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 

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. 

Ellery's Bed, Final Post!

“This could be the last day,” I was thinking. Everything was cut and sanded. All we had to do was screw the pieces together and assemble the bed in the room. The plans recommended using pocket holes. I don’t have a jig, and I’ve never done them before. After watching some YouTube videos, we did it by hand and it worked out great. We got the 2 house-shaped end pieces put together outside and moved them up to Ellery’s bedroom. The staircase was almost too narrow and it took some finagling, but we did it. Ellery’s room is tiny and it felt like we were working in a sardine tin. We got the bed supports attached which is a job that would have been best for 3 people, but we made due with 2 people (and some stacks of Ellery’s books to hold up the supports). At one point, we knocked one of the end pieces over onto my back but it narrowly missed both of our heads thankfully.

Once we got all the side pieces together, we screwed on the slats that go under the mattress and we were done. Over the weekend I put several coats of varnish on to help keep the wood from molding and to make the bed look awesome.

In the end, building this bed was a great learning experience. Even things I thought would be simple took lots of time and required a knowledge of the area. Making this bed was a great lesson in the importance of having good relationships with Filipinos and interdependence on the body of Christ. Without the help of Kuya Veevoi, I might still be out looking for 2.5-inch screws. Without his connections from church, we might still be looking for someone to sand down our wood. Someday, if we are ever building a house in a tribe, many of the lessons learned in this project will be very helpful. Because I did this project with my language helper, I learned 60 new words in the process too. I hope you enjoyed following along with us. Now you know what we mean when we say, “It’s more fun in the Philippines”!

Ellery's Big Girl Bed pt 3

On Tuesday Kuya Veevoi came over and we began sanding by hand, but quickly concluded that it was going to take forever. All the 2x4s had deep ridges in them running the length of the pieces and it was incredibly slow-going. One of the other students here had a power sander we could borrow but he wouldn’t be home for a few hours. In the meanwhile, we cut all the pieces to the right size. The end pieces were a bit tricky as we worked out how to cut them in a manner that would hide those pesky blue ink splotches. In the end, we managed to get everything cut and ready to be sanded.

On Thursday Kuya Veevoi came over to work on sanding while we were doing class with our other language helper. We doubled our class hours that day so we ‘enjoyed’ the constant (and loud) hum of the sander in the background for 8 hours. By the end of the day, there were only 4 pieces done with just the rough sanding step! Even with the power sander, it was extremely slow-going.

The next day we decided that sanding like this was not going to work so we sent out to see if we could find someone with a planer to take the grooves out for us. The first wood shop we stopped at didn’t have a planer. The second shop had a planer, but it was broken. Kuya Veevoi had another idea. He knew that just up the road there was a guy who did wood working so we went to see him. He had a working planer but he told us it would not be good to use since it would take off too much wood. He said he could use his grinder to sand the pieces down.  We decided to try it and were led to his shop. We went through their store front, dining room, bedroom, and kitchen to a door at the back of their house. We walked across the roof, down a short ladder, and down a few more stairs to the open-air basement where wood chips and sawdust covered the floor. He grabbed his grinder, put a piece of sandpaper on it and went to work. Within 5-10 minutes he was done with the first piece (aka what took the sander about 2 hours to do). We brought him the rest of the wood and a few hours later I went back to collect it all.

The next Monday we spent some time sanding the grinder marks out and following up with the fine paper to. I had about another hour of sanding to do after our Monday night language meeting. The sanding was finally complete after about 15 hours of work between everyone involved! When we started out, I thought we could have it completely assembled in a week, but now at the end of week 2 we were ready to start assembling Ellery’s bed.

Ellery's Big Girl Bed pt. 2

The next Monday we set out to get the wood that we would need. This should be a simple task since one of the biggest lumber yards that I have seen here is only a few kilometers down the road. We were led to the lumber stacks to find some 8-foot 2x4’s. They didn’t have any 8 footers, but they had some 10-footers. I figured they’d work fine so we started pulling them out. That’s when I noticed they looked kind of funny. It turns out they weren’t 10-foot pieces…but two 5-foot pieces joined together. We finally found a pile of 2x4’s that would work. Over ¾ of them had some kind of defect; cracks, rotted parts, holes from knots, warped pieces, large ink blotches, or they weren’t actually a 2x4 (but a little bit smaller). We got through the pile and still hadn’t found the 9 pieces we needed so they went to cut some for us.

