A Big Push On The Translation

Translating the scriptures has been part of our ministry since

the beginning of our work in Cauyunan. Progress though has been very,very slow because it has been just one of many ministries we have been involved in.

In Cauyunan:

- During initial stages of evangelism, we preached the Gospel and

sometimes we were teaching up to 7 or 8 times a week.

- Each bible lesson had to be painstakingly written down and checked

with language helpers as we were still on a steep learning curve in our

language learning.

- Medical work consumed many hours, both day and night.

- The young believers needed much encouragement, discipleship and

teaching.

- We were compelled by the poverty and needs all around us to help as

we could and so we built a corn mill and asked God for cattle and for

fruit trees which were distributed amongst the churches.

- Extensive outreach started and our work load just snowballed.

In Lapoc:

- By the time the Lord moved us to the Lapoc area in the year 2000, we

had portions of Genesis, Exodus and the Gospels translated as well as

the book of James and part of the book of Acts and Ephesians but it

was seriously in need of revision and so we began a big revision project

which took several years.

- In 2009, we were on Home Assignment in Ballina and it was our heart’s

desire to see if we could not make some good progress on the

translation while away from all the other ministry needs that

constantly face us when we are here in Lapoc. We were able to

complete the whole book of Luke that year which is 14% of the New

Testament!

- This has inspired us and we feel before the Lord and in fellowship

with leadership, that it is the right time in our ministry to put aside a

season to focus on finishing the translation of the New Testament.

Big Push On The Translation After Home Assignment:

We hope to begin the big push to complete the Tala-Andig New Testament

at the beginning of 2015, which will be when our home assignment ends.

Ballina will be our base where we do most of the work but twice a year we

will make trips back here to Lapoc to check the translation with language

helpers and to visit the churches.

Based on our experience before with the book of Luke, we believe we can achieve about 15% or more a year and so we are thinking that possibly within 3 years, we could have the translation completed.

This is also very timely for us as a family because Jubab will be in Gr. 11 then and needing to make decisions about his future and we want to be with him and to see him established in the path God has for him in his life before we leave him to return here to Mindanao.

Please keep this in your prayers and look forward with us towards the completion of the Tala-Andig New Testament. It is a really big job before us……God is ABLE!!

Survey of New Area

This is Dungguan, still early in the morning not long after sunrise and this little group of about 22 adults had already gathered under a make-shift shelter to hear the story of Jesus’ resurrection. While Paul taught there was a pig that wondered through, some dogs and chickens, children were wondering in and out…..but in spite of these distractions they listened hungrily and we could see that many of them had just put their faith in the Lord Jesus as their Saviour.

You can see some of them listening in the photo below – how they listened intently and with joy as they heard about the finished work of Christ on their behalf. In particular, I watched the little lady with the white hair and the young Mum beside her who was holding her new-born baby and they hardly blinked as they just drank in the Word of God. 

 The young man on the left of the picture was struggling within himself as Paul was teaching and my heart was praying for him that whatever spiritual struggle he was in the midst of, he would just surrender it to Jesus.

It was no easy trek to reach this little village of Dungguan – very rough roads and no amenities along the way. Parts of the road were quite muddy and it started to rain just before we arrived so the guys on the motorbikes stopped to get their rain gear on. We had 4 large, retired laying hens in the back of the car who were intended to be dinner that night when we arrived at Dungguan and they had to be rescued numerous times from the backpacks and bags that kept falling into their box.

Upon arrival, all 21 of us were received in a little house that belonged to the couple who host the bible study each week. The cooking fires filled the house with smoke, water for washing was carried in plastic containers from a little spring about 20 min walk downhill, the bathroom was any private bush you could find…..the people were gentle and quiet and very, very needy with lots of sick children and no medical help available apart from the little town which we had come through hours before. Everyone got fed and the dishes got washed in the semi-darkness and we all lay down Tuesday night on our grass mats in our designated areas. Paul, Jubab and I had a little room all to ourselves about 5 feet wide and just long enough for Paul’s feet to stretch out. During the night we were woken several times with bugs on us (I got a harmless but sore spider bite), the floor boards were digging into our rib cage and it was totally uncomfortable…….but these small discomforts were utterly meaningless compared to our purpose for being there – to help lead the souls of men and women and children from darkness and hopelessness into the light and hope of a relationship with the Saviour!

Apart from Dungguan, we also saw the villages of  Tignapuluan, Salimbal, Man-ay, Bangkirs and Malumpayad. At Malumpayad, there is a group of about 10-12 people who are listening to the Word who are being taught each week by Ruel and James - our Higaunon missionaries from Ricodo. Ruel is one of the elders from Tumpagon, sent out as a missionary two years ago along with his wife and baby daughter. James and JingJing recently joined them in the work. Ruel was instrumental in opening up this area to the Word but they need help.

We are praying about sending two missionary families from here to locate in perhaps Man-ay and to work alongside Ruel who travels to that area from Ricodo one day a week. The needs are huge and there are thousands of people living in those villages we mentioned above.

