So shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. ~Isaiah 55:11


As I reflect on all that the Lord is doing here in the Philippines, I am amazed at where He has taken us from a little over a year ago. There is so much going on here on the Philippine field in the efforts we are making to bring the Gospel to all the unreached tribal areas. I had no idea a year ago that I would be so intimately involved in so much of the activity here. It is so good to be in the Lord's service!

In my last update I wrote about our trip to one of the tribes up north. My traveling companion was Jun Fabra, who is the head of the Philippine side of NTM here in the Philippines (the side that recruits and oversees Filipino missionaries, whereas I am on the expatriate side).

During that trip, he and I were able to get to know each other pretty well, and so he invited me to be interviewed on the tribal missions radio show,  which is broadcast on Philippines Christian Radio over the whole Philippines every Sunday evening.

Without further explanation, here is my journal entry for that week:

A brief respite – week of September 2

This week was a respite from the intense travel schedule that I was to have for a month, but not in any way a respite from work. The Lord's work goes on always, and so we joyfully labor for Him always!

I actually returned from the north on a Friday, and so it was nice to be home for the weekend and take a break. Saturday afternoon Ginny had gone to Sarah's soccer game (she is the assistant coach – that is one of the ministries at Faith Academy). The bus returned to Faith Academy late, and afterwards Ginny was going to drive home, but she had to drop someone off about a mile away first. About a quarter of the way back, in the middle of a dark road, the car died. She tried to call and text me, but the cell phone networks here just aren't that great, and she could not get through. So she started walking home in the dark.

I was concerned because it seemed like it was taking a long time for her to get back, so I checked my phone and then I got the text message that the car had died, and she thought it was out of gas because it wouldn't start. So immediately I started that way to find her, but she was practically at the door when I was about to leave (tough girl, walking home alone in the dark!) Don't worry, it is not a dangerous neighborhood, and it was still only about 9 pm.

We took the gas can down to the car, and filled the tank, but it still would not start. So, we had to leave it there on the side of the road through the night, and the next day I was able to call the mechanic to come and tow it in. Four days and $500 later with a new timing belt, new valves, and a new head gasket (among others), it was running again. Whew, it is nice to have a working car again!

In other events this week, I was interviewed for a radio program on the Far East Broadcasting Network (febc.ph) about tribal missions. It was a 3 part series that was broadcast over the whole Philippines, a little in Tagalog and I think more in English. There are pictures posted there on the right of me in the studio. I am hoping we can do the radio broadcast again sometime in the spring, this time fully in Tagalog, and maybe another time fully in English. One of the things about the language situation here in the Philippines is that while English will reach a wider audience, it actually excludes a segment of the population that just aren't good enough in English to follow it. But of course if a program is entirely in Tagalog, in like manner that also excludes a segment of the population that only speaks English. The majority of Filipinos are fluent in Tagalog and can understand English, which is why a mix of the 2 is the most popular form of communication.

The FEBC office is at the top of one of the tallest skyscrapers in Manila. That was a nice visit, and I learned quite a bit about their work. Apparently they broadcast over all Asia, not just the Philippines, putting the Word of God out there to unreached areas and making a difference of encouraging believers in difficult and persecuted areas.

<end journal entry>

Click here to listen to the radio broadcast on youtube.

So, it was a busy week, and then I was off again to Palawan to do more language checks! This time I was going with Jody Crain, the missionary who taught me how to do this job, and who is a friend. So it was going to be good to see him again. We had 2 separate locations to travel to, and then I would be able to be home again for a while. I was looking forward to that, because Ginny and I would be able get at least a whole month together before the next phase of travels!

Little did I know how much the world would change in the 2 weeks I was in Palawan, all because of a little tune now known as "Gangnam Style."

Incidentally, one of my other side ministries, that of technical assistance for missionaries, came up for discussion on my previous trip. Our Philippine branch of NTM had recently received a donation to purchase 2 new office computers, and they were interested in installing a Linux operating system (like I use) rather than the traditional Windows XP, Vista, or Windows 7 or 8. So I made arrangements to give them some technical assistance on installing Linux on their office computers and showing them how to use a Linux based system after my return from Palawan.

We are glad to be able to be a part of what God is doing here for the cause of world evangelization!

Next time - Palawan again, but to other tribal locations!

Here are some pictures from this week:
Click any picture below to view a larger version.


After a week in the jungle, it was back into civilization.


At the recording studio for FEBC where we recorded the radio broadcasts.


From the offices of FEBC, you can see the whole city.


