NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

Davis Photo Journal

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Maligayang Pasko from the Philippines! THANK YOU for your prayers and support this year. We love being a part of what God is doing in the Philippines and YOU are a part of that too!!

Joel was smart enough not to put on a dorky Christmas hat. Maybe I shouldn't have either. Ha ha!

Joel tracked down a real Christmas tree for us! How fun!!

The finished product! Wow!!

Praise & Prayer

- Please pray for the victims of Typhoon Sendong in 2 cities about 2-3 hours drive north of us. We were there yesterday and saw first hand some of the destruction and aftermath of the storm. Last I heard, about 250,000 people have been displaced and over 1,000 have died. Please pray for these people, for provision of housing and supplies, for health as the conditions are not good, and for comfort as so many of them are grieving during this Christmas season.

- A shipment of newly translated Bibles have arrived here in town… so exciting to see the work of our tribal missionary friends coming to fruition!  We have the privilege of storing them for them in an extra office at our house as they prepare to distribute them… pictures to come!

- At the beginning of January, we will be heading to our annual field conference. This is a really great time to reconnect with our coworkers all over the Philippines and hear what God is doing in all the different regions here. We look forward to this time! Pray for a great time there, good health as we “bunk” with all the other families for a week… and a refreshing trip.

- Christmas is sort of a hard time to be away from our families. Pray for a fun Christmas here in the Philippines as a family. Our good friends are coming to stay with us for the holidays- fun! We do feel blessed to have fun memories of last Christmas at home in the States to look back on!

Davis Photo Journal

Take a trip to the Philippines with us through our Photo Journal emails.

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Have you ever wondered if God was protecting you from something dangerous around the next curve if you hadn’t gotten that flat tire? Did you ever consider that maybe God orchestrated that “annoying interruption” into your life and schedule for His purpose?

Most of the time we will never know, but sometimes we get a “backstage pass” into the behind-the-scenes work of our God, and this week I got such a pass.

I was heading out to one of our tribal airstrips this week. It is a pretty marginal and short airstrip that requires a lot of precision and concentration for the landing. Before I go there, I usually do a few takeoffs and landings at my home airstrip, because the airplane feels and reacts differently depending on the weight and distribution of cargo.

I did two landings, and decided to do one more before I headed out to the tribal location. On that third approach, I went to pull my flap handle to extend the flaps-  and it didn’t work the way it was supposed to.  There is a little spring inside the handle that makes it pop right into four pre-designed detents, and that spring had broken- meaning it wouldn’t naturally go into those detents.  I can’t explain it, but right when the flap handle failed, I knew that God had designed its failure. It’s almost like God had prepared me for this futile flight and I had peace that His hand was in this.

The broken spring

This type of flap failure wasn’t a big deal because I knew that this could happen, and was prepared to manually put the flaps into the detents without the help of the spring. I landed at our home base without incident and confirmed that the spring was broken. I couldn’t help but think that this would screw up the rest of our schedule for the week and the beginning of next week because it was already getting booked with lots of other flights.  But we got the new spring installed the next day after shipping it from one of our other centers, and I was off the following day to finish the flight to our missionaries in the tribe.

When I landed, our missionary walked right up to the airplane and said, “Yep, you would have hit it. We watched while you were landing and you would have dragged your wheels through the corn if you had landed on Tuesday.” The morning my flap handle spring broke, our missionaries had an emergency meeting with a tribal guy that planted corn on the approach end of the airstrip. The corn had grown to over 8 feet high, and would have played a factor in a safe approach and landing.  I still don’t know what would have happened if I had gone, but I do know it was important enough for God to cause my flap handle to fail to keep me from going that day.

We often get so annoyed when we get these little interruptions into our lives- because they screw up our schedule.  And that’s exactly what the problem is, it’s “our schedule” and we are annoyed when it gets messed up and “our agenda” can’t take place.  The truth is, whether God orchestrates these interruptions to protect us – or just allows them to happen to change our focus or steer us in the right direction, we can have confidence and peace when these interruptions come, knowing that nothing comes to us that hasn’t been sifted through His hands. After all, His schedule and timing is perfect- and that is the schedule I want to be on.

Davis Photo Journal

Take a trip to the Philippines with us through our Photo Journal emails.

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Thank you SO much for praying for our girls to feel better!  Camryn is doing MUCH better now, although her tummy is still not quite right. Please pray with us for her continued recovery and that she will gain some weight back again! Ryley is doing much better too, pretty much back to normal now .

Now to catch up on some sleep!

Ryley and Camryn about to enjoy some early Christmas treats

Davis Photo Journal

Take a trip to the Philippines with us through our Photo Journal emails.

