Well the past week has been pretty intense- good but busy. We left Mayong last Wednesday and had three days of vacation at a beautiful beach in the northern part of the island that we're on. Vacation was so relaxing. We just had some good time to relax and sleep and hang out. Friday morning we headed to our final village, Caranday, where we'll be for the next two weeks.
So far the people in Caranday have been very welcoming and receptive to our message- which is wonderful. We have two Bible studies going on there so far, and the people have been really interested in studying the Bible with us. Another helpful thing about this village is that we have a guide with us. She is a believer from the tribe we've been working with this summer. She's from another village, but a lot of her family lives in this village, so it's been really great to have her. She's been able to introduce us to most of the people in the village, and she is really excited about taking the gospel to her family. I'm so thankful to God for blessing us with her.
As far as living conditions, we're staying with a wonderful older lady, whom we call Lola (Bicol for grandma). She's welcomed us into her home and is sharing her kitchen with us- which is a huge blessing. It's so much easier to cook over a fire when it's at waist level and you have counter space! (Just in case you were wondering). Another small issue with our current location... our closest water source is the river, which is a fifteen minute hike down the mountain from where we are staying. Thankfully, the Filipinos have been wonderful to help us with getting water a lot of the time. It's just a little less convenient than normal. It's a beautiful area, and I love being able to hike here.
Please continue to pray for strength for our team. We're all pretty tired, and we have a week and a half left of ministry before debrief. So please pray for us to stay focused, but also to be able to get the rest that we need to finish the work that the Lord has for us. Please also pray for the people to have open hearts for the gospel and for the guys on our team to be able to connect with the men here.
The Lord has been so good to us- I'm so thankful for how I've seen Him work in and through our team this summer. He is a good God and worthy of praise. He is worthy of all of my devotion and no sacrifice is too great for him. I'm learning so much about being content in Him because He is my God and I love Him. Regardless of whether or not I have a toilet seat, running water (or any water), a real bed, or familiar food. I would rather be in the center of God's will than have all of the comforts in the world. He is more satisfying than rich food or a clean bed. My God is great and greatly to be praised.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Finishing up in Mayong
I can't believe it's already Sunday again! The past week and a half since we arrived in Mayong have flown by! People in this village and been extremely hospitable to us. We really feel like a part of the village. It's definitely been my favorite village that we've been to yet. Just to give you an idea of how hospitable they are- we wanted to camp out on the beach last sunday night, so the village Chiefton personally escorted us there and was worried sick that we were all going to drown because there was a storm coming. So she wouldn't leave until we promised her that we would stay out of the water. They really felt responsible for our team. On another note- the beach was gorgeous! It has black sand and we woke up to a beautiful sunrise.
As far as ministry goes here- we've been able to get three Bible studies started here in Mayong. Each one usually has anywhere from five to nine or ten people. The people here are pretty interested in studying the Bible. They even came out to our Bible study when it was raining- which is unheard of among Filipinos. Filipinos don't like to get wet, so if it starts raining they usually don't leave their houses. Our Bible studies have been mostly women, so we're really praying for God to open the hearts of the men here to the gospel. We've connected with one girls especially in this village who is extremely interested in learning about the Bible. She has a lot of questions and asked for a Bible so that she could tell people that visit her store about the Bible. So that's really exciting.
We only have three more days in this village. We leave on Wednesday and get a three day vacation before moving to our next village. I love this village and don't want to leave (except for the fact that I have over 100 bug bites... I'm ready to get away from the bugs definitely). Please pray for continued open doors for the gospel. There are so many religions here teaching so many different things that there is a lot of spiritual confusion in this village. So please pray for clarity and for God's truth to become evident in this village.
As far as ministry goes here- we've been able to get three Bible studies started here in Mayong. Each one usually has anywhere from five to nine or ten people. The people here are pretty interested in studying the Bible. They even came out to our Bible study when it was raining- which is unheard of among Filipinos. Filipinos don't like to get wet, so if it starts raining they usually don't leave their houses. Our Bible studies have been mostly women, so we're really praying for God to open the hearts of the men here to the gospel. We've connected with one girls especially in this village who is extremely interested in learning about the Bible. She has a lot of questions and asked for a Bible so that she could tell people that visit her store about the Bible. So that's really exciting.
