Back home in Lapoc.....!

Safely back in Lapoc! Praise God!!!!

We have slid back easily into a different ‘world’ which Lapoc really is compared to life in the West. Funny thing is though that this ‘world’ is so familiar to us that it all just seems normal when we get back here. How we praise God for refreshing our hearts and souls and minds through our time away, for the wonderful time with Grandpa and with many dear friends and co-workers in the work of the Gospel who we spent time with during our trip…..it was all so very special.

It will be another 7 weeks before we see sight of a town again so we stocked up on 7 weeks’ supply of groceries as we came through Cagayan and took Jubab to the orthodontist amongst other things.  Just an aside, I (Deb) had my bi-annual check-up which showed up active endometriosis and my right ovary is almost entirely occupied by a cyst so this will need some watching. I have some follow-up Doctor’s appointments at the end of March.

We also met up with Nayumi, Dondon’s widow, and she stayed with us overnight in Cagayan. We stayed up late that night talking, until we just couldn’t keep our eyes open anymore, and it was so good to see her. She told us that as the time has passed since Dondon’s death, the initial relief she felt that Dondon was no longer suffering and the numbness has been replaced with the painful grip of loneliness and the intense longing for his companionship and there are times the days seem very bleak to her. We were glad that we could spend time praying with her and reading the Word and comforting her and we are so glad that she is able to identify her feelings and talk about them and we know this in itself is a healthy part of her healing process.

The news about my Dad is not real clear yet but it appears that he has a cancer that can be treated with chemo in a tablet form so we are waiting for more news on this after his visit to the oncologist. All of your prayers and encouragements and thoughts of us have been the Lord’s outstretched hand to us during this very difficult time.

After packing up supplies and leaving the town behind, we made our way up to Lapoc, with a quick stop in Lantod on the way to see the progress on the church building and it is going amazingly well considering all the difficulty with the roads and the bad weather and the bridge being washed out making it very hard to get building materials on site.  One bridge was totally washed away in the recent typhoon as you can see from the photo below. 

This is the first obstacle we came to on the road home to Lapoc where you can see that the bridge was totally torn off its moorings and washed away.

The good news though is that there is an old bridge that was in existence a number of years before this one was built and it was still pretty intact. So light vehicles are able to cross and we are so thankful that we didn’t face any delays as we travelled.

The difficult thing is that heavy loads of cement and building materials all have to be shuttled across in small loads and transferred to another truck on the other side so you can imagine the huge job it is to get building materials up here now.

Thankfully, God’s plans and time table cannot be frustrated or hindered by any sort of obstacles and He has undertaken in amazing ways while we were away to help the team of guys that Paul had left in charge of the Lantod church building and in just a couple more weeks it should be finished and the believers there will have their own place to meet. It is so timely as the make-shift lean-to’s that they erected as temporary meeting places have been cold and leaking and very difficult venues to study the Word in and to worship in together.

Lantod is a place where three languages are spoken and Arabic is taught in the local school because of the strong Islam presence. People from all 3 of these people groups have come to the Lord and the Lord has established a small church there. This place is a key area needing special prayer cover. As  you pray for Lapoc and the ongoing battle for souls that is being waged here, please keep Lantod a high priority prayer point.

We have been able to touch base with the elders from Cauyunan, Tumpagon, Limonda, Anlagan, Lapoc and Tinaytayan and also with the missionary team from Kalamalamahan this past few days since we have been home and we have been touched and greatly blessed by their steadfastness and fervour for the Lord Jesus.  We have some wonderful stories to share with you but we’ll do that in our next update in a few days.

Here we are as we dropped into Lantod – arriving just before the rain – to see the nearly finished church and the guys just preparing to pour the cement floor. We were so thrilled to see this building standing where nothing had been before when we left.

Please pray that the believers in Lantod will very soon be meeting in this building and that this provision from the Lord for them will greatly encourage their hearts. Pray that they will be diligent and faithful to meet and to study the Word and to praise and to pray and that they will stand steadfast through the trials which are plenty.  And pray that in the three different people groups represented in this new church will have beautiful unity and will genuinely love and serve one another.

About two hours after this picture was taken we were driving down our driveway in Lapoc, hugging our team-mates, lugging bags and boxes up the steps and drinking in the Lapoc sights and sounds.

Our first evening back here ended perfectly with dinner together with our whole missionary team and seven other neighbour families who all brought food and soft drinks to welcome us home. Ben and Leonie’s baby Grace I think got the most cuddles as she was passed around and cooed over by everyone and she didn’t seem to mind all the attention!

Here are some other photos for you of our first day back. We will continue this story in our next update.  For now we better go and get an somewhat early night as this is our first quiet night to ourselves since we arrived. 

