NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

You can always expect something unexpected to happen in our neighborhood. We returned to our home Christmas night with Vanessa’s aunt and uncle. As we rolled onto our street things appeared relaxed as people merrily sat drinking in front of theirs homes, chatting and telling stories.

As I unlocked the door to our house I noticed a young guy roll into our barangay on his motorcycle. Immediately all the teenagers at the basketball court stopped and started to move towards this unknown man. Like a cat’s hair standing straight up, you could feel the tension in the air as people focused on this rider with growing anger.

I ushered Vanessa’s uncle and aunt to come inside the house quickly. At the same time little 3 year old Prince (Jericho’s friend) comes in saying, “Kuya David, saan si Jericho?” (Where’s Jericho) “Sa loob, pasok” (Inside, come on in), I reply while watching the action outside.

The man on the motorcycle pulls up in front of our barangay official’s home, where him and his friends were sharing shots of beer to celebrate Christmas. The mysterious man doesn’t say more than one sentence before he reached into his pocket. At this instant everything on the street explodes in chaos. My neighbor Peter jumps at the man, grasping his hand to keep him from pulling the barril (pistol) from his pocket. The young men from our neighborhood start trying to knock the man of his motorcycle but his able to speed away. The gunman turns around with a smirk on his face, egging on the pursuers behind him. But as he turns his head forward again, he has just enough time to avoid the fist of Prince’s dad (Carlito) swinging at him.

Prince’s mom Arlene runs into the middle of the street screaming Princes name, and she is so relieved when we motion and tell her he’s safe inside our house. You could hear the beer bottles crashing and breaking on the street as they’re thrown at the gunman. And just like that he zooms away. All of this happening within the span of only one minute.

Talking with my neighbors the next day, it seems that the gunman is from some other neighborhood, and was drunk that night, just looking for a fight. No one admitted to me that they knew him, but it’s likely that there was some previous history between him and someone in our neighborhood before.

But all in all, our neighborhood is still a very safe place for us to be. I’ve never seen a community function so closely together like this one. For example, when our neighbor’s house caught on fire and all the neighbors quickly worked to put the fire out even before the fire trucks showed up. Then, with this incident, how quickly the men bravely worked together to protect the women and children while aggressively attacking the intruder. I thank God for this culture experience, and that no one in our culdesac was hurt.

Where the incident took place, and my neighbors giving their report to the police

We experienced our first New Year’s Eve in the Philippines and survived! But it actually wasn’t as crazy as I was expecting it to be.
In the weeks coming up to new years we kept hearing all these horrible stories of paputok (fireworks) accidents and seeing all these lovely banners of blown off hands and fingers warning of the dangers of ignoring fireworks safety. So of course, I was nervous about being in our neighborhood where those who are drunk are ALSO the ones setting off the fireworks AND mostly worried about the safety of my active little boy. But, praise God, there were no accidents with Jericho AND no accidents with any of our neighbors! Although, if you check out our video at the bottom, there were still quite a few teenagers that need another class in firework safety! *rolls eyes* ooohh boys
We had a good NYE celebration though. We spent the first part of the night with some of our fellow missionaries, chatting, eating and of course playing some fun games! (They had Monopoly- Philippines version! Neat!) Then at about 10:30 we headed back to our neighborhood. Everyone was getting in the new years mood with bbq’ed fish (fish is for good luck), mamon (a sponge cake for wealth), some were drinking and blasting Michael Jackson and others were getting their dance on with a laser show. And of course, there were some that were playing with firecrackers.

