End of School Year

James, Carrie, and Thomas have only a little over a week of school left before summer vacation and the end of school activities are happening at a rapid pace. A week ago, James and Olivia went to the Junior-Senior banquet together.

This week Carrie played her last soccer game of the season. Her coach said she had made a lot of improvement over the season and was a very dependable defense player. She really worked hard and endured a lot of running in high heat and humidity.

Good job, Carrie!!

All of our children are teenagers now.

Locals here often say, “ Bahala na, = What will be will be.” For example, I don’t have brakes on my car, Let’s go anyway. Bahala na. This phrase is often used for situations where bodily injury is a real possibility.

This past weekend we were van drivers for a school trip to a mini theme park. It was fun to get to know some of the kids’s friends and see one of the local attractions. I had never ridden on a Ferris wheel before, so Heidi and I got in line behind James and some of his friends. When we got up to the counter, we discovered that it was called, The Wheel of Fate. You might call it the wheel of Bahala na. I wondered who named it. Was it the engineer or the mechanic? I wondered why they chose that name. Was it a design flaw, second class materials, or poorly threaded bolts? I guess I will never know.

Heidi enjoying the Wheel of Fate

This has been a week full of events. Besides tempting fate, Thomas, our youngest, turned 13. HAPPY BIRTHDAY Thomas! He celebrated by spending some time with some of his friends from school.

Charles, survived his first semester at school in Texas and has safely made his way to Oregon to spend the summer with family; an answer to prayer. Good job Charles.

A Few Crossed Wires

If you have ever wondered why your attempts at communication get a little distorted, it could be because some of the cultural and language wires have gotten a little tangled. I have a feeling that the folks that run wires here don’t try to find the problem, they just put up a new wire. At least the birds have a lot of places to sit.

I just spent a week away from home working on translation. I was going over several local translations with a language helper and, figuratively speaking, trying to cut out all the wires don’t communicate to our Isnag friends and find the ones that communicated Bible truth effectively.

I really appreciate Malana’s willingness to come out of the village to work with me. We were able to put in long days without the distractions we sometimes get in the village. I came away with pages and pages of information which I will now work on in my office in Manila in order to come up with the first draft for the Southern Isnag.

While I was up north, I was blessed by Carl Stevens’ family and their ministry partners. They let Malana and I use an air conditioned office at their ministry location and had us over for dinner a couple of times. Wednesday morning Carl volunteered to be and ambulance driver for us. Our partners in the village had a patient flown out of our tribal location to the city I was working in, so Carl and I met the plane and took the patient to the hospital. The patient’s name is Grace and she is a good friend of our family. She was very weak and had been having a very high fever. Prayer for her would be appreciated.

A couple of interesting things happened on my trip. When I got on the airplane to fly back to Manila they had an unusual announcement. You know how on ships they call, “All ashore that’s going ashore!” Well, as we were finding our seats after having gone through several security checks they announced, “If you don’ t have a ticket you shouldn’t be on the plane.” Hmmm… Well, the guy lying under my seat didn’t seem to hear, but I didn’t want to disturb him…. Just kidding!

The second thing had to do with wild animals. Either my eyesight is really getting bad or the ants in our hotel room were incredibly small. I’m sure it was the latter. These ants were so small I couldn’t see them unless four of them stood next to each other which they didn’t do often. They were very small, but all teeth. They hid in my clothing and didn’t really start chomping on me until I was walking down the street. That made for some interesting dance moves on my part. People probably thought I had some sort of twitchy nervous disorder.

I’m glad to be back with my family and excited about the progress that I’m making on the S. Isnag translation.

Palm Sunday

In the time of Christ, palm branches must have been the cultural equivalent to rolling out the red carpet. When I was a kid, we didn’t have any palm trees handy, so on Palm Sunday we would make construction paper palm branches and remember who the “red carpet” was being rolled out for.
Last Sunday was Palm Sunday and I didn’t see a single construction paper palm leaf. Perhaps having real palm trees has something to do with it. Everywhere you go on Palm Sunday you run into people selling these palm leaves which have been woven into a….. something. Yes it is a definite something.
I was curious, so I pulled over and for 30 cents was able to purchase one. The reason I did this was culture study. I took my palm leaf home and after asking a couple friends, found out that it is called a palaspas. You might ask, “What is a palaspas good for?” That is what I asked too. A palaspas is for keeping evil spirits and lightning out of your home. You hang it up inside and keep it there until you get a new one on the next Palm Sunday.
It is sad that instead of remembering Jesus, the one who came to save, so many are just honoring the red carpet.

Soccer

The latest family news here is that Carrie joined her school's girl's soccer team. She has been working very hard learning her skills and gaining endurance.

This Saturday Carrie's team had a game, so we enjoyed watching her play. She played back near her team's goal and did a good job of keeping the ball moving the other direction. If you look closely at the picture, you will notice that she is actually floating above the ground. Wow! I guess she enjoys soccer more than we though she did!

Thomas went along to help cheer for Carrie.

Building in progress

Life in the village has been tense lately. Down stream a cycle of revenge killing and ambushes is ongoing. The folks from our village have to pass through danger zones on their way to town. We would appreciate your prayers for their safety.

This is a friend of mine named Rigo. He is a good carpenter. On the day I took his picture he was involved in helping a neighbor build his house. Lately he has been involved in building something even better.

In the village, an exciting thing is happening. A group of men have joined together in leading the believers in a weekly Bible study. Rigo is one of them. They meet with our partners, Vicky and Robbie, who help them go over the coming lesson, then they practice on their own, and present the lesson on Sunday.

As great as that news is there is even better news. This group of men decided a few weeks ago that a village downstream needs the Gospel. Recently they gained permission from that village’s officials and have started teaching there too. We are thankful for Rigo and his companions and for the sacrifices they are making. It is a privilege for us to see the Scriptures we have translated being put to good use. It encourages us to press on.

Trip North #3

Once I had my boots on, I was ready to go back to our village in the mountains. Pictured with me is Steve, our current pilot. We had a good visit as we headed north.

The cloud cover kept us at a high altitude until we were over the airstrip. Steve took a few loops around the pattern to get us low enough to make our approach. We don’t usually come so high, so I was busy taking pictures of the village.

The people were glad to see me and made me feel welcome. It wasn’t too long before I was asked to repair a machete and fix a radio. They had a small harvest last year due to bad weather during harvest season; yet, in spite of that, several people have come by to give me rice to eat while I’m here.

I have been getting in lots of time with my translation helper. In this picture he is going over corrections I had for a chapter in Genesis. Last night I went to a meeting in which several men were preparing to teach this Sunday’s lesson. It was gratifying to see these guys growing spiritually and to see them using some of the Bible portions I have already translated. It sounds like they will be starting an outreach to a village downstream in the near future. That is great news!