It's GOOD to REMEMBER what the LORD HAS DONE...

When we take time to reflect over the past years of our lives we are so encouraged.

God has been very faithful to us as a family and to the ministry we have been involved with. Thank you Lord!

Can you remember way back to 1986 when we were regularly ministering in a poor fishing village in Laiya Batangas? Bringing Bible studies where there was no church, medical help where there was none, building toilets for groups of families to share where only the trees were available, showing the 'Jesus' movie over and over using a generator as there was no electricity, and co-ordinating many outreach teams for ministry to this place over a period of several years. You do remember? Well done! You are not so old after all!

Laiya Batangas Fishing Village

Well a few weeks ago as Mel was praying he felt impressed by the Lord to make a visit to this village and to bless the Pastor there. (Pastor Bernie and his wife left Manila 14 years ago to take over the work in Laiya. ) So Mel hopped into our car and drove the long 12 hours down to this village that we have not visited for the past 10 years!

Shekinah Christian Church and Laiya Aplaya Christian Academy.

The church has 50 regular church members who gather here through out the week and on Sundays for their services. The church also runs several outreach Bible Studies to other fishing villages nearby. The church doubles as a preschool throughout the day.

Pastor Bernie in front of one of the church member's beach cottages they have for rent.

With electricity available now many of the church members have the blessing of a small income due to the local tourists coming from Manila to enjoy the sea side.

The Church Manse- Pastor Bernies home.

Thankfully electricity is now available.

No lawns to mow here but plenty of sand to sweep!

The preschool classroom has two teachers and 50 students from 5-7 years of age studying throughout the week.

This month was the preschool's graduation and they needed a new stage for their presentation. Thanks to you who support us personally we were able to buy materials for a makeshift stage. Now that the graduation is over they will use the materials from the stage to extend the size of the classroom to allow more space for the students. This school as simple as it is has won many awards in the inter-school competitions.

See the school's trophies proudly displayed in the top righthand corner.

A little girl named Brenda (named after Brenda) with Nanay Tecla the old lady who opened her home to us while we were ministering there. Nanay Tecla continues to faithfully host Bible studies in the outside dining area of her home.

A church family who were recently with YWAM for training.(The husband was at work during the time of the picture taking ) The little boy is one of the preschool students.

Some of the church member's children.

A typical morning scene as they sweep the beach and check out the days 'catch'.

Getting their share of the fish from the net...10-20 fish each for breakfast!

It is always good to remember what the Lord has done!

Thank you for being a part of the on going ministry here in the Philippines we cannot do it without your help!

PANAGBENGA!

If you want to know why we have this huge cruise ship on our blog you will have to scroll down

(or even better read right through) to the end of this latest blog!

* THE PANAGBENGA Is Officially Over!

What do you do when 1.5 million tourists hit your city????....Well for us we prefer to stay at home!!!! According to local authorities this was the estimated number of Filipino Tourists here in Baguio for the 2008 Flower Festival. Annually in Baguio City February is a month of activities including parades with street dancers, flower floats, concerts, dance sports, plant, flower and landscaping competitions and various other events as well. The main street of Baguio City is closed off to traffic and wide open for street restaurants, and stores to sell every imaginable item. Meanwhile the rest of the city becomes crazy with very heavy traffic and in some areas a diminished supply of water. Honestly though we only manage to stay home and watch it on TV for a couple of days before we are out and about enjoying (?) the festivities with everyone else! So if you are ever in Baguio City during the month of February come and enjoy the Flower Festival or Panagbenga as it is known locally.

*The Freezing ……… Immersion!

‘Let you eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze directly before you. Make level paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.’ Proverbs 4:25-26

Do you remember we spent the second week of February in the city of ……. in ……… to celebrate our 50th birthdays and our 21st wedding anniversary? This was truly a wonderful gift from the Lord. However on arrival in ..........we were stunned with the chilliest airport on earth where no one spoke English .Finally we found an authentic ....... restaurant with heating (KFC ) where we sat, warmed up and prayed to the Lord. Soon after he miraculously led us out of that ice box airport into an icebox taxi and then to another icebox which came in the form of an affordable hotel. We had tried to book from the Philippines but this was the busiest time of year with the ........... New Year Celebration and hotels were quadrupling their room charges. So our plan was to just find a hotel and haggle a price on arrival armed with a computer printout of all the hotels in ….and their room charges.

