Testimonies......!

Often times as the missionary you get to hear all the bad news.....people’s problems, people’s sickness, people’s needs, people’s struggles.......and sometimes this gets a bit tough for the missionary and the missionary can start to feel burdened, heavy and downhearted. So when times come like last Sunday afternoon when we hear about the amazing things Jesus is doing in people’s lives......it is like a revival in our souls!!! These times are the times of being lifted up on wings of Eagles.....

The setting was my Ladies’ Fellowship Group’s Christmas party. I meet once a month with the Lapoc Central Group and there are about 24 of us in the group. Most of the ladies I get to spend my time with on a regular basis are ladies who are in ministry: the scripture teachers, the wives of the church elders and teachers, the missionaries. But in my ladies’ group, I get to spend time with a different group of women – women who would mostly be called ‘lay-women’ I guess - and it has been a joy to get to know them and to interact with them.

During our afternoon together last Sunday, we sat in a circle and each of us shared what Jesus’ birth means to us personally. I can’t record all of their testimonies for you but here are some of them:

Beloved Sister #1:  (a 19 year old converted lesbian) Head up, eyes looking straight at us, voice clear and confident, she said, “Jesus’ birth has changed my life. You all know what I was before but because Jesus was born on this earth and died for me, He has turned me around. My life is so different now and I am so thankful to Him!!” This dear sister is married and has a 9 month old son now.

Beloved Sister #2:  (a 26 year old, wife of a murderer. Her husband is currently in prison and she is raising their 3 daughters alone.) Eyes pouring with tears, voice choked up and unsteady, pausing from time to time as she broke into sobs, she said, “Jesus’ birth brought me from the darkness into the light. And even now that I am in the light, life is still so miserable. If I didn’t know Jesus, if it wasn’t for His strength getting me through each day, I don’t think that I could be here anymore as life would just be unbearable. He is the reason I can keep living.”

Beloved Sister #3: (young wife and mother of 4) Very shyly, as she hardly ever speaks in a group, she said, “Jesus’ birth has transformed me. You know my character before, how horrible I used to be, but Jesus has changed me. I am so thankful to Him – that He was born and that He died to save me!!”

Beloved Sister #4: (in her 40’s, mother of 7, used to be addicted to alcohol and gambling, knows what it is like to fall in the ditch unable to get up because she was so drunk) Funny, loud, bubbly, she was the MC of our time of sharing. She said, “If Jesus hadn’t come to die for me, then oh my (approx equivalent to the Tala-Andig ‘Hooooo-aahhh)!!!!!! where do you think I would be right now, that’s pretty clear isn’t it? How hopeless and dark my life was before Jesus saved me.  Jesus’ birth meant life for me, and just think all these years went by since He was born, but He had a plan for us didn’t He, and He sent our missionaries here who showed us the way.....and we still mess up even though we are saved and even when we know the truth and we still disobey, but He just keeps teaching us....”

And so the meeting went on – sister after sister describing how Jesus’ birth and His death for them has changed their lives, and there we were sharing tears and laughter and praising the Lord together in a very special way. It was one of those ‘highlight of the year’ moments and I couldn’t wait to get home and tell Paul all about it. And he straight away said that I should share it with you too so that you could be as blessed as we are to hear about and to be a part of such a wonderful work that our Lord Jesus is doing in our dear sisters’ lives!!!!

Love Paul, Deb and Jubab XXXXX

Looking back.....Looking ahead!

Looking back over 2010, we’ve learned that..........

There’s always a way to get the job done....

There’s always a way around even the

worst situations..... 

Sharing meals with enemies can eventually

lead to a good friendship...... 

 Don’t let hard situations get you down......

 

Highlights of 2010:

 January – arrived back in the Philippines!

§  God provided Barb Bjerking to teach Jubab grade 6.

 February – Gabril Sulatan ordained as an elder at the Lapoc Church!

March – 175 new believers baptized!

April - Book of Luke checked by Translation Consultant and approved for printing!

June – 162 ladies go on a Ladies’ Retreat and studied 1 John 1-2.

§  Kaluwingon Church extended due to rapid expansion of believers numbers.

July – New church building built for the believers in Tinaytayan!

September – Jomar Mahognay, Totò Landong and Ruel Lacdagan ordained as elders at Tumpagon!

§  Our Co-worker Josh began teaching Romans in the Lapoc church.

October – Romans 1-6 checked by Translation Consultant and ready to print!

God provided Ben and Leonie to teach Jubab for 2011 and 
possibly even for longer.

§  November – Profile of the church being lifted over a wide-spread area!

§  1 More missionary family sent out from Lapoc church to Buyungon making it 2 families sent to that area.

December – more doors are opening to the Gospel!

§   Bible teachers from the Lapoc Church are now outreaching to

15 different villages with 513 people being taught 
weekly in these places!

