We have been saying we need to write an update for several weeks now, and we finally had time and the words to say!
First off, A HUGE thank you to everyone who helped with our moving expenses! By the time the final bills showed up, the Lord had provided enough to cover our entire move!
Less than two weeks after arriving on our new island almost 3 months ago, we traveled back to Palawan where we packed up and moved our house and car. After living there for 5 1/2 years, we had invested a lot into our house and the missionaries we served. It was very hard and emotional as we packed our lives into boxes and said goodbyes to many dear friends. We lived there longer than we have anywhere our married life. We’ve found that missionary life is a long series of goodbyes and hellos, of endings and beginnings, and sorrows and joys. But we’ve also found that this is where God’s faithfulness shines the brightest.
Our new island is much bigger and actually has places that you can drive to. The town we now call home is a small rural farming town, and things like car parts, hardware & Dr. Pepper 🙂 are a 3-4 hour drive away depending on traffic and road conditions. The roads are pretty rough…
Josh has had the opportunity to drive two missionary families into their villages while we’re waiting for the helicopter to arrive. We are super thankful for our truck that has enabled him to do that and letting us do the traveling to the city that we have needed to for supplies. But as I mentioned in a Facebook post, cars get culture shock too. Not having driven our truck very hard before moving here, it stayed pretty healthy. Well, the new island and new roads have brought out all its issues. And it has lots! For you mechanic nerds, do brakes, alternators, bearings, radiators & water pumps speak to you? Josh has spent endless hours fixing and refixing our truck- please pray for him and the truck as this is an ongoing saga, and a critical tool for our ministry right now.
We have settled into our new house and the kids and I spend most of our time doing school. We are finishing up Joshua’s 5th grade and Anna’s 4th grade year. As they get older, more and more is required of them (and mama) and takes up the majority of our days. Joshua is super into basketball these days and is throughly enjoying the new hoop that we put up in the driveway. Anna is the creative one in the family and is always making up a new recipe, making jewelry, or writing long stories.
We continue to enjoy the blessing of having Elsie & Gilbert live with us and help us in our ministry. We are excited that they are expecting a baby in October. 
And the big news is– the helicopter should be arriving today! Our family, along with the Pruett family, will be traveling to the city this weekend for the next week or so for the guys to put the helicopter together. There is a lot that has to happen before it is up and flying- paperwork, inspections, and we are still on the hunt for land near town to build our hangar. Josh and Brian have pursued several options but they have all fallen through. Please pray that all goes smoothly and quickly getting the helicopter up and running and the Lord will lead us to just the right piece of land. We are really excited to begin serving our missionaries with the helicopter and about the new opportunities that the Lord is opening up for us to serve.
As soon as we get the hangar built on the land and the helicopter program is up and running smoothly, we will traveling back to the States for a few months for Josh to complete an advanced helicopter training course. We are anticipating that this will be at the end of this year/ first of next year.
Right before we came back to the Philippines in January, the Lord spoke to us through several different people that His “word” for us for this year was “A New Adventure”. Well, I think we could definitely insert one more word in there- “A New Crazy Adventure.” Crazy is defined as, “Not in one’s right mind. Extreme. Enthusiastic.” Well, a lot of people think we are crazy (not in our right minds), doing what we do. We have been asked, “How can you take your kids over to the other side of the world, away from everything normal and from their family? That’s crazy!” Yes, sometimes what we do is thought of as crazy (extreme). And to be honest, we aren’t in our right minds, we are crazy because we follow God’s mind and His calling and His dream for us and sometimes, it is crazy (extreme)!
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