But it was sooooooooooooooooooo cold for us with temperatures at 5.C- 12.C, no sunshine either to warm us or heating in our hotel or any other hotels in the city! The hot shower was a life saver and the order of the day and night. Thankfully we had brought some thermal underwear with us from our 1998 winter in NZ and if all else failed we went to bed under an icy cold duvet! So few .......... understood or spoke English. Once when I called room service for an extra blanket the hotel staff returned with a roll of toilet paper.....(No the paper was not thicker than usual) We certainly have improved on our charade skills. After a couple of days we bought some jackets, polo neck sweaters, scarves and gloves which we lived in for the whole week. We kind of know now what a cowboy in those old western movies feels like when they wear their clothes for months on end..... (If you have ever lived in the tropics you will know that we change our clothes pretty often.)

Each day we would get up and go to our 3 star hotel buffet breakfast (included in the room price) fully clothed for the elements including scarves, gloves, jackets, polo sweaters and join the many other hotel guests, all ........families who were also dressed the same as us . Here we could eat as much as we liked of the steamed vegetables such as mushrooms and celery, rice cooked in bamboo, peanut soup, eggs, ham, endless steamed rice cakes and tofu , lettuce on ice, hot drinking water or copious cups of tea or coffee! (Finally something is hot!) After breakfast we would return to our room and P..... over a Map of .........which has the same population as Manila (however the people are not freezing) but with the land area 40 times larger. We would plan out our day and then just walk everywhere.....or catch a bus for an hour and only spend twenty cents on the fare! We took in some tourist spots as well such as a Temple, with structures built in the Tang Dynasty over a thousand years ago, the ...... University with a lake in the middle of the campus, with manicured gardens all around. However our favorite part was out on the islet of G.......... (“Drum Wave Islet”). The ferry ride from downtown took a mere ten minutes. Once on the island it was lovely and quiet (apart from the thousands of local tourists chatting to each other) due to vehicles being forbidden on this islet. We took a stroll along the paved 4-kilometer ring road and the many other little streets and incredibly long tunnels that crisscrossed this fascinating place. Along the way amidst tropical gardens and colonial villas were shops selling dried meats, fish, fruits, tea sets and candies. The island’s main attraction is the Piano Museum, with nearly 100 antique pianos and as you walk you can hear recorded piano music playing.

However the highlight for us would have to be watching the thousands of C...... families making the most of this special yearly vacation!




Basically this trip for us was a visit to experience C..... with no outward agenda, except to feel and sense the reality of it all and to take some time out for ourselves. This was "Our 2008 Unique C........ Immersion Experience".



*JOANNA Joanna stayed behind this time while we were away and Naty Sumcad our co-worker and her two daughters Joanna's age came and stayed in the house with Joanna. They had such a good time and we are all planning to repeat this again! Right now Joanna has about three weeks of school before the year ends. She is well and ready for a change but is highly motivated with all her end of year projects. She mentioned this am that she may even take a few weeks of summer classed so she can be sure that she will graduate next March. One more year of high school for her and then she is finished. Her hopes are to do a DTS and then study to be a pre-school or elementary school teacher. Please pray for her!



*JONATHAN Jonathan called the other night to say he was at a Laundromat in Barbados washing his clothes!!......Here is an excerpt from his last e-mail to us….........'I was in Chicago last night and finally got to see some snow. I'm at a hotel in Atlanta at the moment waiting for a shuttle bus to pick me up. Have a flight to Miami in 2 hours. I'll be working on an NCL cruise ship. It’s called the Norwegian Jewel…. a huge ship. I'm the only fitness staff on it for this week. I will be joined by another girl from my London course early next week...so that means my first day of work is today Feb 18 at 9am. It’s quite funny because out of 42 fitness staff I was the first one to leave. Ha-ha, they literally pulled me out of class at 11:30 am and told me that I had to go and pack my bags because I had to be at the airport at 1pm. Totally unexpected.It’s great!........'



So presently he is cruising around the Caribbean running the gym on the Norwegian Jewel. If you are interested in a cruise on this ship just go to www.norwegianjewel.com (ha-ha)... Jonathan is on an eight month contract...he hope to visit us again after the contract is up.





If you have a moment drop us a line or two in the comments section of this blog....we would love to hear from you also! Your lives are interesting to us and we appreciate your friendship, love and support.