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. 

It's Finally Here!!!!!!

     The day has finally come! We have tickets purchased to go back to the Philippines on December 2nd! It has been a long road to get special approval to get back in the country, but Jehovah-jireh, the Lord has worked out all the details in His time. Please pray as the last vital step that needs to happen is receiving our tourist visa from the Philippine Consulate here in the states. We've spoken with them and mailed off our application so we are anticipating a two week wait. Pre-covid we would get our tourist visa upon landing in the Philippines, but since tourists aren't allowed in the country yet we have to take special steps. Once we get back we will be able to apply for our new two year visa.

     We are beyond excited to get back to our home, our co-workers, and our little village we get to minister too. There is so much to prepare as we think through all that needs to be done. It will certainly be a hectic few months for us as we make our way back out to the village. Please pray for us and the kids in this big transition. Yes it will be difficult, but difficult isn't necessarily a bad thing. Difficulties keep us humbly relying on the Lord. They keep us remembering who is really in control. And they keep reminding us how faithful our Heavenly Father is in EVERY circumstance. Hard things can be good things when we walk with our Jesus.

     Specific Prayer Requests:

• We have a lot to do in our last few weeks, pray for clear minds 
• Pray our visa arrives soon so we don't have to think about it.
• Pray for our 15 hour flight and 8 day quarantine in a hotel... with two children. 
• Pray for us and the kids as we transition from being home for two years. Hinley barely even remembers our life there!

We planned our way, but the Lord directed our steps.

"The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." Prov. 16:9. 

This furlough has been NOTHING that we thought it would be, yet God has been there every step of the way just as He promises. Our life is usually full of adventure punctuated by times of waiting. We've done a complete reversal of that pattern since the world came to a screeching halt back in March. The entire world has been turned upside-down because of Covid, including us. Our original plan was to return to the Philippines after Easter in April. That has long since passed; we are still "stuck" in Oregon and we have no idea when we will be allowed to enter the Philippines again. They aren't currently allowing any foreigners to enter the country. With their Covid numbers climbing, it's impossible to tell when they will start giving out visas to foreigners again. It's an odd feeling being in this unknown for so long with no end in sight. God is giving us peace about a situation that is totally out of our control, but we do long to be back in the Philippines.

What now? We wait on the Lord as He asks us to be patient and trust Him. Alex has been able to help out around the church here in Keizer and Erin has been taking care of the kids. Hinley is thoroughly enjoying her cousins and Beau is getting more personality every day. If we have to be "stuck", Oregon is a nice place to be, especially in the summer months. Alex's parents have been gracious enough to let us live with them while we are in this limbo land.

For those of you who heard about Hinley being sick, she is doing well now. We took her to the hospital with suspected appendicitis. After several days of tests in the hospital we learned she has a lymphatic malformation. We're being referred to a specialist for further care but it doesn't seem to be anything serious, praise God!

Our coworkers, the Hinderagers, are out in the village doing language study. We get to video chat with them now that we have internet out there. They are doing well in spite of the craziness this pandemic has brought. They're also graciously keeping an eye on our house for us. We certainly never planned to leave it empty this long so it'll be interesting to see what jungle life has moved in when we finally get back! We've been working towards this next step in our journey for the last 10 years. We are ready to get on with our plans of language learning and relationship building, but the Lord has given us a detour so we will wait on the Lord.  

Please pray for the Isneg people. 

• Pray that God will be making their hearts ready to hear his Word. 
• Pray that we can make real relationships with them.
• Pray that we can understand the way they think and live so we can teach in a way that hits directly at their hearts.
• Pray for them during this pandemic. Our area is still doing quite well as far as Covid goes but the Philippines as a whole is dealing with economic difficulties caused by Covid on top of the virus itself. 

God gave us a miracle... Beau's story

Thank you to everyone who prayed for Beau and us. God heard all of you and he listened to every detail. This was the first time I’ve had the privilege of being in a situation where God answered EVERY single prayer on top of providing for things we hadn’t even asked for. He didn’t miss a SINGLE thing. It was so special to be taken care of by our heavenly Father is such an intimate way. If I wrote down every thing He answered this story would be four pages long. 

Here is Beau’s story, a story of our great God. 

I got the chance to hold him before they took him to NICU.

During my 36^th week of pregnancy I had my second visit to the OBGYN in the States. They did an anatomy scan ultrasound where they found that Beau’s heart was slightly enlarged on the right side. The doctor said it meant his heart was working harder than it should be and there were many possible reasons for the enlargement. She referred us to the Maternal Fetal Medicine department who specialize in high risk pregnancies. 

