Chuck and Shannon Talbot

Homeschool Teacher

Chuck and Shannon Talbot — Mon, 13 May 2013 01:18:53 +0000

We are very excited about a young lady that is coming to homeschool our kids this August for 6-9 months!!!

Let me introduce you to Lindy Meeker.

She is from North Carolina and was homeschooled herself.

We are looking forward to getting to know her much more this year.

Please pray for Lindy as she prepares to come to the Philippines at the beginning of August.

Pray that she would be able to raise the financial support that she needs to come.

Pray that she would fit adjust well to our crazy family!!!

Jellybean turns 3!

Chuck and Shannon Talbot — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:57:41 +0000

On April 6th our little Jellybean turned 3 yrs old! Where has the last 3 yrs gone to?

As I look back at pictures from last year when we first arrived back in Canada, I can see such a change in Jenna. She has grown so much. And not just in size but in personality too! She never went through the “terrible 2′s” but has become a “tricky 3″ yr old. I think her little world has been rocked a bit by the addition of her new baby sister. Her lasted trick is while playing a memory game. She is very good at finding matches all by herself but while playing with someone else, she will point to the wrong card so you will pick it up but not get a match. Then at her turn she will go straight for the 2 correct cards! She is quite smart for just 3 yrs old.

As the sun finds it way out again here in Ontario, we are seeing more and more of the red in her hair. This makes her mommy very happy!

We were very happy to celebrate Jenna’s birthday with all our family. Here are some pictures of her fun day:

Our little Beatrice is growing so fast!

Chuck and Shannon Talbot — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:48:16 +0000

On February 17, 2013 we welcomed our 7th child to our family! We were all very excited to finally meet her. Here are some of her first pictures:

Her first visitor- Aunt Christina

Nana holding her 8th grandchild

All clean after her first bath

Grandma holding her 18th grandchild

Grandpa holding his 18th grandchild

Aunt Chelsea holding her niece for the first time

Grandma Suzanne holding Bea for the first time

Home from the hospital

Eli really does like holding Bea

Me and my baby girl!

Kyle is quite the helper

Daddy and his baby girl

When Bea was just 13 days old we were able to have a baby photo shoot with her. Thanks so much to Trish Easton at Trish Easton Photography!

This was Bea’s first week with us. We are enjoying having this little one as part of our family.

Here she is at 5 weeks old.

She is becoming much more aware of her surroundings.

Thanks so much for all your prayers for the safe arrival of our little girl. Continue to pray for us as we adjust to life with a baby again. Pray for us as we get ready to go back to the Philippines. There is so much to do and having a baby makes those tasks take just a little bit longer!

What have I been doing?

Chuck and Shannon Talbot — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 17:40:39 +0000

“What have you been doing?!”

You may be wondering what I am doing as you look at the picture of me in my hammock. I’ll explain in just a moment. How many times have I asked my kids that same question lately? It seems like too many to count. Why, you may ask? It’s just one of the many responsibilities I’ve taken on over the past month and a half. Let me explain.

As the New Year began I started to make a list of all the things I needed to do. It was a good thing that work with Steve Dyce was slowing down (due to the winter season) because as I made the list, it got longer and longer. For example, prior to Christmas we had been doing a lot of travelling, particularly on the weekends to share with churches about our ministry amongst the Ga’dang people in the Philippines. Now I needed to follow up with all those churches and the individuals we met there by e-mailing them.

I also attended a 1 week course at the NTM home office in Durham, ON about Partnership Development. It equipped us to be able to develop, maintain and grow the relationships we have with our ministry partners. Several other day trips were also made to Durham to have work done on our van, taxes, and even our computers. We are very thankful for those whom the Lord has gifted with these abilities and are willing to use those talents to serve Him by ministering to us.

One of our supporting churches requested a short video presentation of our work with the Ga’dang people. The challenge for me was to describe this group of people and how the Lord is using us to be a part of bringing the Gospel to them in 3-5 minutes. I managed to do it, and it is now available for anyone to view.

Here it is, just click the link below:

Talbot video 2013

Also on my list of things to do was reviewing all of the language files I collected while in the tribe last term. I hadn’t looked at any of them since returning to Canada but knew I needed to get familiar with the Ga’dang language again before returning to the tribe later this year. So I began the process of organizing all my sound and picture files and memorizing them, etc.

After Beatrice was born in February, we planned for me to stay home and take on most of the jobs of running our home so Shannon could focus on resting after the birth. So I’ve took on the role of Dad and Mom in many respects for the past 6 weeks, and not just in cooking and cleaning. Here’s a list of some of my ‘hats’ I’ve been wearing lately: chief cook and bottle washer, house cleaner (manager mostly), chauffeur home school teacher and principal, bather of little ones, laundry man, waiter, baby burper and bum changer, etc. etc… not to mention ministry correspondence and reviewing Ga’dang language in my spare time. Busy? Yes! But that’s ok, I am what I need to be by the grace of God, right? I am thankful He gives me the strength and wisdom to fill the roles He calls me to do, and reminds me of that fact when I feel like I’m really not capable of doing it all.

