Christmas in Lapoc!

Christmas in Lapoc!!

Let’s see......Christmas starts here in the Ber months (September – December)

Which means:

*Lots of bangs from fire crackers being let off.

* Christmas trees of all kinds – some made from paper, sticks, or plastic bags even!

*Christmas carollers.

*Kids on the sides of the roads with their hands raised, calling out “Pasko” (Christmas) hoping for a peso.

*Lots and lots of parties!!!

So far this month this has been the Christmas party schedule:

Dec. 6 – Christmas party with all our language helpers, translation helpers and others who help us.

Here they all are below – we don’t know what we would do without them!!!

Dec. 11 – Party with all the School Teachers from the 7 schools that we teach scripture in.

That involved a pig on a spit, lots of good food and lots of speeches and photos!!

Dec. 12 – Christmas Family Day celebration at the Lapoc Church.

This started at 9:00am with Prayer Groups, then the Sunday meeting and

continued with a meal of pork and rice, games, singing, another meal and fun that went until 2:00am!!

Dec. 16 – Our missionary team Christmas Party!!

This involved the Duwangs, Sinan-a’s, Moffits and Ourselves. (Most recent group photo is at the top

of this post – good looking group we are!!)

This party involved a 2 hour drive both ways, 52 hotdogs, roast chicken, ice-cream,

swimming, pressies for the kids and lots of fun!

Dec. 18 – Christmas Family Day celebration at the Tinaytayan Church.

This was a wonderful day of thanksgiving for their beautiful new church building,

which took 3 - 4 years to get permission to  build because the village leaders believed

that a church would reduce the power of their witchcraft.

Now more and more of the Tinaytayan people are wanting to be taught about our Lord Jesus!!

Dec. 22 – We are heading for a Believer’s conference and Christmas Celebration at one of the

furthest outreaches that this work spans – Kalamalamahan!!

The work in Kalamalamahan started in Oct, 1992,

and this year, after being a struggling church for about 17 years,

they are suddenly ‘on fire’ and more and more believers are now being added to their numbers.

There are about 75 believers in Kalamalamahan now!!

Dec. 26 – My Ladies’ Fellowship Christmas party in the afternoon.

Each of us will bring something to contribute to a special afternoon tea, like sticky rice cakes (bico),

or cassava cakes (binggala ha suman), or some cooked sweet potato. Everyone

has to bring a gift worth 50 pesos (about a $1.20) and this may be the only Christmas

gift that the ladies in my fellowship group get, so it is very important to them.

In the discussion about what could go in the gift, everyone agreed that it had to be something

that is neither eatable or that disappears (like soap)!

And each of us is going to share a testimony of what Jesus’ Birth has meant to us personally.

Parties we were invited to but turned down:

Dec 10 – the Women Scripture Teachers’ Christmas trip to town. I’m glad I declined attending

that party – they left at 2:30am and didn’t get home until nearly 11:00pm and spent 8 hours of that time

travelling on rough roads – but they had a ball!

Dec. 14 – Christmas Celebration at the local Lapoc School. (We had to try and get caught up on

all the work we have been missing!)

Dec. 17 – The Youth Group Party. (They didn’t need us to have fun and their singing and instruments

were turned up soooooooo loud we would have been deafened if we went!!)

And just to sum up this busy Lapoc Christmas we want to close with a

Christmas photo of us – taken just a few minutes ago – and we want to send

a big Christmas hug from us to you!!

Babies and Christmas!

This is Andy, named so because he was born on Tala-Andig day here in Lapoc.

(Andy, short for Andig)

He is the first grandson of Ronnie and Aling who are on the church leadership team here in Lapoc.

Four and a half years ago they lost their youngest son (who was 14 years old) during a severe asthma attack and 

Andy has come into their lives at a time when they really needed this precious little one!

On the day of his birth though, they had many weary hours of waiting through his

very difficult delivery.

From 3 am the previous morning until 7 am the following morning, two ladies trained in attending

births (one of them our lovely co-worker Elsa) had stayed with Malyn, the young first-time Mum,

attending her and coaching her. Finally at 7 am the very top of the baby’s head could be seen and they

thought the toil of labour was almost over.

Five hours later the baby still had not arrived and the attendants were almost at their wits end.

Ronnie and Aling and many other family members were agonizing in the next room, praying and wondering

if this baby was going to make it and if he was indeed still alive.

I joined the birth attendant team at this point and 1 ½ hours later had the wonderful privilege of

co-delivering a live baby boy!!!!!

Hearing Andy’s first little newborn wails had an electric effect on the family waiting outside and the atmosphere

immediately changed from heavy and agonizing to one of celebration and praise!!!! 

This picture is of the happy new parents  - Ronnie and Aling’s second son, Tonton, and his wife Malyn – taken

about a week after the ordeal of little Andy’s birth.

Every baby is a gift, but to their family, this baby is a VERY SPECIAL gift in more ways than one!!

