{"id":863,"date":"2012-03-26T01:05:37","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T17:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/?p=863"},"modified":"2012-03-26T10:23:54","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T02:23:54","slug":"coming-alongside-the-agta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/2012\/03\/26\/coming-alongside-the-agta\/","title":{"rendered":"Coming Alongside the Agta"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>
Gene, Brian, Pastor JR, & Smitty just before our flight to visit the Agta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A couple of blogs back (To Much Death in the Village<\/a>) I introduced you to our friends the Epps who are working with the Agta.\u00a0 By God’s grace and His perfect timing, just this past February I had the privilege of flying in for a first time visit with the Agta.\u00a0 Also visiting for the first time were local pastor J.R. Santias, and NTM missionary, Gene Park from Korea.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Visiting with the Agta<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Despite being just a day trip, what an exciting time this was to spend with the missionaries ministering to the Agta.\u00a0 Together we praised God for the work He has already done among these people and then we challenged one another to considered how we could be a part of moving the work forward.\u00a0 Please pray with us in this.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

FAMILY TIME!<\/p>\n

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Smitty, Cirena, Char, Don, & John<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As much as I enjoyed my first visit with the Agta,\u00a0the second trip was so much better.\u00a0 This time we were\u00a0able to visit as a family and together we had the privilege of spending\u00a0two nights in the village.\u00a0\u00a0The Epps were excellent hosts and our time with them made it that much more of a privilege to serve alongside them in reaching the Agta.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Sheila with a couple of her fellow MK's<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Besides spending time with the Agta, together we enjoyed swimming in the both the river and the ocean, a bond-fire on the beach, and for Sheila just your general run and play through the jungle, building jungle forts, collecting hermit crabs, and other little girl stuff.\u00a0 She had a really great time with her fellow MK’s in the jungle.\u00a0 Trips like that can be such a great time of encouragement.\u00a0 Please pray for God’s perfect timing & provision for similiar trips in the future.<\/p>\n

HELPING TO MEET NEEDS!<\/p>\n

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Cirena with an Agta woman and her child.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Our time with the Agta though certainly \u00a0wasn\u2019t all play.\u00a0 In fact, not long after our arrival, Don and I flew to a small grassy area on the other side of the ridge so as to evaluate it as a possible alternative landing site for emergencies.\u00a0 We also used it as an opportunity to drop off a requested catheter to one of the families that lived there.\u00a0 We then dug our heels in for a two-hour hike (verses two to three minutes by helicopter) back to the village.\u00a0 The next day we were there to see a community well started which was followed by another hike to get a signature from one of the local leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Smitty with our Agta friends who flew out of the village seeking medical attention.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then there is the tons of medical work done each day.\u00a0 Just days after\u00a0our visit, an Agta couple flew out\u00a0of the village headed to the\u00a0local hospital in town seeking medical attention\u00a0and so I had the privilege of helping out\u00a0a couple of days\u00a0along with\u00a0our co-worker John.\u00a0 I used Tagalog to communicate with the hospital staff while John used Agta to communicate with the patients.\u00a0 It was somewhat commical watching two westerners act as translators between Filipinos.\u00a0 One encouraging email we received from Char read as follows, “I told one of the ladies, Marites sister-in-law that you guys went with them to the hospital and she was SO thankful, even\u00a0 releaved with joy on her face.”<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0 We live in a\u00a0very needy world and there is much work to be done.\u00a0 What a privilege it is to be part of team reaching the Agta for Christ.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Living in a remote location is not without it’s difficulties.\u00a0 On multiple\u00a0occasions now the missionaries have had to leave the village due to health issues.\u00a0 Due to bad weather, this last time one of the family members became ill, it took three days to get them out of the village.\u00a0 Please be in prayer for Don and Char Epp and family, for their partner John Burbidge, and for their new partners Jared and Bana Major and family who are in the process of moving into the village at this very moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy\u00a0 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.”<\/em><\/span><\/strong> Philippianans\u00a0 1:4-6 NIV<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of blogs back (To Much Death in the Village) I introduced you to our friends the Epps who are working with the Agta.\u00a0 By God’s grace and His perfect timing, just this past February I had the privilege of flying in for a first time visit with the Agta.\u00a0 Also visiting for the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":407,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10059],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-about","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/407"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ethnos360.org\/robert-smith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}