Partner Pics

Something I enjoy doing from time to time is posting some pics taken by our tribal teammates. These pics all come from the 2 couples who are working in the Manide tribe, and they recently had their first believers and first baptisms!
Praise HIM with us!

STM Retreat

 Ok, I know, another acronym. :) Samahan ng mga Tribung Misyonero (group/association of tribal Ms, our tribal teammates) had the immense privilege of gathering for a retreat a couple of weeks ago.
A team came from the States (from 3 partner churches) to provide teaching, small group facilitation & kids program, and North Carolina convention sponsored our tribal team to go to a resort and have the first retreat time we've had in 9 years. It was such a blessed time together in the Word. So thankful!
(Brandon made a video from the retreat to thank NC convention if you'd like to see it.)

We started out the couple of days by meeting at an activity center with a beautiful overlook where we enjoyed just hanging out, and they also got to try out luge carts - a big hit!

One of the blessings for us was that 2 ladies from our home church were able to come, and it was such a joy to be able to share this time with them!

After the retreat, the team spent some days going out into villages, sharing testimonies, and coming to better understand the church planting work that our tribal team is doing. At one point, the vehicle got stuck in a rice paddy, so the ladies crowded into the one remaining vehicle to get into town (and a bathroom!) while the guys stayed behind to dig it out.

While they were here, the team got a cake for Steve & me to help us celebrate 20 yrs in the Philippines! Crazy to think how much has changed over the years. :)

Thanks for praying with us and standing behind us for the last 20 years!

GE & UCM

Yes, acronyms play a huge role in our world as well! :) UCM stands for Union Church of Manila, and they are one of our local ministry partners. UCM is a church in Manila, and they have been financially supporting our tribal partners for many years now. They have an annual gathering to highlight the ministries with whom they partner, and we always have a couple of our tribal teammates travel in for this time to man the booth. This year not only did we have a booth (our partners made the poster), they also showed our ministry video (made by Ben's girlfriend, Katye & narrated by our son, Zach) and prayed over our ministry during the main services. What a blessing to have Filipino partners like this!
And here's the video if you'd like to watch it.

GE stands for Global Empowerment, and it's the organization that my parents started. While there are very few members of just GE, there are quite a few of us now, all from different organizations, who partner with them for the Tribals Reaching Tribals paradigm here in the Philippines. All 25 of us (incl kids) gathered recently for a retreat, and we had a wonderful time together, worshipping & digging into God's Word. Our son, Zach, and Macey's mom came along to help with the growing number of kids.

So thankful for our Tribals Reaching Tribals team!

A Stirred-Up Rainbow

Recently while driving back from Bicol (a drive that seemed interminable this time for some reason!), Steve & I saw this in the sky. After some research, it is apparently called "cloud iridescence" and has to do with thin clouds & moisture content, but Steve said it looked like a stirred-up rainbow. As I was thinking about this post, it's a hodge podge collection of things that are happening, but really they are all like a stirred-up rainbow - God's promises and beautiful work on display, but a random, stirred-up collection of them. Beautiful but also a little overwhelming to see all that He's been up to lately!

Construction has been continuing down on the land, and that has kept Steve very busy as he manages that from afar, makes frequent trips there, and stays on top of the finances of it all. The biggest project going is the team house (2k square ft structure with flat roof), but we have also just recently completed a duplex for our church-planting team on the property, a new BOOST classroom (now a roof without walls, rather than just a tent), a deep well, the raised goat pens are nearing completion, as well as the excavation for the road around the top of the property and the new BOOST dorm. Exciting stuff but busy times!

The Bicol Tribal Church Association has continued their monthly leaders' trainings, and here are some pics from the recent one (around 60 in attendance!)

Another exciting development was the McCoys move to Bicol. Since they achieved their Tagalog requirements, they were approved to make the move down to Bicol. So we loaded up 3 vehicles with big top loads and made the 15 hr drive together as a team. Thankful for no maintenance (or top load) issues. They are now settled into a little airbnb until the team house is finished (hopefully in January?).

This new pic shows the newly-completed BOOST classroom on the right side, and it was taken when we had some visitors come through to see the property. We had 2 sets of visitors, and it is always a blessing to show them all that God is doing here with Tribals Reaching Tribals.

In the midst of all the "stirred-up rainbow", I've continued to push hard with Physical Therapy after my knee surgery in March. On April 28, I was tasked with riding a stationary bike with increasing resistance for 30 mins every day, 7 days a week, as well as doing a specific weights program 2x/wk (at the beginning it was 3x/wk). I successfully completed 6 MONTHS of this regimen, never missing a single day! Only by His grace! We bought a portable bike to bring with us when we traveled and a nice "recumbent" one for home, and then we've hit the gym when we can for weights and substituted this fancy bands system to do weights when we're up in the mountains, far from any gyms. Yesterday, I met with the Dr, and I can cut back to 5x/wk for the next 6 wks, and I am very much looking forward to my very first day off in 6 months. :) Thanks for praying with me to be faithful in this and for continued healing of my knee. While I am thankful to have less pain at night and be sleeping better, I am still having a lot of pain when walking, so appreciate continued prayers.