§  Evangelism and discipleship continue in Lapoc with 300 – 400 being taught here.

§  Schools are still wide open and thousands

of children are being taught weekly in the schools! 
Many have been saved!

Looking Ahead into 2011.....

Our plans and hopes and dreams are to:

1.    Finish translating the book of Romans and having it checked.

2.   Finish building the church buildings in Pigtaw, Limondà and Kalamalamahan (over in the Dulangan area.)

3.   Finish building the new church building in San Acquino (which starts tomorrow!)

4.   Send out two more missionary families from the churches in the Dulangan area.

(the elders from Tumpagon and Cauyunan are coming here on Jan 3 to discuss their plans to send and support two more

missionary families! They want to send them

to the village of Kalamalamahan.)

5.   Start teaching in the high school at Tikilaan! (Within a week

of God laying this on our hearts, we were invited to teach there!

Maybe God will open the doors for us to put a full time family there
to work with the 400 high school kids there permanently)

6.   Continue to facilitate the spreading of the Gospel
through providing Bible lessons, teaching materials,

and anything needed to expedite this work while the doors are open.

7.   Continue to disciple and to encourage the eldership, 
and leaders in the churches.

8.   Enjoy our growing team of workers in God’s fields 
and all our co-workers.

9.   To do what God requires of us: “to act justly and to love mercy and

to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 5:8.

Please Pray Us Through the Year of 2011!!!

Christmas in Lapoc!

Christmas in Lapoc!!

Let’s see......Christmas starts here in the Ber months (September – December)

Which means:

*Lots of bangs from fire crackers being let off.

* Christmas trees of all kinds – some made from paper, sticks, or plastic bags even!

*Christmas carollers.

*Kids on the sides of the roads with their hands raised, calling out “Pasko” (Christmas) hoping for a peso.

*Lots and lots of parties!!!

So far this month this has been the Christmas party schedule:

Dec. 6 – Christmas party with all our language helpers, translation helpers and others who help us.

Here they all are below – we don’t know what we would do without them!!!

Dec. 11 – Party with all the School Teachers from the 7 schools that we teach scripture in.

That involved a pig on a spit, lots of good food and lots of speeches and photos!!

Dec. 12 – Christmas Family Day celebration at the Lapoc Church.

This started at 9:00am with Prayer Groups, then the Sunday meeting and

continued with a meal of pork and rice, games, singing, another meal and fun that went until 2:00am!!

Dec. 16 – Our missionary team Christmas Party!!

This involved the Duwangs, Sinan-a’s, Moffits and Ourselves. (Most recent group photo is at the top

of this post – good looking group we are!!)

This party involved a 2 hour drive both ways, 52 hotdogs, roast chicken, ice-cream,

swimming, pressies for the kids and lots of fun!

Dec. 18 – Christmas Family Day celebration at the Tinaytayan Church.

This was a wonderful day of thanksgiving for their beautiful new church building,

which took 3 - 4 years to get permission to  build because the village leaders believed

that a church would reduce the power of their witchcraft.

Now more and more of the Tinaytayan people are wanting to be taught about our Lord Jesus!!

Dec. 22 – We are heading for a Believer’s conference and Christmas Celebration at one of the

furthest outreaches that this work spans – Kalamalamahan!!

The work in Kalamalamahan started in Oct, 1992,

and this year, after being a struggling church for about 17 years,

they are suddenly ‘on fire’ and more and more believers are now being added to their numbers.

There are about 75 believers in Kalamalamahan now!!

Dec. 26 – My Ladies’ Fellowship Christmas party in the afternoon.

Each of us will bring something to contribute to a special afternoon tea, like sticky rice cakes (bico),

or cassava cakes (binggala ha suman), or some cooked sweet potato. Everyone

has to bring a gift worth 50 pesos (about a $1.20) and this may be the only Christmas

gift that the ladies in my fellowship group get, so it is very important to them.

In the discussion about what could go in the gift, everyone agreed that it had to be something

that is neither eatable or that disappears (like soap)!

And each of us is going to share a testimony of what Jesus’ Birth has meant to us personally.

Parties we were invited to but turned down:

Dec 10 – the Women Scripture Teachers’ Christmas trip to town. I’m glad I declined attending

that party – they left at 2:30am and didn’t get home until nearly 11:00pm and spent 8 hours of that time

travelling on rough roads – but they had a ball!

Dec. 14 – Christmas Celebration at the local Lapoc School. (We had to try and get caught up on

all the work we have been missing!)

Dec. 17 – The Youth Group Party. (They didn’t need us to have fun and their singing and instruments

were turned up soooooooo loud we would have been deafened if we went!!)

And just to sum up this busy Lapoc Christmas we want to close with a

Christmas photo of us – taken just a few minutes ago – and we want to send

a big Christmas hug from us to you!!

Babies and Christmas!

This is Andy, named so because he was born on Tala-Andig day here in Lapoc.

