The Major Tribe

Click on the image above to view video.

When we went back with Beth and her husband to survey the damage to their home we first stopped at the house of one of the ladies who works in our office here.  She was also trapped in her home with nearly 100 people.  Hers happens to be one of the taller buildings (3 stories) in the area and many gathered there as the water continued to rise.  We brought food, water, and a few other things and talked with her for a while.  She said that 86 people are thought to be dead in her area alone.

When we arrived at Beth’s house we all just stood around and stared for about 10 minutes trying to figure out where to start.  There was mud covering everything.

Ultimately we sorted and piled and did what we could.  There was just a trickle of clean water available to that alley so we were limited in how much we could clean up.  When it got dark we left food and water for Beth’s in-laws and neighbors and made our way home.

Even as we drove through the city to get to and from Beth’s home I was struck by the scale of the destruction.  It is hard to walk into a home with boxes of food and water while hundreds look on in the same situation.  There is so much need here.

Today Bana spent the day watching Beth’s kids while she and her husband went to look for housing.

Bana and some of the other ladies also worked to salvage some of Beth’s photo albums that we found in the house.  Surprisingly many of them cleaned up well enough to be saved.

I headed back to another area with Josh, Joel, and several other NTM missionaries to start working on cleaning up the homes of some of the other missionaries affected by the flooding.

This is a photo of a 1 year old car that was completely flooded.  That dark brown area on the wall is not paint its oil. An oil storage facility had several tanks break and release thousands of gallons of oil into the surrounding neighborhoods.  I guess it brings new meaning to the phrase, “Well oiled machine.”

Josh and Joel are Pilot/Mechanics with NTM aviation and I… can run a hose and scrub like the dickens J so we figured we could try to resurrect this car that belongs to an NTM family who serves here in the Manila office.

There is a lot more to be done.  Today we are headed out again.  We are praying that in all of this God will use us and the other believers here to be a demonstration of his love to folks.

PLEASE PRAY!!!

Please pray that God will halt this next storm that appears to be coming on Friday.

Please pray for wisdom for us in knowing who and how to help.  There are over 14 million people in Metro Manila and the homes of 1.9 million of those people were flooded.  There are many things we could be doing.  We want to know how best we can be helping.

Please pray for our Filippino friends and coworkers who have lost most everything.  Please also pray for the NTM missionaries whose homes were also flooded, there is a lot of cleanup work ahead for them as well.  Pray for health and protection from infections and disease.

Finally please pray that in all of this that Christ will be glorified and that through the difficult circumstances people will see His love, that they will understand and believe on Him, and that He will be honored here.

There is a general disaster relief fund that has been set up through New Tribes Mission.  You can call 866-547-2460 to give by Debit or Credit Card, or send a check to:

New Tribes Mission

1000 E. First St.

Sanford, FL  32771-1487

Make it payable to New Tribes Mission and include a note designating: “For the Philippines Disaster Relief”

If you are led to give for something or someone specifically you can send it through our NTM ministry account.  Please specify to us personally by email how you’d like us to distribute the funds.

For information on how to give to our NTM account click here: http://www.ntm.org/wp/jared_major/give/

Lastly, this whole situation has illustrated to us clearly that we could be better prepared for these sorts of situations.  We come from the USA and the mindset that 911 = Police and ambulances and fire trucks and helicopters and skilled people trained and ready to help whenever you need them.  Here it just isn’t that way.  For that reason we are looking to purchase some equipment and supplies in order to be more prepared for emergency situations we might face here in our ministry.  If you are interested in helping out with those things please let us know.

In Him,

The Major Family

Hi everyone,

Sorry we haven’t sent out any updates in the last few days.  There has been serious flooding here in Manila and has caused widespread devastation.  We are grateful that in our area there hasn’t been the kind of damage as in other parts of the city.

We tried to include what pictures we have taken.  These aren’t world class photos and we really haven’t taken many photos in general.  I’ve found it is hard to stand in front of a woman covered in mud, carrying her baby in one arm and her only possessions in the other and snap a picture.  Hope the descriptions help to give a sense of what’s going on.

First off we wanted to tell you a little bit about Beth and how God preserved her and her children.

Saturday morning for us was a slow one.  We got up late and had pancakes. We were settled in for a relaxing day to maybe watch a movie with the kids and friends.  The rain really started coming down sometime after breakfast but we hadn’t heard anything about the storm prior to that.  Around noon Bana got a text from Beth, one of language teachers, that simply said, “Please pray, I am on the roof with the kids and the water is rising.”

Later Beth told us she arrived home earlier than normal to find her children alone in the house with water already inside.  Her kids who are 11, 10, and 3 years old were just playing in the water.  She quickly decided that they needed to go somewhere higher and headed for her uncle’s house nearby.  When they reached the street the water had already risen to chest height on her 10 and 11 year old.  Neither Beth nor her children can swim and with the strong current it was very difficult to hang onto them.  She said that later she had heard of a man sitting at the school crying because he had tried to wade through the current with his two children.  He had lost hold of them and they were swept away.

Once at her uncle’s Beth and the kids waited and watched as the water rose as rose.  In Marikina, one of the hardest hit areas, it rarely floods and when it does it usually only knee height at worst.  Some folks actually made fun of her for being so serious about the situation.  Many people just stayed in their homes which would later turn out to be fatal.  She said she had no doubt in her mind that they were going to die as well.

