Traveling Companions

Travel is rarely a lonely experience here in Manila. Last week we took the light rail train to the other side of town and came back at rush hour. It was a good thing that we got on at the very first stop because we and our fellow travelers completely filled the car. Then at every stop people pushed hard to get in until we were all very compressed.

Can you find James, Heidi, and Carrie in this picture?

We wondered how we were going to get out when we arrived at our stop, but we made it before the door closed and all stood on the platform laughing because it was a close call.

The next day I went hiking down into a squatter area looking for some people who have moved there from our area up north. I was hoping that I would be able to find someone who could help me answer some translation questions I had. I did find the group, but the people there at the time weren't able to help very much. I made arrangements to return when more people would be there.
As I climbed up the side of the canyon and hit the main road I came across a police outpost. The men there were surprised to see a white guy and called me over to visit with them. I had a bit of a chat with them and then they wanted to get a picture with me. I had them take one for me too. It is always nice to enjoy people's company as you travel along.

The 15th is the Deadline

Those of you from the United States are well aware that you need to file your income tax forms by April 15th, but I’m not talking about that deadline. I’m referring to March 15th. March 15th was the day I was supposed turn in something much more important than my income tax papers.

The Isnag draft going through a revision

Bible translation is a long process with many steps. When the translation is very close to being done, it is translated back into English so that the translation consultant can analyze it. We call this version the BT, or Back Translation.

The Finished BT

We have had several other responsibilities, so Heidi and I have had to work hard to get the BT done by the 15th of March. We were very relieved to send the BT to my translation consultant on the afternoon of the 15th. We are thanking the Lord that we were able to accomplish this task.

Some Isnag who live in Manila

During this next month, I will be working on some additional comprehension checking for the translation with a group of Isnag who live in Manila. Then on April 15th, we will start our consultant check. After the consultant check, the portions of Genesis and Exodus should be ready for publishing.

The March Meeting of the School Board

What are some of the other responsibilities? I am on the Board of Trustees for the school for the children of missionaries here in Manila and play a role on the Assessment Committee.

Not Your Normal School Bus

I am also responsible to be an encouragement to our missionaries on Northern Luzon. This involves meeting with them to see what kind of help they might need and sometimes it means doing something to meet a need. Last weekend Heidi and I took some teenagers and their friends to visit their parents who are missionaries in a tribal location. In this picture you see the kids at the end of the road, on a raft crossing a river, ready to make the 3 hour hike to their home in the mountains.

Shopping in the Open Market

Heidi and I also played the role of supply buyer for this missionary family and enjoyed shopping in the public market for good deals. It is a privilege to get to serve the Lord in many ways.

An Announcement

After the Bible Teaching, Madian, the lady in the blue dress, asked if it was ok for her to believe and still be a shaman. Malana, the Isnag Bible teacher, told her that she could not do that because what the shaman does is from Satan. Then Madian said, "All you people here, do not come to me any more. From this time on I am stopping my work as a shaman because I am believer in God!"

Please be praying for Madian so that she will be able to withstand the pressure from those who would try to force her back to her old work.

Please:
Pray that Madian will grow in her love for the Lord and her understanding of the Gospel.
Pray that the Isnag Bible teachers will be faithful to keep teaching God's Word.
Pray that many more Isnag will make the same kind of decision that Madian has.

January Translation Checking Trip

At our annual field conference in January, we spent some time with the Smith family and discovered that they are interested in working in a place like our village, so Jonathan invited them to travel to the village with him when he went in January to work on the translation with his language helpers.

Jonathan met the Smiths at the bus station in Manila at 7 am and by mid afternoon they arrived at the SIL mission flight center. The next morning was cloudy and rainy in the village and our partners, Robbie and Vicky, were not able to give the go-ahead for a flight. Jonathan had some translation work that he was wanting to get done before he went to the village so he put the day to good use.

The sunrise the next morning was beautiful. It was going to be a good day for flying. As soon as the airplane was loaded we took off.

It was a nice day for flying.

Over the main valley all was clear, but as we went into the mountains it clouded up a bit.

After an hour of flying we arrived in our valley and found it clear.

This is a the village we work in.

The airstrip was clear so the pilot went around to line up for final approach.

