Padens in the Philippines

Dear Faithful Partners, WE MADE IT!!!!! For those of you who might not follow Facebook this might be news to you. We flew in on Thursday night late (Oct. 14th) here in the Philippines (Thurs. morning in the States). The flights went well and the kids did a great job! All our bags arrived safely and we have been trying to adjust to the time difference. The kids were waking up at 3am for a week thinking it was time to play! After less than 2 weeks here, we were already able to find a car and a possible house. That's very fast for Manila, considering it can usually take a month or more to find those things. We would like to thank all of you who have been praying for us. It has been a very busy time for our family and yet we have seen how God has taken care of all our needs and continues to bless us! Night out with the girls before we left! My sister Aimee from Colorado was also able to be there. Then there's my sister Shawna and my Mom (LaRee). One last lake trip with Nana and Pa...

Dear Family, Friends, and Supporters, Good news!!! We are 100% supported and have our tickets to go back to the Philippines! We fly out on October 13th. We are very excited to see this finally happening and we want to thank all of you for your support and prayers during our Home Service in the States this past year. We want to praise God that He has provided through His people even during this time of recession in our economy. It has been really nice being home for a while and we are going to dearly miss all our family and friends here in the States. I was talking to Nhaya and Caleb this morning and they were wondering if it’s ok to be sad and happy at the same time! I said. “Yes, because that’s how we all feel...” We will post more about our ministry in the Philippines when we get there and it starts to take shape better. For right now though be please be praying for all the adjustments coming and to get settled well. For more praises and prayer requests please see the side bar. I...

Ok, I know that many of you are very busy and don’t really have a lot of time to read a whole long update. So after talking to many of our friends and supporters I will attempt to do this blog with pictures. Everyone likes pictures and you can just read the captions and find out what’s going on for us. Let me know how you like it! Our first picture has to be of a historic event! This was Gilmer's first 4th of July as an American Citizen!!! He said he was very proud to be able to celebrate this holiday with a whole new meaning. Also in July Gilmer flew to San Diego to speak at some Filipino churches and see supporters. He drove over to Bakersfield on Sunday morning to preach at our supporting Filipino church there. On the 15th of July we left for our long 3 week plus road trip. Our first stop was to see my sister in Colorado Springs and to meet their newest addition to the family, Ellie! Here is Caleb with Aimee and Sam's son Noah. He's a proud new Big Brother! After leaving...

"I lift my eyes to the hills-where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth." Ps. 121: 1-2 “When are you guys leaving?” That’s the big question right now and the one we hear the most from anyone who knows about our journey. Unfortunately, the answer is that we don’t know for sure at this time. This is not only difficult for others to hear but it also makes planning nearly impossible. The reason we don’t have a definite time frame is because we need to be 100% supported before we can purchase plane tickets. The good news is that we are already at 84% of our monthly support and 40% of our outgoing need. For those of you who are visual people see the graph below. Our goal right now is be back in the Philippines, Lord willing, by the end of August so that we can have the kids start school on time. We would hate to transfer them in the middle of the year since we have already moved 5 times in 4 years. All we can do is trust that God will ...

Just another beautiful sunset in the desert. We haven't seen snow in over 3 years! The kids were so excited, that's Josiah's smile by-the-way. "Cheese!" The WHOLE family together! Priceless!!! Hi Everyone!!! Hope this last Christmas and New Years season was great! I know, that greeting is a little late but we are still trying to catch up from all the excitement and busyness during that time. Two of our kids birthdays are thrown in there as well as our Anniversary too!! Needless to say we are hoping things will slow done a little. Life continues to fly right on by as we prepare to head back to the Philippines, Lord willing, this summer. We have been doing a lot of speaking to small groups and churches. We were excited to share with a youth group this week about missions and the Philippines and we look forward to many more opportunities like that coming up soon. I guess this would be a good time remind you that if you would like us to come and share with a group you...