Colorful confusion!

Busy missionary moms need a substitute granny on occasion. One mom who is also the pilot’s wife texted that her pilot husband needed to fly into a tribal location which meant she needed to flight follow. Which meant she had to stay by her computer and radio while he was in the air to the village until he returned to the hanger. Which meant her daughter would miss her second day of ballet class. Unless a Lola (Filipino for ‘Granny’) would take her to class.

We are in the sorting, tossing, packing and re-packing stage of our preparations for furlough. It’s overwhelming with all the details of getting cargo shipped to the USA in a month, coordinating several domestic flights for remaining ministry as well as arranging our international flights. All very important, tedious, dry and boring details. All the plans being made then scratched and blocked for no other reason than to teach us humility. And the endless phone calls that end in frustration because the new information doesn’t match the information that was given yesterday that was very critical to us ending up in the United States – together.It was just not a good time for me to take off from all of that.

On top of that, my hair was dirty since I hadn’t planned on leaving the phone or computer for weeks! Or at least until that one room was completely sorted and packed away for the move. Also Chris needed to use the car we borrowed. On top of that I’m feeling burdened that we have two patients from the village in the hospital in a town three hours one way over broken roads and I hadn’t visited in over a week.

And she needed a lola. I’m the only lola here right now. So I washed my face and pulled my dirty hair into a clip, hitched a ride with Chris and his friend and headed to ballet class.

Ballet class! Excited girls of all ages and sizes flitted in colorful, bouncy tutus, tights and ballet slippers. Little beginner ballerinas hopping and twisting and pointing toes in a chaotic display of utter confusion! I smiled then laughed as I chatted with the mothers, dads and lolas in the sidelines snapping pictures at the little dancers every move.

And I prayed. I prayed for my daughter-in-law and my little granddaughters on the other side of the world doing exciting things that I miss forever. I prayed for the grandmothers (and the granddads) on the other side of the world missing forever this moment of beauty their little granddaughters were creating.

And, I thanked God for the gift.

Repairs Being Made

This is our first look at the repairs on our airstrip and we were delighted that we could see all the work scraping off the grass and leveling the strip well past the little waiting area we lovingly call the ULA International Airport.

We are very grateful to the Lord for:

• the many folk that gave sacrificially for all the labor costs and supplies for the repairs
• our partner, that he could arrange his schedule in Australia to come back to the Philippines for the month of April to do the ground work and supervising
• for safety for the village people working by pick axe, shovel and muscle power in the blistering heat  *Please pray for unhindered work on their farms as this is normally the busiest time for getting the land cleared and burned before planting
• for our missionary pilot for his expertise in directing the repairs necessary and his willingness to hold flights until he could make the overland trip into the village to assess the situation first hand
• for safety for Chris to travel the hazardous roads in a borrowed truck (thank you co-workers!) buying supplies and transporting people and those supplies so they could make the trip into the village
• for all those who remembered to pray for the whole process and continue until the plane safely returns to our village and for the continued work God is doing among the Banwaon

After all, it takes a TEAM!

 Most envision a missionary teaching or studying the Bible at a desk surrounded by resource material with a squeaky fan blowing the bugs out of his face.

But sometimes he sits behind the wheel in a hot car barely moving over broken roads. Trip after trip, he sleeps in tiny hotel rooms with limited electricity, cold showers and sketchy food. Sometimes he shops, in scavenger hunt fashion, searching in four different cities ducking in and out of countless, dark, dusty stores that only stock one or two of the 90 needed items to get all the hardware for the airstrip repairs. (There is no one-stop shopping here!)

Chris traveled over 2796 miles (4500 K) in this ministry month. Not the usual miles racked up in the seat of an airplane. Road miles. The slow and painfully bounced, jerked and slammed to a stop kind of miles. ALL OF THEM. Literally.

The national highway that circles northern Mindanao, the island we serve on, is under major repair. Because it is majorly in disrepair. Heavy rains caused the road bed to wash out from under the asphalt surface causing a ‘peanut brittle’ effect. The road works crew then scoops up this brittle road one lane at a time with a bulldozer that tosses it aside while all the traffic uses the ‘free’ lane. And not in servicable sections like you might imagine. This roadworks project covers the entire national highway!

Actual forward speed

V-e-r-y slowly uses the free lane. It is not at all unusual to sit 2 hours while traffic passes in that lane. Over and over again all along those many miles. Why?

Because the national highway is the only roadway that takes you around the island. Why would Chris do all those miles when the road is such a mess? When the driving and sitting all those hours causes leg and back cramps that wake him in the middle of the night? When he would rest at home just one night to turn around and make the painful trip all over again? FOUR TIMES in THREE WEEKS? Why?

Because it pleases God when missionaries work as a team. We share the privilege to serve Him as part of the New Tribes missionary team here on Mindanao, not just partners in the translation team for the Banwaon.