We had our appointment with them the next week. That department did another ultrasound but didn’t find anything specifically wrong. That ultrasound tech mentioned that she sees enlarged right sides often and it doesn’t mean that something is necessarily wrong, but the doctor of that department wanted to be absolutely sure that nothing was wrong, so she made a phone call directly to the pediatric cardiologist and got us in that same day for an echocardiogram. We walked right over to the cardiology wing and got an echocardiogram done by a very skilled and very sweet tech who saw us during her lunch break. She said that it was a good thing we ended up there that day because she and the other girl who specialize in echoes were going to be on vacation for a week starting the next day. She also gave us snacks from her stash in the break room since we didn’t get lunch either J

As soon as the echo was finished, we went right upstairs to meet with the pediatric cardiologist. She started off by telling us that these were the best images she’d ever gotten this late in a pregnancy. That enabled her to see that Beau had transverse aortic arch hypoplasia with possible coarctation. In laymen’s terms, his entire aortic arch was noticeably narrower than the rest of his aorta with the possibility of it being pinched even tighter in some spots. She could also see that three arteries that branch off the top of the aorta weren’t located where they were supposed to be. Another indicator that something was wrong with his aorta. She told us that there was a 50/50 chance Beau would need open heart surgery right after he was born. And if not immediately, then it would only be a matter of time. She referred us to a hospital in Indianapolis as they weren’t able to perform that type of surgery locally. 

We then made our way back to MFM department where the doctor walked us through what the next steps would be and contacted the hospital in Indianapolis for us. We thanked her for helping us get so much accomplished in one day. We went in at 9 a.m. and didn’t leave the hospital until 4:30 p.m. It’s not often all those tests happen in one day and it’s basically unheard of to get a diagnosis the same day. She said it was lucky that everything worked out the way it did. I said, “You call it luck, I call it God taking care of us.” 

We decided to head up to Indianapolis the next week in case Beau came early. Had I delivered him locally and he needed surgery, they would have sent him up to Indianapolis and I would’ve been left behind. My heart couldn’t handle that option, so we rented an Airbnb (that God covered the cost of!) about 20 minutes away from the hospital. During our first appointment there we met with another pediatric cardiologist who did another ultrasound and informed us that he didn’t think coarctation (tight pinching) was a problem, but he couldn’t be sure until after Beau was born and his heart was functioning outside the womb in an oxygen environment. It lifted some of our stress to hear a more positive possibility instead of worst-case scenario. The high risk OBGYN we met with let me know that I could have a normal delivery, no c-section required. There wasn’t even any special monitoring needed during labor.

Hinley meeting Beau for the first time. 

We were blessed to have both my mother and Alex’s come to Indianapolis to help us. I don’t know what we would’ve done without them. Hinley had a lot of fun while mom and dad were away at appointments and while Beau was born. We even got to have our own little Thanksgiving celebration. For anyone whose wondering, Hinley is a great big sister J

  The day finally arrived; I was induced on Monday, December 2 at 9a.m. Beau was born at 6:37pm. He was 6lbs. 10oz. and 20” long. I’ll spare you all the details of labor and delivery and simply say that God took care of all those details down to the smallest one. Everything went so well. The delivery part only took about 10 minutes and he came out crying. I got to hold him for a little while before they took him back to the NICU. He pinked up really fast and all his vitals looked great. Alex got to stay with him the whole time while I had to go back to recovery. 

Blood pressure check in the NICU.

They did an echocardiogram on him right away in the NICU and found NO narrowing or pinching! God healed him completely! We were all pretty emotional, and I can’t describe the rush of relief that floods in when news like that is delivered. The doctors wanted him to be monitored until Friday so his PDA would have time to close. Turns out that in the womb babies have an extra artery that runs from the pulmonary vein to the aorta, it’s called the PDA. After birth the PDA closes up and disappears. Beau’s heart was fine in the womb because God created babies with that PDA. Beau’s heart was fine outside the womb because God healed his aorta. We took shifts with Beau as we waited for the PDA to close. It was physically and emotionally exhausting. But God continued to answer prayer after prayer, even when I hadn’t considered asking Him for something. This struck me the most when Beau’s lactic acid rose to a higher than average level on Wednesday night. This made the doctor decide to push up the final echocardiogram to Thursday instead of Friday. I had just asked Alex earlier that day if it would be possible to ask the doctor to do the echo on Thursday, so we get out of NICU. God answered prayer I hadn’t even prayed for; He just knew my heart and beat me to it! That final echocardiogram showed that his PDA had closed, and everything was working exactly like it should, so we got to go home a day early. The three arteries that branch off the top of the aorta are still not in a row like they should be. Two of them branch off the aorta but the third branches off the second. It won’t affect him though. It’s just a reminder that his aorta was messed up, but God healed it. He doesn’t even need any follow appointments!