Then we went to find some 2x2’s and some 1x4’s. They were much easier to find. By the time we had those pieces pulled out, they came back with a few fresh cut 2x4’s for us. They all looked pretty good except for the big blue ink splotches. We asked if they had any pieces of wood without these ink blotches, but they didn't. It wasn’t ideal as we were only planning on varnishing the bed, but I figured out how we'd be able to hide some of the ink blotches against a wall or under the bed.

The final count was:

(9) 2x4x10ft

(5) 1x4x10ft

(2) 2x2x8ft

for a total of $61. 

We loaded the car with our expensive lumber and headed home.

To be continued

Ellery's Big Girl Bed

Ellery has been growing up. How dare she?! While she still fits in her faithful old pack n play we were facing 2 problems. First, she discovered that she can climb out of it. Second, Holly has been getting in the pack n play with her at night to do bedtime stories, singing, praying, and snuggles. It’s a tight fit, and frankly, it might break. We started talking about transitioning to a big girl bed and Holly found some free plans online for an easy frame. We figured that making a bed would be an effective way to ensure quality and would also be a great culture and language learning experience as most of the process would be done with one of our language helpers, Kuya Veevoi.

We set out one Friday afternoon with high hopes to buy everything we would need. Our first stop was the supermarket to get Ellery’s mattress. It was 20% off which was a pleasant surprise since things are rarely on sale here. Then, we went to a home goods type store where we found some sand paper and some 2-inch screws, but they had no 2 ½ in screws. Next, we went to my favorite hardware in town and found some clear varnish and brushes, but no 2 ½ in screws. From there we walked to another hardware/home goods store in the market area and once again there were no 2 ½ in screws so we decided to drive out of town a bit and find another store.  We quickly found out they don’t have any either and we went to leave. Only to discover the van wouldn’t start…not even a sound. We asked around and were led to a guy who was 10 times more covered in grease than I have ever been. He grabbed a battery and headed to jump our car. We got it started right away and then had to figure out a plan.

At this point we were about an hour away from our mechanic and half an hour from home.  I was afraid if we shut the car off it wouldn’t start again. We decided to drive home and unload the car without turning it off, and then head straight to the mechanic. When we got to the mechanic he quickly figured out it was the starter, and I added a few other maintenance things to the list for him. From the mechanic, we walked to the nearby mall and headed to yet another hardware store where we found 2 ½ wood screws! Although they were close to $18 for 55, I was just glad we found them.

From there we hopped on a Jeepney to the bus terminal to catch a bus home. Things took longer than I thought, but I was just glad we got everything but the wood we would need for the bed. I was also glad that the car seemed to be a simple fix.

To be continued

Want to know what about our recent evaluation?

In a nutshell…nothing ever goes the way you planned. There were plans, they changed, they changed again, and then they changed again. In the end though, it all worked out. Our evaluations happened and as a bonus it took less time that it originally would have. They gave us a good idea of where we’re at in the language/culture learning process and what we can change/do to keep moving forward and progressing. Another bonus was that the change in the schedule allowed Dan and I to have a date on our 4^th anniversary. 

We still have a long way to go here. We’ll be learning language for quite some time…it just may not be this one depending on where we go next. I’ve really been struggling lately with the thought: Can God really use me?! I know He can and will since He got us to this point. Lately, I feel like I’ve really been struck by my own immaturity and how far I still have to go. There have been challenging situations we’ve heard about just since we’ve been here that different coworkers are dealing with and it begs the question: Do I trust God? Part of it is our youthfulness that adds to my thinking and part of it is my own non-rose-colored view of my own failings and character flaws. I feel utterly inadequate. I know then my focus is not where it should be. I should be focused on God and His power to work in my life. I have a constant feeling that God’s purpose right now is to do a much bigger work in me than He has planned for any people we might potentially minister to because let me tell you…there is a ton of work to be done in my heart still. However, I was encouraged by this word in Psalm at church recently:

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place; when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

                                                                                                                        Psalm 139: 13-18

Regional Conference

This June we went to the regional conference in Mindanao. Holly’s parents were visiting and as they had worked for in Mindanao for 16 years they came with us. It was encouraging to hear about the different things God been doing in the tribal works there.