All of the 14 church leaders from here who went on the survey with us, are excited about doing missionary work into that area. Lord willing, two of those men will be the ones to take the big step and actually GO there! All of them would go if they were sent but there are two in particular that are prominent in all our thoughts and plans who it appears God may have chosen for this enormous task. Interesting note is that I thought the wife of one of these two men would be negative towards going and not willing to give up her comfortable life here and her close proximity to her family, but when I asked her yesterday what her thoughts would be if the church leaders sent them, she said she has already been talking about this with her husband, wondering if they would be sent and she said that she is willing go and ready if God sends them!

PLEASE BE PRAYING WITH US ABOUT MISSIONS INTO THIS NEW AREA!!! 

Home Assignment

Paul, Jubab and Deb on September 7, 2013

It is hard to believe that another four years have passed since we were in Australia
but it HAS and us Howells are on our way back to Aussie on Home Assignment, Lord
willing in December!

The past four years have been an incredible journey and some of the highlights are:

•  Jubab has grown from an 11 year old boy in Grade 6 into a 15 year old‘man’ who will soon be starting Grade 10!
• The Gospel has continued to spread through the church here in Lapoc with 4 new churches planted during the past 4 years and about 8 new outreaches started.
• There have been 9 new church leaders raised up over the past 4 years and 423 baptisms.
• There have been four new church buildings built during the past four years: Tinaytayan, San Aquino, Tagbak and Lantod. 
• There are new books of the Bible that have been added to the Tala-Andig scriptures: Romans, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians and Colossians is only a couple of week’s work away from being completed!

Plans for Home Assignment:
1. Christmas in Brisbane with both Paul and Deb’s family which will be very
special after many years apart! We are so thankful for the improvement in
Deb’s Dad’s cancer.
2. Move to Ballina in January and set up house. Jubab is looking forward to
going back to his school there and to enjoying a bit more freedom then the
dangers here allow him. (Recently he was looking forward to watching a
game of basketball – the come-back game of his favourite player after a
long time out with an injury – so he was very excited. Halfway into the
second quarter, a gun battle between enemy clans broke out about 500 m
away from our house. That was the end of watching the basketball game
for the evening. Hopefully this won’t happen in Ballina! Danger and
uncertainty is just part of life up here and is often stressful.
3. Catch up with friends, church family and partners in the work of the Gospel
at the first possible opportunity!
4. Write a couple of books? Hopefully! This has been a dream of ours to do for
a few years now and maybe this Home Assignment year we can make some
headway on this dream.
5. Enjoy some quiet time with the Lord and with each other. We are feeling
pretty battle-weary.

Half-way through the year - about June 2014 - we hope to return to Lapoc to
encourage the church leaders and to visit the churches, and then also again in
December 2014.

We praise God for your faithful prayers and partnership in the work here over this
past four years – it has been a huge journey – and we ask for your prayers for us as
there is so much unknown for us in this next year, a lot of adjustments that we will
have to make and much that we will have to trust the Lord for.

May God’s peace and joy fill your hearts!

Rostom's Testimony

“I was like a cooking pot full of holes before I met Jesus. Do you know what a cooking pot full of holes is good for? Nothing! But then I heard about Jesus and how He died to save me and I trusted Him and now, He has transformed my life and is using me for His glory. Jesus took the broken holes of my life and He filled them and He made me complete…..”

Rostom is a 21 year old young man from Tagbak who was saved as a teen through the outreach from our church here in Lapoc and from the time he was saved he has grown steadily in his faith and has shown a keen desire to serve our Lord and to share the good news with others. Since he was saved, he has not allowed the fact that he was born with missing limbs – one hand and one foot – to slow him down.

His childhood though was very painful. As he endured the slights and snubs of other children and even adults, there were times he plunged into despair and felt his life was worthless. But since the day he trusted Jesus, he has seen God’s value on his life because as he likes to say, “God was willing to pay the same price for me as He did for everyone else – the precious blood of His own Son!”

Rostom’s joy in life today is to teach the Word and through much study of the Word and allowing himself to be  discipled, God is developing Rostom into an effective instrument and a strong light in his community of Tagbak. He is bringing 11 other young men to the Youth Camp being held here in Lapoc at the end of this month. He led these young men to the Lord himself.

Recently one of the unsaved leaders of their community publicly spoke about the impact that Rostom is having there as a preacher of the Word.

Rostom may be looked on by the world as ‘weak’ – he has no physical dexterity, no worldly influence, he is poor in earthly goods - BUT God’s power is being shown through Rostom’s weakness and God is being glorified through him.

May Rostom’s testimony and the wonderful plans of God for his life encourage you as it has us and let us continue to encourage one another and to speak about the marvellous works of God!!!!

Survey Report From Rodil

It would appear that the Lord has expansion planned for the work over here once again. So far over the past 25 years we have opened up 4 mission stations across a wide area and many churches have been planted and leaders and teachers trained and discipled. Well it seems like the Lord is directing us to open up another new horizon - (Bisigan-Bangkirs-Tignapuluan areas). Each time the work expands it is with many growing pains, many sacrifices needing to be made, people giving their lives to be used, funds and effort also. God is the great provider of everything we need from people to wisdom to our very strength and breath, and once again we are wondering ---  What is God going to do this time.

