Gorgeous children.....!

Gorgeous children from the San Aquino church, praising God with their beautiful little voices yesterday. Paul preached his heart out there for one and a half hours on John 18 and 19, our newest portion of translated scripture! Starting today on the very last book of the Tala-Andig New Testament that we have to translate - the Gospel of Matthew!!

Paul and Deb's week......

This last week since arriving back from Australia, we have washed off a lot of ink (thanks to the printer we packed in our suitcase inside 3 layers of plastic bags and a waterproof duffel bag which still managed to leak ink through onto some other stuff), we’ve gotten a bit of rest, gotten our house back into working order and have got back into translation again. God has given us amazing progress -- We finished John 17 and well into the process for John 18-20.

Also last Thursday our daughter Jen and her hubby Udi came out to see us and cried with us about Dad’s (Grandpa’s) passing away and we were able to share with them all the details that they were wondering about.

Paul also did a trip in to Lapoc and got some work done in there and I was able to do some gardening that I’d been wanting to do for some time.

On Friday we made a long overdue visit to the dentist and also had a day of unexpected but very welcome visitors including Angel and Marjun with their newborn baby Clint (photo above) who I just loved cuddling with. That day was a real delight!

So today we are launched into a new week – another big one Lord willing on the translation. It is amazing and surreal to be getting so close now to finishing the Tala-Andig New Testament.

Also please pray for us as we make another trip back to Australia on August 24 for 16 days. We had already bought the tickets for this trip a couple of months ago, feeling the Lord urging us to go and see Paul’s Mum who hasn’t been well (we haven’t seen her for 2 ½ years) and also to go and visit my Dad and Mom as we thought Dad’s time was almost at an end here on earth. As you know the Lord did take Dad and we were able to do an emergency trip home and were able to communicate with him before he left. God’s plans are perfect.

So we have the tickets to go first to Perth and then to Brisbane and then home here again to the Philippines so we will go ahead also with these plans. My Mom is currently in Perth with my brother and his family so we will see them briefly but then spend 4-5 days with Paul’s Mum and the rest of his family also. From there we will go with my Mom to Brisbane and help her with whatever she wants us to do. It is probable that we will help her pack up the house and she will move to Perth permanently. Anyway we will be there and help her in whatever capacity she wants us to during that time.

Thank you so, so much for all your prayers for our family as we go through this time of grieving and adjusting to the loss of Dad and for the many things that have to be done so that Mom can be settled in this new part of her journey.

Our last days with Dad.....

This was our last photo with Dad. Taken about 2 hours after we arrived. We had long delays with our flights and a frantic message as we were driving from the airport saying, “Sis, how far away are you? Please hurry…..” We were wondering what God’s plan was for us and if we would arrive too late, but God gave us the beautiful gift of 2 hours with Dad where he was able to respond to us before he lapsed into unconsciousness. All that night and the whole next day our family was at Dad’s bedside, holding his hands, talking to him, keeping him as comfortable as we could. His breathing was very labored which was heartbreaking to listen to.

At 10:50pm on Sunday evening, July 23^rd, 30 hours after we arrived, our Lord Jesus took Dad and brought him into His own presence. Dad died very peacefully with our arms around him, and we give glory to God and are so thankful for His plan for Dad’s last days. During Dad’s last week on earth, he was still able to have his weekly bible study and drive Mom to the grocery store for their weekly outing which was amazing. Only for his last 3 days was he confined to bed, and in his own home as he wanted it to be.

Since Dad passed into glory, our family has just clung together, sharing our grief, our memories of Dad, and working through all the things together that we face now that Dad is no longer here with us. Mom is very tired but is doing okay and keeping strong. 

We have been cushioned on all sides by the outpouring of love and prayers from all of you! Thank you so, so much!  All I can say is that there has been so, so much LOVE.

Paul and I plan to return to the Philippines on August 4 (1 week after the funeral). We praise God that we were able to be here with Dad and our family during this time. Mom will probably be going to WA with Bobby at about the same time we go to the Philippines. I wonder what God’s next chapter is for us all.

