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!