Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to Annalise and Alayna!

Three weeks ago Annalise celebrated her 12th birthday.  Today Alayna celebrates her 15th.

So here is a little walking and skipping through the last year.

Back:  Alayna, Josiah, Alexie
Front:  Jordan, Annalise, Adriana

Getting ready to send Adriana off to college

The first of many summer catches

Alayna celebrating last year

The Sisterhood of MudLove

A lunch date with Adriana near her college

Enjoying fall and playing in the leaves

Fierce competition

Back to the Philippines

Dinner on the roof

It's more fun in the Philippines - even when your companion is Vietnamese

Ready for Camiguin Island

Annalise working on her sand castle - before the tide came in

Taking a break between villages

Camiguin friends

Annalise being a "victim" during PHILEO Response Team training

We need to lift the backboard all the way up there!

Alayna performing during the YWAM Northern Luzon regional conference

I can praise Him! You can praise Him! Everyone praise Jesus!

Alayna doing what Alayna does so well

14 hours on the bus, 5 hours on the boat

Friends on Camiguin Island

Best friends

New friends

I started to do this as separate posts, but too many things conspired against that plan.  First, I have not been so good about making any posts on this blog recently (although I am trying to improve).  Second, they celebrate their birthdays only 3 weeks apart, further aggravating my blog lethargy.  While the first 2 are shaky reasons indeed, I am happy about the last reason:  our daughters, all 4 of them, are close to each other so it is difficult to separate each of them from each other.

Grace,

Tom

PHILEO - Do You Know What it Means?

PHILEO - a Greek term meaning brotherly love.

After the destruction of Supertyphoon Haiyan/Yolanda, the leaders of our ministry here in the Philippines decided it was time for us to create, train, and equip a response team. Along with a former US Marine who has now served with YWAM Philippines for a couple of decades, our family has worked hard to establish the PHILEO Response Team.

The PHILEO Response Team is a group of trained volunteers. Our heart is to be hands of mercy in times of need.

We have held two sessions of initial training so far. In May, we held the training here in Baguio City. Just a couple of weeks ago Alexie and I traveled to Talisay on the island of Cebu to facilitate the second session. During the course, participants are stretched physically, mentally, and spiritually as they learn the basics of first aid, water rescue, search and rescue, rope rescue, relief distribution, and living in disaster zones. At the end of the week, everyone is looking forward to sleeping in a bed, eating something that wasn't in a can, and taking a bath. But at the same time, they feel they have gained a lot of skills, made some new friends, and learned more about themselves.

Lauren, Tom, Mitch, Marvin, and Em - PHILEO's first batch
Baguio, May 2014

Front Row: Rey, Mark, Em, Charles
Back row: Ramon, Beinne, Doug, Marlon, John, Peter, Tom, Alexie, Mitch, Melanie
Talisay, July 2014

When we were in Talisay, we had our first official PHILEO response. As we were hiking, we came upon a motorcylist who had several cuts and abrasions after falling trying to avoid hitting some dogs in the road. We cleaned and bandaged his wounds and prayed for a quick recovery.

Tom cleaning and bandaging wounds during a training hike.

The Philippines regularly experiences earthquakes, landslides, volcanoes, and storms.  Just this week Typhoon Glenda threatened the southern portion of Luzon, which includes the densely populated region of Metro Manila.

If you are interested in helping equip the team, please check out the equipment registry we have established at myregistry.com. Consider purchasing one, or several, items to equip us to be hands of mercy in times of need.