Padens in the Philippines

Dear Friends, “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plan to give you a hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:11-12 We have been thinking a lot about these verses as we went through this last week… Last Monday our area director came up to Baguio City for a meeting with us. We knew that this must be important news, as it’s a 7 hour bus trip to come here from Manila. The short of it is; we were told that we must leave a year early for our home service. This means that we would be coming home this summer sometime. Of course this was not in our plans! We still have another year and more before we were suppose to be finished, but due to our low support level the council here has asked that we go back early and try to raise the support needed. (Many ...

Baguio - our new city! As you can see Baguio City has a lot of people. It is always very crowed here. We dressed up in traditional dress with friends when we went sight seeing one day. In A New City “There is no way!” said Gilmer when one of the church members at our new church told him he would be wearing the tribal dress called a “bahag.” Traditionally this clothing is worn by the mountain peoples. One group being the Ifugao. It is just a small piece clothing worn around the waist, almost like a loin cloth, and is to be worn with nothing else underneath! We had a great time last month as our new church named Cordillera Bible Christian Fellowship welcomed us - complete with a tribal dance, (see pictures below)also when they asked Gilmer to wear the bahag. They made us get up and try the dance too! Even though we looked rather silly, it was fun. The church members show us part of their culture. We are glad to be here at our assignment and are excited to see how God will use us to re...