We only have three more days in this village. We leave on Wednesday and get a three day vacation before moving to our next village. I love this village and don't want to leave (except for the fact that I have over 100 bug bites... I'm ready to get away from the bugs definitely). Please pray for continued open doors for the gospel. There are so many religions here teaching so many different things that there is a lot of spiritual confusion in this village. So please pray for clarity and for God's truth to become evident in this village.
Saturday, July 2, 2011
Over the river and through the woods.... to a tribal ritual?
Well this has been quite the week! Megan, our supervisor picked us up on Tuesday and we got to spend Tuesday night with a missionary couple nearby before moving to our next village (Mayong) on Wednesday. We got some much needed rest and had time to do laundry and take real showers (aka not out of a bucket or a river). So that was amazing!
Mayong is a beautiful village on a mountain next to the beach- so let's just say that it's gorgeous! A river runs through the middle of it, so we can do laundry there. Laundry in a river is way easier than laundry out of a bucket, just in case you were wondering. So that's been wonderful. Instead of camping in this village, we're living with a family who generously opened their home to us. So that's been really neat. It's been really helpful for building relationships. This town has had a lot of ministry to women and children, so we were really hoping that the guys on our team would be able to build relationships with the men here, and God has opened doors for that to happen! So that's really exciting.
Ok funny story- when we arrived, we were introduced to the tribal chiefton, who invited us to go with her to a tribal ritual the next day. So Ray, one of our translators, and Donatello, Chelsea, and I went with her the next morning on one of the world's longest hikes (well it was about two and a half hours, but it was over three mountains so it felt like the world's longest). It was literally over a river and through the woods (or maybe a jungle. or a rainforest. I'm not really sure what it's considered here). When we arrived, everyone was really welcoming, and we got to spend some time hanging out with them before the ritual began. It was pretty crazy to get to see a real tribal ritual. Mostly they prayed/chanted and they had a table set up where they offered fruit and a chicken to their ancestors, the spirit of the land, and I think to God too. Then they ate the food and offered us some as their honored guests- let's just say that I never thought that the passage in 1 Corinthians about food sacrificed to idols would actually apply to me haha. We didn't really eat anything, but our translator took a little food to be polite. We camped out with the tribe that night and then hiked back to Mayong the next day. The whole experience was interesting and helpful for learning about their spiritual background. But it was sad at the same time. These people are very religious and very ritualistic, but that was all it was- a ritual. There was no joy or sense of a personal relationship. Please pray for us to be able to clearly communicate the gospel to them. God is so good to be a God who does not just want chanting and rituals, but wants a relationship with us.
So far I've learned:
- How to do laundry Filipino style
- How to tie abaca fiber so it can be woven
- How to speak a little Tagalog and Bicol
Thank you so much for the prayers and encouragement! Please continue to pray for us as we're in this village- the people are very open to building relationships with us. Please pray for an openness to the gospel as well.
Mayong is a beautiful village on a mountain next to the beach- so let's just say that it's gorgeous! A river runs through the middle of it, so we can do laundry there. Laundry in a river is way easier than laundry out of a bucket, just in case you were wondering. So that's been wonderful. Instead of camping in this village, we're living with a family who generously opened their home to us. So that's been really neat. It's been really helpful for building relationships. This town has had a lot of ministry to women and children, so we were really hoping that the guys on our team would be able to build relationships with the men here, and God has opened doors for that to happen! So that's really exciting.
