Dogs Allowed, Shoes Optional

Those are the rules. Be aware of them if you come to visit us over a weekend. Also, chickens are allowed, crying babies are allowed, and the neighbor's cat can visit. Almost any kind of clothes are allowed, but you won't see a suit, or heels and hose anywhere. Wheelchairs are welcome. Well, we only have one wheelchair in the valley, but Norayma is very welcome when she is pushed in on it!

What am I talking about? Palawano Church on Sunday, of course. Anticipate singing until your voice feels hoarse. Scripture recitation is expected. Iping shares a new Psalm she's memorized every week. Don't be surprised if the little girls get up to sing a special number they have selected, and you can't hear them. The littlest ones get nervous and forget to sing when they face all the people. But they make up for it in looking cute.

The door is open to anyone. Some people hike for two hours over muddy trails to join in the fellowship. We slog across the river every week. Because the people here marry and start their families so very young, it is not unusual to see a mother and daughter nursing their babies, sitting side by side. And the open-topped bamboo walls can't keep out the critters. So you can assume that there will be a carpenter bee or two buzzing overhead. The benches may be hard, but the fellowship is sweet. That's Palawano Church.

Good To Be Home

After several false starts due to the typhoon up north stirring up wind and rain down here, we finally we able to fly home two days ago. (Bill's blog goes into detail about that.) And the trip was extra long, as we were fighting a strong headwind due to the stormy conditions. Also had an E-Coupon moment going through one mountain pass, where the wind tossed and then abruptly dropped the plane. Then right when we were approaching the airstrip and about to land, the pilot sensed an updraft, and aborted the landing. So we buzzed the strip at low altitude and circled around for another approach. This time we made a smooth landing. I was NEVER so happy to be on the ground at home! Wonderful to see our Palawano neighbors waiting for us. Maddie was THRILLED to get out of the belly of the plane, too.

I am very thankful for our experienced and well-trained pilot! I know we were never in danger. Just some excitement to spice up our lives. When the plane flew out again, it was full of passengers too. A young man from Germany who had been visiting the Sharp family, and Rinard, and Roki all flew out. Rinard was going out to the doctor in a nearby small town to get a follow-up x-ray on his chest. He has had a cough and chest pain for months. His sickness has not responded to numerous treatment attempts. A few weeks ago when some visitors flew in, he flew out on the backflight to see the doctor. His chest x-ray came back with what looked like pneumonia and a chest tumor. The doctor wanted to see Rinard again and do another x-ray. Roki went to be his traveling companion.

Today is Sunday. We had a good time at church. Giyang followed us home after church to pick up some medicines for the clinic. A big medical order came in with us, and the clinic was running low on a number of items. Indak came by to pick up the bottles of weed killer and insecticide he had asked us to buy for him while we were out in town. Then we ate lunch and were just finishing up when Karing came running over to tell us that her husband Rinard had arrived back home. He hiked back in from his time out at the doctor. Karing shared the good news with us that his chest x-ray came back clear the second time! Karing was so happy and excited with the news, she couldn't stop hugging us and laughing and crying. Then she told us that she had prayed and asked everybody here to pray that God would cause the tumor to just go away. She said that Linda, the Filipino helper in town who drove Rinard to the hospital also said, "Let's pray that the tumor will just be gone." And not only was the tumor gone, but the doctor lowered his fee for his services. Karing was just praising God over and over. That is happy news! God is good.

Later in the afternoon, Karding stopped by with his mother-in-law. She has been having chest problems for a long time. Karding wanted Bill to listen to her chest with a stethoscope to see if we could tell if she had tuberculosis. TB makes a crinkly, cellophane-like sound in the lungs. No, it didn't sound like TB, but Bill could hear a wheeze that sounded like asthma. Bill recommended she try taking some asthma medicine. A little later Iyok came by to ask if her son needed to change his medicine. He has been on meds for amoeba for two-and-a-half days and isn't better yet. I assured her that he should finish out the treatment first, then re-evaluate.

So that is a picture of our life here. I'm thankful for the time we had out to rest and re-group. And now I'm happy to be back in the thick of it.

Rini's House

Thought you might enjoy seeing a picture of Rini and her two
daughters in her kitchen. She has been such a blessing to me!

On the Street Where I Live

Our house is on a major north-south trail going through Palawano-land. Which is a good thing. It is always interesting to see who and what passes by our house. Embunga, our old friend, came by carrying strings of fish her husband caught in the river. He got so many, they had extra to sell to anyone who wanted some. So Embunga was on her way to the village, hoping to unload her fish. Apparently she was successful. Later she passed by again, empty-handed.
This is Ispilin, with a string-full of biskor. These funny little birds can be caught by hand. The Palawanos go out at night with a flashlight, following the call of the birds. The birds are just walking around on the ground. If you shine a flashlight at them, they freeze and let you catch them. Or if you put a net on the ground, they run around and get stuck in it. They are tiny things, only a bite of meat on each bird. But the time of year for catching biskor happens to be June and July, when the Palawanos are waiting for their rice harvest, and very low on food. So a biskor in the pot is a welcome sight.

