September Prayer Letter
(see bottom of letter for pictures)
Hello from the very rainy Philippine Islands. We have been back now for about a month and are still trying to settle in! Thank you all so much for your prayers as we traveled back. The flight back was SO much better as the kids were able to get some sleep on that long 12 hour flight to Hong Kong. Thank you also for your patience for us writing an update, we feel like life is going 100MPH and we are just holding on trying to keep up the pace.
Our time in the States was great. It was so nice to see our family, (old and new members!) friends, and supporters. We were so blessed by people who gave of their time, houses, cars, etc- while we were back. It’s not always easy coming back to no car and no house but we felt that God provided all that we needed through His people and even some that we didn’t know.
We were only in the States for a short 2 months (that seemed to fly by) and are sorry that we did not get to see more of you guys. We did have a chance to visit different churches almost every Sunday though and share a little bit about what we have been doing here in the Philippines.
Speaking of the Philippines- we are as excited as ever to get back and be in full swing of ministry now. This really is the first time that we can fully concentrate on what we felt called to do here. Before was language school, having a baby, recovery, moving, working on paperwork back to the States, then our trip home. Now that we have all that taken care of, we are excited how God will use us here. Not saying that He has not been using us and teaching us things that we needed all along but especially Gilmer, feels excited to start working full-time with the youth and other things that are a real need here.
Just to give you a quick glance. We were able to hold our first ever (in this church) High School youth program last Friday night. We had about 35 youth and for many it was their first time in church. Three of them even accepted Christ for the first time. Also during the week Gilmer will be teaching Bible in the public schools. This program is called VOICE (Values Orientation In Classroom Education), then in the evenings also being involved in teaching some Bible Studies. I, besides taking care of my kids, am organizing our Women’s Fellowship and helping Gilmer with the youth when I can.
Kids Korner
The kids are doing fine, they were excited to be “home” and see all their toys and pets. Nhaya started 1st grade right when we got back, she likes it but is having some trouble socially- making friends and things. She does great with the academic part though and is having fun learning to paint and do crafts. The other Filipino schools don’t do much of that- and this is a missionary school so they have an American curriculum.
Caleb is home with me and Josiah and is trying to learn his ABC’s, which he has absolutely no desire to do! Playing in mud and getting dirty is his joy.
Josiah is now almost 9 months and is still such a good baby. He is just now learning to crawl and has the inchworm move mastered. He has 4 teeth now and loves to play with his older brother and sister.
We also have 9 puppies (who can go under this section since they are as much work as kids) and we have been busy taking care of them since we got home. Now we just need to find good homes for them- which is hard to do here. The rest of the world does not seem to have the same idea about pets as Westerners (which includes Americans) have.
I would love to just write all that we have been doing and make this prayer letter 4 pages long but this is already way over due and I know many of you are so busy that 4 pages might not ever get read. So to keep it short I will go right into our prayer and praises-
Praises-For a safe trip to and from the States. We had a great time and were so blessed by those we were able to see.
-For all the youth that came last Friday, especially the 3 that accepted Christ. We also have some great help from our College Group that seem to have a heart to reach the High School.
-That the kids are doing well and getting adjusted to the new (yet again) schedule. Also that we were able to find Nhaya a good school to go to. You can check it out if you want, here is the link http://www.christianacademybaguio.org/home
Prayer Requests-Gilmer and Nhaya are sick right now. Please pray for them to get better soon and that the rest of the family will not get sick. It has been raining and cold since we arrived and that doesn’t help all the sicknesses going around. We have not seen the sun for 4 days in a row! We have had 9 typhoons (hurricanes) so far this year and usually the season does not end until October.
-Nhaya to make some friends at school and do better socially.
-The Youth work and also our Women’s ministry, along with Gilmer’s VOCIE program in the schools.
-SEND International has made some changes to their Purpose Statement and we went down to Manila last weekend to have a meeting on what that means for our field. We have a conference in October and will discuss it more. But please pray for wisdom and guidance for all as we strive to follow where we feel the Lord is leading us.
-Please pray for more supporters, those of you who do support- THANK YOU. We know that times are tough in the States right now and that also seems to be affecting what people can continue to give. We were able to share with some new people while we were back so Lord willing maybe some feel called to partner with us to reach the Filipinos.
-My sister Jessica seems to be in some really bad trouble (of her own making) right now and could use our prayers.
