The End of Summer

The Lord allowed us to spend most of June and July with our Isnag friends. If you haven’t read about our time in the village, please read the last two posts to our New Tribes Mission blog.

http://www.ntm.org/wp/jonathan-heidi_bamford/

This is the story about what happened after we flew out to town. When we got out to town, we found out that some of our Isnag friends were at the hospital needing assistance. Heidi and the ladies headed down to see if they could help them line up the kind of doctor appointments needed.

By mid afternoon the next day the ladies had the appointment they needed and we were ready to head for our home in the big city and to the two conferences what we would be helping with in the following weeks. We decided to take the long way home so that we could show our visitors a couple beautiful beaches here in the Philippines and visit the old Spanish city of Vigan.

We knew when we left town that we would probably not make it to the beach that night, but that we could probably find someplace to stay the night along the way.

We did find a place and it turned out to be the worst place I have ever paid to spend the night. It did have a lot of atmosphere, loud, dirty, ugly. It was great because it made everyplace else we stayed look like a palace. I ask you, how many mornings to teenagers wake up early begging to go for a car ride? We were all ready to hit the road and a couple of hours later we made it to the beach.

It was nice to have a couple of days to relax and play games with the kids. After that we drove south to visit an old Spanish style city.

We toured in horse drawn carriages and visited a pottery making business, old bell tower, small zoo, and a weaving business. The Catholic church in the background was built in the late 1500’s.

Old bell tower

Thomas, Heidi, Carrie, and Jonathan

We drove south from Vigan and spent one more night at a beach before arriving home. At home, everyone quickly got involved in unpacking the house and getting ready for the N. Luzon conference which was only a couple of days away. At the same time, Carrie and Thomas were preparing for school and registering for classes which coincided with the N. Luzon conference.

Our good friends, Patrick and Miriam graciously offered to stay home to support Carrie and Thomas while the rest of us participated in both the conferences. We had a few different responsibilities during the conference, but our main responsibility was to provide a child care program for the children of missionaries who would be attending.

It was great to have Bethany and Jacob along. They were a huge help. Jacob taught the Bible story and made sure that the outside play area ran smoothly and Bethany was in charge of the craft area for the older kids. Several other people helped as well, both on Luzon and Palawan. Thank you Peggy, La-arni, Jennifer, Chai, Brenda, Steffi, Eli, Kyle, Wheng, Mayline, Elsie, Rebekah, and Veronica.

When it was all over we had the same number of kids as we started with. If that isn’t success I don’t know what is.

We moved home for a couple of days and re-grouped in order to travel to Palawan and do the same children’s program again for those serving down south.

As you can see, butterflies and moths were the theme of our programs this year. We studied butterflies and moths, colored butterflies, made butterfly books, and made string art butterflies during craft time.

A moth landed on my shirt served as a good illustration

The kids enjoyed lots of fun activities which included Bible story time, clay time, and jump roping.

Jacob teaching the Bible story

Heidi and Bethany with those who were interested in jumping rope

Clay time

Jacob and Bethany looking for just the right hat

After a month of travel, Jacob and Bethany bought their last mementos and gifts before leaving Palawan. We arrive home on a Saturday, had a farewell dinner with the Rivettes that night and they left on airplane the next morning.

Thank you, Jacob and Bethany for coming all the way to the Philippines to visit us and help us with the conferences. Thank you Rivettes for all you did to make their visit here enjoyable.

Off we go

An end of the school year photo

Dear Friends and Family,
I had been hoping to find time to write a longer blog, but time has escaped me and I am due at the hangar to weigh our bags in just a few minutes. We are on our way to our village and Lord willing, will be there for over six weeks. During that time we will not have Internet or cell phone contact. We will have daily radio contact with our co-workers in town. Please be praying that the Lord will use us as his ambassadors during this time.
God bless,

Jonathan & Heidi

Flying was a Dream

I remember the hard travel I had back in October which involved hours of riding in unsafe public vehicles and 18 hours of hiking to get to our ministry allocation and back to town again. I remember thinking, “Someday perhaps God will provide a missionary flight service.” It was hard not to dream of flying.

After having to work so hard just to get to my ministry location, I arrived tired and without the supplies I needed to minister and sustain myself for very long.

Even back in October, God was starting to do above and beyond what we could dream of. During that time and in the months that followed, God provided the funds to purchase an R-44 helicopter and to have it shipped to the Philippines.

He even provided two pilots to fly for us. But, the helicopter and the pilots were still lacking licenses which would allow them to get airborne. Our pilots made many trips to government offices and we prayed that all the paperwork would come together. It was a long process, but by March, we had every sticker, paper, and license that we needed. Praise the Lord.

Our family, together with friend, Jeremy, and partner, Vicky Martin, scheduled the first flights to start the New Tribes Mission Aviation program on Northern Luzon.

It was a dream come true to depart and in 10 minutes to have covered what would have taken me 24 hours overland and then in another 10 minutes to have covered what would have taken me 8 hours of hiking. I arrived on location ready to serve the people. We were able to bring big box of newly translated Genesis and Exodus portions, boxes of medicine for the clinic, and enough food to keep us going for a week.

Thanks to the flight program we were able to teach in two locations on Sunday, hold Bible studies every week night, and see the clinic restocked. Due to the flight program, my family and Vicky Martin were able to come and minister to the people as well.

Praise the Lord for providing the helicopter, pilots, and paperwork!

Click this link to watch a short video of our landing in the village: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZDgHDn8Yy8

A link to the same video for those who have a slow internet connection:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh1C4DpVH2k