Padens in the Philippines

Things have been picking up since our last update a couple months back. We'd greatly appreciate your prayers as we dive in very busy season.  Remember when we asked for your prayers for our trip to Thailand in January? Well, it was fantastic! We attended a Soul Care Retreat, which was incredibly rejuvenating. Also, Praise God for the opportunity to visit the Rubia's. You might recall them from earlier updates as the Filipino missionaries sent from our church here in Davao City. More pics below. Here's what's on the horizon for the next few months! After years of anticipation, we're finally sending out the short-term teams we've been talking about.   Both Gilmer and I will be leading teams—Gilmer will head the backpacking team, while I'll be leading the team to Thailand. Josiah will join me (Julie) as a team member on the Thailand trip, and Luke will go along as a staff kid with Gilmer on the backpack team.  We've also decided to change the location of th...

As this new year starts, we want to make sure that we look back at God's faithfulness and say a big THANK YOU! You partnership has enabled us to continue working with Filipino churches to send out missionaries to the unreached.  Big News! We praise God for such a special time to celebrate the wedding of Jake and Nhaya! We traveled back to the States this summer and were grateful to be with so many friends and family who came to support this couple as they begin their lives together.  TEAM 4:5 Update One of the ways we develop a vision for missions is through short-term missions trips. For years we have been trying to launch a team but covid and other issues have delayed this. One of the new challenges we have now are the dates. Our school system here in the Philippine can not decide what dates they want to follow. Each school and area choses different schedules. So it is getting harder to recruit or set up a team.  An...

 

Spring Update 2023 Ephesians 3:14-19 When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,   the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Too fast, just too fast... When we arrived in January we hit the ground running and it's taken a while to feel normal again and get things in order.  Our main focus right now is to work on our summer short-term missions trip. The plan was to form two teams. One...