With the President of FEBC


At a birthday party for one of the MKs whose parents live on another island, and he dorms at Faith Academy.


Ginny as assistant coach for the Faith girls' soccer team (Sarah not pictured)


Sarah with teammates on the girls' soccer team


Abby's soccer team

The first leg of fall 2012 travels - Agta tribal ministry

Now that I am finished with about 4 weeks of travels around the Philippines, I am ready to take a rest. It is really good to be back home with Ginny and the kids. I am pretty exhausted as I write this. It was a good all around visit to the tribal areas, working with the missionaries in their respective locations. I am actually slightly ill right now with an upset stomach, but I can't sleep, so I am writing this in lieu of sleeping.

I was just reading John Piper's “Don't Waste Your Life,” for the 2^nd time, and I highly recommend it. He admonishes his readers to learn to live with that single all encompassing passion for the glory of God, which is the glory of Christ. Boasting in the Cross of Christ, because Christ took our sins upon Himself when He was nailed to the cross, and because of this we can now have a relationship with God. Those who do not know Christ, do not know God.

In truth, in my life, I have always found it difficult to keep up that passion when on the valley floor. Mountain-peak experiences are fantastic, but when you get down to the everyday life, it is not so easy to think about living solely for the glory of Christ. It is easy to get distracted – what do I have to eat today? What plans will I make for next week, next month, next year, and after-wards? Yet there is a way to still have that all encompassing passion, even in the daily grind of life by faith. What is it? It is by faith – believing and remembering that we are most satisfied in life when we are most satisfied in God. He is worthy far above anything this world has to offer.

I am going to separate the narration of the last 5 weeks into segments, so as to break them up and make them shorter. I hope that this will make it easier to digest.

The start – week of August 26

At the airport, I met up with Jun Fabra, the head of the Filipino branch of New Tribes Mission. We flew to Tuguegarao, where our helicopter base is. We were able to meet and have supper with the supply buyer and purchase some fruit out in town. We expected the town to be mostly filled with Ilocano speakers; however, the fruit vendor we bought from did not speak Ilocano – only Tagalog. Apparently in the city, it is more useful to have knowledge of Tagalog than Ilocano. This makes for an interesting challenge for our future missionaries, because in the outlying towns and barrios, Ilocano is more useful.

The busy northern town of Tuguegarao

The next day we got up and got in the helicopter, flying over the mountains in the North in order to arrive at the black sand beach where the Agta people live. We did not go there ourselves to evangelize, but to help the missionary become proficient in the language so that he can evangelize and make disciples. “Making disciples” is the key phrase here – this goes beyond evangelism. There is a lot of work in developing deep relationships with people and teaching them how to become a disciple of Christ. Making disciples cannot happen without 2 principle components – a shared language that both people can communicate deeply in, and time spent with each other. 

With Jun Fabra of NTMPI and getting ready to fly

Beautiful black sand beach

Upon landing at the helicopter pad we were greeted by the tribal people, the missionaries with their kids, and all the friendly dogs in the area. (There were also a couple of water buffalo, but they did not pay much attention to us). After a friendly exchange of greetings and saying good-bye to the pilots, the helicopter left and we took our bags to the missionary's house. Now we were here, and ready to get started!

Agta boys playing basketball by the airstrip

But wait, we did not come just to do a job – we are friends with these people! It is an interesting thing in the mission, that we find ourselves living at someone's house in the jungle for a few days to evaluate their language progress, and they have to feed and shelter us. It is pretty easy to get to know people doing this, and the fellowship is one of the most enjoyable aspects of the work. Furthermore, it is a very important part of the evaluation to ensure the missionaries there that we have come to help, not criticize. 

A nice catch of river shrimp for a good snack!

Getting to know the kids and their pet turtle

After spending some time talking over things and talking to their kids a bit, we sat down and came up with the plan for what we were going to do. We had to accomplish the following tasks:

• We would go into the village a couple of times and meet with some of the missionary's tribal friends, let him introduce us, and visit some (while listening and observing the missionary's interactions with his friends there)
• We would come back to the house and go over a questionnaire about the tribal culture
• We would have some specific communication tasks for the missionary to go over with his language helpers, which we would then record and listen to, having the tribal guys translate them back to Tagalog so that we could know how well things were communicated

The whole process usually takes about 3 days for each missionary that is going to be evaluated. It is also very helpful to have another person along (in this case, Jun Fabra from NTMPI) in order to discuss the things observed and develop an accurate rendering of the missionary's level according to our progress chart.