What Stephen Saw

During the past couple of months, we have been "taping" the book of Acts. Well, who uses tapes anymore? No one. So I should say we have been "digitally recording" the book of Acts on my iPod. This is a step in the translation process that I get to do. We start with a rough draft of a chapter of Acts. Then my language helper, Rini, listens as I read a section of the chapter a number of times through, until she gets the meaning of the passage down in her mind. Then I make a recording of Rini saying that passage back in her own words.

Rini has been great at this process. She is very patient, and doesn't get tired of repeating the same portion of Scripture over and over. I record each section at least twice, and then work up to having larger and larger sections linked together. It gets pretty repetitious. To me it can sometimes seem tedious. Acts has some loooong chapters, some are 60 or 70 verses long. But Rini doesn't seem to mind. She says it is easy. She is really good at re-wording the passages in a natural style of Palawano, just like someone was talking, telling the Bible story in Palawano.

Then while we are working, all of a sudden, out of the blue, a truth from the passage we are reading and recording will zero right into my heart, and touch me to the core. I'll find my eyes filling with tears. Like the end of Acts Chapter 7, where Stephen is giving his sermon, and the religious leaders are getting furious at him. It says they were gnashing their teeth. And Stephen gazes up to heaven and says, "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."

Wait a minute, wait a minute! I thought Jesus was seated at the right hand of God. We just read that back in Chapter 2. Why is Jesus standing here? And I see a picture of Jesus, closely watching the scene below, following what is happening to Stephen. I think He is standing out of respect for his beloved child and follower, who He knows is taking abuse for His sake. And not only that, but when I see Jesus standing, right there at the right hand of God, I know He is perfectly able to stop the horrible stoning death of Stephen that follows. But He chooses not to. He withholds His power in this situation. He watched what happened, but He didn't stop it. He could have. In other passages in Acts, Jesus' followers disappear in the midst of angry crowds, are freed from prison in the middle of the night, or are spirited away during broad daylight.

But Stephen wasn't kept from dying for Christ's sake. Jesus could have intervened. He didn't. I thought of Martin Burnham, who didn't survive his horrible ordeal at the hands of terrorists. God could have allowed him to live. He has all power. But He didn't. But I imagine Jesus was standing that day when the bullets took Martin's life, watching with respect and love what was happening to His beloved child and follower.

Puerto Perambulations

This week we've been in civilization. We flew up to Puerto, our provincial capital, with Maddie, our year-old dog. Here is Maddie in the jungle. Purpose -- to take Maddie to the vet to get her "fixed," to take a short break, and to buy some needed supplies. I've been in the tribe for three months, and was beginning to feel like maybe I was losing my personality. What little bit of personality I have, anyway. Today I made a list of all the things I haven't done for three months:

• Used a telephone
• Stood in line at a grocery store
• Ridden in a car
• Enjoyed air-conditioning
• Surfed the net
• Eaten at a restaurant
• Used an ATM machine
• Worn jeans (they aren't practical for crossing the river)
• Worn jewelry (I dress down in the tribe)
• Blow-dried my hair
• Had a hot-water shower
• Listened to Bill play the piano
• Watched TV

Since we've been here I've done all those things except watch TV, though we could if we wanted to. We've had great conversations with our daughters, Elisa and Bethy, on the phone. We've had some fun meals fellowshipping with missionary co-workers who either live in the city, or are passing through town like we are. The photo is me holding the newest member of the Palawan field, two-month-old baby Jonathan.

We've been able to take care of needed on-line business. And today I got to listen as Bill played an impromptu lunch concert at a favorite local restaurant with the permission/invitation of the owner, who is an acquaintance of ours. Lest you get the wrong idea, this isn't an elegant piano lounge. It is more like somebody's house, with tables in the yard and living room, and the neighbor's cats wandering in and out begging for food. And the best part -- not only is the food delicious, but very inexpensive. Our two meals cost less than $6.00. But then, that meal was a splurge compared to our favorite Vietnamese Noodle Shop. A big flavorful bowl of beef stew noodles there costs about 80 cents. We love Puerto!

Tomorrow morning we are scheduled to fly back home to the tribe again. Maddie survived her operation just fine. We are ready to get home and back to work. We won't miss fighting the traffic, or the crowds of people here in town. We will miss the telephone and internet! But a typhoon in the northern Philippines is bringing lots and lots of rain here today. So if the weather is still bad tomorrow, we may have to delay going home for a day or two. And maybe we'll get another phone call in to Lis and Bethy, while we are at it.