Ok funny story- when we arrived, we were introduced to the tribal chiefton, who invited us to go with her to a tribal ritual the next day. So Ray, one of our translators, and Donatello, Chelsea, and I went with her the next morning on one of the world's longest hikes (well it was about two and a half hours, but it was over three mountains so it felt like the world's longest). It was literally over a river and through the woods (or maybe a jungle. or a rainforest. I'm not really sure what it's considered here). When we arrived, everyone was really welcoming, and we got to spend some time hanging out with them before the ritual began. It was pretty crazy to get to see a real tribal ritual. Mostly they prayed/chanted and they had a table set up where they offered fruit and a chicken to their ancestors, the spirit of the land, and I think to God too. Then they ate the food and offered us some as their honored guests- let's just say that I never thought that the passage in 1 Corinthians about food sacrificed to idols would actually apply to me haha. We didn't really eat anything, but our translator took a little food to be polite. We camped out with the tribe that night and then hiked back to Mayong the next day. The whole experience was interesting and helpful for learning about their spiritual background. But it was sad at the same time. These people are very religious and very ritualistic, but that was all it was- a ritual. There was no joy or sense of a personal relationship. Please pray for us to be able to clearly communicate the gospel to them. God is so good to be a God who does not just want chanting and rituals, but wants a relationship with us.
So far I've learned:
- How to do laundry Filipino style
- How to tie abaca fiber so it can be woven
- How to speak a little Tagalog and Bicol
Thank you so much for the prayers and encouragement! Please continue to pray for us as we're in this village- the people are very open to building relationships with us. Please pray for an openness to the gospel as well.
Sunday, June 26, 2011
A Spoonful of Batter Makes the Typhoon Way Easier
So we're coming to the end of week two of ministry! God has continued to be good to our team in providing us with a safe and dry place to stay throughout our time in the mountains. On Monday of this past week we moved to a village called VillaFlorida to continue telling Bible stories as a way of sharing the gospel. This town has not been as receptive as the last, but we have been able to meet with a few people and share Bible stories. A typhoon hit on Thursday, so that cut out some of our ministry time. I'm learning to take joy in the Lord and do ministry because I love the Lord, even if I don't see many results. We've been doing a lot of praying over this village and I pray that God continues to work in the lives of these people. On Tuesday we leave for our third village, Mayong (which is by the beach!), where we will be for two weeks. Please pray for the Lord to work in Mayong and show us what He wants us to be doing.
Oh- and random Filipino fact: raising your eyebrows here can mean "yes" or "hey" so literally you can walk down the street here, pass someone, and raise your eyebrows and you just said hey to them. I love it.
Please continue to pray for strength for our team (especially our translators) and discernment to do the Lord's will while we are here. God is good- may all the ends of the earth see His salvation!
Oh- and random Filipino fact: raising your eyebrows here can mean "yes" or "hey" so literally you can walk down the street here, pass someone, and raise your eyebrows and you just said hey to them. I love it.
Please continue to pray for strength for our team (especially our translators) and discernment to do the Lord's will while we are here. God is good- may all the ends of the earth see His salvation!
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Hello from the Bundoks!
Well we're here! and We just finished our first week of ministry. Let's just say that our God is very good. I keep being blown away by His goodness that is unchanging in any and every situation that our team has encountered.
Our team is made up of four American college students and two Filipino translators. (Who are basically our lifesavers). We're traveling to four different villages throughout the summer for a week or two at a time to teach the Bible to an unreached tribal people group who live mostly in the mountains. Most of these people have been exposed to the Bible and some different denominations. However, there is no functioning church among this people group. Our job is to help the local missionaries start new church plants and scope out villages that are receptive to the gospel and could use full time missionaries to help with new church plants. This is a really exciting ministry- I love being able to simply study the Bible and help people understand it. So many people have taught them so many different things, with verses pulled from all over the Bible (and half of the time they're taken out of context), that it's great to be able to study the Bible with them and help them understand a bigger picture of what it actually teaches. It's also been neat to help these people understand that they can read the Bible for themselves, rather than relying on a preacher or missionary or preach to tell them what it says. I just love God's word. It changes lives without me even having to say very much. God's words are so much more powerful in drawing people to Himself than mine are- imagine that.
On another note, our team has had some pretty interesting experiences so far. Here are just a few:
- Learning to cook over a fire (it gets tough when it's the rainy season and a lot of the firewood is wet..)
- Hiking in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world.
- Having a Bible study in a cloud
- Riding a motorcycle down the mountain to get to town to buy groceries
- Bathing in a river (and no one has any parasites yet!)
