A little trip

I was asked to give my testimony to the young people at their annual Bible camp in Kalinga Province.

It was very intimidating since it was in Tagalog, but I hoped it would be an encouragement to them. Here are a few pics from then and I'll post the video as soon as blogspot cooperates with uploading.

I was very fortunate that the translator was very animated and was a tremendous help.

As you can see "youth camp" can be all sorts of ages! :-)

I asked my friend Mayline to read a bit of Scripture for me, she is very shy but did great!

This area is usually called Hilltop...easy to see why! They have a beautiful view, and beautiful kids.

Fun in the Philippines

So its Sunday afternoon and hot, what do you do?

Head to the river!

29 people and 3 dogs in one boat to get to our favorite swimming spot

Of course you need a good book and a good companion for your day out.

 

Ate Mina and her youngest son Joshua on his first time swimming

 

One great thing is we could just grab some random stuff and make a nice fire for our marshmallows

A favorite dare is to jump off 'the big rock', I'm not sure how high it is but that is an 8 year old boy jumping....do your own math :-)

 

Heli in pieces and back together

I won't write much this time and let the pictures do the talking.

As you may know the helicopter was down for a 100 hour inspection when the pilot looked deeper and found trouble.

The cam was coming apart which meant either the whole engine needed replacing or they just needed to tear the entire engine to pieces to replace the cam. 

The powers that be decided that dismantling was a better idea and had the main maintenance guy from NTMA hand carry the parts over.

Many hands make light work, we have here Luzon pilot, Palawan pilot and the main maintenance guy

 Red: Josh, Dark grey: Brett, light grey: Zach

So everything was taken apart and put back together. Sounds so easy and concise but I've been assured its a bit more complicated than that. 

Today was the first real flight since being reassembled. Taking supplies in and bring out a missionary for our Regional conference.

Its a bit different over here

So the other day I was chatting with my sister on Skype. Since she is the Betty Crocker of the family I was asking her for a recipe to make for our 4th of July party here in the Philippines. Granted the Philippines doesn't celebrate but there are a few Americans up here so we got together for a party.

Anyway, she started listing ideas...."go get a bag of mixed salad". Oops, sorry we don't have that here. 

Several ideas later we came up with taco dip. The ingredients sounded pretty feasible.

Sour cream, refried beans or black beans, ground beef, olives, taco seasoning, tomatoes, cheese and lettuce. I was pretty confident I could get everything since the Philippines does have an amazing amount of imported items.

We spent some time converting her measurements to grams and kilos.

4 stores later I had everything I needed. 

No refried beans so I got regular and decided to make my own. The beans soaked overnight, then I boiled them to pieces and mashed them up. 

The sour cream is a simple process, just buy some cream, add some vinegar and then stick it in the fridge to thicken. 

As everything came together I couldn't help but think how different this was from last year's 4th of July while I was home on furlough. One store, throw it together and voila!

It turned out great and tasted just like it did last year. As an added bonus we went and set off a few fireworks of our own. Life may be a bit different here, but its still pretty great. 

God provides....always

Hi there!

     God is in control, God provides all things in His time, there is nothing too small for Him.  These are all true statements but how often do we really believe? These past few months have been, yet again, a growing time. A time to be stretched. While its been challenging its also been amazing to see all the great things God has blessed me with. Our support staff here in Northern Luzon were trucking along working hard, when we were asked to find a venue to host our annual regional conference. It was a hard job but we took a weekend trip and checked out a potential place a few hours north of our base. The fact that we had beautiful clear blue water to snorkel in was an added bonus. It was definitely a much needed break for all of us that God knew about and provided a way.

     God also provided later, when we lost a couple shortly after Easter. Our bookkeeper and maintenance man found out that her brother in law passed away suddenly. They found out on Sunday and by Wednesday their house had been packed up, things stored, exit visas provided and they were boarding a plane in Manila to go home to help the family. Everything fell into place to allow them to leave quickly and be home in time for the funeral.

     The family's gain is our loss. Our support staff is now down to 3 people trying to do 6 jobs. Our pilot has taken on the maintenance as best he can while also flying and maintaining the helicopter. I've taken on the bookkeeping in addition to guesthouse managing and supply buying. We are in serious need of more personnel to help here. Please be praying that God would raise up the right people to step in and be a part of the team here.

    

     While the heli was getting some routine maintenance done, a rather large problem was discovered. It now looks like we won't have air service to the tribal locations for several months. As you can imagine this has a huge affect on getting supplies to and people out of these locations. It looks like we will be sending stuff in over land by jeep and water buffalo and by sea using local boats. Please be praying for our tribal missionaries as they need to be in their locations doing what God has them there for. Be praying that the parts/engine can be ordered, delivered and installed with no delay in customs or other paperwork.

     Faced with situations like this we can either worry, or choose to believe that God is in control, God provides all things in His time, there is nothing too small for Him. Please be praying with us while we look to see how He will provide. For anyone interested in possibly joining our team here you can email me.

    

Life's a journey...who knew?

So its been well over a year since I've last posted anything here. Believe it or not, it was a bit on purpose.

You see, a lot has been happening in my life this last year and a bit, but the main gist is that I've discovered that my plans aren't always God's plans. So, who wins?

If you're fairly compliant God wins and it doesn't take much convincing. If you are rather a bit thicker headed and denser than others its takes a bit more work for God to make things clear.

When I enrolled into New Tribes Bible Institute I knew it was for missionary training. As I learned more and more about tribal missions it seemed obvious that was where I was headed. I never even really considered the possibility that God would have something else in mind for me.

Fast forward 10 years, I've studied the National language, built my house in the village, started tribal language study and.....God moved me.

I can't say I completely understand, sometimes I understand very little. but what I do know is that God has led me all along the way. I also know the He will always lead me, and wherever He directs is the very best place to be. 

Right now, He's placed me here in a support role as the Supply Buyer and Guesthouse hostess. Some days I ask God why He would take me away from the Ga'dang. I know He wants them to hear the Gospel and I am willing to go. Other days, I see His wisdom and see how He has equipped me for the great ministry He has given me here.

Will I do this forever? Will I return to the Ga'dang? Who knows? I'm learning that life isn't from Point A to Point B. I know that He has truly blessed me by allowing me to serve here. I will serve here in this role until He tells me otherwise. His plans. 

It's done!!

Here they are! The UK summit team!

We're so thankful to have Emma, Abi, Luke, Alison, Lawrence, Alex, Heather, Caleb, David, Norman, Angela, and Tabea here to help with the water project.

Erik was able to take some time off from the Finance office and go in with the team! He was a huge blessing and was encouraged to be back with old friends.

Smitty was able to take time off of Tagalog study to come help. Thank you for your servant's heart!

It was a huge task and everyone helped out! At least those not leaning on their shovels. :-)

Mixing cement is hard, hot and heavy work! 

This tank collects the water from the spring and then sends it down to the village. Having a holding tank allows a better flow and supply.

Trenches were dug everywhere to lay the pipe. Leaving the pipe exposed would be disastrous given all the water buffalo, pigs and horses that walk around.

More and more trenches being dug. The team did an awesome job!

Carabao were used to dig a beginning trench to break up the sod.

They're called water buffalo for a reason. These guys need to stay cool or else they can't work.

God provided His own version for cooling off the team! :-)

The final product! Thank you team for all your work!

 We're so thankful to see the people have good, clean, safe water to use!

Thank you for your part is seeing this project completed!