Thank you all so much for reading our update and keeping us in your prayers. We surely need them here on the front line of so many of Satan’s strongholds. Next time I will write about some Filipino experiences and culture so you can get a better idea of what we deal with everyday. We would love to hear from you also so please don’t hesitate to let us know how we can pray for you too!
Love to all of you,
The Paden’s
(Gilmer, Julie, Nhaya, Caleb, and Josiah)
P.S. Just looking at our last post I feel like I need to tell those of who don’t know, how we got back into the States… We were very nervous going, thinking that maybe they could stop us or send Gilmer back to the Philippines if they didn’t except our explanation, etc. Well, praise God that we did get back ok. The flight was awful since they separated us on the long 12 hour flight, but we survived to be held in immigration at LAX (in California) for 3 hours (which made us miss our next flight to Tucson). We didn’t write about it when we got to the States because we were so frustrated and didn’t want to come across to strong. Let’s just say we have never been treated as badly as we were during those 3 hours and hope that we never will again. They were not even willing to let either one of us finish a sentence let alone explain what happened. Then when it was all said and done all they could have done was give us a fine, which they ended up waving anyways. All this to say that now Gilmer will need to make a quick trip back to the States again next year, so this same thing will not happen again and we will not have trouble obtaining his citizenship in 2 years when we are home for our home service. Again we do praise God for not more trouble than we had, we were expecting the worst just to be prepared. Thank you all for praying for us during that stressful and uncertain time.
Since a picture is worth a 1,000 words- here are just a few from our trip.
Yeah, we were able to celebrate the 4th of July with family and friends and see some fireworks.
Nhaya and Caleb were so excited to spend some time with their cousins. These are two of the four.
Nhaya was also able to have a princess birthday party with some of her friends.
We took a family vacation to the Grand Canyon.
It was so nice to be there for my Grandma's birthday.
With My sister Aimee and her family in Colorado
Girls night out.
My sister Shawna and her daughter Autumn
My parents, at the airport as we are getting ready to leave.
Now a few since being back in the Philippines
The 9 puppies that we came home to. Cute but a ton of work.
This is the new work to expand our church building. We are out growing it!
One of the classrooms that Gilmer is working in teaching the Bible.
Our first High School meeting. Gilmer is in the back just hard to see.
This is the team of people we work with at the church (CBCF- Cordillera Bible Christian Fellowship). There are 5 missionaries, including us, plus members of the church.
Hello from the very rainy Philippine Islands. We have been back now for about a month and are still trying to settle in! Thank you all so much for your prayers as we traveled back. The flight back was SO much better as the kids were able to get some sleep on that long 12 hour flight to Hong Kong. Thank you also for your patience for us writing an update, we feel like life is going 100MPH and we are just holding on trying to keep up the pace.
Our time in the States was great. It was so nice to see our family, (old and new members!) friends, and supporters. We were so blessed by people who gave of their time, houses, cars, etc- while we were back. It’s not always easy coming back to no car and no house but we felt that God provided all that we needed through His people and even some that we didn’t know.
We were only in the States for a short 2 months (that seemed to fly by) and are sorry that we did not get to see more of you guys. We did have a chance to visit different churches almost every Sunday though and share a little bit about what we have been doing here in the Philippines.
Speaking of the Philippines- we are as excited as ever to get back and be in full swing of ministry now. This really is the first time that we can fully concentrate on what we felt called to do here. Before was language school, having a baby, recovery, moving, working on paperwork back to the States, then our trip home. Now that we have all that taken care of, we are excited how God will use us here. Not saying that He has not been using us and teaching us things that we needed all along but especially Gilmer, feels excited to start working full-time with the youth and other things that are a real need here.
Just to give you a quick glance. We were able to hold our first ever (in this church) High School youth program last Friday night. We had about 35 youth and for many it was their first time in church. Three of them even accepted Christ for the first time. Also during the week Gilmer will be teaching Bible in the public schools. This program is called VOICE (Values Orientation In Classroom Education), then in the evenings also being involved in teaching some Bible Studies. I, besides taking care of my kids, am organizing our Women’s Fellowship and helping Gilmer with the youth when I can.
Kids Korner
The kids are doing fine, they were excited to be “home” and see all their toys and pets. Nhaya started 1st grade right when we got back, she likes it but is having some trouble socially- making friends and things. She does great with the academic part though and is having fun learning to paint and do crafts. The other Filipino schools don’t do much of that- and this is a missionary school so they have an American curriculum.
Caleb is home with me and Josiah and is trying to learn his ABC’s, which he has absolutely no desire to do! Playing in mud and getting dirty is his joy.