Now, about the picture of me in the hammock. In our house in the village, we have several hammocks set up, which provide a great place to not just relax, but also to study, entertain visitors, occupy babies… and the list goes on. So when we came back to Canada I made sure we packed at least one of them to bring back and found a place to hang it. In the house we are staying, there is a nice sun room, which provided an ideal place for me to string up my hammock. Being a sun room, it was great during the summer months as it usually was the sunniest and warmest room in the house, just like being in the Philippines. Perfect.

As the months passed so did the summer months, and the warmth of the sun. By winter the sun room became too cold to spend time in and I was no longer able to spend time in my beloved hammock. I looked forward to the day when the sun room would once again be warm enough to enjoy being in my hammock once again.

As many of you know, our beautiful baby Beatrice arrived in February and we began the process of getting her paperwork in order to be able to return to the Philippines. Our expectation was that it could likely take up to 3 months to complete it all, in which case we decided to not book return tickets to the Philippines until we had all the necessary papers in hand. To our great surprise though, the Lord pushed everything through and we had it all done in just 4 ½ weeks!

What else was there to do? After confirming with our home church leadership, we lost no time in getting ticket price quotes and then booking our tickets. That’s right, we’re heading back! The time has finally come and our home assignment has an end in sight. On May 22, we will be saying our final good byes to everyone on this side of the world and returning to the work the Lord has graciously called us to of bringing the Gospel message to the Ga’dang people.

So, as the weather slowly begins to warm up on us here, we are beginning the process of finishing up things here in Canada in preparation for our return to the Philippines. This morning I couldn’t take it anymore and despite the cold, I hung up my hammock and climbed into it to relax momentarily and reflect on all that the Lord has done for us over this past year while home in Canada. We are grateful for all the opportunities we have had to share about the Lord’s work amongst the Ga’dang people. Now we look forward to continuing to be a part of that once again.

Talbot’s 2012 Year End Report

Chuck and Shannon Talbot — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 15:04:39 +0000

Where has 2012 gone? In many ways we feel like it buzzed right on by as we have kept busy with our daily activities. Has it been a good year? Of course! Has it been interesting and full of surprises? Absolutely! It has certainly been different than previous years as most of this past year we have been on home assignment, but let me not get ahead of myself. First, let us recap the major events of our ministry for 2012.

When 2012 began we were still in the Philippines, and fully immersed in our tribal village, building relationships with the Ga’dang people living around us. Plans for our next home assignment were beginning to form, but it wasn’t until mid-January that we made the final decision to return to Canada in March. As we started gearing down our time in the village in preparation to leave for an eleven month home assignment a couple of significant events took place that impacted us greatly.

A family, just finishing national language and culture study was looking to the Lord for where to minister next so they came in to visit with us and consider possibly joining us. This came as a huge encouragement to us as we had been living alone in the tribe at that point for the previous 6 months with no co-workers. During their week-long visit our next door neighbour’s daughter became engaged. This is no small affair in a Ga’dang community so they were able to experience firsthand a major cultural event. And what an opportunity it was! Even we got to meet Ga’dang people and experience things that we had not before in the year and a half we had been living in the village.

The second experience that took place wasn’t an exciting, happy one like the engagement party. In the week before we left the village to begin the process of returning to Canada, the wife of one of my language helpers died. She was only 39 years old, but had been quite sick for some time. Again, it was a huge community event that lasted for almost a week, and people from many places came together to participate. We learned so much from that week, gaining insight into Ga’dang culture. It was definitely a vivid reminder to us as well of why we are living there, learning about who the Ga’dang people are so one day we can clearly share the Gospel message with them.

March came, and so did we… back to Canada that is. It was an exciting time for us as we were looking forward to sharing with everyone here about what the Lord is doing amongst the Ga’dang people and how He is graciously allowing us to be a part of that. It was amazing to see Him go before us and prepare the way for our return. He provided a home for us to live in and a vehicle to use. We were already seeing our schedule for sharing in churches quickly fill up for the next few months. When I wasn’t busy with ministry related work, the Lord also provided an awesome part time job working with a friend as a carpenter. It came with an incredible boss who really understands the importance of the ministry we are involved in.

When we initially returned to Canada we intentionally didn’t take any meetings at other churches so that we could reconnect first with our home church, Faith Evangelical Missionary Church in Wasaga Beach. It was a good thing we did because once we hit the road we were gone for several weeks, even months at a time before returning to our home church. The speaking engagements began with sharing about our ministry at our home church on the last Sunday in April. Then we began travelling across Ontario. In May and June we spoke at churches from the Bruce Peninsula to Toronto to North Bay, and lots of places in between.

