We are coming home!

Are bags are packed, shofar is clean and we are ready for sleep, if we can sleep... Bye bye Philippines, hello America.

See ya Sunday

LD

Onward ho!

Quite a view huh? As we are saying our goodbyes, finishing our projects, and making our plans... Every so often God likes to remind us of where we are... Believe me when I say it seems like 1/3 of the beauty is actually captured in these pictures...

Since our last post, the steel has been removed and the workers are starting to reinforce the roof to putting the steel back on... they are working fast...
One of the workers walked up to me and started talking to me. We talked for a few minutes before he asked, " Where's Travis?" As we talked more I found out that he used to play basketball at the local court with Brady and Trav.
Thursday afternoon, we said our farewells to the Camp 7 High School.
We had a chance to asked them if they could tell us one thing that they learned the most, what it would be. Their response, " As a Christian we will encounter opposition. It is not easy being a Christian." We will miss them greatly it was a lot of fun and it will be great to see what God will do with them...

The next day, we hopped in the next truck on our way for Toledo City...
On the way we found out that due to Nathan having a fever Evelyn was not going to be able to translate for us... But she was sending a replacement...
Erline... Which was cool for us because we were able to be there when it was Erline's first time at the jail... We were greatly blessed...
The photos below are a picture of our guys in their new chapel... which was built with support from Shofar and J.F.B. We went from only 50 people in a study because of space issues to 70+ men in a study at at the new chapel... We were also able to take some funny photos with the guards, but you will have to wait for the presentation to see those... Thanks, for your prayers... We will see you soon.... God bless! We are praying for you too!!!!

raraar raarar arrr....(in a Kabong voice)

First of all, I'd like to say that I forgot to mention how much we will miss Kabong when we leave!!! Every time, and I mean every time we come home with the truck he comes running from Tomas and Shirley's house just howling like we've been gone for weeks! Awww, so cute.
Today, this is the progress that was made on the Shofar roof! The workers are doing such a good job, and we are very glad to have the, as Laura calls them, "the frapper frappers" off the roof, so no loud noises at the night time! We were able to hang out with the workers a little bit yesterday, because there was some heavy rain, it was great....please keep them in mind while praying. It's kinda a big roof!
Today we did our final Pilgrims Progress at Loay and Camp 7. Ryan and I walked up the mountain for the last time...after showing the High School kids a video called "A Day in the Life of Martes Jemeniz". Above is a picture of the Loay kids, and their teacher Jason.
For a finale in the elementary schools, we drew a timeline of all the events from Pilgrims Progress, and quizzed them on all the characters...

We still have a few project loose ends to finish...final touches on Londo's sign, a pillar in the living room, outlining the radio call letters...and some Shofar shut down to do. So pray for us that we remain in the game.

OH, and tomorrow we get to show "Most" in the jail....bring the tissues. Sunday will also be our finale with the Lutops youth, and Freedom in Christ for that matter. Hmmm. We will miss our new friends.

The beginning of the end

The weather has taken a turn for the beautiful - I can't get enough of it! Andy and I try to get a walk in whenever possible, even if we only make it the front porch... aaahh. It has also made reconstruction safer.

As Ryan and Carrie worked on the signage for the radio room one afternoon, Andy and I went to Upper Camp 8 to finish the black outlining on the mural.

Things are quickly coming to an end. Carrie mentioned today that we have 10 days left. We are all excited to come home and see all the people we love and miss (cyber hugs only), but so sad to have to say goodbye to our new friends.

Talk more later,

LD

Pressing On

It has been almost a week since we lost part of the Shofar roof in a wind storm. Since then contractors have been contacted, materials have been purchased and delivered, and initial work has begun on the reconstruction. This will be a major undertaking as working with full sheets of roofing steel is difficult in the first place, then add in a nice steep pitch, factor in that falling off the roof means falling off the mountain, and don't forget about the wind that hasn't died down very much since the day the roof came off. Add all that together and you come up with the result that we would really appreciate your prayers. Please pray for the safety of the workers, and that the weather would calm.

Losing part of the roof hasn't slowed down our schedule, we continue to press on realizing that our time here is getting shorter and shorter. We are continuing to go into the schools, we will be finishing up the film and lessons on Pilgrims Progress. This week we will also be finishing the mural in Upper Camp 8. One of our latest painting projects has been working with the crew from Lando's church to paint the church name on the front wall of their sanctuary. It turned out fantastic even though everyone said that they couldn't paint. I am not going to bring up the coconut incident that happened that day, I will only say that you need to check out Av's facebook.

We are heading out soon to attend the monthly youth overnight gathering in Lutopan. This event is held the first Friday of every month and includes worship, bible study, prayer, and very spiritual games. It usually starts around 10pm and goes until the wee hours of the morning, although some of us cant seem to stay up that late (Erline...)

Catch you all later.

How BOUT that. ("...this beautiful view from the top of the mountain...")

Just an update. We have been dealing with some strong winds lately, as LD was saying in her last post. Yesterday (Sunday)...a part of the Shofar roof came off. Andy, Laura, Ryan and I were just starting the youth in Lutopan when this occurred. Thomas got a hold of Londo, and we headed home, conveniently taking some of the youth guys with us to help clean up. Well, the winds have died down a little now, and we are hoping for better weather. We are also hoping to remain focused...so there is our prayer request.

Here are some pictures to all you picture mongers out there...some of the youth were standing in the wind...even they were surprised at the high speeds.

BTW we are all safe, so stop worrying.

Andy also got to teach at Londo's church Sunday! And Ryan and I visited Edwin's church to record his pastor for the radio station!!! (They go to church in Camp 7).

We're not in Kansas anymore

SO, it has been an interesting couple of days. It has been windy and raining hard. Thursday and Friday we had most our school classes cancelled. Instead, Andy and Ryan reinforced the roof so that it wouldn't blow off. They both were up last night many times checking rain and wind... This morning everything was still there.

Today we were expecting a scheduled power outage for 1/2 the island for regular maintaince work. We ate everything that could possibly go bad in a 8 hour power outage between yesterday and today. There wasn't that much anyway... just lumpia and eggs. Our power came back on just after 12pm - cool.

We had hoped on going to Freedom in Christ for our Youth Leadership study but it, too, was canceled.

Carrie worked on radio switch testing - whatever that is??? I cleaned up our staging area. All our brushes and paint cans are clean. And of course, laundry.

Today, due to meeting cancellations, we have made today a study/work day so that Monday and Tuesday we can work on painting Freedom In Christ's new building signage and a signage for the front of the church.