It was one of the hardest things I’ve gone through in my life, but God is so tender with his children in the midst of anxiety and stress, He gave me peace over and over every time I went to Him. I’ve always heard these kinds of miracles happening for other people, but somewhere in my heart I never thought God would really do that for me. Isn’t it amazing what God can do with faith the size of a mustard seed. He is such a good Father. 

Furlough

Two years have flown by because so much has happened. Here's a quick review.

   -Moved 12 hours north to Tuguegarao

   -Finished Tagalog study

   -Found a ministry location

   -Found land for our teams houses

   -Built our house and our Co-Workers house

   -Moved to our ministry location

The list looks short but most of these things took months to accomplish. Finding a ministry location for example took multiple several day motorcycle trips adding up to weeks of our time that were stretched out over months while studying language. 

Through it all God has always gone before us, connecting us to the people we've needed to meet. There are days of wondering what in the world we're doing out in the middle of the jungle. What keeps us there is the confidence that we are exactly where God has put us. 

We're having a baby! If you haven't heard already, Erin is due December 8th. That means we're coming back to the US for six months.

Late October we'll leave our nearly completed house in the village and fly to Indiana. We'll be there for a few months to have the baby (boy), enjoy family, visit our friends, and have a rest. We began building our coworkers house last September. We've been building for a year now and it's time for a break! Alex is quite exhausted from working in the tropical heat and is looking forward to not living in his worksite. It has been incredible to see two houses go up so quickly in the middle of nowhere. We've been blessed with men of local skill and foreign skill alike. It wouldn't have happened without many hands and the blessing of finances. 

After our time with friends and family in Indiana we plan to head to Oregon. We will arrive there in late January and stay for a few months. It will be another time of reconnection and rest.

There are exciting things on the horizon as we start our life in a small village in Northern Luzon. After our short furlough we'll begin learning the language of the people while becoming a 'normal' part of the community. Then, we get to tell them about their Savior in their own language. We're already hearing questions about God and other religions as we work along some of the local men on our houses. It's exciting to say things like, "we'll be sure to talk about that when we start teaching." 

Please Pray:

• That none of us get sick while traveling 
• Erin is able to stay comfortable on the long flights
• That we find a car to use in Indiana
• For our teammates as they start language study while we're away

Just 20 More Days Until We Move!

    We were extremely blessed to have a team from East Side Baptist in North Carolina come help with our house. Tyler and Amanda Zimmerman (Erin's best friend) contacted us when plans for their other mission trip weren't working out. Thank God they were able to come here! We got an enormous amount of work done in a week. 

    The house is now lockable! Exterior doors are installed, windows are in, the upstairs flooring is nearly finished being prepped for paint, the upstairs exterior is painted, septic lines are connected to the tank and our bathroom upstairs is well on its way. It was awesome to see this team work hard and be excited about what we are doing there. 

    There is still a lot to be done with only a little over two weeks to do it. Next week I'll have help from another missionary to begin installing our solar equipment. The house needs to be sealed up. There are still six inch gaps between the wall and our roof that need to be covered. Bathrooms need to be finished. Interior walls need to be put up upstairs. The back porch and roof need to be done, as well as the front porch roof. There's also lots of painting and siliconing to be done all over. Exterior window bars will be installed for security. 

    All of that won't get done before we move in but you can see that we'll be busy for awhile yet. Please keep praying for us as we finish up our home all the while strengthening relationships with those around us here. 

Here's our team along with the work team.

From left, Hinley, Alex, Hannah, Amanda, Tyler, and Thomas

The Front of Our Home

This is an awesome panorama of our teams homes. Hinderagers' left ours right.

We Started Our House! - This video will be updated every week or two with the progress that's made.

Building Our Co-Worker's Home

     House building is a lot of fun and a lot of work. We are amazingly blessed to have help from a contractor who has spent a lot of time in the Philippines. He's made the work speed up 10 fold not just because of his house building knowledge but also because of his Philippine experience. Despite having to wait out two big typhoons and only being able to stay out at the work site for about a week at a time we've accomplished so much in just 3 months. The hardest part of all of this has been leaving our families in town while we work in our ministry location. 