Since this is the ministry assignment I have been given, both in the national language study for new missionaries and in the tribal areas for missionaries studying the tribal languages, I would appreciate your prayers for all of our ongoing evaluations. It is of supreme importance that when missionaries come to the Philippines, they are able to connect with Filipinos and learn to love and appreciate the culture of the ministry God has called them to. It can also be a bit discouraging to have someone from the outside come in to your area and tell you that you are doing lots of things wrong. So I appreciate your prayers that I will exemplify grace to my fellow missionaries when I go on these ministry trips, so that they end up encouraged and helped, knowing they are heading in the right direction.

Discussing the day's events

Going over language tasks with the Agta language helpers

This is an exciting time for the Agta tribal ministry. The missionary there is just on the edge of reaching teaching level in the language!

At the end of our time up in the North, I was able to meet with the other 2 members of the missionary team there. The first one is building his house and will soon move in with his family. We were able to talk about his strategy for getting ready for learning language in that area. The second missionary there that I talked with reached level in the Agta language a couple of years ago. He has already taught once through the Gospel lessons and is continuing the work there. We talked about strategies for sustaining his language and the work they are doing in the church. He also asked for help on how to re-configure his solar electric system, so I was able to offer some practical advice there.

Visiting at a local house

Public transportation in the village

The last part of the assist visit was to come up with recommendations on how and what the missionary should study in order to reach that final proficient level. We were able to do this, and communicate these things to him before we left. The helicopter came in, picked us up, we said good-bye, and then we left. After landing at our helicopter base, we drove over to the airport, boarded a plane, and returned to Manila. The plane flight to Manila took about 45 minutes; the drive through Manila traffic from the airport to our home was 3 and a half hours.

It was good to be home, even if it was only going to be for a short time.

As the helicopter comes in, a baby water buffalo (carabao) gets spooked and runs off

Getting ready to leave and say good-bye

PS - Just one thing to add and ask for your prayers about. I have had gastric reflux for some time. This past summer it flared up again, and after going through 3 courses of the medicine, I was getting no relief and had pretty regular pain in my chest. So I decided to change my eating habits to a rigid, gluten-free and grain free diet right before going on this trip. All of a sudden I was pain-free. However, this sort of diet is impossible to keep on these types of ministry trips, since most normal people don't eat that way, and I have to eat their food when I stay in their homes. So I would appreciate your prayers as we schedule our travels for next year and we adjust our diet in our home.

Next time: A week's respite

 

fierce hunters

Piling rattan on a boat for trading up the coast

The boat is now loaded down and ready to get underway

The Epp family taking a swim break in the ocean

The missionary teaching one of the tribal men to give medicine to his baby

2012 Spring Travels

Tinanong sila ng mga lalaki, "Bakit ninyo hinahanap ang buhay sa lugar ng mga patay?     Wala siya rito, siya'y muling nabuhay! Alalahanin ninyo ang sinabi niya sa inyo noong nasa Galilea pa siya,    'Ang Anak ng Tao ay kailangang ipagkanulo sa mga makasalanan at ipako sa krus, at sa ikatlong araw ay muling mabubuhay.'"
Lucas 24:5-7 (Magandang Balita)

This verse in Tagalog translates back to English like this: The men [angels] asked them, “Why do you search for the living in the location of the dead? He is not here – he has come to life again! Remember what he said to you when he was still in Galilee, 'The Son of Man needs to be betrayed to sinners and then nailed to the cross, and on the 3rd day he will come to life again.”

As we celebrate the resurrection of Christ this Easter, we are so thankful for the sacrifice God has given! I was challenged this week to imagine how exceedingly amazing God is, and how He is working all the time on behalf of His glory to bring the message of His reconciliation to all the world, every tongue, tribe, and nation!

Here in the Philippines every year there are re-enactments of the crucifixions, as people try to do penance for sins in their past lives. Yet our focus is on the resurrection – that the sacrifice is complete and our sin-debt was paid in full, which God accepted and demonstrated to us by raising Christ from the dead!

I would also like to say how thankful we are that so many of you have been willing to continue to support us as we serve the Lord here in the Philippines! God is so good, and though we have had to wrestle with many things over the past year, we are so thankful to feel the Lord's hand carrying us through it all!

