Christmas Adventure

Over the Christmas break, we headed out on another ministry adventure together as a family. Another family came along for the trip, and we had a lot of fun serving God together.

 We left early in the morning for the looong drive to Bicol (12+ hrs), and the kids got some extra zzzz's in the car.

 The next morning, we headed out to the training center to hang out with our tribal partners there and have the Christmas party that we usually do for them.

 In addition to working on food prep, Steve spent some time going through annual reports with each of the guys, to get a better feel for how the various Bible studies are going.

 We also got to check out their newest project: bee hives. The idea behind these is that it can develop into a livelihood project to supplement their income, and that they can eventually train the Agta to use it as a livelihood source as well.

 No party is ever complete without FOOD. Thanking God for His provision and the opportunity to enjoy it together.

 It's been our tradition for several years to do a giant "white elephant" gift party for them, but instead of everyone bringing gifts to exchange, we bring all the gifts. Some are nice gifts we bought at the store; others are used items from our house, and other are just gag gifts...there is a toad in one of those gifts... :)

 It has been cool to see this map that they developed that shows where all the current outreaches and churches are, as well as the places that have been surveyed and are wide open to someone coming. Is such a challenge because right now there just aren't enough workers to go to those places...please keep praying with us for more laborers!

 The next day, we headed out for a day of sharing testimonies in new areas where our partners have recently started Bible studies. The kids had chances to share and pray for the people as well, and it's always such a blessing to hear their hearts.

 We did a bit of hiking that day through gorgeous areas, and the weather was perfect (Christmas is the cool season).

 How many water buffalo can you find?

 That afternoon, Steve had an important meeting with some Agta leaders from one of our new outreach areas, and it was neat to hear their hearts and work through some challenges with them.

 After that, we headed for home...with a stop in the city of Naga for a couple days of vacation.

 Vacation included some of our favorite restaurants and of course wakeboarding...disappointed though that the hot springs were closed because of a landslide. :(

So thankful for this great trip with our family and friends, an opportunity to serve together and make some more great memories.

Christmas Memories

This Christmas was a special one because it's the last one that Mikayla will be living at home. We made the most of it with all our regular traditions.

 The kids slept under the Christmas tree on Christmas eve after we read the Christmas story together.

 They woke up to stockings (we hid Ben's because he usually wakes up first and that gives him something to do while everyone else sleeps a while longer).

 Then we had our Christmas breakfast and talking to grandparents on skype.

 We got the annual pic of the 3 kids in front of the tree.

 Can't believe this one is graduating and moving back to the States!

 The boys both got bikes for Christmas; they were thrilled!

 We even did a family photo under the tree this year!

Merry Christmas from the Hagens in the Philippines!

Through Their Eyes

One of the things I love about social media is that some of our tribal partners are actually online, and it is fun to get to see their pics from their daily life and ministry (also it gives me some pics from our ministry since my hubby isn't much for taking pics on his travels :) ). 

This post is from one of our partners who is actually on "furlough" back in their home area, but while there, he is attending a training to become more effective as a church planter (and hopefully to help us even more with training our future partners). Part of the training included a "practicum" time out in a remote area, and these are some of the pics from that time.

Felt like most of the pics were self-explanatory, but this one is of 2 guys pounding rice for supper. You have to pound it for quite a while to get all the husks off the rice kernels.

So thankful for this precious family and their heart to bring the good news to those who have never heard!

Play on the Pitch

All 3 of the kids have been involved in field sports this fall - on both the soccer and rugby "pitch" as they call it here.

I (Jen) had the privilege of helping to coach this great group of ladies for the soccer season, and we had a blast. It was a building season (with only a few returning starters from the previous year), but it was great to watch them grow both on and off the field. Mikayla was the team captain, and she made it a priority to invest in the girls. I love this pic of her leading devotions before one of their games.

It was a building year, but it was so fun to watch them grow and improve. They played very well as a team, and they even won our final tournament at home - in a nail-biter overtime followed by penalty kick off. Mikayla was one of the kickers, and all of our girls made their shots, and our amazing goalie saved a shot to give us the win!

Mikayla was voted on the all-tournament team. So proud of her accomplishments this season as she led the team in both assists and scores...both from a midfield position (tough to do!). But we were most proud of the way she invested in her team and directed them to HIM!

Zach had a great season too...couldn't find pics right off. He played center mid, and he never subbed off all season (which is rare in that position because it entails SO MUCH running). He had several scores for his team as well, and it was great to watch him leading on the field. They both won team awards - Mikayla got the Most Inspirational, and Zach got Most Valuable Player.

...and they still clean up pretty good... :)

After soccer comes rugby. Mikayla is the captain of her team again, and it is fun to watch her lead for Him on this new team. She has been a scoring machine this season, with 5 "tries" scored just this past Saturday alone. So fun to watch!

Ben has been getting in on the rugby game now too since they just inaugurated the middle school rugby team. He is playing scrum half (same as his big brother, similar to quarterback in football) and doing a great job.

That's him grabbing the ball out of the scrum to pass it down the line.

Zach is playing scrum half again this year, and since they don't have enough players, and he's young enough for the JV team, he is playing both JV and Varsity! He's been doing a great job too.

We actually had quite the scare with Zach last week when he was injured during rugby practice. He ended up with a collapsed lung, and it was tough to stabilize his breathing…some scary moments in there! He had to stay 4 nights in the hospital, but he is doing fine now. His lung is fine now, just a matter of letting his cracked rib heal, then he should be good to go. Thankful for God’s protection during that scary time!