August 24, 2007 - Baguio Trip 2

Greetings to you all. Thank you so much for your prayers and for checking in on this site from time to time to keep updated as to our activities for the Lord.

We traveled up to Baguio once again last week in order to get some work done on the new place. It began raining on Monday afternoon after we arrived and continued to rain almost non stop for the next seven days. Super Typhoon Egay (Cat 5) was swirling in the Philippine Sea off the east coast and moving North toward Taiwan. It never made landfall in the Philippines but greatly enhanced the South West Monsoon rains and dumps several inches on the main island of Luzon. This caused several landslides on the roads leading out of Baguio and some bad flooding in the lowlands. We had planned on leaving Baguio on Friday morning but due to the conditions we had to extent until the rains subsided. We were finally able to pull out at 5:15 Monday morning. The trip down Kennon Road was absolutely beautiful. The rains had caused all the rivers to swell producing, what seemed to be, hundreds of waterfalls of various sizes. Some which actually fell over the road and had to be driven through. We arrived safely home in the late morning hours, thankful to the Lord for once again giving us safety as we traveled.

While in Baguio we were able to once again meet with the saints there both on Wednesday night and Sunday morning. I was asked to speak at both meetings and was glad to do so.

Rebecca Coburn arrived from Pennsylvania on Thursday the 23rd and will be staying with us for the next six weeks. She is a delightful young lady and will be doing some student teaching at Faith Academy. She is a much needed PE teacher. Pray for her that this experience would both be helpful for Faith Academy and may be a learning and rewarding experience for her. She will be staying until October 9th. We will be moving up to Baguio on October 13th.

Things, for us, are going well. We continue to study Ilokano twice a week and are busy speaking in the local assemblies. Our hearts continue to yearn for the mountains, both for Baguio and beyond. To finally be settled into a place we can call “home” and to be able to finally unpack all our things will be a blessing.

I am scheduled to speak in Cogeo this tomorrow on the Lord’s Day. Next week I will be speaking in Angono in the morning then traveling quickly over to Cogeo, once again, for their anniversary celebration. Since we served the Lord in that assembly for many years they have asked if I would come and baptize several new believers, which of course I am delighted to do.

Thanks for all your prayers and support. The Lord has blessed us and challenged us in the work here. We look forward with grant anticipation to what He will do in the mountains.

Morning Glory Assembly- Baguio

Brother Ruperto Jaleco and his wife, were among the first ones in the assembly after Evelyn Balanag was saved in 1968. Today, they are still faithful to the Lord, and the assembly.



Numbers were down this Lord's day because of a typhoon that was nearby

Baguio - August 5, 2007

Greetings to all.

We were able to visit the mountain city of Baguio last week and the Lord answered several of our prayers on that very first visit, for which we give Him thanks.

When we first arrived we were told how difficult it may be to find suitable housing in Baguio as several others have tried and been unsuccessful in securing housing. We spoke with another single missionary who had been looking for a place, just to get some tips on how to proceed. She spoke of a place she had"checked out" but that was not going to work out for her, but perhaps it would be nice for us. She gave us the name of the owner and directions to it. We visited it, and by the following day we had secured it. What a blessing. It will need some work to make it livable for us, but it will meet our needs nicely.

The following day was the Lord's Day and we visited with one of the assemblies in Baguio. This is the assembly called Navy Base Gospel Chapel, a work the Lord allowed Ken Engle to start back in the 60s. It is the work we have been praying about helping, and felt led of the Lord, for this past year, to work with. When we arrived on Sunday morning we expected that word of our desire to live and work among them in Baguio would have reached them. But to our surprise they had no idea of our plans. One of the elders met us at the door, he is a man I have known for years,and he was so excited to see us. Then when he learned of our plans he was almost in tears he was so happy. Then when he shared it with the assembly there was clapping and excitement all around. We felt so warmly welcomed. What a blessing and confirmation from the Lord to our hearts. Then they read a letter that Ken Engle and his son Kevin Engle had written by way of introducing us to the assembly and they were just so happy to know of our plans. The Lord has indeed blessed us!! Thank you for all your prayers.

We head back up the mountain in a week to do some work on the new place. Our plans are still to move up in October, and we can't wait to finally get settled in there Lord willing. Continue to pray for our visas. We are still awaiting a hearing, and the issuing of our 9G visas, after which we will begin the process of acquiring Permanent Residence Visas.

I spoke in Angono this morning here in Rizal Province. The saints there seemed to listen with much interest to the word of the Lord. We pray that in some small way He will use us to encourage them in their walk for Him. Next week we will be once again in Molabong.

Again, thank you all for your prayers and support, it has indeed encouraged our hearts.

Ken