     

     Next week I'll be ordering the lumber for our house! Our co-workers will be in the states for the next few months to have their baby. While they're away I'll be working on a few projects on our property and starting the foundation of our house. God, working through our sending churches, has FULLY FUNDED our house project. That is obviously a huge blessing but it also means I can choose some higher quality materials so that, Lord willing, I will never have to deal with them again. Things like better quality batteries and better roofing material will make it so that we can focus on the task at hand, spreading the gospel. 

The beginning of block work

Puting floor joists on

The first wall up

Roofs done

Plywood walls

First Two Projects At Our Soon-To-Be Home

     We're moving fast toward moving into our soon to be home. Cole and I are making trips back and forth to get little projects done before we begin work on their house. We've already got a large water tank made that will service our teams houses and also the land owners house. We've already been hugely blessed with the skill level of the guys there and they're excited to work! Some days we actually have too much help. One day we had 16 men working for us! 

The beginning of our ferro-cement tank.

First layer of cement being stuck to two layers of wire mesh.

 

The complete 5,000L tank.

     Our second completed project is the septic tank. It took three full days of digging with 4-5 guys in the hole all day. The hole ended up being 13' X 7' X 7'. 

The start of our hole.

Complete hole for two chamber septic tank.

Cole with a few of the guys.

Finishing up the tank.

Next to me is one of the local pastors we hope to work closely with in the years to come.

     Our plan now is to start work on our partners house this coming month. It's really exciting to see relationships being built with the people we will be ministering to. Pray for us as we begin the big job of building two houses! Pray that the rain won't hinder progress. 

Dibagat Youth Camp

Cole and I had a great time helping out at the Dibagat Youth Camp. It was an amazing opportunity to meet the young people from around the area we hope to be ministering in soon. Watch the video to see the great time we had!

Head First Into the Deep End

                             Isaiah 43:2

When you go through deep waters,
    I will be with you.

Oh that feeling, a mix of excitement and suspense, as you step up to the edge of something new. Staring into the deep can be unnerving. We are willingly going in way over our heads! But God's grace has been deeper still, and staring into the depths of his love is an anchor for our souls.

We've been moving towards the "deep end" for a long time now. The time has finally come to dive in head first! Alex passed his final Tagalog language evaluation! This means we are closing that chapter and moving on. We are officially doing full time PGA (People Group Assessment). This is the process of deciding all the specifics of our long term ministry.

Alex and Cole will be spending a lot of time in the coming months making trips out to villages and towns to gather more information and connect with people. It's quite the undertaking so we desperately need prayer. The guys also have a great opportunity to share during communion on Easter Sunday at a small church out in one of the villages. We are really looking forward to connecting to this body of believers on a deeper level. Who knows how God will use those relationships for His glory, our growth, and the spread of the gospel.

We have SO many pivotal decisions to make. Please pray with us as we...

• Make final decisions on what language we will minister in. (Yeah it's complicated!)
• Continue to better understand the people group we are going to be living with.
• Search for a strategic place to base our ministry in.
• Get in touch with people who have the authority to let us move in to their area.
• Find land to build a house.
• Eventually build said house.
• All the while, laying foundations for the gospel to be preached.

Like I said, head first! I think we're going to need some arm floaties. 

Looking Back and Looking Forward

2017, it was honestly a blur so we'll give you the non-blurry, nutshell version of our highlights. Then we'll lay out our hopes and dreams for 2018.

We started out our year in Indiana, where we had our baby girl (the best thing about 2017!) and spent time with our church and family. We moved to Oregon in the spring and finished our furlough there. We returned to the Philippines in August and life got even blurrier. But this is the nutshell version so we'll leave out the whirlwind details. We moved to northern Luzon, and Alex picked up where he left off in Tagalog study. We finished out the year by celebrating the holidays with friends and refocusing on our plans for the upcoming year.

That leads to... drum roll please....2018! Do I dare write down all that we hope to see come to pass? It's intimidating to say what we hope for because of the disappointment that follows if it doesn't happen.

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life." Prov 13:12.