In our training, the process of planting a church is laid out quite neatly, but we found in the real world “neat” is rarely how things happen. Various additions to the work of church-planting in the locations we heard about were a tapping a spring for clean water to help with the almost fatal illness many kids are getting, teaching the people to raise pigs as a source of protein and income, setting up and running a school for the local kids, and even beginning a pastoral training center to train the pastors already working locally. Some of the missionaries are almost done with the translation of the entire Bible! To translate the New Testament alone can take upwards of 25 years.

In almost every situation the missionaries did not start out with these projects as part of their church-planting goals. Rather they saw needs and have worked to assist the community. The best part of all these projects is that it has not just helped the people socially and economically, but these projects have served to advance the church planting work. It was the practical outworking of loving people with Christ’s love by meeting their physical needs.

Many of these missionaries have been working in these areas for 20-30 years and have thriving churches whose members are reaching out to other areas. Hearing the other missionaries talk about what is going on reinforced the power of the Gospel and the power of showing people that you genuinely care.

While we don’t yet know if we will end up working in Mindanao or Northern Luzon in the future, it was a blessing to get to know some of our coworkers. Wherever we end up, hopefully we can learn from their example and see the Gospel take root in the lives of more Filipinos…even if we don’t necessarily do things in the “right order.”

A "Quick" Plumbing Fix...

Ever since we moved into our house, we’ve had issues with the plumbing to the upstairs toilet. The toilet and the shutoff valve both leaked constantly. After 4 trips to our house by a plumber everything was up and running with minimal leakage. A week later the brand new sprayer/bidet he installed began to leak and by the next day the hose was completely severed and spraying everywhere! Thankfully he installed a new shutoff valve so we could turn the water off, but that meant we couldn’t use the toilet.

After our language session that day I decided to go pick up a cap to stop the water that would go to the sprayer so we could still use the toilet. I stopped at 3 hardware stores in our neighborhood and none of them had a cap or any plumbing supplies for a 3/8in pipe.

The next day I left to find a proper hardware store in our nearest town. I hopped on a jeepney (the cheapest and slowest form of public transportation) and was in town about 35 minutes later. I looked around for a while and couldn’t find a cap for any size pipe so I asked a worker for some help. He started grabbing all kinds of different parts to make a cap. At one point, he had at least 5 pieces that ranged in size from 3/8 up to an inch and back down so that they could put a plug in the whole assembly to cap off my pipe. Even that was not going to work as the 3/8 piece was male and I needed a female piece. He then grabbed a coworker to figure it out. The other guy found a valve kit with a 3/8 to ½ female adapter in it and they were able to put 3 pieces together that would act as a cap.  I hopped on an air-conditioned bus (the most expensive, but also fastest way to travel) and was back home in less than 15 minutes.

The shutoff valve and 3/8 to 1/2 adapter,
the only one in the entire store

The 3 pieces to do the job of one, after
over a hour spent in the store.

I put the three pieces together and installed the valve. Lo and behold, it leaked like the Titanic! I’m not an experienced plumber and hadn’t put enough Teflon tape on the threads. I took it apart and re-taped it. After about 4 hours of work spread over 2 days (not counting what the plumber did), we finally had a functional bathroom again. There’s no one stop-shopping trip to a Menard's or Lowe's here to get what you need, and even the simplest of projects often are not that simple. As they say, “It’s more fun in the Philippines!”

Finished Product

Home, Sweet Home

Let us share a little about the house we'll be living in once we reach our final destination in the Philippines. We have the advantage of moving into a house that is being left by some former language students so there's really almost no work to be done on the house on our part. We might paint and that's about it.

A kitchen, dining space, and living area with a small bathroom and a laundry area make up the lower level. The upstairs consists of a master bedroom/bathroom that has a small, narrow room attached where the baby will sleep when he comes. There is also a second, small bedroom upstairs that Ellery will occupy. There is space in the bedrooms for a bed and a wardrobe and that's pretty much it. Each floor is only about the size of a two car garage.

