Opportunities.....!

This past couple of weeks have flown by in a whirlwind of opportunities!

I (Deb) had the privilege of teaching a series from the book of 1 John to a group of 159 ladies from the churches in Anlagan, Miarayon, Lapoc, Tinaytayan, San Aquino, Colawingon, Lantod, Buyungon, Tumpagon, Cauyunan, Limondà and Ricodo.  We held our retreat at a place called Seaside Bible Camp which was several hours journey for all of us but a perfect location with cabins near the beach and a wonderful staff who looked after us and cooked for us.

It was a truly great time of fellowship, prayer, studying the Word, being together, talking late into the night, crying and laughing together.

On the last night together, we had a leadership meeting for all the women from every church who are involved in ministry:  scripture teachers, elder’s wives who serve alongside their husbands, women who lead women’s bible study groups, youth group leaders etc. I was astonished when that 53 women came to this meeting. Out of 159 ladies at the retreat, 53 are involved in ministering the Word and in leading children, youth and women’s groups!

Nayumi (wearing  yellow) was at this retreat with her cousin Richel,  and she gave a beautiful testimony and then afterwards sang a song.

It was awesome to hear her share of how Jesus has been helping her through these awful and tearful days of her early widowhood. It had only been 15 days on this day since the Lord took Dondon to heaven, but during those days she has been discovering that in the heaviest and darkest of times in our lives, that Jesus promises are true and that she can get through this time because He is with her.

In part of Nayumi’s testimony, she shared: “Dondon, who was part of me, is now gone and the pain I feel is terrible, but I know that it was Jesus’ plan to take Dondon when He did and I accept this and believe that Jesus does everything right....”

We brought Nayumi and Richel back here to Lapoc with us after the Ladies’ Retreat and we had some great opportunities to talk with Nayumi about all that these last months have held, to remember things we did together with Dondon, to pray with her and to do some fun things.

We’re missing them today as they went back this morning to Tumpagon.

Another opportunity we had this week was to spend four days with 13 of the elders and other church leaders from some of the Dulangan Higaunon churches including two of the wives. We spent many hours of this time studying the Word together and helping them to update all their resources. We did some intensive study on part of the book of Acts and also had meetings and prayer times with them. Most of them stayed here in our home with us and most meal times we had about 19 people here which we did all the cooking for.

It was a hugely busy time but very valuable and it was a privilege for us to be able to serve them, to spend time with them in the Word, to meet with them and we will be doing this quite frequently over the next several months.

Our morning today started at 3 AM when we all got off for them to start their trip home. Nayumi and Richel caught a ride with them too and the house has been strangely empty and quiet today.

My eyes were still unfocused at 3 AM and it was dark so I cut several of them off in the photo – next time we’ll try to get some better photos for you.

This exciting missionary journey of waking up every day to new things and new opportunities is a great joy and we are privileged to be walking this journey alongside you! We don’t know what tomorrow has for us but we are sure of our Lord’s grace and presence with us to the end of our days and He gives us great confidence and strength – especially when our feet start to falter!

Thank you for praying – our hearts have a particular ache in them at the moment which need your prayers because our co-workers, Josh and Belinda Moffit have decided not to return to the work here in Lapoc. They came back here on the 6^th - 8^th of October and packed up their things and said their goodbyes to the church here and to all their friends. It has been extremely hard and painful for us and to tell the truth, we cannot really explain why they left. Some of the reasons we think they left is that they maybe felt intimidated by us and also did not feel comfortable with us as team leaders. But bottom line I think is that the enemy of the Gospel is behind all this. Josh and Belinda and their family are now living in another area and looking to the Lord for a new ministry.

Don’t know if we ever told you but where we live is at the foot of a volcano and this past week, all the people living in this area were informed by the Department of Natural Resources that the volcano is apparently showing signs of becoming active. So we don’t know if a volcano eruption is going to be part of God’s plan for us or not but you could keep this in your prayers as well.

All these troubles are just more opportunities to trust our Great and Loving and Faithful God!

Memoirs of Dondon's Funeral......

Sunday night we slept badly and woke up at 4:00am with heavy hearts as we faced the first day in Jubab’s life that did not include his happy and playful brother Dondon. The thought of seeing Dondon’s dead body and of all the wailing and screaming that we would hear - especially from the unsaved family members, filled us with dread. 

There were fifteen family members including some extended family, waiting at the funeral parlour where his body had been taken to be embalmed. Funny thing here is that outside the big, public hospitals, representatives of the different funeral parlours are waiting to swoop down on anybody who is in distress or grief. As soon as they find out that they have someone who has died, they are there trying to cut a deal and before the bereaved family can really work out what is going on, they are whisked away in a hearse. This is what happened to Bubuy, Wila and Nayumi. In no time, they found themselves being bundled into a hearse with Dondon’s body and were taken to a funeral parlour and actually ended up at a different one to what they thought they were going to --- but God worked it out for good because the place they were taken to was much nicer.

The dreaded moment of having to go to the open coffin and view Dondon’s body came and each one of the family hugged us and wept. Nayumi’s face looked ashen with grief and Wila’s face was exhausted and lined with shock and sorrow. Jubab’s first thought as he looked down at Dondon’s face - at his mouth that can’t talk or laugh anymore and at his eyes that can’t open anymore - was Dondon’s words to him when he was put in ICU for the first time: “Hey Bub, we can’t play here can we?”  Jubab, even though he is the youngest in his birth family, has somehow been given the position of an older brother, and in times like these he carries a heavy responsibility to comfort his brothers and his other Dad and Mum and to show care to other family members and he carried this responsibility amazingly during these past few days. 

