Thanksgiving in Dibagat

Part of picking a ministry location is doing lots of research in order to really understand how God is already working in the area. Cole and I spent two days in Dibagat celebrating Thanksgiving and asking tons of questions. In this small village the New Testament was translated by some very faithful missionaries about 35 years ago. Their work has been greatly used by God. 

With the New Testament and portions of the Old Testament translated all that's needed are teachers willing to go. We've made three trips into this area and have met three great young men who are doing just that. With roughly 40,000 Isnag speakers there is much more to be done in the surrounding villages. That's where our families believe we can be a part of sharing God's Word with the Isnag people. 

Language Jar Reboot

During furlough I had several people ask about the jar of beads we were using to show hours logged in Tagalog study last term. Well, I dropped the ball and never showed you where we left off. I'm not one for cliff hangers so here's the current level of beads. The green beads at the very top are the new beads added since we've been back.

To make a long story short, it's been decided that we will only learn two languages. This means that we will finish out Tagalog then move on to Isnag. It was foggy for a long time what language we would study next, but we finally got enough information and the green light from leadership to use Tagalog as our main trade language and Isnag as our ministry language.

Some of you have already realized that new beads means that Alex found a language helper! This helper has been such a good fit. It's like he's been doing this for years after only a few training sessions. Unfortunately for us he is a full time college student as well so Alex doesn't get to get in as much time as he would like. This means that we are still on the look out for another language helper to fill in the gaps.

This week is packed with great things. Our two language consultants are coming to help Alex and Cole fine tune their language learning. We'll celebrate Thanksgiving with them and our coworkers. Then the boys are going to take a trip out to Isnag land to visit a small church for their Thanksgiving Celebration. This church is one of the few small pockets of believers in the Isnag people group so we are excited to forge relationships there and see what God has in store for the future. He's been at work in hearts long before we ever arrive on the scene so it's always humbling to see the path that He has prepared ahead of time for us. Be on the look out next week for an update about their trip out to the village!