Filipino Wedding
The beginning of March had Ginny and I as sponsors in a Filipino wedding! We were called “ninong” and “ninang”, which means godfather and godmother. Filipinos have godfathers and godmothers for their weddings, so this was a great chance to participate with some Filipino friends. The young man who asked me to be his ninong was one of the security guards at the condo units where we lived from August to December. On the morning of the wedding, we picked up the groom and several of the wedding party and drove out to the house where the reception was. There they filled us with a delicious Filipino breakfast – rice, dinuguan (pig blood soup), chicken livers, and other assorted offal! Afterwards we went down to the magistrate's office, where they had a civil wedding (everyone there was very nice!) Then we went back to the bride's family's house for a nice reception, which had lots of food again, and we had a great time. It was a day spent entirely immersed in the Filipino culture and language, which was very enjoyable for us.

Language Consultant Travels
Now that we are no longer in a full time tribal ministry, my job is to help missionaries in various places learn their new language – as a field language consultant. In New Tribes Mission, we are always seeking to give missionaries in their locations any help we can possibly give them to enable them to continue living there, ministering in the tribal language and culture, and to improve their language skills so that they can teach the Gospel clearly.

Every field in New Tribes has a consultant program, except that here in the Philippines our main consultant recently returned home to the USA and is very busy with other ministries He has been travelling back to the Philippines twice a year every year for the last 4 years, and is now ready to hand over the work to someone else. So, the field asked me to take over the job of doing language consultancy in his place. Over the past few months I have trained under his instruction on how to coach missionaries in the task of language and culture study, and now I am full time in this new ministry. What this means is that I will travel to all the places where missionaries are studying the tribal languages and coach them in their language learning techniques. With an assistant travelling alongside me, we also assess the missionary's progress in what level of fluency he or she has attained.

This ministry is very important to the work we are doing here in the Philippines, because we still have a tremendous amount of work to do to bring the Gospel to all the unreached areas of the Philippines. The church has made much progress in recent years, but there is still a long way to go.

This past month I travelled to Palawan twice to do an assessment on 2 different missionaries in their tribal ministries. The first was in a village where Agutaynen is the main language. The missionary here has been studying the language for a few years, and their team has already planted a church. When we arrived, we spent some time with the family first, and were able to enjoy the good food they cooked for us! One nice thing about going to visit missionaries in the tribes is they always have some good cooking available for us! Then we worked with the missionary and his language helper there for about 3 days, observing his interactions recording some communication tasks.

Now even though we are “New Tribes Mission,” the Agutaynen language group is not really a “tribe” in the sense of being jungle people. The Agutaynens are Filipinos that have their own language, and many distinct elements of their own culture. They are mostly seafaring fishermen, but they also farm rice for a living. Before these missionaries arrived there, there was no understanding of the Gospel of Christ, because there was no exposure to Biblical teaching. Now after studying for a long time, a second missionary has passed language checks in this area and is transitioning into a teaching and discipleship ministry. That is what the Great Commission is all about – making disciples of all nations!

Two weeks later I was back in Palawan again, checking another missionary from another language group. He is ministering to a mixed group of Tagbanua and Cuyonin people on a small island North of Palawan. We had travelled there last November to do a check, and if you remember, the missionary was very close to teaching level. We had given him some assignments to complete in a time period of about 5 months. Well, he completed the assignments within 4 months, even with breaks in between, and was able to pass his language checks also. Praise the Lord! Now we have another area of the Philippines that will soon be hearing the Gospel of Christ!

Family and other News
So now we are pressing on to the finish of Isaac's senior year. Please pray for us over the next 2 months because we have some big decisions we have to make regarding Isaac's plans for next year. In the meantime, Ginny is teaching at Faith Academy, while Isaac, Sarah, and Abby are studying to finish out the year. Also Sarah has a track meet in Japan as I am writing this email, so please pray for her to have safe travels. Over the next 2 months I will be doing language assessments on the missionaries that are in National Language study,  to help them to get to where they need to be before moving on to other ministries. We have 4 families in national language study right now.

Please remember the Palawanos in your prayers! Our partners are teaching Bible lessons now, so please pray for open hearts to the teaching!

God is really good and we are very thankful for Him. We miss the tribal people, but we see so many confirmations that where we are now is right in the center of the Lord's will. We are now able to help out more tribal ministries get to where they can better preach, teach, and make disciples, and we are very thankful for the privilege of being able to serve in this way. We also thank you all so much for your continued generous prayer and financial support in allowing us to remain here.

