NTM - New Tribes Mission | Planting Tribal Churches

We just had a month off of classes that FLEW by. Way too fast, but I’m finding that’s the new normal. Everything just goes so fast! Partly it went so fast because we traveled a lot. First we went up north for a week away from Manila. It was so great. It was nice and cool, there were pretty pine trees and we got to wear longsleeves and drink hot chocolate without sweating We both kept saying “are we really still in the Philippines?” It’s hard to believe there’s weather like that here when we’re constantly roasting in Manila! Who knows…maybe someday we can live somewhere here like that! We’ll see  We got home the day before Christmas Eve and by the time Christmas Day rolled around I had pushed it too hard and was exhausted so I got sick Thankfully the next week we didn’t have a lot going on and I was able to just be home and rest.

One really fun thing we were able to do that week was deliver a bunch of super cute teddy bears a lady at our church made for some kids who live at a safe house for at risk women. The day after Christmas we took 11 bears down to the kids and they all loved it and our kids had a lot of fun handing them out too. Course when Alaena found out at first that she had to give them away she spent the afternoon in tears but she finally came around! I can understand, they were incredibly cute bears.

I started going here every week last May & June but when I got pregnant I wasn’t able to go very much any more because I was so sick and exhausted all the time! It took all I had just to get down to class and back everyday! I hadn’t seen a lot of these precious ladies for quite a few months so it was great to have a reason to go back and see how they’re all doing. I really hope I can keep visiting them in the time we have left here.

And yes….in that picture of Logan and the little girl, that is my baby belly But Logan was so cute in this I had to put it in. He had fun playing with the kids and warmed up after being pretty shy in the beginning. So after the quiet week of resting and handing out bears we left for ANOTHER week. This time going to our field conference.

We really enjoyed our time there. There were a lot of missionaries here we hadn’t been able to meet yet and some we knew that we haven’t been able to spend much time with lately. It was full of lots of good conversation, worship & fellowship. We had an amazing team come from one of our missionaries home churches and they put on a fantastic child care program for all our kids. Their pastor also gave messages every day that were so encouraging and refreshing. It was such a blessing and gave me all sorts of ideas for possibilities for our church one of these years *hint*hint*

The campground was so peaceful too and relaxing, nice cool temperatures (I’m starting to think it’s JUST Manila where it’s beastly hot in the Philippines!), lots of fun activities like swimming and tons of grass for the kids to run on. This picture is just the guys playing soccer but it gives you a nice feel for the place.  LOTS of coconut trees, grass and it had two porch swings! Didn’t realize I missed those  Just the fresh air alone was refreshing  I’m looking forward to many years of conferences ahead.

Thankfully we had one week of break left when we got home from conference. It was enough time for me to do some major “spring” cleaning, plan & prep homeschooling (at least until the baby comes), get ready for taxes and start to work on the 80+ thank you’s I am WAY behind one writing (SO sorry wonderful givers, we ARE thankful! Just slow in getting them out….) I got enough done before classes started that it’s not complete chaos now. The first day went well and I’m ready to do it all again tomorrow!