Caneo, January 13-14

How excited I was that I was finally going to get to return to Caneo. We had been there during our outreach in 2007, but have not yet had the opportunity to return. It was great to see some familiar faces and familiar places. It may seem ridiculous, but seeing the projects we had worked on when our team was here before gave a sense of accomplishment. It really felt good to be back.
I have mentioned Pastor Rudy several times. He is the pastor of the church in Caneo. He and his family live in Bontoc and serve with YWAM. His family goes to Caneo a couple times a week and live there through the weekends.

Just like in Anabel, the Gimpo team had an evening presentation for the people of the village. Below is a picture of the fan dance.

Afterwards, I had the opportuninty to talk with some of the kids. I have some pictures from our outreach on my mp-3 player. So when I was talking to these girls, I said that I probably had pictures of them. As we looked at the pictures, they laughed and called out the names of their friends and neighbors. But what really touched me was when they saw the pictures of my girls with them and they could name each of my girls. I had not said anything about them or even mentioned their names. We have not been in the village since October of 2007, and then only for a few days! I was once again reminded of how God is using our whole family to reach people.

On the left is Pastor Rudy's youngest son. On the right is Mindel. She and Pastor Rudy were a tremendous help to me in coordinating this trip.


You may remember my earlier post about freezing my flip-flops off. Well as you can see, we were pretty cold in Caneo. Jackets, layers, and hats were common. Pastor Rudy's wife, Bridget, even decided to wear a couple blankets.

When we were here in 2007, we made bunk beds and a table for the church. Since we had only one saw to share between several men and projects, I used the down time to carve a new handle to replace the broken one on the church door. Soon after we came back last year, one of the TDTS students who had accompanied us on the trip to Caneo mentioned the handle and said how she remembered me everytime she saw it. It's funny how little things can leave an impression on people.

The door handle is still in good working order.

I did not get to walk around the village much during this visit. My responsibilities kept me close to the church. But I did get to watch some of the weavers at work.

A view of the countryside between Bontoc and Caneo

I have included links to the blog posts from our time in Caneo back in 2007 in case you would like to see more of the village and its wonderful people.

Grace,

Tom

http://garden-of-grace.blogspot.com/2007/10/wednesday-october-10-2007.html

http://garden-of-grace.blogspot.com/2007/10/thursday-october-11-2007.html

http://garden-of-grace.blogspot.com/2007/10/friday-october-12-2007.html

http://garden-of-grace.blogspot.com/2007/10/saturday-october-13-2007-from-lisa.html

http://garden-of-grace.blogspot.com/2007/10/saturday-october-13-2007-from-tom.html

http://garden-of-grace.blogspot.com/2007/10/sunday-october-14-2007.html