NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Last week we were able to go and visit Stephen, Ginger and the kids.  We were there for their weekly bible lesson.  They were presenting the first lesson of Phase III, which has to do with the book of Acts and the Church.  the meeting was well attended with about 70 people.  At least one lady was taking notes.

Of course,  this lesson was a long time in the making.  Manfred writes out the lesson and then goes over it with Stephen to be sure that all the relevant points are covered.  Then the morning of the lesson, Stephen, Manfred and and their language helper, Joseph, meet for prayer and to review the lesson.  Later in the day Stephen and Manfred meet and set up the meeting with the appropriate and verses.  About 7 they both take off in their trucks to pick up people.  The meeting started at 8.

In  addition to these meetings,   Stephen and Manfred are starting a new outreach in another village that is not too far away.

Please pray that as these messages are presented that many might come to the truth.

We were blessed with a visit from our son Paul.  He came with a Salem Oregon church group.  Some of this group was here to evangelize and the others were here to help build a new church building on another island.  After they departed, Paul flew to Palawan to visit us.  We did have the privilege of driving north to our youngest son’s village where they presented their first lesson from the book of Acts.

It was exciting to see him and I’m sure his perspective of missions will be different after having been here.

As guest house managers, we serve 12 missionary families on this island and last week Tim, our chairman, and I had the opportunity to visit one of our remote tribal works where Ray  ministers.     We have helped with this work in many ways.  Purchasing groceries and building supplies for them and shipping these items to them.  Also helping with the medical and housing of sick tribal people.  It was good to get out and see one this first hand.

This work is located on the northwest side of this island. The first leg of this trip was a short ride to our bus terminal.  From there we took a Jeepney, named Dexter.  It was a 7 hour drive.  We arrive at the terminal at 8 am, the stated departure time.  We left about 8:30  only to go a few hundred yards to the nearest gas station.  There, we filled several large containers with diesel, some of which were for Ray.  We were on the road by 9 am.  The jeepney overflowed with people and cargo inside.  Then more cargo and diesel was stacked on the roof.  Not too sure about the cooling system, but there was some kind of water reservoir on the roof which dripped on us.  Apparently, when the engine would overheat, the driver would open a valve to fill the radiator.  The valve did leak and every time he would fill it, I would get water splashed in my face.  There was no front window so we were cruising along at as much as 50 miles an hour with the wind in our face.  By the end of the day, I had a windburn.

We did stop at 11:30 am for lunch at the bus terminal at a medium size town north of here.  I ordered rice.  It was served with a bowl of “possibly” chicken broth.  It was very good.  I think it cost all of 40 cents.  Then we all climbed back into the van and continued north.  It wasn’t long before the paved highway ended.  Actually they were doing highway construction.  There were some dirt sections which periodically changed into a one lane paved road that both the incoming and outgoing traffic shared.    Eventually we reached the place where we needed to cross the island (east to west).  Another two hours on a dusty bumpy road!  We were grateful it was dry season.  Apparently Dexter runs “rain or shine”.  However we could see places that would be all but impassable during rainy season.

We did arrive at Ray’s place about 3:30 pm.  It was a beautiful location right on the South China Sea.  For a “bachelor”, Ray did reward us with a wonderful meal of Hungarian Sausages and rice with a peanut sauce.  (Ray’s wife Chris and their partners, Danny and Philippa,  are presently on furlough.  Many of the people there are Central Tagbanwas.  Their language has died out and they now speak the Cuyonon language.  There are also many outsiders who have moved into this area and they speak the Tagalog language.  These two families are working with these people in both languages.  Ray and Chris  were the first to move in.  The arrived in this area in 2002.  At that time there was no road and they had to come up to east coast  by boat.  Ray and Chris completed their language and culture study and presented the gospel in 2008.  Now they have a group of 5o believers and are continuing the outreach to this community.  

While there we did enjoy a swim in to ocean.  The Water was warm and the Jellyfish were not the kind that sting you.  I did have an interesting trip back.  First two house was in a Jeepney that was “packed” with people.  Then I had to take three different vans to get to town and I opted to walk the last mile.  It’s wonderful to see what God is doing in this very remote area.

Darryl and Tim take a Jeepney to Northern Palawan

We returned to our guesthouse ministry the first of February. While people have come and gone, the paper work and accounting was put on hold because of our delay in returning. While, there were lots of things to record and enter, that whole process went fairly smoothly.

We did return to a “full house”. All four studios and the three apartments were occupied with families coming and going. Now, those missionaries have returned to their tribes and we have a Australian Summit team. Last week they went to the village on the southern portion of this island to assist our missionaries and learn about missionary work. Yesterday, they hiked out to the road (about a two hour hike) and then caught a van. As they returned to the guesthouse an oncoming man on a motor cycle lost control and hit them head-on. The man lost his life and we were all quite upset. It was a traumatic experience for the seven people on the team and even more so, for those sitting in the front of the van. Two of them were with the medical profession and they could not even offer cpr because he was instantly killed. Please pray for them as they deal with the after effects of the situation.

We are glad to be back and do feel that we are a bit caught up with the ministry. The construction on two new units continues and we hope to have them finished by the summer. We are also expecting another large team of 12 who are coming for outreach.

The exciting news for us is that our son, Paul, is coming with several people from his church to build a church building here in the Philippines. He will extend his stay for a week and come and visit us.

We continue to be grateful to be here and are grateful to all who are a part of this work.

Darryl and Becky

Darryl and David playing Wii Mario Cart–Like father–like son!

Darryl Post-op with Hannah and Caleb!