Here's the kitchen:

That's no average 30 inch American stove you see there...that's only 23 inches. The refrigerator/freezer combo is only about 8 cubic feet. For reference, the fridge/freezer we're using now is about 18 cubic feet. There are only two drawers in the kitchen that are at foot level so they are somewhat awkwardly placed. As you can see, there will be some adjustments to be made in our eating styles, how we cook, and what we choose to keep for kitchen tools. Filipino style living requires a lot of downsizing.

Between how easily Ellery can spread her toys everywhere and the limited space in the house, it will be interesting to see how we make the house work for us. We have been researching small space solutions and are trying to make sure what we do have is multi-functional. Some things we have to take into consideration as well are: cloth diapering without a dryer, mold...everywhere...often, limited counter space, tile floors and stairs with a toddler, and not much outdoor space for Ellery to run around. 

We'll be able to share more pictures once we are in the house, but for now we thought we'd share a little glimpse of where we'll be the first year or so. We'll make it home for the time we'll live there, but with all our adjustments and transitions lately we are more and more aware that this world is not our home...just a temporary place to lay our heads and do what God has called us to do.

Keep or Throw Away?!

“Are you sure you don't want to keep any of these?!” my neighbor asked me.

“Yes, Jan, I still have tons of baby stuff in our basement that I am keeping. Besides, this is all winter stuff and the odds of us having a baby in those specific sizes while happening to be in the States at the same time are really slim.” I responded.

Our neighbors had a garage sale a few weeks ago and offered to let us sell some of our stuff to help make some money and purge a bit knowing that we hope to be moving to the Philippines in a few short months. It was eye-opening to talk to them about some of the differences between what they would keep and what we would. Granted they grew up in an era where people saved and re-purposed many things and nowadays we are coming back to a time of up-cycling or making some cash reselling on Craigslist. However, we are moving HALFWAY AROUND THE WORLD. We can't keep everything.

It has been a bit overwhelming going through our accumulated possessions from 3 years of marriage and having a kid in the mix. I feel like my brain is going to explode trying to anticipate whether we will need a particular item over the next few years and whether or not it will actually last. Do we want to spend money to ship it over or buy a new one when we get there? Will we use this? Should we store it for the future day when we return to the States permanently? Are we going to need someone to ship it to us at a later date? i.e. kids clothes, holiday stuff, etc. Should we just throw it all out?!

There's a lot to think about. It certainly makes leaving more real and immediate. We're not just moving to a new house, but a new country and new lifestyle. We can't wait to get there though. It's worth all the hassle of packing and purging. The good-byes are still going to be hard, but it's a sacrifice we're willing to make to follow Christ.

Leaving 'Home'

Support level update: We are at 69% of our recommended support level. We can buy plane tickets when we reach 75%. 

It's hard to put into words all the things we are processing right now. On one hand, we're excited because we're soooo close to buying tickets and finally making it to the Philippines. On the other hand, we realize we'll soon leave our family, friends, church family, and the familiarity of our 'home' here. 

We've been sorting, purging, and packing our home. We're still trying to get in touch with churches and individuals about supporting our ministry (if we haven't gotten to you yet, don't wait! come see us...we just might have cookies). Then there's the time with family that we are truly treasuring right now as we won't see them for years at a time. On top of all that, there's vision, dental, and well-check appointments, thank yous to write, and various things that have to be done before we leave the country. 

We got to see Uncle Brandon and visit the zoo!

We're pushing to leave in mid-September after Holly's oldest brother gets married. That's only a few months away! We're so thankful as we look back on how God has brought us thus far and how He will continue to be with us in the future.

Pray with us as we process the big transitions ahead for our family and that our support will continue to increase. If you could also pray specifically for sleep and rest that would be great. There hasn't been a lot of that lately due to a certain small person who is working on a molar. 

Want to be put on our email newsletter list? Sign up by emailing us at dan.thannum@ntm.org. (We have to have your permission to send you our newsletters.)

Friend us on Facebook! This is one of our main forms of keeping in touch in this modern age.

Our ministry is funded by donations. Want to give a one-time gift or sign up to support us monthly? Visit: https://usa.ntm.org/missionaries/daniel-and-holly-thannum

As we get ready to leave there are some items we don't currently have and will be looking to purchase before we head over. If you would like to help us out with that, follow this link to our Amazon wish list.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3O61YBU1515E8/ref=cm_wl_rlist_go_v?

