Back in our village home

    We were incredibly blessed to arrive back to our home in great condition. After having very little use for nearly 2.5 years we were nervous. We're grateful to our co-works who kept an eye on our place, fixed some issues that happened, and had it cleaned when it needed it. Another missionary couple also stayed in our house for a few days just before our return. They turned the power on and used everything which was a huge help. 

    Alex rode his motorcycle in a few days before the rest of the family to get our new batteries hooked up, the water filter working, and do a quick once over to make sure the house was ready for us. Since then we've been busy getting ready for language study. We wanted to get all of the big projects out of way so we could focus on the language. Here's a couple of pictures from the many projects completed in the last 2 months. 

Beau's bed - built with posts for the bug net

The guest/kids bathroom - I had to do everything
from setting the tub to laying the tiles. This is
way above my comfort level, but it turned out well.

    Erin has been busy unpacking all of our stored stuff, and making our home feel like a home again. She's even assembled the furniture for the school room, and also made her own little office space up stairs. 

Every few weeks it's time to order supplies and groceries again for the helicopter to bring in. It's a huge task that Erin is doing an awesome job at.

    There has been a lot going on in our little area as summer arrives. Alex has been able to reconnect with the pastors in the surrounding area, attend the high school graduation next door, and most excitingly attend the first baptism service of the church to the west of us. It was such a blessing to experience this time with the church. 

About 25 people were baptized

Food preparation for the meal after the baptisms

    Alex had his first week of language study! He is working with a language helper that Cole has been using for a while now. It made starting language so much easier with someone who is already comfortable with us. After just 4 days, Alex can recognize about 150 words. In hopes of reducing mispronunciation, he won't speak for a week or two more so the sounds of the new language are cemented a bit in his mind. Erin is hoping to start studying this week. 

Alex's first day of language study

    The kids are loving it here. It feels like it's always summer so they're always outside playing (or asking to go outside:). There are a few neighbor kids that Hinley is excited to see and enjoys playing with. Her favorite though is playing with our coworkers kids who are her age and speak english. We're so thankful that they're getting along so well. Hinley is really starting to feel more comfortable here. She loves hoping on the motorcycle with Dad to visit the little store across the river.  Beau is getting big fast and has more personality every day.

If you'd like to see more frequent updates of our everyday lives here, find our instagram @williamsinthephilippines 

Let's Try This Again!

Things are finally looking positive for us to get back into the Philippines! Their Covid numbers are way down, and they have opened to tourists again after two years of being closed off. We have tickets to leave from Indiana on April 6th. I'll spare you all the technical details of visas, extensions, and exemption paperwork, and simply ask you to pray that we will make it back this time. There could be some issues to handle with paperwork, but everything looks reasonable enough to deal with. Thank you for standing with us in this long, strange season. We hope it's coming to a close and we get to go back to our little village!

Pray:

• We have to test negative for Covid before we fly. If we test positive we will not be allowed to travel.
• The trip will be 28 hours of cars, planes, and airports. Pray for us and the kids as it's a grueling trip.
• Pray as we soak up our last few weeks with all our Indiana family and friends.

New Year and a New State

     2022 has arrived and it holds a move for us. On January 12th we will be packing up and flying to Indiana. We decided to spend time with all of our people there while we continue to wait for paperwork that will allow us to go back to the Philippines. Our church has graciously allowed us to use a house they own so we get to have our own place for a while. We are looking forward to doing life and ministry with our Bethel family as well as some remote work for our organization in the Philippines! And seeing lots of Erin's family too :) 

     We don't know exactly how long our paperwork will take, but we plan on staying in Indiana until it goes through. The first time around it took 5 months, but we just had two other missionary families whose paperwork only took 2 months. Of course, there's also the new Covid variant so who knows how that will affect everything. We just continue to take life one day at a time. God is faithful in everything and it gives us a deep reassurance that He knows what's around the corner and has a plan for us. 

     Many people have asked about our house in the village. Our co-workers, the Hinderager's, live right beside us, and they have been keeping an eye on it while we are away. Also, another missionary family will be using it this coming month while doing Bible translation. It will be great to have people living in it again. Hopefully they can chase out the giant spiders for us lol. 

Visa Denied

     Thank you for praying right along side us. God has finally given us an answer: Not yet, be patient and build your endurance. Our visa has been denied due to unforeseen circumstances. We filed our exemption paperwork months ago under our old passport number. We renewed our passports recently which gave us a new number and apparently invalidated our exemption request. It has been a shock to us and everyone in our office. We are sad that it's not time to go back yet, but we will press on and apply for a new exemption. We were very thankful to be able to get a full refund for our airline tickets. 

     In this season of thanksgiving we find plenty to be thankful for in the midst of disappointment and sadness. Family and time spent with them, friends and supporters who have been with us every step of the way, and a peace that God's got this under control even when we don't know what's around the next corner. We can walk by faith, not by sight.

2 Corinthians 1:3-5 - Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. For just as we share abundantly in the sufferings of Christ, so also our comfort abounds through Christ.

     What a privilege to have a Heavenly Father who wants to comfort us and is able to. What a privilege to  have a Savior who knows what it feels like to go through this life with its ups and downs.