Arriving in Australia......

We have arrived in our passport country of Australia!

The two weeks leading up to our departure from the Philippines on Dec 3, 2013 held all the normal emotions that one goes through when a big change is ahead, like excitement, sadness, fear, dread……..but we were held by the confidence in our God that He has every step already in place for us. Our transition into Australia has been going very smoothly which is a huge praise point and we thank our Lord for His arms around us and for all His plans for us.

 

These are some of the things we did as we said goodbyes:

 

Committing elders and deacons to the task before them.

 

Last minute laughs and cuddles

Jubab singing a last song in the Tumpagon

Church with his brother Nel.

 

Lots of hugs and fun with our grandkids! We had a couple of days in Cagayan with Jen and Udi and the kids taking the grandkids swimming and doing lots of fun stuff.

Since being back in Australia, we have been catching up with family and friends and partners in the work and during the next weeks and months, we hope to travel and catch up with many more!

Our phone number here in Australia is 0431 835454. Our email addresses are still the same.

Please feel free to contact us through email or phone call if you would like us to share in your church or to speak at any events. We will be happy to have opportunities to tell of the marvellous works of our Lord Jesus over here in the Lapoc and Dulangan areas.

Our hearts are very full and very thankful!

Open Doors In Man-ay

Last Tuesday Paul woke me up at 4:12 am. He couldn’t sleep with excitement because at 6:00 am, the proposed missionary team to Man-ay were going on their first survey there as two couples to fully investigate the lay-out of Man-ay and to find out if the village officials there would even accept a missionary team.

Before they left we got with them and had a prayer time and Paul exhorted them to be courageous and to go out there like Joshua and Caleb had when they were sent to spy out the land of Canaan. Paul told them that during their survey to Man-ay, they would see ‘sweet things’ like the grapes that Joshua and Caleb brought back and they would also see ‘giants’, but not to be afraid because God is with them and will go before them. 

We walked up to the road with them and watched them drive off with much excitement in our hearts and expectations of great things. 

THE ‘SWEET’ NEWS (OR THE GRAPES):

There were indeed many sweet things that the survey held for these two couples! The biggest news is that the chief leader of  Man-ay welcomed them with open arms and offers to help them find land to build on and offered them any assistance that they need – even a place to live while their housing is being built! Praise God for this answer to prayer!!!

Apparently for some time now, this leader has been hearing news about the group who have the “Batbat” or the ‘account of’, which people here have been calling the Good News which we are spreading. He had already heard that our group is very good! We knew that God had already been preparing the way into Man-ay and it was exciting to hear about this first hand.

People’s hearts were very open to them everywhere they went.

There is some land available for purchase that is in a pretty central place in the village so would be good for the team.

THE ‘GIANTS’:

They had to face a lot of strangers and one rather aggressive man who were all gathered at the house of the chief leader.

There are some cults already moving into the area who will be sure to cause some conflict.

SO……Doors are continuing to open and progress is being made in the Lapoc church’s plans to send out a missionary team to the Tignapuluan area which is made up of more then a dozen different villages – Man-ay seems the most strategic place to locate out of all them.  

The proposed team to send there are two couples, DuyDuy and JenJen Alderite and their 5 yr old son, who would be the team leaders and Marjun and Angel and their 4 yr old son who would be their partners and there may be a third couple. This is still being finalized and may still change but we know they would value your prayers sooooo much as they make final decisions. Tomorrow night they will be presenting a full report to the elders here about their trip earlier this week and we will all have dinner together which we are really looking forward to!

Youth Camp

This is the Lapoc church youth group almost beside themselves with joy as they formed a welcoming committee for the 250+ youth who were arriving from 22 different churches on Oct 30^th.  They had been waiting for this day for months and finally Youth Camp was about to start!!!!

By early evening, after serving a meal to over 300 hungry travellers  including the 50 Camp leaders, the first meeting started off beautifully and profoundly with the camp theme song written by some of the youth in the Lapoc youth group. They had been practising for days and the Lord really blessed their hard work and was glorified through them. 

The youth delighted in the early morning praise times outdoors, led by a special team from Cagayan who were a huge blessing to all the youth at the camp. If you have ever stood with nearly 300 fellow believers in our Lord Jesus, joining your voices in praise under the shade of tall pine trees with the blue skies stretched high above you and the early morning sun shining gently, accompanied with the resonant sounds of a cajon and a guitar and led by Goldie, a beautiful sister in the Lord and a gifted song leader....then you would know the feeling of God’s presence and the foretaste of heaven.

The youth were so focused during the messages and you would have been amazed at the quietness and the discipline they showed as they followed along in their Bibles and took heaps of notes. It amazed us!

Activity and game times were hysterical and the roar of laughter and fun bounced off the walls of our church building, echoing onto the nearby hills. We just absorbed it all as it was happening and praised God for their laughter and for the pleasures of being one family in Him!

This was the last group photo before their goodbyes. Tears flowed pretty freely as the young people said goodbyes to each other and the loaded vehicles set off for home. Even though we had some dear friends visiting with us, the house still felt empty without the 40+ campers that had been staying with us in our house but they’ll be back next year! 

Jerwin's Parents

This picture was taken exactly a month ago at the first baptism to be held at Lantod, in the little Picutin river down the hill from the church building. Lots of pictures were taken that day but this picture in particular holds a very special place in our hearts because these are Jerwin’s parents, Claudiano and Lidime Gamat.

You may remember that this year started out with great tragedy for this couple when their eldest son Jerwin, was treacherously shot and killed on January 30^th. Jerwin was a new believer just starting out his new life with Jesus, training to be a bible teacher and excited about his faith. Jerwin and his wife Erica hosted the meetings of the baby church at Talid-Talid and showed much hospitality to Rodil, James and Marjun each week when they went there to teach the Word.

As we shared earlier this year, the church in Talid-Talid was scattered not long after Jerwin’s death because of the threats to the believers’ lives and much persecution starting with the home of one of the believing families being burnt down.

In spite of being babes still in the faith, Jerwin’s parents kept the faith through this awful year and expressed to us when we saw them on the day of their baptism that they had trusted all to Jesus. It gave us a lot of joy to witness their baptism (his Dad is on the left with no shirt, being baptised by Danoy, in the centre is another member of their family, Sopronia, being baptised by Marjun, and on the right is Jerwin’s mother, Lidime, being baptised by Jabil).

About fifty people were baptised that day in Lantod including Lola who used to be blind from cataracts but who now can see as a result of cataract surgery that God provided for her. In the picture below she was telling us that she’s happy she now has her eyesight back but the real joy she has is because Jesus opened the eyes of her heart and gave her spiritual sight!

Only eternity will give you the time to get to know each member of the Lord’s family who was baptised that day in Lantod, but one day you will meet them and you will personally be able to hear what the Lord has done in their lives and these testimonies will melt your heart with His glory and power and love!

If you don’t mind, the next few days we are going to inundate you with news because there are so many things to praise God about that we want to share with you!

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!!