Count Your Blessings

Thanksgiving Day...no turkey, no sweet potatoes, no cranberries, no pumpkin pie...But the ingredients we really missed are the loved ones halfway around the world from us. Yet as we looked around at each other and watched a slide show of our phots from the last several years, we are reminded of our many blessings. One, two, three,...104, 105, 106,...

Count your blessings, name them one by one,
Count your blessings, see what God hath done!
Count your blessings, name them one by one,
And it will surprise you what the Lord hath done.

School Good Enough to Eat

This is school that really matters beyond second grade.

Annalise reading Daddy's pancake recipe.

Not quite as good as the Filipinos since she still uses her hands but we have only lived her a year and a half.

Learning to read a recipe, fractions,

special time with Daddy.A great team

Not only does Daddy make delicious pancakes...

he often takes the time to design special shapes.

"Mangan tayo"

Rainbow Through Bontoc

November 18,2009

UN Helicopter

Since the typhoons, a United Nations helicopter has been seen in the skies over Bontoc on occasion.

It probably means that help of some sort or another has been brought to the province.

And although help is welcome and good, when it lands at the high school athletic field,

it means all of the neighbors will need to rewash the laundry they had hanging out to dry.

Baguio DTS Does Some Show N' Tell

The Baguio DTS team came to my Values Education class several times while they were here for their outreach. They brought songs, skits, and stories to communicate Biblical truths.

On their last visit, the team shared God's love with the students with gifts of schoolpacks.

Besides my grade 5 class, they visited one of the high school's Values Education class. This time at the high school was a continuation of their ministry to the youth of Bontoc. Most afternoons, they spent "hanging out" at the Plaza building relationships and sharing with the young people.

Lisa

The Empty Tank

Ever since Typhoon Pepeng a month or so ago, our water has been much more erratic than usual. The typhoon took out access to the source and the piping in a landslide. That was restored, but our pressure has rarely been sufficient to get water up to our 2nd floor apartment. Fortunately, we have a tank and water pump for just such instances.

But for more than a week now, there has once again been no municipal water. Apparently a pipe burst under some of the new concrete for the road construction work. Negotiations are underway, but until it is repaired, Samoki is without water. (Samoki is the part of Bontoc we live in.)

So what do you do when you have a family of 6 (5 of which are females) and water runs out? You call for water delivery. The water delivery guys park the truck as close as they can. Our place is about 50 yards from the road; others are much, much further.


Then they run hose to the tank. A pump on the truck pumps the water to fill the tank.

When it is full, you pay the delivery guy and he rolls up the hose then prepares for the next delivery. Each tankful costs us 420 pesos (about $10). We have just been glad to get water. Remember, nobody has water right now so these guys are busy. Our last delivery did not arrive until 9:30 pm though we had called them about 8 am. That is better than the last time when we needed to wait more than a day before they could make the delivery. I understand that we were fortunate to even contact them because they have been so busy that they are often turning their cell phones off.

Our tank seems to last about 2-3 days if we are really careful with the water use.

Our tank is piped to the pressure tank and our new little blue water pump. Before the new pump was installed, I had to do a little wrenching on it about every 20 minutes when we were using it.

The little guy in the picture below is Ezer. He doesn't really have anything to do with water delivery. He is our neighbor. When I was taking these pictures, he accompanied me. Normally when I see him it is because he is in some way hanging from me. We are good friends. So while he held the door to the pump house open for the above picture, I snapped a photo of him.

Grace,
Tom

From Pixels to People

Mike, Holly, Lainey, Brady, and Jake

Amidst the busyness of the past weeks, we were given the opportunity to transform some on-line friends into personal friends. Mike and Holly recently moved to the Philippine coast as missionaries. Before their trip across the ocean blue, they had found this blog. So for a quite a while now, we have been getting to know each other's families through the miracle of the internet. When their friend needed to make a trip to Bontoc, it was the perfect opportunity for us to meet each other in person.

Although we were really busy, we were all excited to meet them. After our day at the Mainit Hot Springs, we met them at their hotel (sunburned, dirty, and hair all frizzed - us, not them). We enjoyed talking together and learning more about their transition.

The next day we were a bit more presentable as we met at the restaurant downstairs for a treat of their world famous halo-halo. (Halo-halo is a Filipino desert with shaved ice, ice cream, and a varied mix of other ingredients. Florma's is known for having the best halo-halo in town.)

