Dear friends and family,
As
we look back on 2013, this has been a year of both blessings
and trials for us. The blessing of continuing in ministry and seeing
the Lord work to reach the tribes with His message, and the trial of
developing a long term illness significantly weakened my body. The
blessing of finding out that my illness is not life-threatening,
though it does have some debilitating effects. The blessing of seeing
the Lord do incredible work in the lives of believers all over the
Philippines, and the trial of seeing the devastation of rebel
activity, an earthquake, and a powerful typhoon. The blessing of
being able to assist in relief efforts, and of being able to visit
family in Texas for a few weeks. The blessing of seeing the beginning
of recovery from my illness, and the trial of knowing it will be a
long recovery process. The blessing of seeing our own kids grow, and
of seeing the Lord work in the lives of young people at Faith Academy
through Ginny's teaching.
So
who is Jesus to you? To us He is our Savior and Lord, the one we have
chosen to follow with our lives. This Christmas season we are
reminded of the greatness of God sending His own Son, God in the
flesh, to live on earth as one of us, and pay the penalty for our
sins. Make no mistake, though the world is inherently hostile to all
who choose to follow Christ and be His disciples, He will come again
and set this world right. We may not understand right now all that He
is doing or why He is doing it, but we can trust that He does love
us, and is actively involved in drawing us ever closer to Himself.
Christ in a manger, a humble child, born into this world of
wickedness, to lead us in the way we should go.
The
Philippines had a lot of news exposure this year, with rebel
activity, followed by a major earthquake, followed by the biggest
typhoon ever to hit land. There was and still is immense suffering
caused by these catastrophes. Our mission was able to have a hand in
distributing a significant amount of emergency relief aid to the
survivors of the typhoon. We are not a relief agency, but we adjusted
our operations for a time because the needs were so great.
In
the language consulting world, 4 families finished their national
language study on Luzon, 5 new missionaries began national language
study in Mindanao, and 1 missionary family got started on their
tribal language study. The 4 mission stations that we checked last
year continued their discipleship teaching for the tribal believers
in their respective local languages, and we are preparing for the
work to carry on to a greater extent next year.
God
is also moving among our Palawano brethren, as the Gospel goes out
and we see lives changed. We lost 2 friends from the tribe where we
lived – one to murder and another to cancer. Yet the work is
carrying on. I was able to accompany a translation expert early in
the year to make some assessments on the Palawano Bible translation
in one area, and again we saw how great is the need for more teaching
in so many areas.
Towards
the end of the year, right before Christmas, I was able to spend 4
weeks in Texas. It was so encouraging to see the faithfulness of our
brothers and sisters in all the churches back home, even as the world
today grows more and more hostile to those of us that have chosen to
walk with Christ.
So
now as we carry on faithfully, we so appreciate your prayers for the
ministry, for health, and that the Gospel may continue to go forth!
We are so thankful that He has enabled us to serve Him here in the
Philippines, and we will continue to press on in service to Him!
Blessings in Christ!
George for all of us
George, Ginny, Isaac, Sarah & Abby
Below are all the main pictures from our end of the year newsletter, which summarize our activities for the year. You can download the actual newsletter in PDF format by clicking here.
January – Returned to Palawan with a translation consultant to do a comprehension check/ reliability assessment of the Palawano Bible.
February – Flew into the Agta tribe up North to get a new family started in language study.
After this I accomanied our church to Mindoro to assess a new ministry opportunity with Mangyan people.
March – We went with our friends to a church conference and reunited with the leaders of the Mangyan people there.
I started my strict diet in earnest and had to learn to cook according to a specialized plan.
April - Sarah was in the high school play “Beauty and the Beast.”
Then we had an encouraging visit when some friends from Texas came to stay with us for a week.
May – Performed a final evaluation for the husband of a missionary couple, the last 2 missionaries that were studying Tagalog.
June – Moved to a new rental house!
July – Celebrated Sarah's birthday! Also took some time to rest over the summer.
August – I preached at the funeral for one of NTM's first missionaries in the Philippines.
Also school started again, and Ginny had a whole new set of students to teach!
September – Flew to Mindanao to do a language evaluation on the 5 missionaries studying Visayan.
We lost Dilto, one of my former language helpers.
We also lost Nerdak to lung cancer.
October – Ginny and Sarah took a trip to Malaysia for a soccer tournament and a ministry project with a group of refugees from Myanmar.
November started with All Saints' Day.
Then Typhoon Haiyan hit the Philippines and NTM Aviation delivered relief supplies to some of the islands that were in the Visayan region.
I then returned to Texas for a medical checkup and to visit some family.
December – I flew back with Isaac, had a stopover at the airport in Moscow, and then a long layover in Singapore where the airport gave us a free tour of the city.
Finally we were all back together again!
