Peter--the Intern

Hi, it's been a couple of weeks since we have had an opportunity to write to you on this blog. A lot has happened.

February 4, Peter Kohler, from Champaign, Illinois arrived for a 6 month internship. Peter is a preaching major and senior at Lincoln Christian College. The photo above was taken as he was moving from our house in Digos to his own house. He has been staying in our house and helping with the painting and other repairs before we move in--but today he will spend his first night in his own home.

Peter is already involved with the youth groups in Digos City, learning Cebuano and getting acquainted with the Philippines.

We still live in Davao City but travel each day to Digos to work on the house--almost all of the rooms are painted now and Rodger is involved in putting up wall cupboards in the kitchen, installing 110V electrical outlets in each of the rooms and replacing ceiling there is excessive rain damage. The trip is only 40 miles but it takes from 1 1/2 to 2 hours each way over rough roads and a lot of tractor/trailer traffic on the two lane road. We anticipate moving into our house at the end of next week, February 27. Every day we carry more things down there.

The ministry is beginning to get off the ground as preparations for the first Young Professionals Mission Trip in May is being planned. We are limiting the 9 day Mission Trip to 20 participants, ages 21-30. Our purpose will be to lead a Vacation Bible School for disadvantaged children in Malaybalay City (up in the mountains.) We will also involve the participants in a seminar on Biblical missions and what is their role in the Great Commission. Dixie will be writing the VBS material.

We are expecting a new addition to our family. We made arrangements to buy a yellow lab. It is a male, 10 weeks old as of yet remains un-named. If you have a suggestion for a name we are open to hear it. The pup will join us next Monday--and become our guard dog.

Not much else is new--moving is about all we are up to these days. We covet your prayers as we start working on the Mission Trip, Teen Camps, and Sunday School curriculum work. We praise God for his faithfulness to us each day; for our strength to do the work He has given to us.


PRAYER REQUESTS:

Wisdom, clear direction and unity as we work with our Filipino team. We are working on our goals, purposes and strategies--pray that we will do this with a realization of how this will affect eternity.

Former forwarding agent Mary Kay Jarrett; Recovering from a stroke. She has been in the hospital for four weeks but is scheduled to be discharged on Feb. 18. Pray for her to continue to have the strength and courage to overcome the stroke effects.

Feb 27 or 28 we will have a party for the AFC employees to give them their gifts we had planned to give them at Christmas. Pray that we will have a "good" leaving and will be able to continue to work side by side on Mindanao with AFC.


PRAISES

God's mercies are new every morning. Each morning before I read the scripture for that day on my "Read the Bible in a year" program, I write down the needs I have for that day, God is faithful and sometimes very humorous in how he gives me direction each day regarding the needs I wrote down. What a mighty God we serve whose Word is truly living, active and able to meet our daily needs.

A BUSY WEEK

Photos: The bathroom and Rodger by the kitchen sink

Hi,

We had a wonderful time this week hosting the Bailey family from Shanghai. The wife broke her foot a few weeks ago so some improvisation was needed for her to get to and from the beach resort but we managed it. Their visit was a blessing to us and they have invited us to visit them in Shanghai later in the spring--we're giving that possibility some serious thought.

Last Sunday was our first time to once again worship with our "home" church in Davao City. More blessings as we saw how the church has continued to reach out in ministry and evangelism. The two hour service flew by.

Thursday and Friday we went to Digos to sign contracts, pick up keys to the house and see about getting the water, electricity, telephone, and Internet connected. Everything was going along smoothly until the woman who told us last week there was "no problem" to install DSL looked up when Rodger entered the office and said "we have a problem." It seems there are no more DSL ports in Digos City. The telephone company was promised more DSL ports the first quarter of 2008....it may be a while.

Digos is classified as a city and that means they have a different tax set up with the government. There are a couple hundred thousand people living there and several colleges and training schools. So far the best place we have found to eat out is Mc Donalds! Only problem is when we go there we are beset with vendors wanting to sell us all manner of items (sunglasses, pirated DVD's, comic books, etc.) It seems there aren't a lot of foreigners in Digos, so we are the center of attention. But, the people are extremely friendly and helpful--so what if no one knows where the TV cable company is located? They each sent us on an interesting wild goose chase. Finally Rodger got in a Tricee (motorcycle with side car) and I followed them to the office. We do feel like we are on the Amazing Race-- "we'll pay you money to go to the cable office and we'll follow you." We did that with two offices yesterday.

We were excited when we discovered the Davao Ace Hardware store can mix paint colors (this is a new advancement in Davao.) We purchased some paint for the interior of our house and today (Saturday) Rodger and another man are down there painting.

Some plans we have for preparing the house include, having bars installed on the windows that don't already have bars, installing a couple of room air conditioners, building a couple of free standing clothing closets, putting a "T" on the faucet in the bathroom so we can have a shower, painting all of the inside walls, raising the height of the kitchen counters. We think it will take us all of February to get these things done. Rodger will do most of the work himself--or will oversee it. While he is busy working on the house I will be sorting and packing all of our personal and work things to be moved.


