Summer Plans

We’re excited. Hannah will be here in a couple of days, along with her two college friends, Rebekah and Sarah. We’ve got a busy 3 weeks planned. During their first week, they will be involved in helping Blessings.ph pack school supplies for needy children. Then, they will travel to 2 places to help distribute them, share their testimonies, and participate in house church activities. They will spend two days and two nights in the mountains of Lambunao where we have several house churches and lots of needy families.

The following week we’ll be in three other locations, again helping distribute school supplies before the beginning of the school year, which starts in June. They will also be involved in a ministry to Iloilo City street children, and a ministry to special needs children. We’re planning one evangelistic trip into a remote village where one of my team members has recently opened a new house group. During their third week, they will be involved in two back-to-school fellowships for young people, and a two-day vacation to the island resort of Boracay.

After Rebekah and Sarah leave on June 10th, Hannah will stay until July 23. During that time, we’ll be having our company meeting in Indonesia for a week. On our way back to the Philippines, Hannah, Martha, Jonathan, and I will visit Singapore for a couple of days. We have reservations at a backpackers hostel near the downtown section of this island city. Singapore is an ultra-modern city boasting the world’s #1 rated airport, with hanging gardens and monorails connecting terminals.

Hannah and Martha will leave together on June 23rd, but Martha will be going on to India on a mission trip with other MK’s. Last year, both of them went on a similar mission trip to Tokyo, Japan. Martha is excited to experience Indian culture and have a chance to share the gospel in that challenging part of the world. Jonathan is going to be focused on studying his new computer books in preparation to take an entry-level computer certification exam in October in Manila, when Martha goes there to take her SAT college entrance exam.

So these will be the goings-on of our family here on this side of the globe for the coming months. Sara’s job has picked up the pace. She’s been helping me design a witnessing tool we hope to train our house churches to use. This weekend she’s traveling to Iowa with a friend. David continues to plug away at his job, occasionally going on hiking trips and outings with groups from his church. No girlfriend yet; says he’s not interested. I wonder if he will ever be. Both David and Sara, along with Hannah, will be traveling here to the Philippines this coming Christmas.

Martha and I were talking this evening about family. What a treat it is to grow up in a different land experiencing a variety of cultures. But it’s even a greater blessing to see the fruit of our efforts to make Christ the center of our family. My kids are certainly not perfect; their parents weren’t. But it’s rewarding to get to this point of life and see my kids making wise choices and involved in things that count for eternity. Jan would be (is) pleased.