Every week, teams of evangelists, Bible
teachers and church planters leave from here on their motorbikes and travel to
many, many outreaches and church plants where we are evangelizing, teaching the
Word and discipling and training new Bible teachers so we can continue to
further our outreach amongst the Tala Andig and Higaunon peoples.
Teams like the group here in this
picture (photo taken at Lantod).
These teams are amongst God’s elite
evangelists - you would have to search a long time in this world to come across
many teams as dedicated as these men and as skilled in spreading the Gospel!
Rain hail or shine, they leave each week as they have been doing for the past
10 years or so. Our hearts, when we see these faithful servants of our Lord
Jesus.....well, the feeling we have is indescribable!!!!
2012 has been a year with many, many
trials, hardships, attacks from Satan and discouragements but with this has
come HUGE ADVANCEMENTS FOR THE GOSPEL!!!!!
So, let us share with you some
statistics of what God has been doing through us and you and our Tala Andig and
Higaunon brethren as we have all partnered together as a team this 2012. Thanks
so, so much for partnering with us this year in prayer, financial support and
encouragement.
*New outreaches into Sinicabog, Bayanihan, Talid-talid, Malunong, Basak,
Mauswagon, Miarayon, Awang and Patpat.
* Over 300 unsaved currently being taught evangelistic materials to bring
them to faith in our Lord Jesus.
*A huge push on training new bible teachers and evangelists – there are
51 men currently being trained to teach the Word as well as 16 women.
*21 Churches planted so far in total over the course of our ministry.
*7 Villages currently in evangelism stage and others on the drawing
board.
*Plans currently being made to send a 2 family, full time missionary team
to the strategic village of Man-ay.
This is Grace Tart and she is the delightful
new evidence of God’s grace in Ben and Leonie’s lives!!!! (You can read more about her on Ben and Leonie’s blog –
there is a link to their blog from ours.)
Leonie delayed her return to Ballina for the birth for
as long as she could and still be allowed to fly on the Airlines, and Ben followed five weeks later and
thankfully made it in time to be there for Grace’s arrival!
We are so grateful that three weeks later, Leonie and
Ben both felt God leading them for Ben to come back here to Lapoc to finish up Jubab’s Year 8 school year.
We know it is a huge personal cost for them and we just praise God for them and their willingness to serve. It has been a huge blessing to have Ben back here at
this time and Jubab’s school year is almost finished.
Please pray for Ben as he endures the loneliness and
the hardship of isolation and as he spends this time here away from his two beloved girls. Pray for a safe
journey for him as well on his return trip to Aussie in a couple of weeks.
They plan on returning in January for the new school
year and we can’t wait to meet Grace!
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 6th -
8th 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!
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