(Andy, short for Andig)

He is the first grandson of Ronnie and Aling who are on the church leadership team here in Lapoc.

Four and a half years ago they lost their youngest son (who was 14 years old) during a severe asthma attack and 

Andy has come into their lives at a time when they really needed this precious little one!

On the day of his birth though, they had many weary hours of waiting through his

very difficult delivery.

From 3 am the previous morning until 7 am the following morning, two ladies trained in attending

births (one of them our lovely co-worker Elsa) had stayed with Malyn, the young first-time Mum,

attending her and coaching her. Finally at 7 am the very top of the baby’s head could be seen and they

thought the toil of labour was almost over.

Five hours later the baby still had not arrived and the attendants were almost at their wits end.

Ronnie and Aling and many other family members were agonizing in the next room, praying and wondering

if this baby was going to make it and if he was indeed still alive.

I joined the birth attendant team at this point and 1 ½ hours later had the wonderful privilege of

co-delivering a live baby boy!!!!!

Hearing Andy’s first little newborn wails had an electric effect on the family waiting outside and the atmosphere

immediately changed from heavy and agonizing to one of celebration and praise!!!! 

This picture is of the happy new parents  - Ronnie and Aling’s second son, Tonton, and his wife Malyn – taken

about a week after the ordeal of little Andy’s birth.

Every baby is a gift, but to their family, this baby is a VERY SPECIAL gift in more ways than one!!

And now Andy’s first Christmas is nearly here and he is about to start learning all about what happens

in Lapoc at Christmas time, which we want to share with you as well but for now we’ll say goodbye,

leave you with some prayer points and save the Lapoc Christmas story for our next update!

Prayer Points

·         For the next stage of translating the book of Romans from Ch 7-16.

·         For our team here as we move into a very busy time of the year with a lot of church fellowship meetings.

·         For Ben and Leonie as they go through the many preparations to join the team next month!

·         For us as a family that we will keep close to the our Lord.

·         For the church at Cauyunan as they are going through a time of sifting and weakness due to election related turmoil.

Lots of Love,

Paul, Deb and Jubab

Family News!!

It has been a long time since we sent out a family update – as usually we are writing about different aspects of the ministry - so we thought we would send you some up to date news about ourselves personally.

Jubab had his 12th birthday on Sept. 7th and here in this photo you can see him getting a birthday hug from his sister Jen, and a cuddle from his niece Charly-joy! Clint who is 5 looks pretty bemused and brother-in-law Udi is enjoying the whole family birthday gathering!

Can you believe we have a 30 year old daughter now?! Jen just turned 30 last week and is expecting their 3^rd baby in May, 2011, Udi is 32 and keeps very busy tending their farm, looking after their cattle, and functioning on the leadership team of the church in Cauyunan, Charly is in Gr 3 and loves to sing and dance, and Clint is in kinder and is still a real Mama’s boy! Jen and Udi just had their 12^th anniversary last week. They arrived here in Lapoc this morning and we will be enjoying lots of family times and cuddles with our grandkids this week!!

Jubab is 12 going on 14!  We wish we could keep him our ‘baby’ but there is no chance of that! He is almost finished Gr. 6 and has had a good year being back in Lapoc. Adjusting to life back in our remote village and back to homeschooling has been smooth and fun for him. He misses Ballina but loves it here, has enjoyed being able to spend times with his sister and brothers and all the rest of our family, friends and missionary team here, and he loves playing basketball and being back with his dog Sparky. Jubab has had 2 attacks of his sinusitis and one attack of tonsillitis this year but apart from that, his only other health issue has been his braces and that can sometimes be a pain as it is a long trip out to the orthodontist in town (has to be an all day thing) – and the brackets for the braces are different here than in Australia which is a pain if one of them falls off.  It’s working out okay though. 

 

And then there is Dad and Mum.....that’s us......(this photo was taken in June during a family outing.)  We are both doing great – are very proud parents and proud grandparents – we’re making sure we put time aside for family times:  not just family night every week, but times together with Jubab every day and a family time in the Word and in prayer most every day. God has been teaching us as a family lately about spending time worshipping Him and glorifying Him rather than just mostly praying about needs and about the work.

Life in Lapoc can get very ‘heavy’ so we make sure that we don’t let ourselves get too stressed out and we take a few days out in Cagayan every 6-8 weeks for a break.

We are quite thrilled with the progress we are making this year on Translation and really thank you for your prayers for this and for continued prayers as we have such a huge desire to see the translation of the New Testament completed into Tala-Andig and hopefully into Higaunon as well.

Health wise we are both keeping well apart from some normal issues for our age (in our middle years J) like Paul having some prostrate trouble and both of us noticing occasional new aches and pains.

Thanks so, so much for your prayers for us and for your love and partnership and support!!!

Love Paul, Deb and family XXXXXXX