1st Agta Believers' Conference

Look what God has done! When we think back to the first years of ministry with the Agta tribes, it is staggering to think of what God has done in this place. The Agta churches all gathered for the first time, and we were so blessed and encouraged by the unity and growth we've seen in them through this. 

This was the poster created by our tribal team, representing the different entities involved. A cool thing from our perspective? The foreigners, the "white people" - us - we aren't included in the poster. We LOVE how they've caught the vision of Tribals Reaching Tribals. God is working through them in mighty ways to reach other tribes and the rest of their own tribes. We are secure in the role we know God has called us to in coming alongside and equipping them to walk this journey, and we are so blessed by how well they truly OWN vision. 
Also, you can see the theme for the conference: Pagpapalawak ng Kaharian ng Dios Sa Bicol (expanding the kingdom of God in Bicol - the area where the Agta tribes live). So exciting to see unity building around this vision.

Here's a video
(creds & tnx to Claire & her sister Annie for putting it together!) about the conference so you can peak in the window a little. 

We don't have access to a place big enough to hold everyone - it ended up being around 375 people total - so the churches worked together to erect a bamboo structure with a tarp, specifically for this conference. One of the nights there was POURING rain, and we sent out urgent requests because we were afraid it would collapse under the weight, but we were so thankful it held.

Quite the job to cook for everyone! These were the cook tents.

Several generous donations & partners made this conference possible, and one of them especially wanted them to be able to play together (we agree; such great bonding/unifying time to play together!). We were able to put gravel down & erect a back board (they LOVE basketball in the Philippines!), as well as volleyball net - both of which we will be able to keep using!

Here's one of the Agta leaders sharing a challenge from the Word with everyone. There's a story from conference that I want to share with you:
A little culture info will make this story more poignant. First, traditionally, the Agta do not have any kind of group meetings. The largest socio-economic group is the nuclear family. So they never gathered as clans or villages for meetings, their kids didn’t go to school, and they didn’t go to any group religious events; all of these are what has made the idea of gathering for a believer’s conference so radical. Additionally, Agta don’t express physical affection or even emotion; the only people they would reach out to touch would be nuclear family. They are also incredibly shy, avoiding interacting with others whenever possible, and leading others is seen as a cultural sin – Agta should never try to lead others to do anything, so leading a conference seems crazy.

Without further ado:
On the opening night of the conference, the chairman of the fledgling Bicol Tribal Church Association (BTCA) got up to welcome everyone. As he faced the crowd of his tribesmen gathered together (unheard of!), he said he was just so overwhelmed with the idea of addressing them as a leader that he just froze. At that moment, the Agta man standing next to him, the vice chairman of BTCA, reached out and took his hand. The chairman said at that moment, he was emboldened as he was reminded that he is not alone in this; the Agta tribes are in this together to glorify God’s name and spread His kingdom across Bicol (the theme for the conference). God has done – and is doing – and amazing thing with the Agta tribes in Bicol!

Because our normal camping area was re-purposed for conference & on-going construction, they made some new camping areas for our team. One night of heavy rain showed that the new sites weren't draining super well...but quite the commercial for these tents as the people inside stayed mostly dry - this is even after the rain had stopped and water level receded!

Sometimes "our" volcano pops out on a clear day - beautiful!

I hope you are encouraged and blessed by this glimpse of conference! Praise God for all HE has done!

Bugkalot 70th Anniversary Conference

Steve and our teammate, Brandon, were blessed to be able to attend part of the big anniversary celebration of when the Gospel first came to the Bugkalot tribe. There were about 2,000 in attendance at the believers' conference, and they represented 37 churches. It has been so encouraging to our hearts to see what God has done through the years with the Bugkalot - from fierce headhunters to sending out their own cross cultural workers - and even what he's done in more recent years. When we first started mobilizing them in 2010 to send out from their churches to reach the nations, there were 16 small tribal churches. As they've caught the vision of being a part of God's work beyond their own boundaries, not only have they sent out dozens to reach other tribal groups, the church has also been revived; the number of churches has more than doubled, and all the individual churches have also grown. Giving has increased exponentially, and many of the churches are now supporting their pastors in addition to giving to those they've sent out and other programs, like their own Bible School. It is always such a blessing to be reminded what GOD can do. To HIM be all the glory!

They always do a parade of churches to come in to the celebratory session. Steve was able to take some drone shots of it. This one is in the meeting area, and this one is of the parade still coming to enter the meeting area. 

The leaders wore their cultural costumes to celebrate and shared a moving testimony of what God has done over the years.

