24 Hours!

How many meetings, visits, hugs, laughter......can fit into 24 hours?

Well..........last Easter weekend, I was invited to speak at a Ladies’ gathering in Tumpagon. So at 5:30 am last Saturday off we went. The ‘we’ was WingWing (who was driving) his wife Hazel and their little boy Cled, and a couple of church families on their way to visit Tumpagon as well as myself.

By 11:00 am we had arrived in Tumpagon – we knew we were there by the blazing heat that instantly embraced us as we stepped down from the car and by the many reaching arms that greeted us.

By 2:00 pm we were starting our first meeting in the church with over 200 ladies. Some of these ladies had suffered terribly to get there. One dear sister had walked with 20 other ladies from Ricodo, 8 hours hike away. She told me she had never made that hike before because she suffers badly from arthritis in her knees and from stomach ulcers. The trip over was terrible for her: blazing sun, the slow agonizing steps with her legs cramping and terrible pain. But later on she told me, “I wouldn’t make this trip if I was offered 100 pesos for every step, but to hear the Word like we did today and to see all our sisters from so many places, I would do this all over again! It is worth it!”

We sang and praised, we heard testimonies, we clapped, we cried and we worshipped God and I saw sisters in the Lord who had come from every corner of the Dulangan area......and I was able to teach them from Matt. 6:9-13, and from Luke 11:2-4 and to watch their faces drinking in the Word and to see nodding heads and teary eyes as God spoke to hearts. When I handed out the little booklets with my message written in it for them, I saw that for them, this little booklet was a treasure.

And I saw this young lady (above) who I delivered at her birth and named, now grown up into a lovely young lady who sang so beautifully and I saw young women we used to know as children, now grown up, now mothers themselves and taking on leadership roles amongst the women in the church and it really moved my heart to see what God has done and is doing in the Dulangan area!!

7:00 pm was testimony and fellowship time and it was a wonderful time. No one seemed to want it to end and the testimonies, the songs, the fellowship, the prayer went on until 10:30 before we began making our way back to our homes.

I stayed with Bubuy and Wila and Jubab’s brothers and late that night their house was still a hive of activity as Wila had all the women involved in Women’s ministry back to her house to meet and we stayed up to all hours discussing their ministries, praying and encouraging one another. I looked around and in the room I saw two women who are missionaries sent out along with their families from the Tumpagon church to Ricodo, I saw Lita who served for almost 4 years in Buyungon with her family, I saw Elsa, who served with us for almost 12 years with her family here in Lapoc, I saw women like Wila,  Sally, Tatà , Inday, Rita........ elder’s wives, missionaries, shepherdesses, women in children’s ministry......and I just listened most of the time and praised God because these are mature, Godly women who have come of age, who have gone through many trials in their lives and still keep on faithfully because they have learnt patience and perseverance and humility. 

I love them all and later on at about 2:00 am when I finally crawled into bed beside my little princess – granddaughter Charly - I thought about all the choices in our lives that led us to the Dulangan area as young missionaries years ago and I had tears in my eyes as I considered the great things God has done there in spite of us and amazingly – because of us too.

The roosters crowing, karaoke blaring and motor-bikes roaring by woke me up after 3 hours broken sleep to have coffee at 6:00am at one of the elders’ homes with him and his wife, a meeting at 7:30 am with one of our young people who is training to be a bible translator so he can come back and help us, breakfast at Wila and Bubuy’s – a very yummy fish soup and rice which was a surprisingly nice change from toast and vegemite – a dipper bath from the cold water in the bucket which didn’t seem to do a thing to help the sweat running down my back and then we were off to church where I sat and worshipped with our dear family in the Lord from Tumpagon as the church elders led the service, taught the Word and broke the bread to remember the Lord’s death. And I looked at the clock and it was 11:00 am as the service was ending........I could hardly believe all that the Lord had fit into my 24 hours there in Tumpagon!

Goodbyes all-round.....more kisses and hugs from a tearful little granddaughter, more tears as the Tumpagon church said goodbye to their new missionaries to Lapoc, James and JingJing and their little boy Jepoy (who we will introduce to you in our next update)........and then we were off and after travelling through a huge tropical rain storm and passing through many villages who still desperately need the Lord and after climbing and winding up the steep mountains for a couple of hours, we finally arrived back in Lapoc welcomed by the fog and the dogs and our wonderful families and missionary team!

Paul and Jubab had cooked me dinner and sat listening to all my stories until I finally felt exhaustion creeping into my bones and we had to call it a night.

Deb

Life In Lapoc......

Life in Lapoc is sometimes scary, sometimes hugely stressful, always very busy, quite often bone-jarring (when we’re travelling over the rough roads), is surprisingly noisy, never lacking in surprises and keeps us always thrown upon the Lord.

So what have Howells been doing this past month?