Ok that's most of what I can think of off of the top of my head. But here are some prayer requests:
- For strength for our team and our translators (we've had a really busy schedule since we've been here).
- For wisdom for me especially (i'm the team leader.... so just as i'm making a lot of decisions about ministry and logistics) and for the whole team
- For discernment as we share the Bible with people here and guidance for the right words when we need them
- For our team to be led by the Holy Spirit in everything we do.
- For our team to be unified in everything we do.
Our God is very good. I'm so thankful that He's given me this opportunity to serve Him this summer. Every thing has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination, but our God has provided all we need and has given us many opportunities so far to see Him work in and through us. He is so wonderful. I really feel blessed to be able to be a part of what He's doing around the world. Today we got to worship with some Filipino believers in a town close to where we've been staying before we bought groceries for next week, and that was the biggest blessing in the world! It was amazing to be able to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ- it was really like a little bit of home even though we're still so far away. These Christians have been so hospitable to us. God is so good. I keep learning to love him more and more- which has been pretty great.
Oh- on another note: ROOSTERS! I was concerned about not waking up on time once we got to the field. No need. The roosters have been happy to help me wake up every morning promptly at 5 am. I've had two observations. 1. Roosters sound exactly like everyone imitates (with the whole cockle doodle do thing). 2. They don't stop when you wake up! In my mind a rooster's sole purpose is to wake people up. So naturally they should stop after you're awake because they've filled their purpose. Oh no. They keep going. All day. I just thought I'd let yall know that.
Oh and ps. the Tagalog (official Filipino language) word for mountain is Bundok. Like "out in the boonies." So I'm literally spending my summer out in the Bundoks! I thought that was pretty neat.
Our team is made up of four American college students and two Filipino translators. (Who are basically our lifesavers). We're traveling to four different villages throughout the summer for a week or two at a time to teach the Bible to an unreached tribal people group who live mostly in the mountains. Most of these people have been exposed to the Bible and some different denominations. However, there is no functioning church among this people group. Our job is to help the local missionaries start new church plants and scope out villages that are receptive to the gospel and could use full time missionaries to help with new church plants. This is a really exciting ministry- I love being able to simply study the Bible and help people understand it. So many people have taught them so many different things, with verses pulled from all over the Bible (and half of the time they're taken out of context), that it's great to be able to study the Bible with them and help them understand a bigger picture of what it actually teaches. It's also been neat to help these people understand that they can read the Bible for themselves, rather than relying on a preacher or missionary or preach to tell them what it says. I just love God's word. It changes lives without me even having to say very much. God's words are so much more powerful in drawing people to Himself than mine are- imagine that.
On another note, our team has had some pretty interesting experiences so far. Here are just a few:
- Learning to cook over a fire (it gets tough when it's the rainy season and a lot of the firewood is wet..)
- Hiking in some of the most beautiful mountains in the world.
- Having a Bible study in a cloud
- Riding a motorcycle down the mountain to get to town to buy groceries
- Bathing in a river (and no one has any parasites yet!)
Ok that's most of what I can think of off of the top of my head. But here are some prayer requests:
- For strength for our team and our translators (we've had a really busy schedule since we've been here).
- For wisdom for me especially (i'm the team leader.... so just as i'm making a lot of decisions about ministry and logistics) and for the whole team
- For discernment as we share the Bible with people here and guidance for the right words when we need them
- For our team to be led by the Holy Spirit in everything we do.
- For our team to be unified in everything we do.
Our God is very good. I'm so thankful that He's given me this opportunity to serve Him this summer. Every thing has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination, but our God has provided all we need and has given us many opportunities so far to see Him work in and through us. He is so wonderful. I really feel blessed to be able to be a part of what He's doing around the world. Today we got to worship with some Filipino believers in a town close to where we've been staying before we bought groceries for next week, and that was the biggest blessing in the world! It was amazing to be able to worship with brothers and sisters in Christ- it was really like a little bit of home even though we're still so far away. These Christians have been so hospitable to us. God is so good. I keep learning to love him more and more- which has been pretty great.