Jubab enjoying time with Yingying

Dinner together on our first night back

 

 

 

 

Bridge repair sign

Please Pray For Deb's Dad

Yesterday morning we woke up to some bad news. Grandpa, with tears, gently broke the news to us that my Dad has cancer in his kidneys. (Mom had called the evening before while we were out.) He has a 7 cm tumour in his left kidney and it has also spread to his right kidney and to the lymph nodes near his aorta. He will see a urologist in 2 weeks time and then most likely will have surgery to remove his left kidney and maybe part of his right kidney, followed by chemo.

Our first reaction was that we were devastated but as God has calmed our hearts and helped us to work through our initial shock we have come to realize that the prognosis for Dad might not be as bad as we think and we need to just wait and see what God brings about in the days ahead.  It glorifies God if we wait patiently and trust Him and take each day as it comes and don’t jump to the worst conclusion.

We have also heard this morning from our special friend who is a doctor, that he has seen many patients with cancer in the kidneys who have lived and functioned quite well with just part of a kidney for many more years.

Please pray for Dad and Mom (Bob and Jan Bagley) through these next days and weeks as they wait to see the Urologist and face many unknowns. And pray for direction for us and for my younger brother and sister and our children, as we all go through this and deal with this in our own ways. Pray that we will glorify God through this time of Dad’s cancer and recognize all the amazing facets of God’s incredible love and provision.  

At this stage we are planning on returning to the Philippines as planned in 3 weeks time and shortly afterwards, I hope to make a trip to Australia (Probably in March) to see Dad and Mom and may need to make a couple of trips during the year. Paul and Jubab will probably remain in Lapoc during that time and Jubab will continue with his school there.

At the end of the year it will be 4 years since we were in Australia and we will be returning to Australia for home assignment and this may be a good thing that we can be closer to Dad and Mom and be a help to them through this time.

We very much need your prayers – this year’s journey is looking like it may hold many mountains to climb and many rough patches of road to travel and we need to hold tighter than ever to our Lord’s hand.

Season of Refreshment......!

We arrived safely in the US and are so thankful to the Lord for His care for us as we travelled and for the rest He is giving us here! It doesn’t seem possible that it is over 3 weeks already since we left Lapoc but this photo of us sharing a meal and enjoying family time with our uncle and aunt and some of our cousins is evidence that we really have been transported out of our familiar and remote mountainous missionary life into a totally different country and life-style!

Please pray for the ministry team we have left behind in Lapoc during the 2 months we are away. We are hearing regular reports via Skype from our co-workers back in Lapoc and we praise the Lord that there was no loss of life in the recent typhoon that passed right over Lapoc. We did lose 2 bridges though, so our trip to Lapoc will take a lot longer now as we will have to go around the long way to get home. Please pray with us that they will rebuild these bridges quickly.

As far as our family is going, it has amazed Paul how much ‘lighter’ his body and his soul feel already as he allows himself to enjoy the refreshing rains of rest and change of pace. We all felt very groggy from jet lag for about a week, and I (Deb) immediately came down with a bad cold but I am over it now and we are all feeling re-energized and so, so thankful to the Lord for this time away that He has given us and Jubab is thoroughly enjoying meeting other young people and making new friends.

We have been enjoying sharing what the love of our lives – Jesus – is doing amongst the people groups we love in Mindanao, and also seeing what He is doing amongst His people here. One of the highlights was sharing at an AWANA group and the most amazing thing happened. A little tiny girl, about 5 years old, had some questions for us at AWANA that she wanted to ask us so she could fill out her book in the section called, “Interview a missionary.” And at the end, it said in her book, “Pray for your missionary.” So she put her book down, stood there right beside us, and in a very audible voice prayed, “Dear God, please help the missionaries teach people about Jesus and..... God, please keep them safe, Amen.” It was so precious it brought tears to our eyes. 

When you see this picture of the beautiful, clear skies the Lord has been giving us, you will have an idea of the wonderful, peaceful days we are having.

Last week we had a wonderful reunion with family – my Uncle, Aunt and cousins and their families.

This week the Lord has brought us to Amish country in Pennsylvania where we are having a family break at the moment – something unplanned, and it wasn’t on the schedule, but God worked it out for us!  

We have loved being in the country, the open fields, the beautiful farm animals, the Amish way of life of driving buggies and ploughing their fields with horses or mules and the country restaurants with the wonderful Dutch-German cooking. These little goats on this farm were enjoying showing off and were quite happy to show us their expertise in climbing and jumping.

Yesterday we were also blessed to see a wonderful production on ‘Jonah’ at a theatre called Sights and Sounds, and it was a real thrill to us and a memory we will treasure.  The picture below is outside the theatre with the Lion and the Lamb statue – how wonderful that our Saviour is both our Lion and our Lamb!!!

Our time with Grandpa is coming up next – and knowing my Grandpa and his love of story-telling, eating ice-cream, watching old videos and playing board games – this is going to be a very special time with him leading up to Christmas and to his birthday the day after Christmas. Shortly into the new year we are scheduled to speak at a missions conference and then begin our journey back home to Lapoc.

We praise God for you and for your prayers for our safety as we travel and for this time to be one of healing of our wounds and sorrows so that God can shortly take us back into the thick of the battle.