Monday, May 14, 2018


Last weekend I (Dan) had the opportunity to be a counselor at a summer missions camp put on by our national coworkers. It was a great experience and reminded me a lot of the missions trips I took to Mexico when I was in high school, except everything was in Tagalog. The days were long, 6am-10pm, but the fellowship was sweet. I really enjoyed a chance to do some hands-on ministry and use lots of the Tagalog that I have been working on over the last year. I was amazed by how much that I could understand and happy that I was able to have some input into our small group times. I even used enough Tagalog that by the end of camp some of the students were joking with me about my American-accented Tagalog. Generally, a student-teacher or counselor relationship here would be more formal so I was encouraged by their willingness to joke around with me a bit. I took it to mean that they saw me more as an equal than as an authority figure, which is good since I feel quite far from an authority on anything here.


Most of our small group and I, along with some actors for our cultural presentation.



Most of all I was encouraged by how the students were challenged to consider how they were going to be a part of the Great Commission. Around 20 of the 80 students committed to Go, and several of those are even pursuing the New Tribes training here in the Philippines with the goal of becoming an NTM missionary. Pray for the students that they will be able to follow through with their commitments and they will be a part of the spread of the Gospel here in the Philippines, whether it be in their backyard or deep in the remote mountains! Who knows…maybe I met some future coworkers last weekend!

Campers commitments 


















Sunday, February 18, 2018

Language Check

Last week, almost exactly one year after arriving in the country, we had our second language and culture check. We were encouraged to see how we’ve progressed in our studies over the past year. The first part of the evaluation was hiking into the jungle for a cultural experience. We harvested the ingredients for and cooked a dish called ginataan. It consists of multiple root vegetables, brown sugar, sweetened condensed milk, and fresh, hand-squeezed coconut milk all cooked over a fire. When it was done, we ate it out of the empty coconut shells. 


The next day we were back at our house and we went through a number of different communication tasks with our language helpers and language consultants.  We would talk about different things like introducing our family, buying an item, explaining what our organization does and much more. The tasks got progressively harder as the morning went.

The following chart shows the different levels. For language and culture Dan scored in Basic high or progressing low in most things. Holly scored between Basic high and progressing mid with her highest sections being grammar use. For context, if Tagalog ends being the national language where we work Dan will need to reach Capable low in all areas and Holly will need to reach Progressing mid before we are cleared to begin our tribal ministry. Before beginning a teaching ministry, we will need to reach capable high.

low
mid
high
low
mid
high
low
mid
high
low
mid
high
Basic
Progressing
Capable
Proficient


We are encouraged by how far we have come and are more encouraged that our progress seems to be on track with what is expected for us after being here a year.