The summer months were a little quieter as far a visiting churches but it was a great time for us to take several opportunities as a family to do ‘family things’. We were able to take time to relax as the Lord provided accommodations in several different places. Our kids did things that they might not otherwise have opportunity for, such as make s’mores over a camp fire, fishing and going water tubing.

As the fall approached our travelling to churches began again and so we hit the road once more. In September, Shannon and Valerie Easton went to North Carolina to attend a 2 week mission medical course. It was a good time of learning for them and a nice break from dads and kids. I took on both dad and mom roles during those 2 weeks, along with all the responsibilities that come with it like cooking and cleaning. Needless to say, Mom was very warmly welcomed back home at the end of the course!

By the time December rolled around, we were glad to see an end in sight. It was great to see and visit with everyone in all our supporting churches again but we were also glad to be able to finally spend some quality time in our home church once more. All said and done we visited 25 churches and 2 Bible colleges, and travelled close to 9000 km in doing so.

A couple of major events happened this past year that have answered prayer and impacted our plans as we look forward to returning to the Philippines to continue our ministry amongst the Ga’dang people. As many of you know and were praying with us, we have been seeking the Lord about having another family join us in the work of reaching the Ga’dang with the Gospel. He answered our prayer, and Dennis and Valerie Easton will be joining us in the village when we return. They are a family also with New Tribes Mission, originally from Bancroft, ON, and have 4 girls. They are currently on home assignment as well and plan to return to the Philippines around the same time as us.

The other major event was unexpected and a little shocking, to say the least. Our plan was always to have 6 children, but the Lord chose to bless us with one more. That’s right we are expecting baby number 7! Talk about shaking up the plans! Shannon has experienced more morning sickness this time and for a longer time period than with any of the previous 6 pregnancies. She is generally feeling much better now and we are looking forward to the soon arrival of number 7 in February.

With this major surprise come lots of changes for us. One of the most significant changes immediately is our return date to the Philippines. Originally we planned to be headed back in February, but with the baby due then, it obviously is not happening. After discussing it with our NTM leadership and our new co-workers the Eastons, we decided we will wait until the end of May before going back. It does influence the Eastons as well as they will now wait for us before returning as well to the Philippines so we can help them get set up and settled in the tribe with us.

What does the future look like for us? As mentioned we are now awaiting the baby’s arrival in February and due to that, will postpone our return to the Philippines until the end of May. During the next 5 months, we will be mostly staying in our home church on Sundays. This will be a good time for us to reconnect with the families there and get to know the many new ones that we don’t really know well yet. I will also be focusing on connecting with people one on one to share about how the Lord is graciously using us to reach the Ga’dang with the Gospel.

Once we do return to the Philippines, our primary goal will be for Dennis Easton and I to return to the tribe initially to get our house set up again to live in, prepare our former co-worker’s house for the Eastons to live in as well as prepare the helipad for use. The house they will use is in need of several repairs before they can move into it. Our families will remain in Manila until the houses are ready, at which time they will join us in the tribe as well.

After we get settled, I will continue with full time language and culture study of the Ga’dang people while Shannon gets our kids going with home schooling. As of right now, Eli will not return to the tribal village with us, but will instead stay in Manila where he will attend Faith Academy, an intermission boarding school for his grade 11 and 12.

Please be praying for us as we have many changes to look forward to in 2013. Here are some of them:

1. Pray for Shannon as she approaches the end of her pregnancy. The baby is due February 23 so there’s not much time left to get last minute preparations done. Pray that her discomfort will not be too much for her in these last weeks as it causes a lack of sleep for her as well.

2. Pray for a safe and healthy delivery of the baby. We are looking forward to finally meeting this little one, and seeing what she looks and acts like.

3. Pray that the necessary paperwork will be done in sufficient time (birth certificate, passport) for us to return to the Philippines in May.

4. Pray that the Lord will raise up new ministry partners to support us financially in the work He has called us to do. We are currently at 50% of our recommended ministry budget. This makes it difficult for us to be involved in all the areas of ministry that we would like to and be good stewards in His work.

5. Pray that our (and the Eastons’) transition back to life in the Philippines and the tribal village will go smoothly. We are looking forward to seeing all of our Ga’dang friends again and getting to know them more.

6. Pray for our children as they are an important part of our ministry. We want each one of them to get to know and grow in their knowledge of our Saviour as we serve Him each day. Pray that Shannon and I will be a good testimony first and for most to them.

This sums up our past year and gives a brief look at what’s ahead for us as a family. We greatly appreciate each one of you who keep us before the Lord as we serve Him. There’s no doubt in our minds we couldn’t do what He has called to do if there weren’t His people here who faithfully pray for us and give of themselves to see His work accomplished. Thank you all very much, or as we say in Tagalog, “Maraming salamat po sa inyong lahat!”

In His Service;

Chuck, for Shannon and the Talbot tribe