churches are already working together very well, and have sent out some of their very own to bring the Gospel to unreached tribal groups around the Philippines.  It is such a blessing to spend time with this tribal group that shares our heartbeat, and we are looking forward to opportunities to partner together to help one another be more effective in the Task to which God has called us.

The trip was quite the adventure, including travel by private vehicle, boat, tricycle, jeepney, and hiking.  Steve's not very big on taking pics, so I don't have any to show from their travel. They slept wherever they could find room - here is a pic of one of the places where they stayed.

 They started out their time by attending a board meeting for the leadership for the churches from the different tribal groups on this island.  Steve was so blessed to hear their hearts and encouraged by their interaction with him and one another.

 

Then the group proceeded to travel further interior to attend the conference.  Steve was given several hours to share his heart, and they welcomed him warmly.  It was in this place that the "footprints" comment was made (scroll down to find the post about that or click HERE).

 It was so encouraging to hear their hearts.  We share a passion to mobilize tribal churches to reach the unreached tribes, and we are prayerfully considering how God can use us to encourage these tribal groups in this Task.  Will you pray with us to this end?  God is doing some amazing things, and we are so excited to see what He has planned for the future!

Another Adventure

After we flew up from Bicol with the volunteer team (scroll down to see next post), we picked up a couple more volunteers and started driving north for our next adventure.  This time, our team consisted of 5 Hagens, 4 volunteers from Missouri, 2 of Mikayla's friends from school, and 1 Filipina volunteer from our partner church in Singapore (our ministry partner, Joseph, also joined us for the first couple days).

It was a great group, and we are so excited by all that God did during our time in the mountains!

For the first couple of days, we stayed in our tribal-style house in the mountains.  We traveled from village to village, doing archery presentations and sharing in churches so we ate what the people prepared for us and (for the last part of the trip) slept in whichever home was brave enough to host 13 foreigners. :)

We had two presentations that we did in each village - an evangelistic presentation that comprised of an archery demonstration (drew a big crowd!) with testimonies as well as a presentation geared to encourage believers and vision cast for the use of small groups for discipleship church.

(Click on any picture to see a bigger copy.)

 

 Since Mikayla just got back from her trip to the Himalayas (see post HERE), she also got to share with the churches about her trip.  It was so cool to listen to her share her heart and encourage the believers!

Mikayla also got to help with the archery demonstration!  The idea was to encourage others that they could try the bow and arrow as well.  I mean, if a teenage girl can do it, then surely these tribal guys can do it, right?  Some of the guys were actually quite good, but it ends up that Mikayla is a pretty decent shot herself, so it was fun when she actually showed them up. :)

We saw some breath-taking scenery and some even more beautiful people.

 And the people in one village blessed us with a Bugkalot cultural dance presentation!

One afternoon, we bathed in the river, and several of the group took the challenge to jump off the rock.  Unfortunately, one of the volunteers held his glasses in his hand, and the lens popped out and got lost!  God was SO gracious to us though because the next day, as we traveled through a TINY town, we were able to find an optometrist who figured out his prescription AND was able to cut him a new lens in about an hour!!  Absolutely amazing since, even in the city (or the States!), glasses often take 1-2 wks!  Such a God thing!

It was a wonderful team, and we so enjoyed spending time together - not only serving together but also in prayer and studying His Word.

I was especially impressed with the "kids" on the team.  Before the trip, someone very graciously offered to keep our kids for us so that we could focus on working with the team.  While I appreciated their thoughtfulness, I told them that our kids are key members of the team, and I NEED them on these trips.  Mikayla's friends from school, Drew & Karis, jumped right in too, and they all worked their tails off carrying gear, loading the topload, setting up and breaking down the archery demo equipment, sharing testimonies with and playing games with village kids and even sharing testimonies with adults!

 Someone asked me recently if I think it works to have teenagers on adult volunteer teams.  It definitely depends on the teenager, but I would take any of these back in a heartbeat!  They were a HUGE help! 

We traveled more than 1,000 km (650mi) on this trip, and keep in mind that the roads here are just a little bit different than in the USA - take a LOT longer to travel the same distances!  While we spent MANY hours (40ish) packed into these two vehicles, we used other modes of transport too...

We rode on a raft to get to one village...

 ...and hitched a ride on a massive truck!

We also did some old-school hiking.

However, most of the traveling was done in our faithful 4x4s.  So very thankful for these great vehicles!

 Some of the mountain roads were very sketchy - really more of a trail than a road - and they required some crazy intense 4-wheeling to get where we needed to go. While we were in the one village, it started to rain, so we weren't sure how we would be able to get back out on the wet roads.  We got to one part where there was no way we couldn't do it without 4-wheel drive.  Well, the one vehicle's 4x4 was working great (the one I - Jen - was driving), but the other vehicle's 4-wheel drive would not engage.  There was no way we were going to make it out without it, so we just gathered and prayed, and the 4-wheel drive engaged for the first time in 6 months!  We put some weight on the back and drove right out!  God showed Himself faithful so many times on this trip, and this was a shining example. 

On our last afternoon up there, we ended up with a couple extra hours, so we took the opportunity to explore a cave that the people there have been encouraging us to check out for a long time.  It was phenomenal! The first picture shows the entrance from the outside, then the second one shows the hole (once you got inside) that you had to crawl down into.  Once you got down there, the cave was huge!  The people said that you could explore all day in there and not see all the tunnels.  After a while, you started wading through water.  Soon it started getting deeper and deeper until the only way to continue was to swim through the water.  It was the craziest feeling to swim through an underwater river like that!

 We had an amazing adventure with some wonderful friends!

And, best of all, we had the privilege of having front-row seats to see all that God is doing up in those mountains!

So very thankful...