Translation Progress And Trip To The Philippines

In just 8 more days – on March 6 – we will be heading off to the Philippines for a 10 day trip to meet with all the church leaders from all the areas of the work, to complete yearly paperwork required by the Philippine government and also to start setting up infrastructure for our new phase of ministry in Mindanao which will begin once Jubab leaves for Bible College and we head back to the field full-time – Yes!! Jubab is off to Bible College at the beginning of next year!

Our room is covered in bags of things we need to take over – mostly equipment and things that will be left there for the work. There is still a lot of preparation that needs to take place over this next 8 days before we leave so we greatly value your prayers for us over this time and especially for each of the days we are in the Philippines. Of course the joy of seeing all our family again – Jen and Udi and our grandkids, Bubuy and Wila and each of Jubab’s brothers and their families – is going to be one of the highlights for us and we can’t wait to just grab them and hug them.

We reached our translation goals for the month of February which was to translate from Hebrews 11:32 through to 1 Peter 3:12!!!  Praise our wonderful Lord!!!! Thank you so much for praying!!!!! And please pray for our March goal which is to finish 1 Peter, start 2 Peter and finish up to 2 Peter 3:7.

Did we ever tell you about the story in the picture above, which happened on our last trip to the Philippines? Someone made a lovely chili dish in Tumpagon for a fellowship dinner at the church, knowing how much Paul loves chilies. But Paul didn’t realize how concentrated the chili was and it was so potent that he almost passed out. Here he is on the floor of the church, while all of us are trying to revive him – They piled lots of ice on top of his stomach J. Hopefully this won’t happen next week although once Paul revived, we couldn’t stop laughing for ages!  

We greatly cherish your partnership and prayers! 

Homesick!

The young people in Tumpagon and Cauyunan took this photo as they were on their way to a Youth Fellowship gathering to be held at a place upriver. Out of many photos I have seen recently from back home in the Philippines, this photo stirred my heart the most and pricked my eyelids with tears.

Why?

Because we have walked this same path hundreds of times. We walked this path to go upriver hunting trees to build our first house in Cauyunan, we walked up this path to go to Lindaban to swim, to have numerous picnics with our Cauyunan family, to speak about Christ to people out in their fields, to have baptisms of hundreds of believers, to hike to Kalamalamahan and to Limondà for outreach and for baptisms.....this path has soaked up the sweat and tears of many of our brothers and sisters pouring out their hearts and lives for our Lord Jesus!

WE LOVE THIS PATH!!!!

And we are going back there SOON - under the will and pleasure of our Lord - to walk these paths again with our brothers and sisters, to drip with sweat (far away from the ocean breezes of Ballina J), to serve where we can and to try to keep up even though our knees are feebler now.  Possibly about this time next year and armed with the New Testament that will be 85+% done by then!

Translation Report Insert:

January goal met – Thanks Lord!! And thanks everyone for upholding us in prayer.

February goal – Complete Hebrews, Begin 1 Peter and get to 1 Peter 3:12 by the end of Feb. 

THANK YOU for your prayers!!!