Chris first made that roundtrip in four days to take me and my two friends to the pick-up point for our road trip into the village by motor bike. Then he supply shopped before he came back to pick us up again. Then he slept one night at home and covered the same painful journey adding a day to pick up our partner to make his motor bike trip into the village to repair our condemned airstrip. Then he returned home to sleep two nights in his own bed only to turn around to do the three day trip again and three days back with the New Tribes Mission Aviation pilot who went in to explain the specific details of the repairs needed on the airstrip. All four of those round trips literally fill the three week time frame.

Supply buying and mobilization was Chris’ part of the teamwork needed to complete the repairs on our airstrip.

God knows just how to plug each of us into the team to suit His purpose and plant a church for His Glory.

We didn’t have the luxury of leaving the village the way we hoped. Our house was just locked and we flew out of the village with plans to return every two months to update and repair their Bible Portion Books, visit with our brothers and sisters in the Lord there, and slowly pack our house for our year long furlough coming up this year. Earthquakes and earth tremors coupled with heavy rains destroyed our airstrip. Chris’ back surgeries did not permit him to return by the arduous road trip on motorbike (see a slideshow of this trip by clicking here). We waited. Time became an issue as we have to send our belongings to America on a container by next month. We knew God has no problem with time, so we trusted His plan and waited for His lead.

God opened that possibility of my return to visit our friends and attend the little village Church, pack up our house and introduce two of my town friends to our friends in the village. We saw the opportunity and ran through that open door! Click here for pictures.

God also opened the door for our co-worker and translator in this village, Albert Castelijn, to return this month to supervise the needed repairs on the airstrip. One of our pilots, Joel Davis, made the difficult trip overland to explain the work needed so our airstrip can be safely used again. Please pray for Albert and the two hundred workers that are doing the difficult labor getting those extensive repairs completed.

We praise and thank God for allowing us to be here in the Philippines anticipating a working airstrip so Chris can return to the village to say good-bye before we leave. Our first year long furlough will begin when we leave later this year. We have mixed emotions revolving around that – joyous to reconnect with our family and friends back in America equalling the pain of leaving our family and friends here. Please pray for us.  The good-bye ritual to our Philippine family in the Lord, friends and co-workers is started. It is difficult. Packing is difficult. All the details of a major move is difficult.

It is precious to us that God continually shows us the value of waiting upon Him and His plan as we go through this journey. Pray for us to be sensitive to wait for His leading and, just like before, run through the door that He opens for us!

Thank you for faithfully praying for these concerns. We are aware of your prayers through the strength and endurance given as the details fall into place. We are grateful, always.

  

Chris in the tropics - 10,500 feet above the jungle

Now, it seems so anti-climatic. It wasn’t, believe me.

Thank you for praying for this airdrop. It was a huge blessing to get these supplies into the village after so many attempts. Chris and the incredible pilot, Joel Davis, would prepare early each morning with the hope of clear skies only to have it clear in the area of the hanger but cloud over the village or visa versa. They communicated with the friends in the village and with missionaries living in outlying areas that could update Joel on conditions over their villages, only to have conditions too fragile to complete the trip time and again.

You prayed. We prayed. Our brothers and sisters in the village prayed. We prepared. We waited. We prepared again. We waited again. We preapared again.

We had faith that God also wanted these supplies to reach the village. Today. They did.

A friend sent us those words for our title upon hearing the supplies made it into the village this morning. AMAZING!  These ups and downs often characterize our life here. In fact, it is the norm! So much time is spent planning and preparing and waiting and praying. And then doing it all over again the next day or next week or next month.

God answered today with allowing some holes to open up just enough to make the zig-zag trip through the clouds over to the strip. Chris said the cold was incredible and the wind especially hard on his ‘throwing arm.” He shoved the bags out of that open door as fast as he could while Joel maneuvered in and around the holes as the skies were not forgiving. Just imagine flying far over the jungle with these types of sights out the window.

over the airstrip

We are becoming well acquainted with airdropping supplies into our village. Since our airstrip was condemned last year, we have not been able to get supplies into our village except by airdrop. Learning to pack for the airdrops was a learning curve since Chris is the one that gets to shuffle the bags out the open door of the plane and we wanted bundles to actually make it unharmed.

“OPEN DOOR?!!!”

Yes, you got that right. The flight requires that the door is removed so the ‘dropper’, namely Chris, can quickly eject them as the plane travels the length of the airstrip.

We’ve learned a bit about packing for that sort of flight as well. Since Chris has to pull the supplies across his body and drop them out that open door, we have to pack in a maximum weight of ten kilo bags. Breakables like medicines must be covered in foam or scrunched newspaper to keep the bottles from exploding when dropped fifty feet from the air at 50 mpg. We’ve exploded a few bottles learning this. Letters flutter far away unless sheathed in cardboard and inserted into a heavy bag.

We’ve been told that it’s the most exciting and dangerous part of the pilots’ job. Chris attests to this.

We’ve one such flight this morning. Supplies wait in the plane along with Chris and Joel at the hanger for the weather to clear. I’m praying clouds lift so the trip can continue today getting much needed supplies to our friends.

imagine flying here without the door

They are too busy to get photos of that part of the trip so you’ll have to settle for these boring ones of us packing.

