Thinking of Home

The family is still thriving, but we are starting to see some signs of home sickness. Every couple of days Noah will say, “dad, I miss tweezer” (our dog). The other day Simeon was looking at a picture of our house in Tampa with Monica, and he pointed to the background and said excitedly, “I want to go there!” We do miss our home but we are still loving life and ministry here in the Philippines. Our relationships are deepening and we are all become integral parts to the ministry teams we are serving on. One of the challenges for ministries that work with so little financial resources and who are working with the poorest of the poor, is that simple things like printing prayer letters is often too costly. They have trouble raising money because they can not afford stamps to send a letter. I have been talking with MMP in particular about using more of a web based approach which will save them money and make communication easier for them. However, most of these pastors working in the slums do not even own a computer, and while internet cafes are now accessible everywhere many of them are intimidated to use them. So some of the training that I have been doing with the staff and pastors is how to use web based communication strategies. I have conducted a few workshops for them to demystify the process and I have been working on some tools that will help them. It has been challenging to learn together and to help them integrate new systems. One of the things that I have worked on are simple, clean websites for them that they can edit and use in the future.

Websites
The first is for MMP church planting. It is now up and running so you can take a look at it and learn more about MMP if you want. Check it out at:

http://www.mmphilippines.com/

On this site you will also see blogs that I set up for each church plant and they are starting to learn how to use.

The second is for MMP preschool division. I am still working with them on it but the basics are there. Check it out at:

www.intervarsity.faithweb.com/mmpreschool

The third site is for Samaritana. They recently built an amazing building that they also wanted to make available to the body of Christ for retreatants. We have been helping them organize that and I built a website to help them get the word out about their facility. You can see that one at:

www.samaritana.org/retreat


Thank You
We have been busy with lots of other ministries. The team is serving in three different church plants. Every weekend I am teaching as a part of a training program for Pastors in training to plant churches in the slums of Manila. So far I have done training on fund raising and leadership. This weekend I begin modules on Preaching and Hermeneutics (bible study). It is a lot and we are busy every day but I have adjusted the pace of life here, which in general just seems less frenetic. So I feel busy but not hurried. The days are full but not stressful. I guess I am getting a sabbatical after all.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and support. Thank you for staying faithful to us while we are in Manila. It is such and honor to walk with you as we walk with the poor.