*These firecrackers are VERY loud and some are SUPER dangerous. Most have little to no wick (some are lit by striking them like a match…which means little time to get it out of your hand! Eek!) They definitely wouldn’t be legal in the States, but then again, we’re not in the States!*

It was all good and fun until some people started throwing the firecrackers at each other and they started going off right at people’s feet. With “DANGER DANGER!” going off in my head, we headed for the safety of our backyard. There, our neighbors were enjoying some food and sparklers. We were behind a big gate too so Jericho wasn’t able to run in the street where the craziness was happening. We ate and played until midnight when we got an awesome view colors lighting up the sky. It was so pretty! We opened the door to the gate too and were able to see the fireworks our neighbors were lighting off on the street. It was loud and smoky but it was a blast to see and take part in. Jericho went to bed at 12:30 and we crawled in at around 1. What a night!

Today, we have been busy packing and getting the house ready for our guests. We will be attending a week long conference with our mission organization and our friends from the States will be coming to visit us for a few weeks! Then, it’s back to the daily grind. I can’t believe how fast our break has gone by, BUT I am looking forward to getting back into some good language study. I feel refreshed and ready to attack it once again.

2012 is already looking like a good year

Although our aparment has a backyard area for Jericho to play, we prefer to take him out on the street so that we can make the most of our time here with people.
We were playing with his lopsided, cheapo ball when it rolled underneath our neighbors car. Since I didn’t have a stick to reach and get it, plus it was already dark outside; I figured it would be fine until morning.
     But, the next morning when I came out and looked under the car, no ball. “Oh well” I thought. It was taken by someone else once before and later returned; maybe it will happen again.
     A week later I heard a bunch of excited screams outside our house one morning as kids bounced around a lopsided blue ball. Sure enough, it was Jericho’s ball, but someone had blacked out his name with permanent marker.
I slid down the stairs and said, “Ness, some kid took Jericho’s ball.”
     “So? David, who cares? It cost like 20 cents and it doesn’t even bounce straight” she said.
     “No, I know. I don’t care about the ball per se though. But, I’m curious and want to try this “going through a mediator” thing we’ve been studying about” I said.
     “Okay, that’s fine if you really want to” replied Vanessa.
So as we walked out our front to go to the store I stopped my neighbor’s son Mark on his scooter.
     “Hey Mark, you see those kids playing with the blue ball over there?” He nods ‘yes.’ “Could you go over there and ask them when they’re done playing with it if they can just throw it over our gate. But, tell them that anytime they want to play with the ball, all they have to do is ask.”  And low and behold, when we came back later, the ball was returned. Â
 If you get a chance to read our newsletters, blogs, or see our videos; please remember to pray for us. Just because we’re missionaries doesn’t make us super-Christians or larger than life.
-david

Today we experienced our first flood! Scary?…a bit. Cold?…yes! But what was the predominant thought running through my head, “This water is REALLY dirty!”. lol

This afternoon we started on our normal trek to school. It was raining a bit when we left but we thought, like most rain storms, that it would be over in no time. But, lucky us, the rain kept coming! There was an overflow of water coming out of the sewage drains and down the hilly streets and we got caught right in the middle. On one intersection the water was getting deep and the tricycles (common public transportation of motorcycles with side cars attached) were having a hard time going through. That intersection proved to be difficult for us as well! When David saw what was happening he immediately whipped out our phone and decided to start recording. What the video shows is David crossing the river filled street but what you DIDN’T see is the part where I tried to cross. It was a major FAILURE! Two steps into the street and the water washed away my right flip flop. I thought, “Goodbye forever faithful flip flop” and was going to leave it behind until the very next step and the water washed away my other flip flop. I started turning around because I didn’t want to walk in that awful water barefoot when David realized what was going on.

Let’s clarify one thing- this is not “playing in Michigan puddles” kind of water. This is feces ridden, open sewer hiding,  bug infested, broken-glass-and-metal-shards-a-floatin’ kind of water. Gross? Yes, quite.

Like the wonderfully dashing husband he is, David dragged his legs through the water to retrieve my flip flops while I waited on a not so flooded corner. I wasn’t the only one with that idea because as I looked down, dozens of cockroaches started to climb the wall and lamp post that I was supporting myself on…which left me completely horrified. I was nervous to cross the street though because I knew there were open drains around that area that I couldn’t see at all. But what other choice was there? So pray and cross is what I did and THAT is where the video continues.