We have helped two people have operations, we have visited our brother who is suffering terribly with liver cancer and have searched for pain medication for him, we have sorrowed for 9 people killed in a terrible truck accident along our own Lapoc road, we have held two newborn babies, we have had had at least 6 nights of lying awake for several hours thinking and praying about things heavy on our hearts. We have worked over 320 hours between us on the books of Acts and Ephesians, preparing bible lessons, revising the translation and working on a correspondence consultant check on Ephesians to finalize this before printing. More hours have gone into preparing materials for the youth group and into a booklet on the prayers the Lord Jesus taught, which is the topic this weekend for a women’s convention in Tumpagon.  As well as this, we have spent about 18 hours on our bone-jarring road, doing a supply buy, picking up visitors from the airport  (which we loved doing!) and visiting the churches in Gahiton and Colawingon.  We have individually and together put many hours into counselling and discipling and we spent a couple of hours one morning making a little girl with cerebral palsy feel special on her birthday. We had a teenage school girl who is orphaned stay with us for two weeks and in fellowship with the church leaders have found her a place to live and have helped her set up home when it became evident that she had no one else to take her in. We are praising our Lord along with Ronnie and Aling that after 6 months of chemo, and 9 months since her surgery for colon cancer, Aling’s test results have come back all clear!  We have visited the flood victims and checked the progress of the houses being built for them. We have done a family photo shoot and also discovered that Dad doesn’t like pumpkin mixed in with pasta (he gives it a lower rating than eating a bat)!  All 3 of us have had our moments of exhaustion where we just couldn’t keep going without a rest and all three of us have seen the Lord’s amazing, constant care as we have faced some heavy trials. We (well actually Paul ) have ordered truckloads (literal truckloads!) of cement and gravel and building materials and is in the process of building several buildings for schools, a clinic and the beginning plans for 3 church buildings. We have taught the Word, shared with friends, prayed and prayed, felt at loss, found the way through, kept on plodding sometimes running, haven’t had a sleep in past 6:00 am for months and months (except for Jubab who sometimes sleeps till noon on a Saturday), have composed two new Tala-Andig songs..........and more! 

Through all of this, your prayers and support are the backbone of us being able to keep on in the work here........you are part of God’s team here! Don’t know where we’d be without you and we sure do praise our God for you!

"I Thought I Could Never Be Saved....."

Please pray!!! Tonight is the Bible Study for the school teachers at Ben and Leonie’s place and the study is about Jesus’ death on the cross and His triumph over sin and death and the full payment that He has made for our salvation!  Pray that many will trust Jesus as their Saviour and their names will be written tonight in the Book of Life!!!!

Also another big prayer point is for the teaching of the Word in a place which is a haven for criminals. There is a group of about 20 being taught weekly and most of these men have killed. Everyone there has a gun....and the place is very hard to get to. One of the bible teachers from here who travels there each week told us yesterday, “When I get there and start teaching this group, I forget how hard the trip was and how tired I am!”  Some of these criminals have been saying, “If I had known this before, I wouldn’t have killed.” Others have said, “This is amazing, God is actually giving me a chance to get saved. I thought I could never be saved.”

Two Things.....

There were two things that stood out to us this last Sunday:

That life is short.

This dear man is Kukuy Bagas and this month he was given 6 months to live by his doctor. He is suffering from an aggressive type of liver cancer. Kukuy and his family are from the neighbouring community, Miarayon and they were taught about Jesus by Rodil, one of the missionary team here, who for weeks went to their home and taught them until they were saved and joined the church here in Lapoc. Since Kukuy was saved his desire has been to serve the Lord and he has been part of the team of bible teachers who are spreading the Gospel in the surrounding areas.

The elders met with him here last Sunday afternoon and prayed with him, along with the leading women in the church. It was really difficult. We all cried with him, we prayed with him, we asked God to heal Kukuy by His miraculous power if it is His will, and we committed Kukuy to God’s hands. Kukuy shared how he misses his ministry and misses going out with the team, he misses coming to church as most Sundays he is too ill. He hates to look in the mirror he said now as he has lost so much weight and looks so unwell.  Please pray for Kukuy and his wife Lisa and their 4 married children and grandchildren.  

The second thing is that the kingdom of God is like a man who scatters seed upon the soil and the seed sprouts and grows – how, the man does not know. (Mark 4:26-29)

This is what is happening here. The seed is sprouting and growing – while we are asleep at night and while we are up by day. It is an amazing work of the Holy Spirit. Please pray for the community of Miarayon. God is doing huge things there right at this moment. Last Sunday, one of the prominent men of Miarayon and his family met with Paul and the elders and they want to be taught each week. The first bible study there starts tonight!! They are coming to church and want to know the Way of salvation!!  Also another bible study starts tonight in the remote community of Sulahugon with a group of 7 young people. These young people are the unsaved friends of Isabel - one of the young ladies from the church here - who she has been witnessing to, and they too want to know the Way of salvation!!

Two weeks in a row now, 25 people of Talid-Talid have also gathered to be taught the Word. “The people of Talid-Talid are hungry for God’s Word” is the report that the bible teachers brought back to the church here!

PLEASE dear co-workers, please take up arms with us through prayer and fight for these souls. It is a huge battle raging here right now!

Pray for our church leaders and for our evangelists too!  Eph 6:18