Take another Step!

After a whirlwind 4-1/2 months in the U.S., we arrived back in the Philippines on New Year’s Eve. Our annual field conference began on January 2nd, and we were incredibly blessed to have a worship team from our home church in Texas lead worship for us at our conference! It was encouraging too, to hear what the Lord is doing, not only on Palawan, but all across the Philippines.

As most of you know, we are facing significant changes to our ministry on Palawan. The number of church planters that we are supporting with flight service in the Palawan region has dwindled to the point that our flight program is not currently viable. For a while, we really struggled with this: What ministry are we going back to? Didn’t God call us to be a “missionary pilot family”? Isn’t this what we’ve poured years of our lives into? These are just a few of the questions that have poured through our minds over the last few weeks, and the Lord’s answer has been very simple: “Will you trust me and take another step?”. In faith, we returned to the Philippines, because God hasn’t just called us to be a “missionary pilot family”, but to walk in obedience to whatever he asks us to do.

So what does our future hold? After hours of meetings and discussions with our field leadership and our aviation leadership, it is clear that the Lord has freed our time up for the next few months so that we can assist with critically needed People Group Assessments and strategy development for the Palawan region of the Philippines. Many of our older church plants are nearing the point where a missionary presence is no longer needed, but there are several people groups that still do not have believers who are capable of reaching their own people. Our role for the next few months will be learning enough about these people groups that we can develop clear strategies for effectively reaching them with the Gospel. In order to better function in this role, I (Josh) and possibly our whole family will be attending a workshop on the people group assessment process  in another part of Asia in March. We would appreciate your prayers for us over the next few months, both for wisdom in the huge task before us, and also for financial provision, as this process will involve a lot of expensive travel to remote areas for myself and the rest of the assessment team. Our hope and prayer too, is that this process will bring clarity to the future flight support needs of the Palawan region, whether we can support new church plants with our current aircraft, or perhaps transition to something more suited to some of the tiny islands and rugged mountains where these remaining people groups live.

We are so incredibly grateful for each of you and the role you continue to play in our lives and ministry. The Lord continues to use your partnership and investment in our own lives and in the lives of hundreds who are hearing the Gospel for the first time because of you!