For those of you who can attend, Dad’s funeral is on Friday, July 28. We are having a memorial service at Kingsridge Baptist Church, at 11:30 am at 12 Portia St, Kingston. At 3:00 pm there will be a viewing at the Mt Gravatt Cemetery Chapel which is at 582 Mains Road, Macgregor followed by the burial at 3:30.

About my Dad....

My Mom just called this morning as Paul was on his way up to Lapoc. She said that Dad is not responsive this morning, and is not waking up. Dad has been progressively getting weaker and weaker with his cancer the past weeks and his pain has been increasing terribly. Thankfully I was able to contact Paul and he turned around straight away and arrived back home a few minutes ago.

Right now we are trying to book tickets to get to Brisbane as quickly as possible. The palliative care doctor said we should return home as soon as we can and encouraged us to talk to Dad on the phone which we did and we heard his voice although it was very weak.

Just wanted to let you know. Our hearts are very heavy right now, tears falling as we write this. Please pray for our family and pray for all the travel details. It is so comforting to know that Our God is not taken by surprise and has a plan.

Like FAMILY.....

Many of the people in this photo were part of the very first group of believers in Cauyunan that put their faith in the Lord about 26 years ago!!! The bond that binds our hearts together with theirs is so deep and so special, we can’t even begin to describe it to you. They know stories about us and we know stories about them that could fill book after book. It is no wonder that when we are with them, the only way to describe it is that we are FAMILY.

Our time with them last Sunday was so, so amazing and so joyous. A commissioning service was held for one of the ‘little girls’ of Cauyunan (not so little anymore) and her husband, who the churches there sent out this week as their newest missionary family. Please pray for them – Aybi and Jerrum and their little daughter Shine: for safety, for good relationships with their new team, and that they will stay close to the Lord.

Praise the Lord with us for one of our brothers Kikì, who has recovered from leprosy after 4 or 5 years of suffering terribly from this disease. He and his wife sang during the church service and brought many of us to tears.

The progress on the translation work is going awesomely – THANK YOU FOR PRAYING!!!!!

We reached our translation goals last month and please pray that we will reach our goal for the month of July of finishing up to and including John chapter 17.

Just in closing, we had a real experience of ‘cops and robbers’ here last night. Just as we were boiling the kettle and getting ready to have a quiet cup of tea before bed, the place erupted into gunfire so loud and close we thought at first it must be fireworks just outside our home. It turned out it was the police chasing a highway robber, peppering his escape route with bullets. He didn’t get away it turns out, but ended up being shot in the foot and then arrested.

On the road again with the translation!

Translation
After spending a few months renovating our home and taking trips to the mountains, having meetings etc, we are finally back into translation. We have about 15% of the New Testament left to complete before we can print. This is a Big and Continual prayer point. We need wisdom, tenacity and strength from our Lord. This week we are working on John 12:21-50. By June 30 we would like to see up to and including John 13 completed. After we finish the Gospel of John, we will just have the Gospel of Matthew to do and then the New Testament will be completed.

Ministry
Hugely good is all we can say and to our Lord Jesus be the Glory!!! We have been up into the mountains several time since we have been home and all is going well in the churches. Today the “Dulangan” elders are visiting us after meeting with the “Lapoc” elders. (These are the names of the 2 areas we have worked in for the past 30 years). They are coming here to discuss a new mission team that we want to send out on a full time basis. This is exciting for us – us grandparents now of the work. Pray that the Lord will give wisdom and that a schedule can be set out. They are thinking that we will send the family from the Dulangan to live in Lapoc for 12 months before they finally move out so they can receive more training and bond with new team members who will go out with them. A big prayer point.