If you have an item from our list to donate or want to purchase from a different source feel free to email us from at the email address above. We recognize that many people want to help us out, but can't commit to monthly giving so helping us purchase a few things is a great way to still be able to help out.

Year in Review

Our First Family Photo (with Ellery) - January 5, 2015

Our little squish - February 2015

Adventures - March 2015

Escape artist - April 2015

Baby in a Box - May 2015

Growing in Love - June 2015

Having fun as a family - July 2015

Quiet times with Mama - August 2015

Always on the go - September 2015

Lots of church visits - October 2015

Grampy & Grammy time - November 2015

Reading with Grampy at Christmas - Dec 2015

First cake for her 1st birthday! - January 2016

Big girl! February 2016

Life on the Road

Let's catch up! Our last blog post had us headed to First Baptist Church of Grove City, MN. Since then we have spoken at 3 more churches.

October 18th -  Denver Baptist Church (Iowa)

October 25th - New Journey Church (northern MN)

November 15th - Grace Baptist Church (Iowa)

While it was nice to have a two week break between churches, it by no means meant less travel time. I (Holly) ended up driving to Missouri by myself on October 31st with our 10 month old in tow. It was a pretty sudden trip. I got a call at 9:30 that morning and by 11:15 I was packed and on the road.

Here's a little of what that trip entailed:

- alternator died 2.5 hours from my parents' house

- a Good Samaritan made sure Ellery and I were taken care of until my parents came to pick us up

- unexpected extra time with my parents

- visiting my best friend (Amy) from high school in ICU at a hospital 1.5 hours away

- watching that friend's baby to give her mom a break from taking care of the grandkids for two weeks straight

- visiting another friend (Merry) who had recently had a baby

- visiting my other best friend (Sarah) and her mom (Mary) who had just had a heart attack and bypass surgery

- spending more time with my best friend (Amy) from high school once she was released to go home

- my dad was able to fix the car

Fast forward to Sunday, November 15th. While driving home from Iowa having just spoken at a church, my best friend (Sarah) called with news that her mom (Mary) had passed away. We got what rest we could that night, spent Monday unpacking and repacking, and were on the road back to Missouri on Tuesday morning (Dan with us this time).

The memorial service was Thursday night and one thing that kept being highlighted was God's goodness. God orchestrated so many events that allowed for some really special times with Mary these last three weeks of her life. My friend had just gotten engaged while her mom was in the hospital and the time spent taking care of her mom allowed her fiancé to spend almost every day getting to know his future mother-in-law much better. Mary got to spend time with another of her daughters, a daughter-in-law, and her best friend while she was in the hospital. She got to see Ellery and enjoy her antics. People from the church showed love by bringing meals, praying, and more. During this time, my other best friend (Amy) was back in the hospital and out again.

God is good to us. Honestly, Dan and I have struggled with how long support-raising seems to be taking and being content with God's timing and plan for us. This past month has shown us once again that His ways are higher than our ways and His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. His goodness shines through all He allows in our lives. If we had already left for the Philippines, we would never have gotten this time with our friends and family while so much is going on in their lives. We wouldn't be here next month to see my best friend get married. We get to enjoy some holidays with family before we are separated for years at a time. We've had opportunities to bless others. We are spurred on to redeem the time we have been given here.

This weekend we are on the road again to speak at First Baptist Church in Muscatine, Iowa. Then we'll come back to Missouri to spend Thanksgiving with family. Our next blog post will be more of a picture update of the last few months.

Please pray with us in these things:

- that we would be faithful to redeem the time given to us and use it for His glory

- wisdom in upcoming decisions regarding different trips we need to make

- energy to keep up with our 'mover and shaker' of a daughter and that we would continue to look to the Lord in regards to everything involved in raising her

- our marriage; we desire to keep learning and growing together

- God's continued provision to increase our level of support and more people standing with us in prayer

- comfort for Sarah while she grieves her mom and continued healing for Amy

Here There and Everywhere

Phew! If I want to see where our time has been spent the last month, I have just to open my planner and look at the weekends! Out of the past 4 Sundays, we've spent three of those speaking at churches.