And now Andy’s first Christmas is nearly here and he is about to start learning all about what happens

in Lapoc at Christmas time, which we want to share with you as well but for now we’ll say goodbye,

leave you with some prayer points and save the Lapoc Christmas story for our next update!

Prayer Points

·         For the next stage of translating the book of Romans from Ch 7-16.

·         For our team here as we move into a very busy time of the year with a lot of church fellowship meetings.

·         For Ben and Leonie as they go through the many preparations to join the team next month!

·         For us as a family that we will keep close to the our Lord.

·         For the church at Cauyunan as they are going through a time of sifting and weakness due to election related turmoil.

Lots of Love,

Paul, Deb and Jubab

Family News!!

It has been a long time since we sent out a family update – as usually we are writing about different aspects of the ministry - so we thought we would send you some up to date news about ourselves personally.

Jubab had his 12th birthday on Sept. 7th and here in this photo you can see him getting a birthday hug from his sister Jen, and a cuddle from his niece Charly-joy! Clint who is 5 looks pretty bemused and brother-in-law Udi is enjoying the whole family birthday gathering!

Can you believe we have a 30 year old daughter now?! Jen just turned 30 last week and is expecting their 3^rd baby in May, 2011, Udi is 32 and keeps very busy tending their farm, looking after their cattle, and functioning on the leadership team of the church in Cauyunan, Charly is in Gr 3 and loves to sing and dance, and Clint is in kinder and is still a real Mama’s boy! Jen and Udi just had their 12^th anniversary last week. They arrived here in Lapoc this morning and we will be enjoying lots of family times and cuddles with our grandkids this week!!

Jubab is 12 going on 14!  We wish we could keep him our ‘baby’ but there is no chance of that! He is almost finished Gr. 6 and has had a good year being back in Lapoc. Adjusting to life back in our remote village and back to homeschooling has been smooth and fun for him. He misses Ballina but loves it here, has enjoyed being able to spend times with his sister and brothers and all the rest of our family, friends and missionary team here, and he loves playing basketball and being back with his dog Sparky. Jubab has had 2 attacks of his sinusitis and one attack of tonsillitis this year but apart from that, his only other health issue has been his braces and that can sometimes be a pain as it is a long trip out to the orthodontist in town (has to be an all day thing) – and the brackets for the braces are different here than in Australia which is a pain if one of them falls off.  It’s working out okay though. 

 

And then there is Dad and Mum.....that’s us......(this photo was taken in June during a family outing.)  We are both doing great – are very proud parents and proud grandparents – we’re making sure we put time aside for family times:  not just family night every week, but times together with Jubab every day and a family time in the Word and in prayer most every day. God has been teaching us as a family lately about spending time worshipping Him and glorifying Him rather than just mostly praying about needs and about the work.

Life in Lapoc can get very ‘heavy’ so we make sure that we don’t let ourselves get too stressed out and we take a few days out in Cagayan every 6-8 weeks for a break.

We are quite thrilled with the progress we are making this year on Translation and really thank you for your prayers for this and for continued prayers as we have such a huge desire to see the translation of the New Testament completed into Tala-Andig and hopefully into Higaunon as well.

Health wise we are both keeping well apart from some normal issues for our age (in our middle years J) like Paul having some prostrate trouble and both of us noticing occasional new aches and pains.

Thanks so, so much for your prayers for us and for your love and partnership and support!!!

Love Paul, Deb and family XXXXXXX  

Introducing Ben and Leonie!!

Hundreds of prayers - maybe thousands - have gone up around the world

for a teacher for Jubab, for someone to co-worker with us in the work of

translating the Bible into Tala-Andig and Higaunon.

Behold God’s answer to these prayers!!!

Ben and Leonie.....

They come from Ballina,

have the full support of their elders and their church -

the Ballina Christian Assembly,

have had years of experience working with kids and young people,

are planning to arrive here in the Philippines about the 22^nd of January,

are excited about joining the work here,

will be arriving here as newly-weds,

were commissioned last Sunday to the work here,

are already known by us and by Jubab,

and they have a lot to do before they come over........

......so PLEASE PRAY for them!

Pray them over here

Pray for their wedding

Pray for all their preparations

Pray for them as they say goodbyes,

Pray for a smooth adjustment to a new culture and new way of life

And we want to thank YOU for praying!!

God says we don’t have because we don’t ask.

You asked and we asked for co-workers,

AND GOD ANSWERED!!!

P.S. Please pray for us as tomorrow we start the consultant check

on Romans ch’s 1-6.

On This Journey.....!!

On this journey there are many gifts that God gives us!!

Among these gifts are the precious children we have met over the years whose

lives have become intertwined with ours.....

The picture above is of the children who lived in Cauyunan when we first arrived there.

All of them are adults now and most of them are married and have children!!

The boy in the blue shorts on the right side of the photo is 
Ryan Duwang,

known as ‘Ayan’ to his family and friends,

and he was about 1 ½ years old when we first arrived. 

He was our first patient and was dying and we were young, new missionaries with

no idea what to do. Thankfully we had God working on our behalf and Ayan recovered. 