Blessings to you all in Christ,
George for us all
George, Ginny, Isaac, Sarah, and Abby

PS – I was able to go with Isaac and some friends of his in the boys' dorm to Corregidor where we hiked around and looked at the ruins of the old US military base. One of our group noticed while swimming at the beach that something pointy was sticking out from under the sand right close to the shore. So he began digging and it turned out it was some World War 2 unexploded ordnance – a 1000 lb shell, probably from a ship that had been shooting at the fortresses on Corregidor. Follow the picture links below to see more of our Corregidor pictures.


some family and event pictures
Corregidor pictures
Language Consultant travel pictures


At a Filipino Wedding - A civil wedding performed by a magistrate rather than an expensive church wedding


Having fun as a family


Enjoying some Asian cuisine


Visiting neighbors of a missionary while doing a language consultant visit.


Preaching in Tagalog at a local Filipino church


The Pacific War Memorial - let us never forget what we fought for


Isaac standing in front of a World War 2 unexploded shell that we dug up on the beach.

tie him up by his feet

We are so thankful for all that the Lord has done and is continuing to do in the Philippines! Please know as you read the following narrative that even though we have had some difficult things happen the last few weeks, we are full of thankfulness, hope, and joy in the Lord! Not that any of it has been easy, but it draws us to Himself, and we are learning to rejoice in the trials.

“Cousin, let's tie him up by his feet and hang him upside down from a tree!”

This is one of the many solutions offered by the Palawanos to me this past week as I was able to return to the tribe for a visit and to pack up our house. You see, right at the beginning of January I received a text message from one of the tribal guys saying there were a bunch of guys inside our house with flashlights making all kinds of noise. (The guy who texted me is one of the few mountain Palawanos that can read, and he also happens to have a cell phone.) So, I called a Filipino pastor I know that lives downriver from us, and he got the police from town to come up and inspect our house.

Two weeks after that, the same guy texted me with more bad news. Our dog had been found dead on the trail with a big wound to the side of her head. Nobody knows who did it. So it was a difficult week this time, going back in to pack up our house, and also to have to confront the thieves and see where they buried our dog.

When the plane landed, the village grandmother, who we call Minan (Aunty) came up to me and gave me a big hug and was crying really hard. “I am so sad about what happened to your dog, and your house. We are all so sad. And we are so sad that you are leaving.” There were many tearful conversations like this over the whole week, and over all it was quite a difficult time for me.

Right after talking to Minan, a guy from downriver came up with a sliced knuckle on his left forefinger. Now is the time the Palawanos are chopping a section of the jungle with their machetes in order to prepare to plant rice. He had been holding some weeds in one hand and his machete slipped, chopping the knuckle and almost completely severing the tendon. We were able to stitch the tendon back together and then also stitch the wound closed. Now his task is to keep the splint on and keep his hand from getting dirty over the next 2 weeks.

So many memories of our time with the tribal people kept coming back to me, and it felt so strange to be packing up what remained in our house (that wasn't stolen). The familiarity of the beautiful place we lived – it just didn't seem real that we were really leaving without knowing if or when we might return.

Thankfully, I had a fellow missionary come with me to help pack the house. He is our Palawan region supply buyer, and without him there I would not have been able to complete the job. It would have been too emotionally and physically draining. He did a tremendous amount of work and I was very thankful to have him alongside for the week.

The Gospel Teaching
The Gospel teaching was temporarily halted while all of us were out over Christmas break. Our partners are returning this week and will resume the Gospel teaching once they get settled. Please continue to pray for the Palawanos as this goes on, that they would come to know Christ our blessed Lord.

Discussions about the theft
The big news in the village this week, since I was there, was that everyone knew who had robbed our house. He is a guy that lives across the mountains from us. We have helped him in many ways with medicine and trade items, but he has continually responded with ingratitude and selfishness, and has also regularly stolen from many of the other Palawanos. In the Palawano culture, it is difficult to get all the Palawanos mad at you at the same time. In fact, you have to be a pretty bad guy to do that, because they are generally pretty non-aggressive people. Well in this case, Maylum has succeeded in getting practically the entire Palawano valley irritated at him, for robbing the missionary's house. Not only that, he brought his 12 year old son along to teach him how to do the job.

So the way the Palawanos reacted to this with us was to begin discussing various possible punishments. Hence the call to hang the offender upside down by his feet. “They do that on Sulu!” they said.

Here are some other statements by various people we talked to.
“We should just kill him.”
“Let's beat him real good.”
“Hey, let's bait him with more of your food! We will put poison in it and let him eat it! Then he'll die – that will teach him!”