Wednesday, Feb, 4, our intern Peter arrives from Illinois. Peter is a ready to graduate from Lincoln Christian College and coming here for a preaching internship. We told him in advance he'll probably get to help us with our move.

I've rattled on long enough--it just feel so good to be at a coffee place that has Wi-Fi (in Davao of course) and to be able to work on line!!! YEA!

We look forward to another wonderful worship service with our brothers and sisters in Christ tomorrow and pray that you too will be able to join with others in worship.

With great love for you in Christ,

Rodger and Dixie


PRAYER REQUESTS

Continue to pray for Mary Kay Jarrett as she is recovering from her stroke, she is making great progress! We talked with her on the phone this week.

Pray for us to have the strength, energy and wisdom each day to do the work God has placed before us.

Pray for God's leading in the lives of those whom we have invited to join with us in ministry in Digos City.

Pray for Peter, our intern. Pray for him to adapt well to the temperatures, living conditions, and culture.

PRAISES

The refreshing visit of the Baileys.

God's Word that daily gives us encouragement and strength to continue on.

The Moweaqua Congregation in Illinois--our board, our forwarding agent, the elders, the ministers and our friends who stand with us. They bless us!

SUCCESS!!! WE RENTED A HOUSE

It only took one week of searching to find a house. We decided to expand our search geographically to Digos City, a one hour drive south of Davao City. Digos has a population of around 200,000 and the cost of living is much lower than in Davao.

After just two days of driving up and down the streets and calling every telephone number we saw on a gate or utility pole advertising a house or apartment for rent we found "our" house. It had the features we were looking for: plenty of space to live and work, a big living room area for gatherings, made of cement (not wood), a sunny yard where we can raise some vegetables and flowers and a big kitchen.

The house does need painting on the inside, our first job! The kitchen counters are the lowest counters we have ever seen, but we have a plan for a counter on top to make it more usable. The bathroom presents some unique challenges. It is very small and the only things in it are a toilet bowl (no tank) and a water spigot about 18 inches from the floor. We are looking for ways to "make some lemonade with the lemon" in the challenge of this bathroom. The bedrooms have no closets--but that is a circumstance we've dealt with before. Even given all of these things, we are thrilled with the house because of the size and location in Digos. The lower rent (1/4 of what it would cost in Davao) will allow us to hire more staff for the ministry.

We have company coming for three days, Monday-Wednesday. It is a family from Michigan who live in Shanghai. We are excited to have visitors--it's cold in China now, and they are looking forward to the beach.

Thank you for your prayers on our behalf as we searched for a house.

Tomorrow is Sunday and we are looking forward to seeing our friends at church and worshipping once again with our Filipino brothers and sisters.

We pray that you will have a blessed and restful worship this weekend.

Love in Christ,

Rodger and Dixie

HOUSE HUNTING

Hello,

We are out trying to find a house to live in--but it isn't easy to do here. We have been driving up and down streets in the areas we might want to live in looking for little "For Rent" signs on the gate. Usually there is a telephone number to call and then we call for information on the house. Another method of renting a house is to drive around and find a house you like. Then you contact owner and tell them you would like to rent that house. If the owner of the house does not personally live in the house--it mostly likely is occupied by his relatives. The owner frequently will evict his family (who are living there for free) for someone who will pay rent. Trying to rent a house is an interesting and sometimes frustrating activity--please pray for us to be patient in our search.



All of our personal and work belongings that were left at AFC Home Base while we were in the states are in good condition; OK, so the microwave doesn't work, nor does the air conditioner, but other than that just some mold and dust on everything.



God is so good to us. He has given us so many wonderful blessings and protected our things--we are confident that He will continue to provide our needs.



Please continue to pray for:

• Mary Kay Jarrett; recovering from a stroke. She is past the critical stage and the doctor said he expected a complete recovery but there is some hard work ahead for her.


• Our house search


• Peter, our intern from Lincoln Christian College. Peter is a preaching intern and will arrive in February.


• The ministry that God has prepared for us to do in the Philippines--and us as we learn where He is leading us.

Thank God:

• For a happy and joy-filled reunion with our former co-workers at AFC. Many of them were apprehensive to see us--fearing we would be upset with them for the changes in Field Director.


• The beautiful, sunny weather in Davao City. We were having a struggle with the cold of the mid-west.


• His Word and Spirit that daily sustains us.

Arrival

Dixie arrived in Davao, tired but happy to be home. She now has the joy of straightening out her days and nights. I think I am getting close to being there! Please keep Mary Kay Jarrett in your prayers - she has had a stroke and we are very concerned about her. Those of you that have supported us for many years would remember she was our forwarding agent for several years before and when we first worked with AFC. Rodger

Rodger is in Davao

Rodger had a good flight to the Philippines and is once again in Davao. He has his days and nights all mixed up but that will straighten out with time. Dixie is doing her final preparation for her flight this Friday night and will arrive in Manila on Sunday, Jan. 18.

Dixie

Pictures

The family together for Christmas at Great Grandma's. We all had a wonderful time.