Our prayer often is –   “Lord show us where you are working and let us work with you”.

In our last update, Deb mentioned that the guys were going out on a survey into a neighbouring area. Well they have been and come back and below is a transcript from the survey report which our Higaunon co-worker Rodil recorded. We will put what he said in a different colour below.

 

Quote from Rodil  

              “From Lapoc, us elders and leaders left at dawn and we set off, stopping first in San Aquino to pick up our fellow leaders there and then continuing on to Lantod. There were 17 of us and we found the road very rough – even for motorbikes. Some of the ‘road’ had become overgrown with weeds and brush, there was lots of mud and in some places, parts of the ‘road’ had washed away. We had a guide with us called Danny who comes from this area but as we passed through the forested area where many rebels and groups of bandits live, even he was nervous.

            We got to a village called Unsi and found the road there was paved for a short distance. People stared at us in fear as we passed and one woman in particular looked terrified of us and we wondered if her family was in hiding from the police.

            From the village of Unsi we could look down and see the Bisigan area and we saw scattered villages in the forest. Just past there we came to Bangkirs, a village at a crossroad where a road comes up from Tignapuluan and there is an occasional truck or jeep that comes up that road to Bisigan. At Bangkirs there are a lot of houses, power lines have reached there so electricity is available. It is located on a hill and has easy access to the whole area because of the crossroads. I think this might be a good place we could consider locating a missionary team. I don’t know though what the water situation is like there as we didn’t see their water supply.

            Next we continued up to Dongguan. There are a lot of people there almost purely Higaunon. Only one religious group has infiltrated that area that we saw – there is a catholic church there. The government is currently constructing a highway which they started in Unsi and which will go right through the centre of Dongguan. This highway is the Illigan-Aglayan pass.

            Currently Ruel and James, our missionaries from Ricodo, are teaching a group of 30 people in Dongguan. They are listening well and starting to love the Word and are currently being taught the Good News about salvation in Jesus. Ruel and James travel there and stay overnight every Tuesday. They also teach a second group in another nearby village called Malumpayad but we didn’t get to see this group.

            We arrived in Dongguan at 10 AM and Ruel and James were in the middle of teaching and we saw all the people gathered to listen. By about 11 AM we continued on to Ricodo and found the roads steep and dangerous and some places where there were some steep drops on the side.  James and Ruel bring machetes with them and some weeks they have had to hack their way through fallen trees and other debris.

            Amazingly, we met some of the road crew coming along with two bulldozers and the next day when we came back, the road was cleared and widened and now even a vehicle will be able to get through apart from the dangers of landslides as all the edges are still very soft.

            This part of the road went through quite some distance of uninhabited areas of forest but then we came to Ricodo in Rogongon where again we found many houses and villages and lots of people. We were very excited to arrive at Ricodo and to see Ruel and James’ homes, their families and the work they are doing. They have everything organized and well-kept and they are working hard at their ministry. From where they are located they can travel out to the areas of Illigan or across to Tumpagon. God has established the church in Ricodo and now they are reaching out through 22 km of forest to the village of Dongguan.

            We came home to Lapoc the next day but when we got to the cross-roads at Bangkirs, we took a different road and came back via Man-ay and Tignapuluan. We saw that these places have electricity, schools, lots of houses and the people seemed open and friendly. Some women asked us what we were doing and we told them that we are spreading God’s Word and they seemed interested. God is no doubt working in people’s hearts there and preparing the way for His Word. Man-ay would be another good place for a missionary team with its central location and large community.

            Just down the hill from Man-ay is another big village called Litig and beyond that is an even bigger place called Tignapuluan where we noticed that Jehovah’s witnesses and other religious and cult groups have already come and set up buildings.

            These areas we believe are where God wants us to reach out to next with the Gospel. We saw huge unreached pockets of people and over beyond where we surveyed is another whole group of unreached people in the Mambuaya area and all the way from there to Tagpangi.

            We need to work together in teams: we can put a full-time missionary team into the Bangkirs-Man-ay area and help them from all sides, from Lantod, Ricodo, Lapoc and all the other churches. As we did the survey, we felt so impelled with the need to reach these areas with the Gospel…….”

From Paul again:

We are planning on doing a secondary survey in October. Please pray with us as this area can be dangerous and the roads bad. Pray that we will be able to make friends even with the rebels and bandits and maybe even reach them eventually with the Gospel. Pray that we will shine for our Lord Jesus as we travel and that people will be drawn to listen to His Word.

We are thinking perhaps by the middle of next year we may be able to have materials prepared and start building some housing for the missionary team. We don’t know yet who this missionary team will be comprised of – there are several families in our church here in Lapoc and in the other church plants, who are willing, prepared and equipped spiritually for the job. So pray with us (our team here and all the church leaders) for God’s clear leading in who He has chosen for this special job.

Overwhelmed by the task but confident in the Lord, Paul and Deb (on behalf of us and all of our Higaunon and Tala Andig Co-workers)