We really wish we could have had more time to spend together, but look forward to crossing paths in the future. You can read more about their journey at their blog: Strangers and Pilgrims.

Questions Answered

Since only one person even attempted to answer the questions from our 500th blog post, I thought I would go ahead and give you the answers:

Name two caves we have visited since our blog began.
Rushmore Caverns and Sagada Caverns

What was the name of the program the girls participated in while we attended our Crossroads Discipleship Training School at YWAM Salem?
Children of Destiny

Why did Thomas go to the village of Kakaby in October last year?
Robuan’s funeral

What does SSM stand for?
Student Sponsorship Ministry

What is language we are trying to learn?
Ilocano

What village do we now call home?
Samoki, a part of Bontoc

What ministry does Thomas often participate in on Monday mornings?
Moral Recovery Program with the Philippines National Police

What ministry does our family participate in on Friday mornings?
YWAM Health Clinic

What did we compare to playing Calvinball?
Obtaining our long-term visas

What are the two big festivals that take place in Bontoc every year?
Lang-ay and Am-among

There are 4 ways that people get around in Mountain Province. Three of them are walking, buses, and trikes. What is the other?
Jeepneys

What is the address of our YWAM ministry’s website?
ywammountainprovince.wordpress.com

In what village did our family learn to plant rice?
Can-eo

What is the traditional musical instrument of the Igorot people?
Brass gongs

Left Foot. Right Foot. Feet. Feet. Feet.

"How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, "Your God reigns!"

That must be true because the Bible tells me so. Although more often, rather than describing our feet as beautiful, muddy is the first description that comes to mind!

Lisa

Splish, Splash, Sizzle

After our hikes through Maligcong several days earlier and to Anabel the day before, we were blessed when the YWAM Baguio DTS team offered to treat our family to a day at the Mainit Hot Springs.

Unfortunately, the place was having problems with the hot water from the springs, but we still had a great time swimming and relaxing in the water. (Which by the way, was still much warmer than Lake Michigan.)

Lunch was also a treat. The team had brought pork chops and fish to grill. They were basted with a salsa that was delicious. There was also rice, fresh papaya, and fruit salad. All of it was good, but my personal favorite was definitely the pork chops.

Gretchen taking care of business at the grill.

Afterwards, Johanna (one of the team members) took us on a hike into the village of Mainit. She grew up there and it was the first time she had been back for 5 years.

Of course, being in the land of slides, our first challenge was to cross a slide that covered the path.

At the spring, hot water boiled up from the ground like in many other places around the village. Behind me as I took the picture below, is a school that was abandoned because the floor was getting hot. People have been seriously injured and killed when hot springs erupted through the floors of homes in the village.

As we returned to the jeepney, we met many children who were transporting rice to their homes. They would carry their bags across the slide to their homes and hurry back for another load.

Mission: Anabel, November 11

Loading the jeepney with 50 family packs of relief goods the Baguio DTS team brought.

Not all landslides are village disasters, but even small ones can affect travel.

The village of Anabel sits on a mound in a valley beside the Chico River.

We traveled about an hour to the barangay sub-office located on the mountainside above Anabel. People from 3 area villages were supposed to meet us there so they could receive the family packs that were brought. Unfortunately, a couple of the villages are currently involved in a tribal war. Because of this the police were on hand and many people asked their barangay officials to represent them because of fears for their safety. We were still able to spend some time with those who came.

Alexie and Adriana with Melinda and Tracy from the Baguio DTS team.

YWAM Mountain Province's Tribal DTS (light blue shirts) has been serving in the Anabel area, so they met the YWAM Baguio DTS team (dark blue shirts) and helped with the relief distribution.

This is how women generally carry things, even family packs.

Annalise, Alayna, and Gretchen on the bridge across the Chico River to Anabel.

You feel adventurous just crossing this bridge. (See video.)

Kindel is a friend of ours who helped staff the Tribal DTS. Her home is in Anabel and she has been with the TDTS as they have been serving there. The TDTS has been teaching Bible stories using the OneStory concepts and I received one text from them that they were digging a pit for a CR (outhouse).

When we went to Anabel with the Baguio DTS team, she guided us around the village. We even had a merienda (snack) at Nora's house (one of the TDTS students) where the TDTS team is staying.

Kindle explains the use of the high place in Anabel.

Edison praying to the One True God at the high place.

All of the visitors (and the residents who were nearby) enjoyed watching some of our companions give their hand a try at pounding rice, a daily chore for village women.