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We need your prayers!!

It’s been a rough week full of sickness in the Davis household. Ryley started with swollen hands and feet and hives all over… and vomiting. Camryn got a fever the same day, along with some really intense intestinal symptoms… and she was diagnosed with amoeba. We have had some long nights with a lot of itching and lot of visits to the potty… and mommy and daddy taking turns camping out in the girls’ room.

We had a fun fall party on Monday... can you see Ryley's swollen lips? She insisted on participating despite her itching. Camryn was a bit out of sorts that day and came down with amoeba that night. My poor little crayons!

Ryley’s hives are all cleared up now- praise God. Camryn is still struggling. She is on medication for the amoeba, but she is still having a lot of stomach pain and is not eating or drinking much… although we are trying! Both girls seem to be fighting a cold off at the same time- and Ryley’s ear began to throb last night.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I decided to get out my one and only Thanksgiving decoration this week… a metal sign saying “Give Thanks”. Seeing that sign throughout the week has been a reminder to me to keep coming before the Lord with my heart and my tiredness and give thanks anyway… sometimes as an act of my will, because it’s hard to feel thankful and keep my focus right when I’m exhausted. A thankful heart is a full and grateful heart… a heart that can keep going with God’s strength… even in trying weeks like these when my mommy heart is hurting for my kids. Thank you God, for all you’ve given me… and please help me to keep thanking you in weeks like these… and when I fail – to start over again.

Praise & Prayer

- Please pray for little Camryn- that the amoeba meds would kick in SOON and that her tummy pain and diarrhea would stop. She also has a runny nose and a cold

- Please pray for Ryley too… she is fighting a cold and an ear infection. We are so grateful that her hives cleared up. We’re still not sure what causes her hives (she breaks out every few months…)- we are considering having some allergy testing done.

- We are praising the Lord that Joel’s checkout on his 2nd airstrip here went well. He had 2 great flights there this week.

- Our silly cat (Clarice) has decided that the neighbors’ roof is her second home. It’s given us opportunities to visit their house and get to know them a bit more. Sort of a blessing in disguise. Please pray that we can be a light in their lives.

Davis Photo Journal

Take a trip to the Philippines with us through our Photo Journal emails.

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We are still alive!! It’s been 2 months since our last update and we didn’t even notice. We have been busy!

Here is a quick update on the Davises!

- Joel is flying regularly now to one of our airstrips. This coming week, he will be getting “checked out” on the next ones. In just a couple of weeks, he will be trained on them all and carrying out all operational flights for NTMA on Mindanao!

One of Joel's first operational flights. All his years of loading and unloading our car and making amazing amounts of STUFF fit just right has finally paid off! He fit a lot of cargo on this flight!

- I (Missy) have been learning how to do the bookkeeping for NTMA Mindanao. It’s been a long time since I’ve done so much math and I can feel my brain stretching! But it’s going well and I’m learning!

- After 3 months of being “in the dark”, our missionaries in the tribal locations finally have internet again! (It involved a technician taking a bus here from several hours away, then being flown into the tribal locations on our airplane!) This relieves a great deal of pressure on lots of the staff here, including us!! I (Missy) no longer need to get on the HF radio every morning at 6am to check on them and take messages, and be on “standby” for several hours a day. Now any messages are sent via email!  We are thanking God for technology even more than we already were!

Some kids playing on the airstrip while everyone is waiting for the internet technician to finish fixing the missionary's satellite dish. My favorite is the one standing on his head.

- Ryley… creative, sweet, smart, and funny!  She has started 1st grade! She is getting so big and responsible and we are so proud of her! Right now her favorite pastime is spraying our front porch with water and sliding across in her bathing suit!

Our silly, creative Ryley girl! She calls this her "sneaking hat". Apparently when she wears it, no one knows who she is. And she made a little door so she can still eat snacks while she is sneaking.

- Camryn… loving, mischievous, musical, and sweet as ever and doing a bit of preschool with mommy in between all of her antics- and hugs and kisses.  Both girls never stop singing, dancing…. and talking.

The girls like Mommy's bookkeeping job because they have time to do things they shouldn't!! One afternoon they found a red marker and made polka dots all over each other. Thankfully they wiped off easily... it was a dry erase marker.

- We have a new family member! Clarice the cat joined us a few weeks ago. Right now she is living in a utility room outside because she is terrified of our dogs!

Meet Clarice.

Praise & Prayer

- Praising God that our missionaries all have their internet up and working again!

- Please pray for safety as Joel continues his flight checkout.

- Praising God for a good start to Ryley’s 1st grade homeschool year. She is using a video curriculum and she really likes it! It is a blessing because it allows me to do radios and work while she is doing school!