OK, so every job isn’t exciting.

QUICK UPDATE: The flight wasn’t successful as the clouds closed in and didn’t allow for the drop. Will try again in a week or so! Thanks for praying. (also I added some pictures from the flight!)

looking for a hole

Friends from our village in the hospital boarding house

“Inay Brin, Mahagsay ha masulum!”

My heart did a little leap when I read the “Good morning!” greeting on my phone screen last Friday. It’s only our friends in the village that call us “Amay” and “Inay Brin!”

They made the arduous trip from the jungle down the mountains into the city (around 10 hours travel) and were hoping to see us during their brief time at the hospital. We were quite sick ourselves but borrowed a car and bumped and jumbled ourselves over broken roads for the six hour trip to get some “face space” with our dear friends. As if parched, we drank up the news from our jungle home – new babies, deaths, sickness and hunger, families that have moved, school successes, Bible teaching, church meetings, joy, grief and a few, ‘I don’t know” trickled into the conversation.

Tuberculosis is making a steady comeback into our village and other villages in the jungle. The little boy pictured above tested postitive for TB and will receive medicine before they return. The older woman was still awaiting the results of her tests but was experiencing a general weakness and is unwell. The little girl is also waiting on her test results, the doctors suspecting TB. There are many sick in the village lacking the money to make the trip down to the hospital. Two of the village health workers are no longer living in our village and since moved away for family matters or duties outside the village. Supplies are low in the village first aid pharmacy and necessary paperwork for admittance into the hospital has run out. Food stored from last years harvest is pretty much gone. These lacked the funds to make it back home.

  

handcrafted casket

In the midst of the difficult, God blessed. Forgotten expressions due to our lack of use of the Banwaon language brought tears to the eyes and raucous laughter! Yes, some of the news filled our eyes fresh with grief but smiles, teasing and hugs wove gently around the sorrow and seeking, buffering our cherished time together.

Too soon it was all over.

They had to go back to the hospital and we had to leave for the trip back up the mountain to our town home. The plan was for them to leave the next morning if all the results could be read by the doctors. We think it happened as we didn’t hear from them after our visit.

We’ve scheduled a supply flight that will airdrop some of the needed items on the airstrip near the village this week. Our airstrip is still banned for a landing, so I (Lynne) will take a trip overland by motorcycle as soon as possible. Chris’ back will not allow him to make that trip by motorbike and there is no other way available since the boat was broken in the last storm.

Please pray:

• for those in the village that are too sick or poor to make it out for hospital care
• for Inay Daday, the village health worker that is left alone to care for these
• for the Bible teachers to be encouraged and refreshed in His Word as they teach each week
• for the people to gather enough food from the jungle to strengthen their bodies
• for the flight coming up this week to go smoothly in the season of bad weather
• for the people to continue looking to God for comfort and help
• for plans to come together for Lynne’s trip into the jungle

We thank you and on behalf of our dear brothers and sisters as well for your faithful prayers in these concerns. Thank you for your financial support of our ministry that help us minister to these brothers and sisters of yours in the rainforest. You are each a part of what God is doing here.

Wow. Never… NEVER! Strong words from our Savior.

(just a side note: It’s an interesting study to find the verses where Jesus says “never.”)

New Tribes Mission Aviation is an organization of missionary pilots and their families dedicated to flying supplies and missionaries into our remote locations, specifically serving the NTM missionaries located around the world. We are uniquely fond of the ones serving God in the Philippines appreciating their professionalism, excellence and skill. It’s been a real pleasure building relationships as we load and unload the planes helping where we can to facilitate getting people and supplies in and out of our villages.

This week I had the privilege of enjoying extra special time with their children! NTMA had important meetings to work out issues serving the three largest islands here in the Philippines. They needed some uninterrupted time to discuss things as a team. I joined a group of ladies as “adult supervisors” for their wonderful children while they met.

There’s nothing like being around a BUNCH of children to glean a picture of what God is talking about. This time gave me that unique perspective – not just from the little children. Did I mention that two older Missionary Kids organized and executed the WHOLE THING? Games, crafts, quiet activities, run around crazy activities and all that goes with that were completely handled by two teen-aged children of a missionary family. Children. Exhibiting behavior like the ones required for inheriting the Kingdom of God.

Were they perfect?

They were loving, forgiving, kind, orderly, excited, happy, free, attentive, active, creative, messy, thoughtful, obedient, careful, unencumbered, selfless (mostly, at times) helpful, contemplative, dirty, carefree, independent, unembarrassed, co-operative, loud, eager, bouncy, quiet, daring, clean-able, urgent, and every nuance of emotion and motion in-between!

Do you need to pray like me?  “Oh Lord, help me be as these. Squish me soft - manipulated out of my particular adult hardened shape into someone fit to receive and enter your Kingdom. Help me stay pliable and guard me from brittleness. Slide a pair of pipe-cleaner glasses over my eyes so I might, in awe, see how to approach you as these, eager for you. Help me bring my children for your touch. Embolden me against the ‘shush-ers.’ Thank you for loving even me. Amen.”

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