So humbling and amazing......

We serve God who is the one who alone possesses immortality, who lives in unapproachable light, whom no human being has seen nor is able to see, to whom be honor and eternal power. 

(1 Timothy 6:16) 

This is so humbling and amazing – that we of all people can be His servants.

Three big things happened last month:

 #1 My grandpa finally went home to be with the Lord at age 96. I miss him a lot. He was a good, good loving Grandpa, and he was the first one in our family that we know who went to be a missionary in a foreign land.

#2 We were extremely tired and needed a break.

#3 It was our 34th wedding anniversary and God gave us the opportunity to take a break for 2 weeks and go away with some dear friends. We got back really refreshed and thankful for that time and for 34 years of marriage.

Back ‘home’ means here in Upper Carmen, Cagayan, not far away from the old city dump site, very hot days, lots of homeless dogs and cats up and down the streets, 4:30 am starts to the day in the office working on the translation, buying our vegetables at the local market and eating literally bundles of green swamp spinach and sweet potato greens every week…..getting freshly harvested rice sent out to us by motorbike from Tumpagon….daily text messages, skype calls, phone calls…..from brothers and sisters all over the mountains, scattered from one end of the work to the other.

Some calls are very sweet like: “Amay and Inay (Dad and Mum), we’re praying for your loss of your grandpa, crying with you….our hearts hurt along with yours. We love you very much…..” or ….. “Inay, are you asleep yet? What has your day been like?” or “Amay, Inay….a motorbike is coming out today, we’re sending you some rice…..” And sometimes the messages are devastating like: “Amay, Inay….please pray for Monica, she just gave birth and the baby has a heart problem…..” or challenging like: “Amay, Inay…we’re making big inroads in building relationships in this village, please pray as we prepare to start teaching the Word here…..” We LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this role God has given us with oh such a big, big family – HIS FAMILY – who He has entrusted to us as shepherds to His lambs.

Oh and we get to have some really fun times and laughs together. Like taking Nonon and his wife out to eat a meal of shrimp and crabs and the fun we had of getting in with bibs, eating with our hands and making a big mess. Nonon is part of the new missionary team to Man-ai and he is very homesick which can be sooooo hard to bear. Please pray for him.

The revision of Mark, Luke and Acts is going great: Mark is finished, up to Luke 12 now….. we are on target to get the NT to the printers in March/April next year. PLEASE KEEP PRAYING!

Paul and Deb's August Update

This month started off with a real ‘bang’ in Lapoc with over 70 pastors and ministry leaders from every corner of our work coming together for teaching and fellowship. The photo above was taken at one of the meal times and we were singing a rousing Happy Birthday to Wing-Wing and Richard whose birthdays coincided with this conference!

Paul thoroughly enjoyed sharing the Word: one topic was why we have different verses in scripture enclosed in brackets with a footnote that says, ‘Some of the earliest manuscripts do not include these verses,’ and about the Textus Receptus and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Another beautiful topic that he taught on from 1 Cor 8 was about stumbling our brother.

Man-ai is filling us with anticipation! This is our newest mission field and the Tumpagon and Tinaytayan churches are very excited to be jointly sending out the first missionary team to this area!! Paul and Ronnie have been overseeing all the building and I must say that this building project has really exhausted Paul, but it is coming to an end Lord willing within a couple more weeks. The two new missionary couples have been coming to our place weekly along with their pastors, and we have been doing missionary orientation with them. It’s been funny, interesting and helpful as we’ve tried to put our 30 years of mistakes and experiences and lessons into a nutshell to help these two young couples as they head for this new field. They are excited, apprehensive, are aware of their fragility and brokenness but know that they can be faithful ministers IN Christ!!!

Jubab just arrived back from Japan yesterday and is being debriefed at the OMF headquarters and will head back for his last semester at Bible College at the end of the week!!! He had an amazing time!!

We are blessed beyond by your prayers and partnership!    

Recodo Baptism Clip

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