September 6th - Country Roads Church in Stacy MN -- A short drive down the road from where we live, we look forward to popping in for visits and spending more time there when we get the chance.

September 20th - Chisholm Baptist Church in Chisholm MN -- Dan went solo that weekend so that I could stay home with our sick baby.

September 27th - Karlstad Baptist Church in Karlstad MN -- Good times spent here although, we're sure our hosts would have liked to get some sleep as much as we did. Ellery was CRAZY Saturday night and decided to party most of the night. Praise the Lord we were alert and awake enough to speak on Sunday morning.

In the month of October we are scheduled to speak at churches 3 out of 4 Sundays as well. We also have a church scheduled for November.

Much of our time during the weeks has been spent getting ready for speaking on the weekends. Plenty of time has also been devoted to snuggling, playing with, and taking care of Ellery. She has been pretty congested for about two weeks now. While it doesn't affect her overall behavior too much, it's starting to wear on this mama who just wants her baby to feel better.

Where will we be this weekend? We're headed to First Baptist Church of Grove City.

What can you pray for? Safe travels, clear speaking/communication on our parts, a healthy baby, and that we would be able to build relationship with the believers there.

Dan at Country Roads Church

FAQs Series #2: The Language Question

Do you already know how to speak the language?

Maybe this seems like a silly question, but we actually get asked this almost every time we are telling someone about our plans for moving to the Philippines. The answer is no. We don't already speak the language. I (Holly) am very familiar with the sounds of the language having grown up in the Philippines and that will be an advantage. I grew up hearing people speak the language. I know some phrases and words. I can mimic the accent and sound like a native speaker (somewhat). It will all be new for Dan: new sounds, grammar, vocab, cadence, etc. A lot will be new for me too. Here's the kicker: after we spend about two years learning our first language...we'll move into a tribal location and start learning another!

We have been equipped in our training with New Tribes Mission with valuable tools/methods for learning language. We learned phonetics, grammar analysis, phonemics, linguistics and language acquisition techniques. The ideal is to learn the language in the country from a native speaker. For this reason it is not recommended to use Rosetta Stone or to start learning some other way before you go overseas. Language and culture are so intrinsically tied together that it would be detrimental to us to separate them. We need to learn both simultaneously.

Some things you need to know about the Philippines/language:

• There are two 'official' languages in the Philippines: Tagalog and English (Yes! English!); and eight major dialects: Tagalog, Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon or Ilonggo, Bicol, Waray, Pampango, and Pangasinan.
• Speaking of English...English is taught in many public schools (often immersion-style). Signs and billboards are often in English. Exposure to English is high in the Philippines, but that does not mean everyone understands it or is fluent.
• We will be learning Cebuano. This is the language spoken in the area we will be living. It is one of the more widely spoken languages along with Tagalog. Cebuano is also referred to as Visayan.
• Depending on the source, there are roughly 181 different languages spoken in the Philippines. We will be learning at least two of those 181 during our time serving in the Philippines.

FAQs Series #1: The Baby Question

Now that you're having a baby, how does that change your plans?

Let's be honest here. Kids were always in the plan for us. It's not like it was a surprise for us. “Oh, hey, surprise! You're pregnant!” We view kids as a valuable asset to us. Before we got married, we knew when we'd like to start having kids and had already discussed the myriad of things that would mean for our marriage and ministry. Kids are great for building connections with people in any cultural context. As they grow, they can become more and more involved in our ministry. We are excited to teach them about God and His amazing plan of saving the world (and them!).

So our plans have not changed. We are still hoping to have our support raised by next summer and head to the Philippines around then. We look forward to seeing our little girl make friends before she can even speak the language, climb guava trees, slide down mud hills in a tropical rain, and eat weird food. We also look forward to introducing her to a lifestyle where she will see people who live very differently than she does: street kids, beggars, Jeepney drivers, lepers, grocery store clerks, the person we buy our meat from at market, the guy who walks by our house every morning, and so many others.

Pray with us that we keep trusting the Lord to make us the parents she needs, that we would be diligent to teach her the truths of God's Word, and for the good-byes that will have to be said in a year from now. It will be tough.