We gathered up Dondon and Nayumi’s things with hands that felt stiff and walked to the vehicle on numb feet while strangers carried Dondon’s coffin and loaded it into the back of our vehicle.  About nine of the family crammed in beside the coffin and the others rode behind on motorbikes. We started the slow drive home to Tumpagon, with Paul carefully manoeuvring over the sharp corners and rough roads until we finally arrived at about 1 pm. A crowd of people immediately surrounded the vehicle and the wailing started as many hands reached up to lift the coffin gently down and carry it into Bubuy and Wila’s home.

Usually funerals take place fast as there is no embalming in the remote places like Tumpagon and here in Lapoc. But because Dondon had died in the hospital and his body had been embalmed, the family had more time and could wait for other family members to arrive from far away.

Usually each time that someone new arrives, there is screaming and wailing and throwing themselves at the coffin but Paul reminded the family that we do not need to grieve as those who have no hope and from then on, the mourners shed tears and there was crying but there was no more wailing or screaming or throwing themselves on the floor or on the coffin.

Usually a wake is held for the dead and people stay up all night to make sure that the spirits don’t come and try to steal the body and replace it with a banana tree trunk that looks like the body. (Those who don’t know the Lord believe this amongst the Higaunon.)  But instead we just sat around and talked for two nights in a row and sung songs of praise to the Lord and served coffee to all the guests. All of this took place with Dondon’s body on view inside Bubuy and Wila’s lounge room. The house and porch was packed with wall to wall people and the crowd spilled out onto the road and neighbour’s houses.

Usually the unsaved family gather and drink during funerals and they can start fighting or trying to wreck the house. Well, this did happen. A group of Dondon’s unsaved uncles and cousins sat outside and drank and argued and blamed Bubuy and Wila and the rest of the family for Dondon’s death saying that they hadn’t done sacrifices to the spirits and that is why Dondon died so young. Some of them started pulling people up that were riding past on motorbikes and trying to get them to drink with them and to argue with them. At one stage, one of them pulled out his pistol and fired 4 shots into the air which caused a commotion. These same people wouldn’t allow the funeral to go ahead on Tuesday morning as they said they hadn’t had enough time to say their goodbyes to Dondon and they wanted to be able to see his face some more – so the funeral was postponed until Wednesday morning.

The heat was stifling in Tumpagon – 37 degrees Celsius (almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit) and extremely humid – and we could do nothing to get comfortable. Wednesday morning seemed to be a long time in arriving and it was extremely draining: the oppressive heat, the crowds, the noise, the waiting, the weeping, the constant presence with us of a dead body, the drunken sorrowers nearby......so it was almost a relief to file into the church on Wednesday morning with our family and with Dondon’s coffin on display at the front.

It was a very beautiful service and God was glorified. Many people started the service with red eyes from crying, heads hanging in grief....but as the service progressed and people heard the messages and testimonies and songs, they started to hold their heads up and there were sometimes even smiles and a bit of laughter.

Here are some of the highlights of the time of commemoration we had of Dondon’s life and of all of Jesus’ blessings on our family:

Paul’s message of hope and his illustration

(using a rope and some small strands of

plastic) of our lives on earth being so

short and just like a vapour –

whether you reach 10 years or 70,

and of death for a believer like Dondon

just being the entrance into glorious life

with the Lord,  brought everyone’s heads

up and the focus onto our Lord Jesus!

After Paul’s message,

Bubuy came and gave him

a hug which really

moved us all.

Jubab (right) and his brothers, sang Dondon’s favourite song,

one written by the youth that starts off saying: 

“Jesus saved me and now I know that heaven is where I am going...”

And this sums up the theme we had as a family for Dondon’s funeral service, that as a family, each of us is trusting Jesus because He saved us and each of us know that heaven is where we are going, Dondon just got there first.

Nayumi sang a song that she had written

to sing if the Lord took Dondon from her.

She had written it even before he died.

Beside her are her cousin and her older

sister and her sister’s husband. 

 

Bubuy shared a beautiful message to his unsaved family and Nayumi’s Dad shared as well about the love the Lord Jesus had shown to Dondon and to Nayumi.

Jubab’s eldest brother Jò-jò

shared a beautiful eulogy

and then the four brothers

sang together.

At the graveside, after the service,

Jubab kept his hand on his brother

Nel-Nel’s shoulder while they sang

with their cousin.

The coffin was put into the grave

quietly and quickly with none of

the usual wailing and collapsing

that normally occurs and then we

all walked home in peaceful

silence.

Today we are back home in Lapoc and Jubab just said that he feels like butter spread across too much bread. (A quote from “Lord of the Rings” but a good description of what I think we all feel.) Our bodies feel this way but not our hearts. If you ask Jubab how he is feeling about Dondon being gone, he says, “Good.” The reason he says ‘good’ he says is because he knows where Dondon is and that he’ll see him again.

“.........the day of death is better than the day of one’s birth.”  Eccles. 7:1b