Safely home…
We spent this last week making purchases and preparing to head into the village while fighting jet lag. Lance caught Laura’s cold and discovered the one good thing about having a cold and jet lag at the same time is that you sleep well at night when you take night time cold medication! 
Since the plane is down for repair, we got to go in overland. Brian Pruett, the pilot, was kind enough to offer to take us and our things in his 4-wheel drive vehicle. We left at 4a.m. and arrived at “the end of the road” at 10:00. There were quite a number of people there to help carry our cargo. What a blessing that was! We started hiking at 10:30 and arrived in the valley at 11:15. Praise God for clear weather and a safe arrival! We know many are praying for us!
Jennings had us over for lunch and this afternoon found us unpacking and putting things away. It’s after 5pm as we type this, evening is fast approaching and we’ll be ready for bed early – WE’RE BEAT! But before we sign off we have…
An urgent prayer request!!
We have received an urgent request from one of the church elders here in our village. His name is Sansuwa and it seems that his 16 year old daughter Dina has been abducted by a group under the guise of working. According to Dina in a phone conversation with her parents, she is just continually taken around by these people from city to city with a group of girls and lots of men look at them. It sounds very much like she is being used for striptease and possibly other things that she was too embarrassed to mention.
Apparently she was staying with a relative on the coast as a house help watching the kids and a man came in the night and she was told to go with him. The relatives say she just ran away which is very much out of character and she has pleaded with her parents on the phone to pray for her and help her get away from the people who have her.
It seems that the way they keep the girls trapped is to not give them any money or opportunity to get away. Being a tribal girl too she does not know her way around even the smallest coastal town let alone the cities where she is being taken.
Sansuwa has asked us to pray for him. He left for town today to meet with officials who have said they will help try and locate her. It sounds very much like the relative she was staying with actually arranged for her to join this group, so Sansuwa is going to first demand that the relatives help get her back and if not, then they will go to the authorities.
Please pray with us that the Lord will work this out for Dina to be freed from this situation and returned to her parents.
Thank you so much for your prayers for us and the Higaunon.
Secure in Christ’s love,
Lance & Laura
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the truck is loaded and we're ready to go - it's 4am!
Lance and Laura Ostman Helping to equip the Higaunon People of North Central Mindanao 
It’s harvest time here in the mountains and people are busy bringing rice in from their fields!