We view being pregnant now as a huge blessing. Ideally, we wanted to have our first kid at a time in our lives when we weren't also in the middle of language learning and navigating a cultural context we are already out of place in. We are able to have our first baby in a culture/language we grew up in, have family around to help, and introduce our baby to everyone before we leave the country for several years. We have access to great medical knowledge and facilities. We're not against having a baby in another country. That may someday happen for us if God blesses us with more children. For the first kid, however, this experience has been great for us. Maybe this is sooner into a marriage than some people would like to start having kids, but for us the timing could not be more perfect. Did we mention yet how grateful we are that God has given us this baby girl?! We can't wait to meet her!

New Blog Series Starting: FAQs

In the next few weeks and months you should start seeing some more regular posts popping up on here. We have realized the need to have access to some answers to a few questions people have when we don't always have to opportunity to answer them right away. Hence, a series of FAQs about our ministry and plans for going to the Philippines. 

In the next post, please enjoy reading about what having a baby means for our plans.  

MN to MO to TN to GA to...

What a whirlwind of an adventure! We are pretty much recovered from our long journey.

In about 3 ½ weeks, we have driven from Minnesota to Missouri to Nashville, TN to Kingsport, TN to Abingdon, VA to Cumming, GA to Charlotte, NC, to Chesapeake, VA to Missouri to Minnesota. Did you keep track of all that? Now add in a side trip to the Outer Banks. Oh, and a trip to Dan's grandparents' cabin when we got back to Minnesota.

All in all we did roughly 80 hours of driving in 3 ½ weeks when you count in the extra time for stops!

The purpose of our trip was to visit family and friends along the way as well as establish some connections and relationships for building a support team. We were able to meet with the missions committee at my parents' home church and a missions committee at another church that is dear to my family. Dan got to experience good ole Southern churches for the first time. We introduced Dan to the rest of my mom's side of the family. We went to the Bay (Chesapeake Bay) as often as we got a chance. I love the ocean! My parents also treated us to a delicious seafood meal for our anniversary. I won't soon forget the taste! Dan and I took a day trip to the Wright Brothers Memorial and the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse on the Outer Banks with my sister and her family. We had two family get-togethers while in VA and all the girls from my mom's side got to have a girls' night. Many stories were shared and there was plenty of joking all around whenever we were with family and friends.

Another highlight of our trip? We got to tell our family in person that we have some special news to share.

I'm 18 weeks pregnant! Come December 29th our lives will be irrevocably changed. We are very excited. We're looking forward to having our first kid here in the States with family and friends around before we leave for the Philippines next summer.

We've also been married for one year now!

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

Chesapeake Bay

Typical...

Snuggles with my buddy.

 

The Beginning of Travels

We’re back! Oh, you didn’t know we were gone? Well, we were. We recently spent two weeks in Minnesota and about a week in Wisconsin.

Typical Minnesota

Dan was in a friend’s wedding up North so we went up a little before the wedding and stayed awhile after the wedding. We had opportunities to catch up with friends, meet with a couple of supporters, and (for me, Holly) be reintroduced to some people I met for about 2 minutes at our reception. We ended up spending some time cleaning and painting the house we’ll live in when we move up to Minnesota full-time. We are so blessed to have a place to live already! I also got to experience Mall of America for the first time.

I really wanted to ride the carousel.

In Wisconsin, I got to introduce Dan to a bunch of my dad’s side of the family. I took him to the Bible Institute I graduated from, showed him around downtown Waukesha, and we were able to spend some good time with my grandparents. As a bonus, I experienced my first MLB game! We watched the Brewers beat the Cardinals…from some pretty nice seats, I might add. 

Brewers-5 Cardinals-1

What’s the plan now that we’re back, you ask? It’s the beginning of support-raising for us! It’s quite the daunting task, but God has already used several people to encourage me and to show me that He’s faithful and trustworthy. He has to keep reminding me.

Grandpa and Grandma Tiegs

Dan's a good buddy.

We’ll be traveling out East to Virginia and North Carolina sometime early this summer. We plan on seeing some more family, visiting my family’s home church, and getting into some new churches to seek relationships for support-raising.

If you live in VA, NC, MN…or really any state, and want to meet with us to find out more about our ministry and how you can be a part of our support team (whether through encouragement, prayer, or giving), email us at dan_thannum@ntm.org and make sure to get us your mailing address and a contact phone number.