We were sitting in a big group when someone suggested that they chop off one of his fingers, which is a real punishment practiced in the area. Several people responded, “Yes! Yes! We should do that. The people upriver from us do that, and that is why nobody up there steals anymore! We should chop off one of his fingers! Then if he steals again, we will chop off his whole hand!”

At this point, I asked the question I was most curious about. “If you decide to chop off his finger, who will be the one to chop it off?”

They all paused and there was a silence for a moment as they stared at me. Finally someone spoke up, saying to me, “Cousin, you're the one he stole from. Of course you are the one who will chop off his finger!”

Right, as if I am going to chop off anyone's finger. Of course I refused, telling them that I couldn't do that. So in the end nothing was decided yet, but that is ok, because there is going to be a big tribal council about this guy and that is where it will be decided what to do. Most likely it will be a huge fine along with a return of the items. There are other possibilities as well, like requiring some work without pay, or even possible jail time for the main offender. All of these things will eventually be decided by the tribal council and the local civil government.

Another interesting thing to note about the incident. We now have many reports from eyewitnesses of people who have our things, how they have bragged about robbing the missionary's house, and testified that Maylum was the one to lead the break-in. So there is no doubt at all that Maylum is the one. However, when we asked the village chief how they knew it was Maylum was the one who robbed our house, he gave us this story. He said they were all gathered around and they cut a length of bamboo to exactly the length of his arms out-stretched, finger-tip to finger-tip. Then they gave some kind of chant and called out to Empu (God) the names of various suspects. When they called out Maylum's name, they said the bamboo grew about 4 inches longer past the tips of his fingers.

One day Maylum's 12 year old son came to me to confess and ask forgiveness. Of course I told him I forgave him, but that his offense was very serious and that the tribal chieftain was still planning to decide on a punishment. We talked about how he felt when it was his own father influencing him to do bad, and this poor kid is in a difficult situation. We also talked about God, how we came to teach them God's Word, and how God's Word could deliver him from his desire to do bad things from time to time. He was receptive and humble, but he is still having to go back and live with his father.

In that regard, please pray for the father, the son, and the other 3 people that committed the crime. We estimated they took around $1000 worth of things, which is far more than any of them would be able to pay back in a lifetime, even if they pooled all their resources together. I did tell the son that we have no bad feelings toward him or his father, and we hope that they will come and listen to the teaching of the Gospel. However, I told him that they must know that they committed a crime and that there was going to be some punishment coming to each of them, as directed by the tribal authorities.

Over all, this incident gave a great opportunity to be able to openly share with many people once again why we came, and how important the Gospel teaching is. I believe they understood our love for them by our actions. We hope and pray that this will result ultimately in the Gospel triumphing over the lives of the people, and that they will be able to live in hope and love, free from fear and despair.

Return to work and continuing on...
So I am back now in Manila, and very glad to be back with Ginny and the kids, although I miss the tribe. We have a lot of work to do over the next few months, with my new assignment in the mission and getting Isaac prepared for graduation and going to college. By the way, please pray for that also – he has applied for a 4 year ROTC scholarship, but as of this writing we have not heard any results. He wants to go into the service after college anyway, but the scholarship would be a huge help in paying for his continuing education.

My current assignment as a language consultant and helping direct the national language program for new missionaries is very important to the work we are doing in New Tribes. There are still many, many unreached areas of the Philippines, and there are still not enough workers to bring the Gospel to all those places. When a new missionary comes to the field, it is important for them to not only do well in the national language, but to truly enjoy and become part of the Filipino culture. This will help in the long term health of our mission, will keep missionaries here for longer, and will have long term results of strengthening tribal churches. We earnestly desire your prayers for this new ministry, that it will bear much fruit and result in a harvest of souls in all the indigenous tribes of the Philippines. Pray for more missionaries to come here, and for us all to grow stronger in our walks with the Lord, strengthening each other and bringing glory to God.

As a final note, we are so thankful for all of your prayers and support for the continuing work in the Philippines! God is amazing, and we are so glad to be part of His service. We can't wait for His return!

Blessings in Christ to you all,
George for all of us
George, Ginny, Isaac, Sarah, and Abby






Click here to see more of our pictures


returning to the tribe to pack up


saying good-bye to friends


stitching up a wounded man's finger


the burial site of our dog


my office in the tribe after being trashed by the robbers


One of the new tribal houses on the hill across the river


Ginny teaching at Faith Academy


Abby and Isaac on an outdoor adventure together with the school


Abby took a picture of this tiger on top of one of the jeeps in the Zoobic Safari during her school field trip.


I thought it was funny what was placed in the "historical fiction" rack in the bookstore