Planting Trees.....Visiting the sick.....Jubab's time in Japan.....

Planting Trees!

This past week we have been planting some trees with our family in Tumpagon: a very special time of  building memories and bonding with our family!

Thousands of fruit trees planted in the Tumpagon and Cauyunan areas which the Lord provided years ago, are now mature and this year they are just bursting with flowers promising a great harvest in a few months’ time.

There is a time to plant and a time to harvest and this is true not only on the farms that our brothers and sisters are working so hard on in this planting season, but also out in our Lord’s field which surrounds us wherever we go.

Visiting the Sick…

Not only have we been planting trees and seeing the blooms promising the hope of a huge harvest, but we have also been visiting the sick, the weak and the heartbroken….. Over this past weekend, we visited four households, held their hands, hugged them, wiped tears, prayed with them: two families who have family members who are housebound because of strokes, one family who had a death, and another family with a young Mom who is suffering heart problems due to recently giving birth.

Olivia, Jubab’s girlfriend - who is here with us for a month - came with us on these visits and God used her to bring comfort and encouragement to Minda (front, second from right in the picture below) who has been housebound now for 3 years and is partially paralyzed from a stroke. Before we left, we joined hands with the whole family and Olivia prayed for Minda and the family. There is no language barrier with prayer! Minda’s face was beaming after Olivia prayed for her. 

Jubab’s Time in Japan

Jubab is loving his time in Japan and is seeing a lot of the ministry and is feeling more and more like Japan is the mission field that God is calling him to after Bible College. Please pray for him as he looks to the Lord for direction and wisdom over the remaining five weeks he has there.

2018 Talaandig-Higaonon Ladies Retreat

Talaandig Translation Clip

Tinaytayan Mission Church

Anelia's Miracle.....

We asked for a miracle for our sister Anelia, and God answered our prayers. Her miracle was her first sight of our Lord’s face and of heaven yesterday afternoon about 2 hours after this photo above was taken.

Anelia’s dear doctor told us that it would be better for Anelia to discharge her from the hospital and to take her home as he had done all that could be done for her. The hardest thing was telling her husband Tony, and her daughter JenJen and JenJen’s husband Jimrel, and to see their grief and tears as we hugged them and watched the nurses unhook the machines, tubes and needles and prepare Anelia for her trip home.

About two hours after her discharge, as she lay in the back bench seat of our vehicle, with cushions and blankets beneath her and with her head in her husband’s lap, in a very peaceful way as the familiar mountain scenery rolled past the windows, she was ushered into our Lord’s presence. Her daughter and son-in-law were right there with her, and she went in a quiet moment and without a struggle. God’s plan for Anelia’s time to step into timelessness had come and it was good.

Her daughter JenJen, and the whole family, are so thankful for your prayers. In their grief as they wept, they found great comfort in Philippians 1:21, which we read together in the hospital and talked about during the hours when we were processing Anelia’s discharge from the hospital.

Arriving back home with Anelia’s dead body was not the outcome they were hoping for but they accepted it as God’s plan and the church family there is rallying around them. Her body is laid out in her home as the custom is here, and all the family and neighbours are there helping. The coffin is being hand-built by friends and neighbours as we write this and the grave is being dug by these same friends and neighbours. People are cooking rice and feeding all who are visiting and helping with the work…..and when all is ready, her body will be laid in the ground. Probably sometime later this afternoon.

Death is a harsh and bitter reality in our earthly lives…..but our HOPE does not disappoint. It is a living hope through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. 1 Peter 1:3

Thank you for all your messages and emails and prayers – they have been sustaining us through these days!

Please pray for our sister Anelia......

As we were leaving the place where we went to teach the Word last Sunday, we stopped by to visit our sister Anelia who we had been told only just that morning was suffering an illness. We were totally unprepared for the sight of the skeletal, pain-racked version of her usual vibrant happy self who we found when we arrived at her house.

She has been suffering and bedridden for nine months in spite of two different trips to local hospitals which left them with no answers.

The tears and grief that I was trying so hard to hide from Anelia, prevented me from even finishing my prayer for her and as we left, Paul pressed everything he had in his wallet into her husband’s hand. He’s never done that before, but before we even saw her, that’s what the Lord had already told Paul to do.

The next day we contacted a brother in the Lord who is a highly respected Doctor in town and who had recently offered to help us with any patients we had. He told us on the phone to bring her straight in to him even if it was after hours. So we immediately got to work to bring her out and take her to the hospital to be under this dear doctor’s care.

It turns out that Anelia has schistosomiasis (a snail-borne parasite) which has caused cirrhosis of her liver. She is hugely anemic and is currently receiving a blood transfusion and also treatment for the schistosomiasis. We told her last night that we are going to ask our brothers and sisters all over the world to pray for her that she will recover. Will you please pray? Anelia really needs a miracle to get through this.

Mom Ellen Passed Away Today......

Our beautiful Mom Ellen passed away today. How badly we already miss her beautiful smile and the love she poured into our family! And how all the kids in our family will miss their awesomely fun and wonderful Grandma.

Thank you for all the prayers you have prayed for her since the news of her brain cancer was first known. She really, really appreciated all of those and she spoke of God's love for her during her last days.

In her last days when our sister asked her if she had trusted Jesus as her Lord and Saviour, she nodded yes, and this is our great hope and comfort as we go through this huge loss.