Josiah is now almost 9 months and is still such a good baby. He is just now learning to crawl and has the inchworm move mastered. He has 4 teeth now and loves to play with his older brother and sister.
We also have 9 puppies (who can go under this section since they are as much work as kids) and we have been busy taking care of them since we got home. Now we just need to find good homes for them- which is hard to do here. The rest of the world does not seem to have the same idea about pets as Westerners (which includes Americans) have.
I would love to just write all that we have been doing and make this prayer letter 4 pages long but this is already way over due and I know many of you are so busy that 4 pages might not ever get read. So to keep it short I will go right into our prayer and praises-
Praises-For a safe trip to and from the States. We had a great time and were so blessed by those we were able to see.
-For all the youth that came last Friday, especially the 3 that accepted Christ. We also have some great help from our College Group that seem to have a heart to reach the High School.
-That the kids are doing well and getting adjusted to the new (yet again) schedule. Also that we were able to find Nhaya a good school to go to. You can check it out if you want, here is the link http://www.christianacademybaguio.org/home
Prayer Requests-Gilmer and Nhaya are sick right now. Please pray for them to get better soon and that the rest of the family will not get sick. It has been raining and cold since we arrived and that doesn’t help all the sicknesses going around. We have not seen the sun for 4 days in a row! We have had 9 typhoons (hurricanes) so far this year and usually the season does not end until October.
-Nhaya to make some friends at school and do better socially.
-The Youth work and also our Women’s ministry, along with Gilmer’s VOCIE program in the schools.
-SEND International has made some changes to their Purpose Statement and we went down to Manila last weekend to have a meeting on what that means for our field. We have a conference in October and will discuss it more. But please pray for wisdom and guidance for all as we strive to follow where we feel the Lord is leading us.
-Please pray for more supporters, those of you who do support- THANK YOU. We know that times are tough in the States right now and that also seems to be affecting what people can continue to give. We were able to share with some new people while we were back so Lord willing maybe some feel called to partner with us to reach the Filipinos.
-My sister Jessica seems to be in some really bad trouble (of her own making) right now and could use our prayers.
Thank you all so much for reading our update and keeping us in your prayers. We surely need them here on the front line of so many of Satan’s strongholds. Next time I will write about some Filipino experiences and culture so you can get a better idea of what we deal with everyday. We would love to hear from you also so please don’t hesitate to let us know how we can pray for you too!
Love to all of you,
The Paden’s
(Gilmer, Julie, Nhaya, Caleb, and Josiah)
P.S. Just looking at our last post I feel like I need to tell those of who don’t know, how we got back into the States… We were very nervous going, thinking that maybe they could stop us or send Gilmer back to the Philippines if they didn’t except our explanation, etc. Well, praise God that we did get back ok. The flight was awful since they separated us on the long 12 hour flight, but we survived to be held in immigration at LAX (in California) for 3 hours (which made us miss our next flight to Tucson). We didn’t write about it when we got to the States because we were so frustrated and didn’t want to come across to strong. Let’s just say we have never been treated as badly as we were during those 3 hours and hope that we never will again. They were not even willing to let either one of us finish a sentence let alone explain what happened. Then when it was all said and done all they could have done was give us a fine, which they ended up waving anyways. All this to say that now Gilmer will need to make a quick trip back to the States again next year, so this same thing will not happen again and we will not have trouble obtaining his citizenship in 2 years when we are home for our home service. Again we do praise God for not more trouble than we had, we were expecting the worst just to be prepared. Thank you all for praying for us during that stressful and uncertain time.
Since a picture is worth a 1,000 words- here are just a few from our trip.
Yeah, we were able to celebrate the 4th of July with family and friends and see some fireworks.
Nhaya and Caleb were so excited to spend some time with their cousins. These are two of the four.
Nhaya was also able to have a princess birthday party with some of her friends.
We took a family vacation to the Grand Canyon.
It was so nice to be there for my Grandma's birthday.
With My sister Aimee and her family in Colorado
Girls night out.
My sister Shawna and her daughter Autumn
My parents, at the airport as we are getting ready to leave.
Now a few since being back in the Philippines
The 9 puppies that we came home to. Cute but a ton of work.
This is the new work to expand our church building. We are out growing it!
One of the classrooms that Gilmer is working in teaching the Bible.
Our first High School meeting. Gilmer is in the back just hard to see.
This is the team of people we work with at the church (CBCF- Cordillera Bible Christian Fellowship). There are 5 missionaries, including us, plus members of the church.
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