A New High-school
The Lord is opening it up for us to minister in a NEW high school this year - in the village of Ticalaan. There are about 800 students there. The men evangelists will do most of the work here. Students who attend this high school come from a large number of villages that make up the catchment area for this school. So we are hoping and praying that this high school will be hugely instrumental in the Word being taken to more places. The scripture teachers want colored pictures to be inserted into their teaching materials so we have just purchased 2 top end duplex lazer color printers which can churn out our new materials that we are developing. We also need to hold some seminars on these materials within the next 2 weeks and need wisdom to set dates. It will probably mean an overnight trip away into 2 different locations. Pray for this work and the other 14 schools that we currently minister in.

Our Health and our Family’s Health

-     * Deb’s Dad is holding his own with his cancer but certainly needs our prayers. IT has gotten worse and he is on fairly heavy pain killers.

-      *My Mum in Perth may need a knee replacement soon.

-      *My Step Mum in the USA has had her brain cancer reoccur after it was absent for about 12 months.

-      *Deb and I have the normal pain that comes with age - wear and tear but overall we are good and happy.

Jubab is doing GREAT at Bible College

The Lord has raised up some people to partner with him financially each month so this is a huge praise point as it has reduced the stress of not having funds to pay for the needs he has. Praise God --- reduced stress on Mum and Dad too. Can’t help but watch with anticipation to what God is going to do with our Sons’ life.  Of course we miss Jubab terribly but we are more comfortable with him being separated from us now and really happy with what he is doing. We recently had a really great time with him when he visited us.

Where we are now

We thought we would show you this map so that you can see where we are now compared to before. All our churches are in the upper left quadrant of the map of Mindanao, and we've shaded the area in - from Cagayan de Oro, to Iligan and then across towards the Malaybalay area and then back to Cagayan de Oro. The area that we've coloured with light blue is the Cauyunan - Tumpagon area where there are 8+ churches (where we lived and ministered the Word from 1989-2000). They continue to reach out to new areas including a new outreach here in Cagayan de Oro.

The area coloured in with purple is in the Iligan jurisdiction and we have a missionary team of two families living in this area sent out from the Tumpagon church and supported by the churches of that area as well as some support from Australia. They live in Ricodo where we visited last month, and they have done a lot of great outreach and church planting. There are 4+ other churches in that area planted from that work. They continue to reach out to new areas.

Then there is the red area and that is the Lapoc area where we moved to from Cauyunan in the year 2000 along with a team from the Cauyunan church. There are about 20+ churches planted from the Lapoc work and they continue to reach out to new areas.

The area coloured orange is where we are setting up a work centre now. Cagayan de Oro is a coastal town spread over quite a large area and teeming with people. This is the place where we have always come out to from Cauyunan and Lapoc: to buy supplies, bring people to hospital, pick up our mail etc. It is also the place that many of the people from the churches we work with come if they need to sell or buy or do paperwork required by the Govt.

We're setting up a central office here to finish our translation from and to work on materials needed by the churches. There is also a place where we can hold meetings and training sessions with the church elders who will come out to stay for 2 or 3 days at a time. We can also easily move around and travel to visit all of the churches and security wise, it is one of the pretty stable parts of Mindanao right now. The distance around the circumference of these areas, from Iligan to Rogongon to Lapoc to Malaybalay and then back to Cagayan de Oro is about 455 km and takes hours because of bad sections in the road. It would be about a 9-10 hour trip on average and you could get road blocks that would prevent you even from arriving in a day.

The green area is the Man-ay area where preparations are under-way to place a permanent missionary team. There is a family from the Tumpagon church in the process of moving over to Lapoc for missionary training, another single man already in training from Ricodo, and the church leaders from all the areas are coordinating together making plans for setting up the facilities to house the missionaries and the new work that will open up over there. We have been praying about this area for about 4 years so this is WONDERFUL news to us.

Anyway, this is just a vague sketch but hopefully will be helpful in giving you more of an idea of where we are now.

More good news is that we have now moved into our new place here in Cagayan de Oro and are in the process of unpacking, settling in and getting our new office set up!! Lots of clean-up and little finishing off jobs to do but the end is getting very close!

Jubab arrives in 3 more days Lord willing!!! We are sooooo excited!!!