A Couple of Awesome First

After ten years on the mission field in the Philippines, God continues to bless us and walk us through first time experiences.  Among the first time blessings includes a first time visit with new believers in Christ among the Cuyonen in Palawan.  Part of our ministry is to help coordinate work teams and so back in early June when we had a team come from the UK to do some work in this village, I was blessed to have the opportunity to join them for a few days.  To arrive at our final destination we traveled by plane, boat, and automobile – about a 10 hour day all and all.  Beyond the privilege of spending time with the missionary family living in this village as well as members of the work team, the greatest blessing was seeing new believers in Christ worshiping the Lord.  Please pray for the missionary families living and ministering among these people and for the new believers as they grow in the knowledge of God’s grace as new followers of Christ.  Pray also for them members of this short-term team as they consider what God has for them long-term.

A few weeks later I found myself in another village, in a totally different part of the country, also for the first time.  This time I traveled with a visiting couple that is currently finishing their missions training and seeking the Lord as to which field they might serve with.  Please keep the Hinderager’s in prayer.  Also joining us was a young man here for a year to assist with home-schooling the kids of someone in his home church that is here serving full-time.  After a rough three hour plus road trip into the interior, past many rice fields, one major river crossing (which all of us but the driver crossed by foot), and a climb up and over the mountain, we finally found ourselves in a small Manubo settlement.  While teaching has not yet begun among these people, for the past two years the missionaries there have been busy learning the culture and language, earning the right to be heard and preparing lessons.  These people who once viewed the missionaries with suspicion are now eager to hear the word of God.  Please pray for teaching to begin hopefully before the end of the year and for the missionaries working there which also includes Filipino nationals.

That’s it for now.  I’ll share a couple of other first in my next update.  Thanks for praying.  We serve in a country where the adversary is constantly trying to destroy what the Lord is doing or what He will do and your prayers help each of us to persevere.  Many blessings to each of you.