Recently Jared had the opportunity to return to the tribe we visited last June in Northern Luzon.  He along with John Burbidge and Donovan Epp, two of the missionaries already working among the Agta there, took the 6 hour boat ride in, spent a few days and then hiked the 20 odd miles out.  It was a chance to visit with the people and see how they were doing after the big typhoons last year.  Because of the weather none of the missionaries had been able to get into the village up until that point.

Overall it was a good trip and thankfully the people and their houses had faired well through the storms.

Below are a just few photos from the trip.

The boat ride in was much colder and wetter than the last time.

Don visiting with one of the Agta families there in the tribe.  These guys are making swimming goggles from scratch out of the plastic carved from a fishing net float, a broken bottle and a bit of resin.

Lightening had struck a tree near Johns house and it looked like it had affected his radio antenna so one of the men helped us get the wire down out of the tree.  This is pretty impressive when you consider this guy is likely into his 60′s.  I’m not quite 30 and I’d need a ladder or a chainsaw.

Kids being kids.

The trail out is a bit over 20 miles and was a sloppy mess in many places.  The mud varies from the brown buttery gravel "careful not to break your neck as you fall" variety to the shoe sucking knee deep kind to the sticky sort that graduals builds up on the bottom of your boots til you realize you are about a foot taller and your feet feel conspicuously heavy.

There were too many river crossings to count but they were all a welcome opportunity to cool off!

We arrived back at the flight base to see the helicopter take off on one of its early check out flights. Its either 6 hours by boat, 20 miles on the trail or just 20 minutes in the helicopter.  Praise the Lord for a flight program!  :-)

We hope you will pray for the Agta people, for the Epp family and for John, the missionaries living and working among them.  There is such a need there and the response to the Gospel has been slow so far.  Please pray for John as he prepares to begin teaching again and for the Epps as they work towards moving back in as a family once the helicopter is up and running on a consitent basis.

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