Hi all,

Thanks for your continued prayers and support! We are so thrilled to get to be a part of the work going on here.

As of this week we are halfway through our “TPR” phase of language study. While I type this Bana is sitting next to me with the headphones on drilling through the hundreds of words we have been learning so far. There is an expression we’ve heard here from several Filipinos, “Speaking English makes my nose bleed.” In other words it’s really difficult. We’d have to say the same for Tagalog.
At the same time we have a lot of reminders to stay motivated to learn, namely the over 30 million people living here. Hard work in a high school German class may mean the difference between a C+ and an A. Hard work here and now means we can give the taxi driver the right directions and not get ourselves dropped off in the wrong part of town, it means we can order our 2lbs of chicken breast instead of 2lbs of pig intestines, but most of all it means we can build relationships and effectively communicate the Truth about Christ!

Please pray for us as we work hard to understand Filipino language and culture!

Last week we got to spend the day with Mike & Sandy Mikolavich. Mike grew up in Grants Pass and they are another one of the NTM missionary families our sending church supports. We were able to visit them in Papua New Guinea several years ago. They just happened to be passing through Manila before they flew on for a short conference and to do some consulting work here in the Philippines. We took them out to do a bit of shopping, had them up to our place for dinner and really enjoyed getting to catch up. Unfortunately we all forgot to take a picture to pass on. They really were here… you’ll just have to take our word for it.

We are so grateful to have enjoyed the freedoms of living in the USA. We didn’t have any fireworks or brass bands but we did enjoy a nice BBQ celebrating the 4th of July with all the other “Yanks”. Below is a picture of Eve playing with her new friend Maycie, Lydia in her “red, white, and blue” and also a photo of Naomi with our neighbor’s helper Elsie.

evemaycie

lydia

elsienaomi

Thank you for your prayers! Please continue to pray for us –

That God would give us wisdom as we consider putting Naomi and Lydia in a small local pre-school for a couple hours each morning.

Also that He would continue to guide us as we visit various churches in the city and look for a local body of believers to get connected with.

Praise the Lord the issues with the leak seem to have been resolved! We are grateful to have a place of our own and are feeling reasonably settled here in our new home.

Please do let us know how we can be praying for you. We’d love to stay up to date with what’s going on in your life!

In Him,

The Major Family