Holly Baptist Church

 

A group of 7 from my church in Corinth, Holly Baptist, came to visit us! The above picture is their first morning here before we went to church. 

Pictures are a lot more fun than reading, so see their week below :)

 

We packed groceries for families we planned to visit throughout the week. 

 

LOTS of groceries! 

  

We spent time praying over each day with a group of local believers. 

 

They loved riding on top of the Jeepney! 

 

We got to share views like this with them. 

 

I got to reunite with some women I visited several months ago.

 

We taught Bible stories in some elementary schools. 

 

We taught about Jesus and the lame man, Daniel in the lions' den, Zacheus, and God's plan of salvation.

 

 

We did lots of crafts. 

 

Both inside and out. 

 

We sang songs. 

 

As you can see...the kids loved it! 

 

We had the help of some great translators! 

 

They sang Amazing Grace for a group of families. 

 

And shared scripture to encourage them. 

 

"Pastor John" was able to connect with and train some of the local pastors. 

And aside from ministry...

 

We took them to see the largest balete tree in SE Asia! 

 

They learned to love the game of fast scrabble! 

 

We had a nice and tight ride in the Jeepney...all 22 of us...and it only broke down 3 times :) 

 

We got to share the beautiful falls with them on our day off. 

 

We even had a spa. 

 

Hammock time 

 

Ruben took the group up to the highest point. 

 

So refreshing on a hot day. 

 

Creighton, Mrs. Jessica, and Chassey

  

Turkeys are hard to come by here, so we opted for a whole pig instead :) 

 

To go with this DELICIOUS Thanksgiving food. I can't tell you what a blessing this was to our Mississippi taste buds :)

 

 

We pretended we were at the Egg Bowl on our lunch break. Go Dawgs! 

 

And we had a Filipino potluck on their last night. Looks a little different than our Thanksgiving food, right? 

 

 

We were humbled and blessed by so many of you who sent gifts for our sweet boy. Thank you!! 

 The week with our friends from home was incredibly encouraging to us. Thank you guys for coming. Thanks to everyone who supported them financially or through prayer. Thanks to their families for sharing them with us over the holiday. 

The ministry here was spurred on by the work of the team and we pray they all went home forever changed as well. 

And for anyone else thinking about coming for a visit, the doors are always open! 

With two typhoons since we've been back in the Philippines, there's been a lot of rain. And pretty much everything in the province gets called off when there's rain. So this has provided a good bit of down time for us. Many days it seems like a blessing. Some days we get a little stir-crazy. But God has been so loving and faithful in the past 2 months. We've been able to rest between trips to Manila. We've been working to prepare our home for visitors and a new baby. We've had time to cultivate our marriage and spend time in God's Word. We've enjoyed building and deepening some relationships here over scrabble games and waiting out the rain together with people. And sometimes, the rain holds off, and we get to spend an afternoon with these cute kiddos. 

  For those who haven't heard, Baby Boren is a BOY! We're thrilled. The kids have been 'betting' the gender of the baby since we told them we were expecting. They've even given names such as Ashley for a girl and Angelo for a boy :) So we got them to help us announce to everyone that he's a boy. They didn't know what they were spelling with their bodies in the above picture. We just told them it was a surprise then showed them the picture afterward. (I realize it's a bit hard to read, but you have no idea how many tries it took Josh to get this one. They are wiggleworms!) The boys were pumped that it's a boy. The girls are still coping :)  

 We had a great check-up this month. Both baby and I are healthy and growing well. Josh has been SO supportive in this pregnancy...helping me around the house, keeping me accountable to eat well, taking me to the prenatal clinic, praying with me over our child, etc.  I am thankful to be blessed with him as a partner. And this baby is one blessed boy to have him as a dad.

 I can't get over how sweet this picture is. His little face and hands are so cute.

Thank you for your many prayers for our growing family. We need them. 

