Youth Camp

Time is quickly slipping away as we finish our part in God's work here in Baguio. In the past week, we have been involved in a lot of really rewarding ministry. The major event of last week was the 48 hour youth camp, held here at our house. We had around 25 youth and Tejal did a great job at directing the activities. The two days were filled with games, a movie (Narnia), a day of soccer and Capture the Flag at Camp John Hay, a banquet, worship, and 4 sessions with different speakers. Ashley really connected with the kids as she told them about the creation account and the greatness of God, as well as the fall. I was able to basically summarize the Old Testament (or at least try) and talk about how Jesus fulfilled the law and came to bring us back into relationship with God. I think the youth had a lot of fun and were able to learn a lot from all of the teachers, which also included Ate Evelyn, Tejal, and Shown.

Youth Camp!

Playing soccer at Camp John Hay

Worship Night at Youth Camp

Banquet

Ashley busting out the Hebrew for her talk. Awesome.

It was really great to spend time hanging out with a diverse group of youth, some of whom are familiar church kids while others were from Pastor Sam and Ate Evelyn's Alternative Learning System (ALS) class who were unfamiliar with the gospel. We saw this really pay off when one of the ALS students who was at the camp brought six of his friends to youth fellowship on Sunday. Ate Evelyn was able to present the gospel to them all and several of them appeared to accept the message and invite Jesus to forgive their sins. Pray that this decision would be real and lasting and that they would continue to grow in their understanding of the gospel and that God would work in their lives to bring them closer to Him. Praise God!



The day after youth camp ended, the church had a day of baptism. We travelled with around 40 people to the Asin Hot Springs about an hour out of the city. To fit everyone in the truck we were able to borrow, some of us sat on top of the truck, which was quite the experience.  At one point, with my head turned to the side, I got smoked in the head by a tree branch (don't worry, I'm ok), and on the way back, it started pouring on us. All part of the adventure of missions!

Transportation is so much more fun here!

Eight people, representing all age groups, were baptized Saturday morning. Pastor Sam asked Jonas and I do do the baptizing, so we were blessed with the opportunity to baptize these people. It was amazing to be a part of the decisions that they were making to follow the Lord and publicly declare their faith.

Baptizing Allan, one of the youth we have gotten to know

Jonas and I with those who were baptized

Since we were already at the pool, everyone had fun swimming, eating, and fellowshipping. On a side note, I noticed that a group near ours seemed to be preparing meat. Through closer inspection, I realized that they were butchering a dog.... on the table... by the pool. And it was very obvious it was a dog. I asked Pastor Sam about it later, and he said it is fairly common for people in the area to cook and eat dog while drinking. I was almost tempted to ask them if I could try some. Almost.


To top of a crazy five days, our team visited the Bibak Bible Church again on Sunday (the church where Ashley's grandparents went several decades ago). They asked us to sing a song, share (Tejal gave her testimony), and preach! So I was able to preach a sermon on David and Goliath. I preached a similar sermon a couple of weeks ago at the Balacbac Church, but this was the first time I was able to preach without a translator. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and people seemed to be really encouraged by it. I talked about how David needed to trust fully in God and not in his own abilities to face Goliath, and we should have the same attitude in our own lives, since "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Phil 4:13). I felt like I needed to hear this message for myself as well, since I needed to trust God to speak his own words through me rather than relying on my own abilities as a speaker.

Currently, we are busy preparing for our upcoming evangelistic concert on Saturday. We have been practicing for a few weeks now, and this week that is basically all we are doing. I am mainly playing electric guitar, which is new for me, but I am enjoying the challenge and we are starting to sound pretty good as a band. I'm quite certain that I have never played this much music in my life! It's pretty great.


Yesterday, we were able to perform a couple of our songs at a Baguio prayer meeting/concert, which was held at a really old, once abandoned hotel. It was a good time. We even met some fellow short-term mission participants based out of an Austrailan YWAM.

