We had a great time visiting the Isnag in March. God really blessed us with good weather for flights and great language helpers who were ready and willing to help us with the comprehension testing for the book of Mark.
Sylvia and Grace helped me on the balcony.
And Arsali and Auntie Pinang helped Heidi inside. These ladies helped us with tricky problems such as helping Mary find a place to put baby Jesus down in a language which doesn’t have a word for a manger.
We also had many opportunities to visit with our Isnag friends.
And we had opportunities to teach in church services and Bible studies.
This trip to the village was special because it was Carrie’s last trip to her childhood home for a while. She is graduating from high school in June and will be moving to the United States.
Carrie and Thomas took advantage of their time in the village by doing some of the fun activities they have enjoyed over the years such as hiking in the mountains and swimming in the river.
Carrie also spent time with her Isnag friends. These are two of Carrie’s many good friends in the village. They came over one morning to teach her how to make an Isnag dessert. They didn’t want to send Carrie off to the USA without knowing how to cook kinalogkog! It is a good thing they taught her because you can’t buy good kinalogkog at Walmart.
When Heidi, Carrie and Thomas flew out to get back to school, Zach flew in. He was a bit of a surprise guest because the radio operator didn’t tell me who was coming to help me. For all I knew they might be sending me a guy they found laying in the street or the town embalmer, but it was Zach and I’m glad it was. Zach is our newest helicopter pilot and it is great having him and his family here with us in the Philippines. I was also happy that it was Zach because one of the things I needed help with was house wiring and Zach is an expert. He would probably be quick to say that he is not an expert. I would argue that anyone who brings their own pliers and electrical tape is automatically elevated to the high position of expert.
Thanks for all your help, Zach!
Another guy I am thankful for is Robert (Smitty) Smith. When I flew out to town, I still had some traveling I needed to do. I needed to make a four hour trip into the interior of the island to meet with a doctor regarding our village’s medical needs. Smitty volunteered to go along as expert driver. He would probably be quick to say he is not an expert driver,
but I’m willing to count any driver of mine who keeps his tires on the solid boards an expert.
Of course avoiding falling rocks is also good. We missed the slide but were there in time to help throw some boulders off the road.
A few miles down the road we came to the “better late than never” sign.
On the way we stopped in a small town and went baby hunting. A young family from our village moved out to town for a baby delivery and we wanted to surprise them by stopping in to see the new baby. We pulled over and started asking directions. It was very funny. We were sent here and there. We walked through yards and laundry areas and in general toured the entire town. Finally we found someone that knew who we were looking for and volunteered to take us to them. We ended up a house very near where we had parked our truck. The people who gave us the first directions were not experts.
We finally made it to town and found the doctor. Andy, the guy on my left is a church and community leader who went along with me. The doctor was very kind and helpful and we look forward to working with her in the future.
Thanks for the great driving Smitty!
We are all now back in Manila and getting ready to put the final touches on the translation before we send it to the consultant. Lord willing we will it will be sent before April 14th. She will review it and we will start preparing for the big final check in June.
Thanks for reading our blog.
God bless,
Jonathan & Heidi
