Baguio City

Hey everyone, We just returned from our first road trip in the Philippines. And boy was it a road trip! We took what is called the Lizardo bus on an 8 hour trip through the mountains. Josh rode beside a couple of chickens and the little girl across from us vomited twice. Without further description, it was a ride to remember!

 The reason for our trip to Baguio was to get our 2 year missionary visas processed. (Praise God we live in a country that accepts missionaries and will allow a visa specifically for us. It's highly unusual that another country would welcome Christian missionaries.) But the immigration office in Baguio informed us that they do not process missionary visas- only student visas and visa extensions. Plus, we were lacking a few documents from the officials in Maria Aurora. So getting our visas now requires a trip to Manilla. However, the trip to Baguio was not wasted. We got to see some of the beautiful mountains of the Philippines, take a couple hot showers, meet Barry & Lilia's son Dylan who is going to college there, and most of all, meet Sam.

Sam is a Korean native who moved from New York as a missionary to the Philippines. He lives at the seminary where we stayed and we randomly walked into him on the patio one night. But we soon learned it wasn't random at all. The Lord had prepared a divine encounter for us. Sam is passionate about the Lord and about making disciples. He was quick to share with us about a new method he has learned called Discovery Bible Study method. See, this was a big deal for us because we also learned DBS in our last couple months of training in Nashville. And we've been praying fervently about what our role is here in Aurora and whether or not it involves Discovery Bible Study. We know our main role here is to disciple some of the young leaders into reaching their own neighbors and we have been thinking that DBS would be a very effective way to train them as it obedience based and relies heavily on the Holy Spirit and not us. 

Please join us in praying for the Lord's guidance over our role here. Pray also for the process of getting our visas as we have less than two months before our short-term visas expire.

 I didn't take my camera to Baguio, but enjoy some pictures of the days prior to the trip..

The group of local pastors and leaders around the province

Jesus Died To Redeem The World

One of the largest trees in all of Asia

Burning the rice fields

Slink..Monica's neighbor

Toads in the Philippines are poisonous

Josh carving his snake stick

Slug..Not slugburger haha

Just a little insight into the Tagalog language.

As you can see from the photos, I am intrigued by the animal species here! And I'm not as close as these pictures may seem. Josh takes all the wildlife photos for me haha. Thanks to everyone who supports us and prays for us. We are so grateful for a community of believers to encourage us during our time here. Blessings!