The historic building

I feel like this would make a good paintball location

Please pray for energy, musical togetherness, and healthy voices as we prepare for Saturday's concert. Most of all, pray that God would bring people to him through this ministry. Only nine days left here before we fly back to Abbotsford for debrief. It will be hard to leave!

Again, thank-you for your prayer and support! God bless.

Three more weeks!

It is difficult to imagine that in less than three weeks, we will be back in Canada for debrief. I am sure that this time will fly by, as there is a lot going on before we leave. From Wednesday to Friday this week, we are hosting a youth camp and we are all really excited for it. There will be youth from the Balacbac and Ambiong churches, as well as some ALS students, many of whom don't know the Lord yet. This should be a really good opportunity to reach out and bring these youth closer to God. Pray that the details of this event will come together, that the kids will really enjoy it, and most importantly that their relationships with God will be formed or strengthened.

I had the opportunity to preach in the Balacbac church last week about David's heart for following God. Next week, I will be preaching the same sermon in two different churches, which I am excited about.

Last week, we had our fourth and final VBS, here at our house in Dontogan. It was the first VBS hosted here, and we weren't sure how many kids to expect, especially when we found out that there were three other VBS's going on in the community in the same week! The previous week, we had walked through the neighbourhood with Ate Evelyn and invited families to send their kids to VBS. This seemed to pay off, as we had over 50 kids attend the VBS! It was fun, but tiring, especially since it was our fourth VBS in under two months. We are hoping that God will use this VBS as a starting point for a church plant in the house here. Pray that parents of the kids who attended will be drawn to the Bible studies that Ate Evelyn is offering.

Inviting kids to VBS in the fog

Playing with the VBS kids

We put on a midget puppet show to tell the Bible story one day

My awesome class

We have also begun practicing for the evangelistic concerts we will be holding on May 25 and 26. It has already been a huge blessing to make music with some very talented  people. The band consists of Ate Cha (or Charity, Pastor Sam's daughter) on vocals and keyboard, Grace (another daughter) on drums, Shown on bass, Kat (a good friend of the family) on vocals, Ashley on guitar, and me on guitar and vocals. I am playing electric guitar for a lot of the songs, which is a new, but fun, experience for me. We are practicing in the shed in the front yard, which is now officially converted into the music room. There is still a lot of practicing to do, and not much time to do it, so pray that God will bring us together as a band and that the songs we sing will be used to reach out to the people who come to the concerts.

Breaking in the new music room

In the last couple of weeks, we have really felt our relationships grow with the family here, which we are really excited about. It will be hard to leave, but we have been blessed to be able to serve with and learn from such amazing people. 

Waving goodbye to the kids after a prayer fellowship

The graduation/going away/belated birthday/early birthday party we threw for Shown/Ralph/Cha/Grace last week

"I'm a flying T-rex!"

That's all for now! Thanks for taking the time to read and pray. Your support means a lot!

Banaue!

From April 24th to the 27th, our team went to Banaue for our mid-term retreat. This was where Ashley's grandparents served as missionaries until 1988, and we were looking forward to meeting some of the people that knew her grandparents as well as seeing the famous rice terraces. We were definitely not disappointed. It was an amazing trip!

The drive there took 8 hours, despite being less than 200 km away. This was due to traveling through the windyest, mountainiest road ever. It was a very cool trip.

Caution: falling rocks

A few hours into the trip, at the highest road in the Philippines

In Bontoc, on the way to Banaue

While in Banue, we were able to meet a lot of great people who knew Ashley's grandparents. This is the hospital/clinic that they built 55 years ago.

The Good News Clinic

The first morning, we were invited to eat breakfast with the wife of the doctor that Ahsley's grandpa trained. She made a ridiculous amount of pancakes and told us we needed to eat all of them! I thought my 5 was a lot until Jonas ate 8! It was a blessing to receive the hospitality of the Banaue people. We also met a fellow Canadian from Hamilton who now lives in Banaue running an orphanage. We visited the orphanage and ate lunch with her, and it was great to see how God is using her in this community.