Needless to say, we were late for class…and we smelled awful the whole time.

BUT we did learn a few things:

1. Water boots won’t always keep you from getting wet…nor will umbrellas
2. If it starts to rain hard..just wait it out and text the teachers that you will be late
3. Leave a clean pair of clothes and shoes at school in case anything like this happens again

Although the video makes the water look pretty shallow, what you don’t see is the uneven roads where there are dips, the potholes, and the deadly open sewers. Just remember, be careful when it rains!

I would definitley say that God has planted us in a most spectacular place for discovering this new and amazing culture. Almost every day I walk out my door and experience something I’ve never seen before. Here are some of the most recent pictures and video that we’ve captured for language study, but to also share this new world with you.

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     Every now and then I really enjoy sitting down to update our blog; espcially right now as I sit here with two big blisters on each foot from playing basketball in flipflops/barefoot. My mind may be ready to become Filipino but I guess my feet aren’t, hahaha.
     So, some people have commented on noticing the drop on our support therometer this past week and so I wanted to bring you up to date with everything. First, we’re doing just fine and God is meeting all of our needs. Vanessa and I don’t want to blog to sound like we’re whinning or guilt tripping people to partner with us financially. Our desire is just to be open and honest with those of you who are more interested in this aspect of our ministry.
     As of right now, we are at a pledged amount of 70% per month, a drop from 79% when we left in August. For varying reasons, and some I’m not aware of; we had a few of our bigger pledgers drop their partnership with us. Many people have said before hand that your support usually goes up after you arrive, but this has not been the case in our situation thus far. It is true that NTM required us to reach at total of 75% before being approved to come to the Philippines. But, now that we are here, they won’t make us leave just because our support dropped a little bit below the required initial pledge amount.
     All in all, these past two months we’ve received around 66% as sometimes people may forget, etc. But we have to let you know, Vanessa and I aren’t sweating any bullets about our financial situation. Over the past ten months we’ve seen God work in so many hearts to join us in this ministry, and we know He will continue to raise up more partners as He sees fit. I think missionaries in general have a bad repuation sometimes as being only takers and not givers. For Vanessa and I, we honestly do look for ways we can give to others out of what God has so graciously given to us. And that’s not bragging, because I would never naturally do that for others, it must be God doing some kind of heart change in me.
     In conclusion, we can always use more partners to join us in this task of expanding the reach of the gospel here in the Philippines. We know that our expenses will eventually go up with the exciting news of our second baby on the way, and as we move to a remote location in the next two years from now. But, if this is where God has us, then we are content and happy just as we are. Thank you so much to everyone who reads, prays, and supports us. You have been so faithful to us every month; a testimony of God’s faithfulness.

Yesterday was our first time to study the family terms for relatives such as uncle, aunt, etc.  Instead of hypothetically talking about one’s family, we had brought in our own pictures to practice with. The whole class was a blast since it’s always a happy time to talk about one’s family.
When our teacher got to my family(David), she asked if my too sisters were married and had families of their own. I could have gone for the simple and safe answer of saying, “No,” but I thought I’d be a little more adventurous. I proceeded to say, “Walang asawa sila, ka si mataba sila.” (They don’t have spouse, because they still young.) Well, at least that’s what I thought I said. Instead, my teacher had a look of shock on her face and Vanessa had started laughing. Vanessa said, “Mataba? David, mataba means fat.” So yes, I had said, “They’re not married because their fat.” Sorry Andrea and Jessica, you know it’s not true.

The word I should have used was ‘bata pa’ (still young), but that’s not what came out. So after my teacher realized I wasn’t being cruel and I had made an innocent mistake, we all had a great laugh.

Just as a side note, I thought I’d post some of our latest video footage here as well (For those of you who don’t usually check our YouTube channel). Enjoy. More to come as we get better capturing our experiences and ministry here in Manila.