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