Oh- on another note: ROOSTERS! I was concerned about not waking up on time once we got to the field. No need. The roosters have been happy to help me wake up every morning promptly at 5 am. I've had two observations. 1. Roosters sound exactly like everyone imitates (with the whole cockle doodle do thing). 2. They don't stop when you wake up! In my mind a rooster's sole purpose is to wake people up. So naturally they should stop after you're awake because they've filled their purpose. Oh no. They keep going. All day. I just thought I'd let yall know that.
Oh and ps. the Tagalog (official Filipino language) word for mountain is Bundok. Like "out in the boonies." So I'm literally spending my summer out in the Bundoks! I thought that was pretty neat.
Monday, May 30, 2011
And We're Off!
The day's here! I'm heading to Alabama tomorrow (well I guess later this morning....) for about one week of orientation before our team heads overseas! The orientation will be really exciting because there will be over one hundred college students there, preparing to serve the Lord all over Asia for the summer! I will meet up with the six other college students on my team to prepare for the work that God has for us this summer. We leave on June 7 (next Tuesday) to head to the Philippines and meet up with our missionaries for the summer! I am so excited to see what God does with the next two months.
Here are a few prayer requests for our team:
- For God to prepare our hearts for the work that He has for us this summer
- For God to begin preparing the hearts of the Agta people that we will be ministering to this summer
- For God to bring unity to our team as we get to know each other and learn to work together
- For God to give us a greater love for Himself and a love for the people we will be ministering to this summer
- For wisdom and safety as we travel
- For God to continually make us more like Himself this summer, so that we can love people like He does and make His name great all over the earth.
- Pray for God to be glorified every aspect of our team.
Thanks so much for the prayers and support! I'll try to post more updates after our team gets to the field!
Monday, May 23, 2011
Beautiful Feet
"How beautiful upon the mountains
are the feet of him who brings good news,
who publishes peace, who brings good news of happiness,
who says to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'
Break forth together into singing
you waste places of Jerusalem,
for the LORD has comforted his people,
he has redeemed Jerusalem.
The LORD has bared his holy arm
before the eye of all the nations,
and all the ends of the earth shall see
the salvation of our God."
Isaiah 52:7, 9-10
In this chapter, Isaiah is prophesying about the coming salvation, in which God will show His sovereignty in saving his people from their sins. Verse 7 is really exciting, because it shows God's desire to use people to declare His glory and proclaim His salvation to the ends of the earth. God has an amazing plan to save His people from bondage and He wants to use us- how amazing is that?
This verse has always really intrigued me. God calls feet of those who take the gospel to the world beautiful. Maybe this doesn't sound very "holy" or "spiritual" to say, but that just seems kind of weird to me. If I take the gospel to those around me, then God calls my feet beautiful? Really? I don't really get grossed out by feet like a lot of people do, but I've always thought that mine were pretty ugly- or at least not beautiful. In high school I danced en point, so my feet usually had callouses, blisters, and bruised toenails. They still get like that quite a bit when I go running. I could go into more detail, but let's just say that I don't have the prettiest feet.
But God has called me to use my life to proclaim the message of salvation among the nations. This summer I have the wonderful opportunity to do that by spending two months taking the gospel to an unreached people group in the mountains of the Philippines. Literally, God is sending my "ugly" feet to go to the mountains and bring good news to those who have never heard! And so He calls my feet beautiful. Why? Not because of me or anything I've done to make myself "beautiful." But because my feet are fitted with a readiness that comes from the gospel of peace (Ephesians 6:15). So God calls them beautiful because they are taking the wonderful message of salvation to a dying world. And that is beautiful. Even if my physical feet are ugly, God calls obedience prompted by a love for Him and a desire to take His message to the ends of the world, participating in His plan for the salvation of His people beautiful. And I think it's pretty neat that He allows us to be a part of that.
So this summer I'll be posting updates about what God is doing in and through our team while we're overseas. It'll be quite an interesting summer, and I'm really excited to see what God does in those mountains with our feet. May He use our time to work out His sovereign plan so that all the ends of the earth will truly see the salvation of our God!
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