The silhouette of the airplane as we made our final approach to the airstrip.

There were several Isnag friends at the airstrip to greet me.

This little guy is pretty cute.

This little guy isn’t so little and not quite so cute. Jonathan came home one night and went to heat some water for coffee and his flashlight caught this fellow hanging out on the wall by the stove. Fortunately, Jonathan and the spider didn’t have any relationship difficulties. Jonathan let him have the wall and the spider let Jonathan have the coffee.

“The Jesus Film” had just been released in the Northern Isnag dialect, so Jonathan showed it one night while he was there. It was very fun for the people to watch it and it included a good Gospel presentation at the end.

On Sunday, Jonathan tried to hike upstream with one of the Isnag Bible teachers so that they could team teach the Bible lesson. The Isnag guy got a bit ahead of him on the trail and when the trail came to a fork, the fellow went the new way and Jonathan went the way he had always gone. They met again upstream, but Jonathan did a lot of his hike by himself on a very overgrown trail. He somehow dropped his hat, so he hiked back on the same trail again and never did find it.

Jonathan actually got to the village upstream before the other guy, so he had time to take some pictures of the kids there before they started the Bible teaching. Some people like having their picture taken,

and some don't!

The week of translation checking went very well. Jonathan had language helpers every day and spent most of the evenings out in the village going over the translation with friends. On the day he left, he was walking by the kindergarten on his way to the airstrip when all the little ones started yelling good bye to him so he enjoyed going in to say good bye to them.

Thanks to the generous donations of so many people we were able to ship in another 1,200+ pounds (600 kilos) of rice to help out with the rice shortage. We planning on another 1,200 in March. The people are very thankful for the help.

This may well be the last time Jonathan sits in the airplane at the end of our airstrip and prepares for takeoff. He may fly in again in March, but he will probably have to hike out. The SIL flight program for Northern Luzon is coming to an end in March. SIL has been a huge blessing to us and the Isnag for many years.

The Smiths and Jonathan flew out and made it to the flight center mid morning. After organizing their things, they took a van into town and caught a bus. The bus trip took 8 hours. Jonathan arrived home around 10 pm. He was tired but glad to be home. Just in time to start disciplining the kids again. Thomas! What are you doing with all that sugar?!

Annual Conference 2010

Conference was a busy time for us because Heidi was in charge of the nursery up to age 3 program and Jonathan was involved in meeting with ministry teams. The toddler program is a challenge because many of these children live in villages with their families and are not used to being dropped off for play time. Heidi works very hard to transfer a bare room into a happy place with fun toys and nice decorations. You should have seen how much stuff we packed in the van!

Katrina, our visitor from Florida, was a big help. She even got a free ear check from Dr. Neo.

Jonathan came in once a day to do the Bible story time.

It's always nice to have a captivated audience.

This year Thomas asked to be baptized to show that he trusts that Jesus death on the cross paid for his sins and that he desires that the Holy Spirit be in control of his life.

We are thankful for the spiritual growth we see in Thomas's life.
The kids also enjoyed some soccer game, but I'll post those photos on Facebook.

New Year's Eve

The day after the wedding we drove a few hours down to the ferry dock and caught a boat going over the Mindoro Island. The trip was delayed and we ended up landing in a different port after dark and taking two motorcycles with side cars to get to our hotel.

Since we only had one full day at the beach we decided to do as much as possible. The first item was snorkeling. We took a small boat out to the coral reef.

James and Jonathan

Heidi and Thomas


Katrina and Carrie

It was a beautiful trip and the snorkeling was nice too.

After lunch we took a hike up to a waterfall. Along the way we saw some interesting flowers and enjoyed walking through the jungle.

At the waterfall we enjoyed drinking and eating some young coconuts which the locals were selling.

On the way back we stopped at a ministry center that some friends of ours have set up to help the folks living in that area. In the evening we hiked down the beach to an Italian restaurant and ate our pizza while watching people lite fireworks on the beach.... and at the table next to ours. This made for a bit of excitement because some of the fireworks malfunctioned and blew up or went off the wrong way.

New Years Day we ate breakfast on the beach. Heidi and the kids surprised me with some birthday gifts and then we headed for home to prepare for our annual conference.