We are certainly longing to "get our hands dirty" for the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our goal is to finish Tagalog study by early March. We can then get into full time PGA (People Group Assessment). This is a time and labor intensive process that involves many trips to the region we'll be ministering in. It's the beginning of so many relationships that we hope to see grow into a mature church one day. This process helps us decide where to build our home, how we will approach ministry, and who our primary audience will be. There's even a possibility we could start studying the Isnag language this year if everything moves along.

Prov 16:9 "The mind of a man plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps." This verse brings so much comfort and excitement. What relief to know that the Lord is the one in charge of all this, and how exciting that He wants us to be a part of the planning process. It's such an honor to be a part of what God is doing to build His church.

Maybe this time next year we'll be writing you from our new home out in the middle of the jungle!

                                       
                                                  This little cutie wants to wish you a happy new year!

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!

Settled and Searching

SETTLED

I'm not sure how it's October already. The last month has been packed with so many new things. New town, new house, new milestones for Hinley, new friends, new pediatrician, and the list goes on. Thank you for praying for us as we are adjusting to this new place.

Big prayers that were answered...

• We have a house! God provided a place in no time flat. We were shocked that we found a place so quickly. It took a bit of time to make it our own, but it feels like home.  All of our stuff made the move with no problems, and our coworkers are all settled in as well.

We don't rent the whole thing just one of the lower floors, for those of you who were wondering why there is a house on top of our house :)

• The guys were able to take a short trip into a village of the people group we plan to minister to the future. They had a great time talking with a pastor and an elder of a small church that we could potentially work with to see the gospel reach beyond this small village to the whole people group.  

• Hinley is doing so well. She has handled all the changes like a pro. There was some loss of sleep, but that's to be expected since we've been living in so many new places. She is growing so fast. She can already crawl around and pull herself up on things. She also loves playing with other kids and definitely notices when other little people are around.

Hinley and Aaro hanging out during Bible study.

• The car. It was fixed! (Great answer to prayer) Alex found out that an ignition coil had gone bad, but he was able to find it and change it. That solved the problem and he was able to make the 11 hour drive from Manila up to Tuguegarao. Unfortunately, we are having different issues with it now. It's been to the mechanic twice now. We'll see if this latest fix does the trick.

SEARCHING

Now the next big thing we need to tackle is finding a language helper for Alex. Please be in prayer for this. It's a big deal to find someone who is capable and has time. We've already been in touch with a couple of local pastors, but haven't heard anything yet.

Part of my search as a mom was finding a pediatrician for Hinley. I'm happy to say that through the recommendation of another missionary mom we were able to take Hinley in for her 6 month appointment to a doctor that we really liked and felt did a great job.

There is also so much planning and decision making we have as a team (Us and the Hinderagers) : what our specific goals are in the village, what location we want to move to, how we'll function together as a team, etc... Please keep us before the Lord. The weight of the path laid before us is immense. We know that we don't shoulder the burden because God is the one changing hearts not us, but the gravity of what we hope to see come to pass is often on our minds. We are completely inadequate for what lies ahead, but that's the way the Lord works... in the midst of the weakness, not in the absence of it.

Every Kilometer A Thankful Heart

     It's been little over a week now and our time has been going well. We've seen God's faithfulness again and again. We just got home from our short trip to Bataan. It's a three hour drive from where we are staying. We had such a good time catching up with our friends and church. 

     On the drive back home, we stopped at a rest stop on the expressway/interstate to grab lunch. That's when things got a little shaky, the car that is. Our car started shaking in a very worrisome manner while it was idling. At this point we've already been praying that God would keep our air conditioner running so why not add shaking that rocks the entire car into the prayer mix. Alex checked all the fluids and asked if there was a mechanic at the gas station. No such luck, so we tried the next exit with the same results. We decided to just press on since the oil wasn't low and the issue only presented itself in idle. As we were driving down the interstate we prayed together that God would get us home. We knew that Manila traffic was ahead which means lots of stopping and idling.  Maybe some of you are like me when you pray. You know, you ask God to do something like keep your car running so you don't break down on one of the busiest streets in Manila, then in the back of your mind your actually making plans for when the car breaks down in the middle of the road, you know... just in case God isn't listening.

Matthew 17:20 "Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

I didn't need enough faith to move a mountain; I just needed enough to get our car to the guest house. That's exactly what God did by the way. We never came to a complete stop on one of the busiest streets in Manila (that never happens!). Have you seen a mustard seed? It's ridiculously tiny, and I don't even have that most of the time. I have such a small, fragile faith. The Holy Spirit has this gentle way of convicting us and teaching us at the same time. As every kilometer passed my heart became more and more thankful. God is really nurturing my minuscule faith, and making it into something beautiful. Granted it's a slow process with a scaredy-cat like me. I feel like a tiny sprout reaching up for the light who needs the Gardener to come along and tend it. At least I'm in good company. Look at who Jesus chose as his disciples. 