 

This is Ayan’s family: his Dad, Bugsuk and Mum, Elsa and his little sister Aybi.

After Ayan recovered, they left the village upriver where they had been living

and came and lived right next door to us.

And they have been with us ever since!!

God saved them by His Power and Grace and some years later, God sent them out to be missionaries,

and brought them and us here to Lapoc as co-workers together!

And during this journey Ayan grew up and is now 23 years old.

And God has placed in his heart a desire to train to be a

‘Mother-Tongue Bible Translator’! 

This is a recent family photo of Bugsuk and Elsa and their family.

This month, they had to say goodbye to their son, Ayan.

It was a familiar scene to us:

 the airport doors,

the hugs, the tears, the last wave goodbye, heading for the unknown.

Ayan left to go and start training to be a bible translator on Sept. 8^th.

He will be in Manila for a couple of years,

will need to achieve a high fluency in English,

will have to study very, very hard

and will be very homesick.......

but it is for the goal of having a part in translating the Word of God

into his mother tongue!!!

Please pray for Bugs and Elsa, and their family and especially for Ayan far away at this time.

Pray that he will have courage and the tenacity to keep going through the hard times.

Pray for more mother-tongue translators to help in the huge job of translating the

Word of God into

Tala-Andig,

Higaunon

and into the many other languages that still do not have the Word of God!

Other prayer points for us are:

o   Strength and endurance for us. Since Jubab’s teacher, Mrs. B, had to return to Australia for medical reasons,

we have been starting at 5:00am to make up time we are losing on the translation work when we are teaching Jubab school.

o   Keep praying for a teacher for Jubab for 2011.

o   Pray for Mrs. B this Friday as she has a surgical procedure.

o   Keep praying for the translation of the book of Romans! It is the hardest book we have ever had to translate!

o   Pray that we will finish Romans by the date set for the Consultant check which is in Mar. 2011.

An Army!!

What do YOU see?

Do you see a group of men singing?

Do you see a motley crowd?

Or do you see a group of strangers?

What does GOD see?

He sees His army of Bible teachers in the Lapoc and Cauyunan areas!!

He sees His beloved servants who are being used mightily by Him!!!

He sees the labourers who He has sent out to fields white unto harvest!!!

He sees the fruit of YOUR labours as you partner in missions!!

Keep Praying!!!

These men were here two weeks ago for a seminar on the book of Mark which was organized and run by our co-worker Josh, and co-taught by Josh and the leadership of the church here in Lapoc. There were about 55 bible teachers and church leaders from many different places who came and stayed here for a week. During that time we were able to have some great meetings and great fellowship with church elders and leaders from Cauyunan and Tumpagon.

The harvest that they are reaping and the power with which God’s Word is going out through these servants of His is just amazing!! They are the fruit of your prayers and of your support and of your partnership with us.

It gave us such great joy to see them gathered here and to listen to their reports on what God is doing through each of their lives and to hear of the groups of people they are teaching each week in many different places!

Love Paul, Deb and Jubab

Please Pray For The Children In Lapoc

There is a Measles Epidemic here.....it is a killer of many children. The parents are afraid of ‘lonod’ – a condition where the

measles spots are trapped inside the child and don’t come out and this condition kills the child.

At least this is what the belief is here. The only way they say to prevent ‘lonod’ is to wrap the children up in

thick blankets and keep them away from any breeze, give them hardly any water to drink and especially not

to bathe them.

So our job is to try and teach them - to convince the parents that what their sick child needs is lots of water

because their fevers are dehydrating them and that they need cool clothes and baths to keep them well.

We have a team involved in doing this job, the clinic workers, and Elsa and Bugsuk, our co-workers, who have

all been working tirelessly. It strikes the fear of death into the hearts of the poor parents to take our advise

but those who have tried it, have had no deaths from the measles. Two children have already died here in

Lapoc because their parents wrapped them up and didn’t give them water.

In this house lives a family with six children. Poverty......darkened minds.......and a Dad who doesn’t like to work

all combined together means that the six children in this family don’t have enough to eat, and that this five year old

in the photo below, who is sitting beside her Mum, looks like a two year old. 

Their ‘bed’ was the torn remains of an old grass sleeping mat and their ‘bedding’ was floor sacks that were thin and

grey with age. We sent them food, medicine, blankets and a new sleeping mat.....and today the little one was

treated at the clinic for pneumonia which is often a complication here from the measles.

But this sort of help, although it will get these children through the measles alive, will not fix the fears and misery

they live in because of the spiritual darkness that is over their household.

So please pray for this family (call them Lisa’s family: that is the name of the young mother of six in this picture)

and the many others like them who we live amongst who have no hunger for the Gospel. Pray that maybe through

the love and care we have been able to show them, that they will be drawn to come and listen to God’s Word.

There are so, so many here whose lives are like this family’s and who are hard and resistant to the Light

because they prefer darkness.

Thank you so, so much for being part of the team with us reaching out to these people!!!

Lots of Love......

Paul, Deb and Jubab xxxxx