- Please pray for one of our tribes here that we fly to… they have a terrible, resistant strain of TB that is rampant there. Our co-workers are trying to teach them how to treat it so they can take care of themselves and that the help can be more wide-spread. Please pray that this strain will be contained.

- Our family is adjusting well to our town here on MIndanao! We are enjoying a “cool” climate (about 70-80 degrees usually) and are feeling more and more like this is home.

Davis Photo Journal

Take a trip to the Philippines with us through our Photo Journal emails.

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Last week I had my very first try at flight following! My job as a flight follower is to sit at the radio and answer when Joel calls during a flight. He lets me know when he arrives at certain checkpoints along his route, and when he takes off and lands. Thankfully Bailey (the other pilot wife) was listening on the radio at her house too, so I could call her when I needed help.

Joel has gotten his temporary pilots license here! Joel is flying now so he can build up the 10 hours of required flight time before he can have his Philippine check ride. After that he will get his official pilots license here, and then he will be able to start taking over the flights. We hope to take over the flight program by October. Pray for us, we are learning a lot of jobs right now!

We are hoping to get internet at our house tomorrow! After that hopefully you will hear from us a whole lot more!  We have been waiting for about 2 months for internet so we were VERY grateful when they said we were next on the list. They only have a certain amount of modems to give out, so we literally had to wait until someone canceled their contract.

Praise & Prayer

- Please pray for safety for Joel as he flies and learns all the new routes to the tribal areas here. His check ride will probably be next week- we will keep you posted!

- Please pray for our family as we continue to adjust to life here, that we would feel more and more comfortable and that we would stay healthy! We have had everything this month from colds and coughs to fevers and amoeba. Yuck!

- Pray for me (Missy) as I learn all the ins and outs of flight following. I’ll also be learning how to do some of the bookkeeping for the flight program.

Davis Photo Journal

Take a trip to the Philippines with us through our Photo Journal emails.

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Funeral procession in a tribe on Mindanao

By Joel

A few weeks ago, I was able to fly commercially from Manila to Mindanao – which is the island that will be our home when we return to the Philippines. I went to help get our belongings (which had been shipped a few days before) situated and in storage until we return from our furlough.

While I was on Mindanao, I had the opportunity to do some flying with the current pilot there – our friend Brian. It was a great experience to fly to a few different tribes that we service there- and to get a taste of the work there on Mindanao. When we return to the Philippines, I will be flying in and out of those tribal areas.

I got to experience the routine of a morning of flying… but some of our cargo was anything but routine.

Before I arrived on Mindanao, a young tribal girl – from a tribe that our missionaries work with – was flown out of her tribe and  into town to receive treatment for tuberculosis. Sadly, she passed away in the hospital there.

On our flight schedule two days later was the difficult job of returning her body to her family in the tribe. As hard as this was, it was with mixed emotions because I was informed by our missionaries there that this 16 year old girl had accepted the Lord as her Savior about 1 year ago due to the outreach of the growing tribal church there.  What an encouragement to know that this girl didn’t die without hope of a glorious eternal future!

That day we prepared the airplane for the trip into the tribe. Our morning was filled with challenging weather, low clouds, and wind – so we were about 2 hours delayed in taking off. When we finally landed, our missionary there told us that he was discussing with his tribal “brothers and sisters” why God would have us delayed in coming.  We were all thinking that it was so that the wet airstrip, which can be dangerously slippery, would have time to dry out to make our landing safer.

But the tribal believers decided that God had given them 2 hours of opportunity to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with the parents of the young girl we were delivering, so that is what they did.  Her parents are not yet believers, and it was so awesome to hear the perspective of our tribal brothers and sisters. We have so much we can learn from their God-focused perspective, which is void of the distractions we often get entangled by. We were worried about the logistics of the flight… the bad weather, being delayed in our arrival time.  But their first thought was, “How can God use us while we wait?”.

We found out later that this gesture of bringing her body back was quite a testimony to her parents. They have since started attending the church, and are eager to learn more about this Savior that their daughter knew and trusted completely with her eternal future.  Pray with us that God will again use this tragedy for His Glory and draw her parents and many others to the Cross.

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Praise & Prayer
- Please pray for this young girl's family in their time of grief.
Pray with us that they will come to know the Lord as she did.

- We had such a great Christmas - with our families in Florida and Georgia!
We even had some snow in Georgia, which was a fun surprise for our girls (and us)!

- Pray for a good time here in the States with our family, friends, and supporters...
that we can be an encouragement to those around us during our time here
as we share what God is doing in the Philippines.