In February we purchased our first Philippine car here. It was a 1990 Landcruiser with over 210K Kilometers on it. Those would be Philippine kilometers, which are considerably more painful for a vehicle than normal kilometers. Amazingly, the vehicle was in beautiful condition (for its age) and the owner had taken good care of it. Nevertheless, it was in need of some repairs.
As I searched for a good shop here that could repair an imported Landcruiser I came across a few places here in the Manila area that have proved to be amazing resources. One of them is the 199 Off-Road House. Just the fact that they have a computer, let alone a website, is a major deal. Though this is a business for these guys, it is also their hobby. They go off-roading as a group at least once a month and so far I have been able to join them on a few of their trips. So far I have parked our truck when it gets muddy because I didn’t have adequate tires. This weekend, I plan to go for my first trip in the mud with our car, now that I found a modest set of mud tires for it.
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This is a really fun group of guys to hang out with and has been very good for my progress with Tagalog study. It has been great to make friends here in a group that shares my “motorhead” interests. I have learned so much from them and look forward to the years ahead of getting to know them better.
These trips are really good for me to learn how to drive in this kind of extreme mud environment from guys who consistently win the Philippine Tough Truck Challenge every year. They really know their stuff and are eager to bring us into their world of off-road. Of course, they are doing this for hobby, and we are seeing it as necessity to our ministry. However, while here in Manila it seems it is a lot more fun than necessity! While many of their vehicles are radical looking off road machines, they are also quite good at making a modest looking, very capable vehicle. This is very important to us since we already stand out enough in a crowd just by being American.
While we are in language school, I am trying to get the other students and missionaries to join us on these “off-road days” so that they can also learn some techniques that will no doubt come in handy during their time here in the Philippines. Some of our missionaries are accessible by muddy roads during parts of the year, so we are exploring the idea of expanding our ministry to over-land deliveries where there is no airstrip. We aren’t sure yet how practical it would be, but we do know that there are many areas on Mindanao, Luzon and Palawan that are inaccessible without a capable 4×4 and skills to match.
Our goal here is to enable the Gospel to go where it has never been before. Currently we are using highly modified airplanes in an off-road environment. It is getting more and more difficult to acquire land here for airstrips and right now the helicopter will only be able to cover one region. We are trying to think outside the box a little to see if this may be a need we can meet overland when airplanes are not an option. Or Maybe it would be best as a temporary solution while new tribal works await a helicopter program. Maybe we can supply them by land for a couple years so they can get started with language study while we wait for a flight program in their area? We don’t know what is best, but at the end of the day we are here to expand the reach of the Gospel and assist the missionaries no matter what it takes.
Please pray for us as we explore new ideas that we would not be too locked into using airplanes that we discredit other ideas. Also that we would not let our new excitement and fun with 4×4 trails cloud our judgment. Pray that we will be able to make decisions in the interest of what is best for the tribal people awaiting the news that they have a savior.
Disclaimer: Aircraft are still the fastest, safest, least stressful and often only way to reach many of our tribes. We aren’t looking to phase flying out in exchange for overland travel, but rather meet changing needs in a changing country. We are merely wanting to remain open to new methods and consider them as they come. Currently there are areas where we could move in, but an airstrip is not an option. So what can we do about that? Is there a way we can help missionaries in those areas until we can get a helicopter to them? Those are the driving motivators for much of this kind of thinking.