We happened to be in Banaue for a cultural parade/festival which we watched for a while. It was neat to see all of the Ifugao costumes.

The parade moving down the main street in Banaue

We were also able to see the Banaue Rice Terraces, which were absolutely incredible! Most of them were originally built over 2000 years ago, and have been maintained by hundreds of generations of Ifugao people. Each terrace is irrigated through a complex network of waterfalls and bamboo pipes flowing from the tops of the mountains. 

The main rice terraces of Banaue

One of the coolest adventures of my life began in the morning of our second day in Banaue, when Jonas and I decided to hike to Batad. People were telling us that no visit to Banaue was complete without going to Batad, but the girls all had colds and weren't feeling up to the 3 hour hike (or 1 hour or 5 hour... we weren't quite sure). 

So Pastor Sam drove Jonas, me, and our new friend Chester (also a friend of the Irvines) up the very sketchy mountain road (complete with landslides to navigate around) to Batad, or at least close to Batad. The village is not accessible by road, but you can get close by driving up an even sketchier mountain road to the top of a lookout and then hike down. Once we got to the junction, Pastor Sam attempted to climb the hill with his old Toyota Tamaraw but it quickly became apparent that the vehicle was not up to the task. As we got out to assess the situation, another truck pulled up behind us (see below). 

After a brief chat with the driver, Chester informed us that we would traveling the rest of the way in the back of this truck. So we hopped in the back, only to realize that the cargo was eight huge pigs! Apparently, there was to be a wedding in Batad in a couple of days, and it is tradition to kill and eat 12 pigs for a wedding, so we got to travel up the mountain with 2/3 of a wedding feast. We quickly learned how to push them away with our feet when they got too interested in us.

Oink!

Once we reached the top, we followed Chester down the mountain to Batad. Despite his age of 64, Jonas and I almost had to jog to keep up! When we finally reached Batad, one look at the village and mountainside affirmed that the trip was well worth it.

Chester rested at the viewpoint while we followed his friend, Romeo, on a tour through the townsite and terraces.

Imagine all of the work required to build and maintain these stone walls for over 2000 years. Incredible!

Romeo is probably the most awesome person ever

After stopping for lunch (pizza!) at a restaurant overlooking the terraces, we headed back up the mountain, where we met our pig friends a second time as they were carried down the path on poles. (It's safe to say that our trip to Batad was siginificantly better than the pigs'.) We eventually met up with Pastor Sam on the other side of the mountain, and thus ended our journey to the coolest place I have ever been.

So you are probably getting the picture by now that our trip to Banaue was really great. We were also able to meet as a team and discuss what we have been learning about ourselves, our team, the culture, and God. It was really good to dialogue about these things and refocus as we prepared to start our final month of ministry in Baguio.

This last week was spent in preparation for various events, especially the VBS that will start on Tuesday here at our house. We walked around the neighbourhood inviting children to come and we got the materials ready. We were also able to lead various youth events on the weekend as well as prayer fellowship today, since most of the young leaders that we work with were at a Christian Training Camp (CTC) for the last 2 weeks. We are gearing up for a busy last 4 weeks, with VBS, a youth camp, and evangelical concerts on the schedule.

I am also getting the opportunity to preach tomorrow at the church in Balacbac, which is really exciting. Jonas will preach in the afternoon in Ambiong, and we will switch the following week. Please pray for us, that the messages God has given us will make a difference in the lives of those in the congregation. For both of us, it is our first time preaching, and Jonas will be speaking in a language he only started learning five months ago! I will be talking about David, and why he was called a man after God's own heart. Pray also for the VBS here in Dontogan. This is the first one in this community, and we are hoping this ministry can be a springboard for a church plant here.

Thanks again for your support and prayers; they do not go unnoticed!