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.
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