Please continue to pray for us and for the ministry going on here. Pray for the above kids as we just told the story of Jesus' betrayal. The mission team will tell the story of His crucifixion next week. PRAY as a couple of the older girls are hanging on every word about Jesus. Pray God would save them and use them to lead their families to Christ. 

As for the mission team, a group from my church in Corinth- Holly Baptist- is coming to visit next week! Josh and I came to Manila today and we pick them up from the airport tomorrow night! We are so excited to have them here. Their willingness to come is a huge encouragement to us. Pray for safe travels, good health, and spiritual discernment while they are here. I can't wait to share with you how the week goes!

Lastly, many of you have sent word of your interest to get involved in the relief of Typhoon Haiyan. We are praying through opportunities on how to serve and will let you know how to be a part of that as soon as possible. We want to be effective and wise about how we reach out, which can be difficult in such a catastrophic event. Thank you for praying for the affected Filipinos while we sort through things here.

Visa Update

SUNDAY
We made the physically taxing bus ride to Manila to finish up our visa extensions. Bus rides from the province to the city are no joke. The rugged, crooked, mountainous road is full of surprises. There is one 'executive line' that drives through the night, curtains closed and I usually sleep right through it. However, this isn't always an option and it's a good deal more expensive than the ordinary buses. Because we were traveling right after All Souls Day when everyone was going back to their homes, the executive line was fully booked so we got seats on a bus the next level down. I really can't complain about the bus itself; everyone has their own personal seat and there is air-con (we've had our fair share of buses that lack both of these). But the ride is tiring nonetheless, especially when you're 25 weeks pregnant. I literally had a bruise on my arm when we got to Manila from pressing into the window sill every time we made a turn. But bruises or no bruises, we made it to Manila 9 hours later and were thankful for a safe ride that provided lots of bathroom stops. I was also thankful for these beautiful views to occupy my attention around those curves. Such a beautiful country.

MONDAY
We spent Monday at the Bureau of Immigration. 

 

All 3 of us :) 

We went from window to window obtaining signatures until we finally made it to the end. We were given an appointment for a hearing with an attorney at the end of the week and we were sent on our way. We did meet some interesting people though and Josh made the comment that Immigration is somewhat like Heaven- there are people from what seems like every nation and tribe. That's about the only thing that I would dare compare to Heaven in that place :)

TUESDAY
We made plans to make the most of our time in Manila and do all the fun touristy things. We were booking our reservations to go on a tour of Corrigedor Island/Fort which holds tons of interesting WWII history and includes a ferry ride and lunch. Fun! Except preggos aren't allowed. Boo. But it ended up raining the whole day anyways so we roamed around a mall, looked in baby stores, and enjoyed a coffee & cake date as we planned all the details for the mission team coming to visit us in a couple weeks.

WEDNESDAY
No rain today but the heat was unbearable. So our trip to the park was also replaced with lunch in a mall ha. And we got the bus tickets for the team since we can't make reservations from the province. Don't worry Holly Team, we got the executive bus line. We'll sleep right through it!

THURSDAY
The big day. We arrived early for our hearing and it went as smoothly as it possibly could have. We answered some questions and gave a resume of what we've done in the past year and that was it! No fingerprints, no pictures, no standing in line. It was such a blessing. Especially as we were racing the biggest typhoon in history! We wanted to get back to the province before the rain set in. Rain can mean mudslides and we didn't want to get caught in that. Praise God we made the whole ride back with not even a drop of rain.

FRIDAY
Today we've rested up and cleaned the house and listened to the rain and winds. It's been quite relaxing. However, that is not the case for most of the Philippines south of us. As Typhoon Yolanda (the Philippine name) made landfall, she brought much damage with her. Please pray for the nation as recovery from this storm will likely be long and difficult. Pray for the church to know how to respond.

So now you've seen our week at a glance. Thanks for praying for our visa process. We're very thankful to be done so quickly. And thank you for praying for the storm.