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.