Matthew 17:14-20 When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.” “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment. Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, “Why couldn’t we drive it out?”He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

Praise God from whom all blessings flow, 

• We are through the worst of jet lag. Now we sleep as well as anyone else who has a 5 month old.
• Alex had a safe trip while picking up our car.
• We just had a wonderful visit with our church and friends from Bataan.
• All of our belongings look great! We don't have to throw anything out. I couldn't find any mold in the house at all, just lots of dead bugs... Big Ones. Yuck!
• Hinley was a little champion the whole trip! Even with skipped naps, and lots of brand new things and people to meet she did great.

Pray to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,

• That we figure out what is going with our car before Alex has to make the 12 hour drive up north.
• For Alex, he has a bit of a stomach bug.
• We are getting together with a couple of our Language Consultants early next week. They'll be helping us get back in gear for language study.
• We are going to immigrations next week to get Hinley's paperwork finished.
• Also next week, we will be flying up north to look for a new house and possibly the guys will do some survey work.
• We are still trying to get in touch with the movers who will transport all our belongings up north.

God Even Cares About a Blankie - Our Trip back to the Philippines

     We're back in the Philippines! It's 4:30 a.m here as I'm writing this. We've been up for an hour already so we're right in the middle of the delights of jet lag, but it's been getting better every night.

     We had a really good trip from Oregon. Honestly, we knew people were praying for us. It started out with a 4 hour drive to Seattle, during which Hinley only cried for about 20 min and we only hit 30 min of traffic. A great start to a very long journey. We stayed the night at a hotel, and took a shuttle to the airport in the morning. While waiting for the shuttle, I was standing in the lobby of the hotel babysitting our luggage and our daughter as Alex was putting the car seat in. For no apparent reason, it hit me like a lightning bolt that I left Hinley's blankie on the bed in the hotel room. This is not just any blanket mind you, it's the blanket she uses for ALL of her sleeping. Parents, you know what I'm talking about. My heart started to race as I prayed that God would take care of her blanket. We had already turned in our room key, and told the cleaning people upstairs that the room was ready to be done! Hinley and I abandoned our luggage in the lobby, had the front desk make another card key, and raced to the elevators which were painfully slow. As the doors opened a nice Spanish speaking man was rolling away two laundry carts. Of course I was thinking that her sweet little blankie was mixed up in all those sheets. I tried to tell him about my problem, but there was an obvious language barrier as he kept saying, "Front Desk". All I could think of was Tagalog, no help at all! He continued down the hallway, and I waited for the elevators AGAIN... soooo slow. I finally ran into the room to find her blanket draped on a chair with all the other sheets.

Hinley was very perky at midnight... We were not :)

The infamous blankie pictured here. The yellow and white one.

   














                                 Sweet relief and praise for such a small mercy that didn't feel small to me. There's no reason I should have remembered that blanket. I had a thousand other things on my mind, but God in his tender care brought it to mind. He cares about all the details, and He wants us to come to Him with ALL our burdens, even one as small as a baby blanket. 

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

Hinley and Aaro

I felt like a T-rex trying to eat with tiny arms :)

     















                                              The rest of our trip was filled with special little details from God.

• Our carry on's were overweight but there was enough space in other bags so nothing was left behind.
• We got to travel with our partners, Cole and Hannah, and their two kids Cameron and Aaro.
• Our flight was only 11 hours when we were expecting 12.
• The lady on the end of the row asked to trade seats with us which gave us the pair of seats where the arm rest pulled up out of the way.
• Hinley fell asleep in the bassinet right before the food came.
• She only slept about 5 hours out of 24, but she was happy basically the whole time.
• We were able to find a quiet spot during the layover.
• All of our luggage made it.
• Immigrations was a cake walk.
• We caught a taxi so easily. 
• Tagalog came back so quickly as we chatted with our taxi driver.

     We were completely exhausted, but the trip went so well. Praise God, He really does hear the prayer of His people. Thank you for bringing us before His throne of grace. 

Continue praying for...

• Hinley's visa
• Jet Lag
• Moving all of our belongings
• Finding a house
• Traveling
• Doing some survey trips
• And a flurry of other things that need to get done.