I was not able to attend this conference (or several of the other ones I posted about) because I finally pulled the trigger on knee surgery. They went in arthroscopically and discovered two tears/holes in the cartilage. One was 1/2 cm and the other 1.5 cm behind the knee cap. Since one was in the weight bearing area and the other in the bending area, I had two weeks where I couldn't put any weight OR bend it all. That was tough for sure. After that, I was gradually able to do a little more but still meant I was very limited with any real mobility for 6 weeks. Recovery has been very slow, but the doctor is encouraged with my progress & my prognosis is good. I'm hitting the PT hard now, so appreciate prayers for continued healing. This next wk will be the first time in 2 months that I head into our tribal areas, and I'm honest a little nervous about how I'll handle camping, the rough terrain, and keeping up with PT there; prayers greatly appreciated!

Mindanao & Mindoro

The title of this post is the names of two different islands that often get confused by foreigners here in the Philippines, and they are both places where we have on-going ministry.
Steve & I (plus Claire) made a trip to Mindanao the end of February for a training with leaders from 6 different entities - church associations, one convention, and a training center. We helped them work through how to send out cross cultural workers more effectively. It was such a blessing to get to walk with them through this time, but we can't show many pics of that time because several are working in areas and with groups where that has security concerns that prevent showing their faces. 
Pray with these brothers and sisters as they work to send more workers to the nations!

Right after that trip, I had knee surgery, so I wasn't able to join on a couple of different trips. Steve traveled twice to the island of Mindoro. Once for a tribal pastors conference with 200 pastors and the other for a board meeting for their tribal sending entity. 
We have partnered with this dear brother for many different trainings through the last couple of years; God is using Him mightily, and he is such a blessing to us!

I'll just leave you with the rest of the pics from those 2 trips.

Drone Pics

Steve got himself a drone for Christmas, and he's been having fun exploring from the sky. Here are some pics of our campuses - both Tribal Bible College as well as BOOST campus (livelihood/church planting training). And it wouldn't let me put the videos here, but I included some links below that you might enjoy.
These were taken when the Agta conference was going on, so that is the big red roof structure (see the Agta Conference post for more details on that). 
Thanks to all of you who have stood behind us through the years, making this expanding work possible. God has done amazing things, and He has used YOU to make it possible!

Drone 1 & Drone 2

Click on these links for two short drone video tours of the campus!

Land Development Update

It seems like very time we go down to Bicol, there's new developments on the land there. The Tribal Bible College is one hillside, the BOOST (livelihood + church planting training) on the next hillside, and lots of other developments too. I thought you may enjoy seeing a quick video one of our teammates (Andy) made not too long ago that tours the property. Just click this link to watch the video and see all that's happened since we first broke ground in May 2022.

Also, Claire helped put together this powerpoint that walks through the development phases. Global Empowerment is raising funds for this project. Praise the Lord with us for a generous donation that got us started & well on our way, but there is definitely still room for others to partner with us in this as God leads. It is our prayer that this piece of property would become a training & launching site for tribal as they are sent out to reach tribal groups across the Philippines and beyond. Let us know if you have questions. 

Lastly, we have some exciting news. We have received approval to build a house on the land for our teammates! Here's a pic of them standing where the house will be! In addition to a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath for them, it will have a little 1 bedroom for a single as well as a studio for us when we're there - we'll finally be out of tents! Pray with us as many details have to come together so that we can break ground for this project. 

More Visitors

Before I tell you about our next batch of visitors, I came across something you might be interested in. One of our tribal partners has started a FaceBook page with lots of short fun videos & pics of their work with the Manide tribe. Visit the page & "like" in order to see new posts she puts up - I really think you'll enjoy them. 

On the way down to Bicol last time, we stopped through Lipa and enjoyed a Taiwanese dinner cooked by our teammate, Mandy.

Then our next batch of visitors was our teammate, Macey's, parents as well as our supervisors. We had a blast traveling around and seeing what God is doing with the tribal work, as well as a day at the beach - check out that sand castle masterpiece! We also had a couple of days of training with our tribal team.

So thankful for our many wonderful partners!

Vision Team

Last month, we hosted a group of pastors & leaders from our team's key partner churches. The purpose was to see the big picture, all that God is doing with Tribals Reaching Tribals in the Philippines, then discuss together how to most effectively & strategically partner in the future. This will include bringing volunteer teams & other partnership opportunities. We traveled a LOT of miles over some very rough terrain, spent a bunch of days VERY wet in constant rain (and looked like easter M&Ms in our ponchos!), and met a lot of wonderful people. At the end of our time, we gathered for a couple of days of debrief to strategize future plans. It was amazing to see God work through that time, and we can't wait to see how He continues to use these partnerships in the future. I've put some pics below, but if you want to see more, just visit this FaceBook page & ask to join.