The water rose very quickly, partly because of the intensity of the rain (nearly 17 in. fell in less than 24 hours, this is more than the MONTHLY average here!) and partly because the decision was made to open the flood ways which inundated the area.

Here is a shot of the river at the flood way as we crossed the bridge.  It’s hard to get the scale but I’m not sure I have seen as much water flowing that hard and fast before.

When we got the text from Beth we prayed for her and the situation.  We also realized that there was a 4 wheel drive available and (amazingly) one of the NTMA pilots, Joel, had brought his large inflatable kayak from the states.  We decided we would go out as far as we safely could and see if there was any way to reach Beth to help.

I went with 3 NTMA pilots, Josh, Joel, Gary along with my language helper, Wendel, who helped us find our way and to translate.

We left before 3pm and drove for hours.  All along the way there were literally thousands of people wading through the water going every direction.  Most didn’t have anything but the clothes on their backs while a few carried some small bundles of things.  Every now and then we’d see a big truck loaded down with people making its way through the water.

When the water was too deep for the truck Josh, Joel and I put the kayak in and paddled on down the street.  We found the school Beth had described in her texts and started asking around to find if someone knew where she and kids might be.

It was really heart wrenching as people would wade by and say, “Are you here to rescue people?  My family is just there and I can’t reach them. Can you help me?” or “I am looking for food for my children can you take me someplace where I can buy food for them?”  At one point a group of men, carrying another man, passed by and asked if we could help them float him to a hospital.  He had had a heart attack.

There were so many people who needed help it was overwhelming.

Ultimately, after 18 hours and through God’s amazing providence and direction we were able to reach Beth and the kids and bring them back to the NTM guest house.

God had protected them.  He brought her home just in time on a day when she normally would have been out longer.  He brought them all safely across the street to higher ground.  He caused the building to hold up under the pressure of the water and kept it from rising over the roof.  We are all so grateful to God for protecting them!

This is a shot of the house where Beth and the kids were staying.  The upper line is where the water crested and the lower is where it had dropped to by the time we came.

(More to come, we had to split this into two parts so it wouldn’t be too big)

Since it’s been a little while since our last update we have quite a few pictures to share in the next couple emails.

NAILING DOWN THE LANGUAGE

A lot of language learning is about spending time with people, using what you can, and doing lots of listening.  Bana found a great way to practice her Tagalog has been to walk down to a local salon to sit and talk with the ladies there.  The girls have really enjoyed getting to come along while mom practices her Tagalog!  (One of the benefits of living here is that having your nails done only costs $3!)

 

 

 

The girls are also thrilled to have some old friends come join them here in the Philippines.  Two other families who were in the training with us in Missouri arrived recently and come over to play every now and then.  These missionary families have to come as pilots and mechanics to support the work going on in the many remote areas where NTM missionaries are living.  We praise the Lord for the way He builds up the body, each part playing an important role to accomplish His will!

 

 

SURVEY TRIP

Jared recently had the opportunity to take a trip up to the northern part of Luzon to visit several areas, gather information about the needs for teaching and church planting in those areas, and get a sense of the way most Filipinos live.

During the trip he stayed with a family in their home.  This is a picture of their host cooking lunch.

 

 

Statistics say that over 50% of the population of this country is under the age of 17.  Everywhere we went there were lots of kids and I tend to think the statistics are right.  Paul (one of my traveling companions) brought along a little Frisbee and the kids warmed up pretty quickly when we started tossing it around with them.  Our hosts had three children, this is one of their sons.

 

 

I showed him how to use the little digital camera and he seemed to really enjoy walking around and taking pictures of things all around his house.  Here are a couple of the shots he took of his friends.

 

 

 

 THE TELEPHONE GAME

You can really see the need to learn the heart language of people here.  In order to communicate with some of the tribes we visited it look several steps of translation.  Here’s the breakdown:

One of the tribes we were trying to communicate with, a group of Agta folks, spoke their heart language and also Ilocano.

Two believers from the Kalanguya tribe who had come with us could also speak Ilocano, Kalanguya, and a bit of Tagalog.

Bob, our guide, spoke Kalanguya, some Tagalog, and English.

In order for Paul or I to ask a question we would speak in English to Bob, Bob could translate that into Kalanguya, and the Kalanguya men could then translate that into Ilocano for the Agta folks.  And remember Ilocano is still not their 1st language either!

It’s all a bit like the telephone game and you know what happens with that.  Things can get turned around, mixed up, and distorted in all of the translation.  Would you really want to share the Gospel that way?  The trip was a great reminder of why we are working hard in language study right now and why it will be a priority for us to learn the heart language of the people we will work with in the future.  Jesus Christ, the message of the Gospel, and these people are definitely worth the effort to communicate clearly!

 

PLEASE PRAY

Please continue to pray for us to remain diligent and focused on the tasks at hand in language study, getting familiar with the culture, and building relationships with the people around us.

 

Please also pray for us as a family to continue to grow towards Christ and one another.

More to come!

 

In Him,

The Major Family

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.

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

Hi everyone!

So we are coming up on two weeks since we arrived. Here is a quick rundown of where we are at and what we are doing.

We are still at the NTM Guest House here in Manila. We will hopefully be signing the contract for an apartment today. Please pray everything goes well with that.

The rest of the week will likely be filled with purchasing appliances and furniture, sorting through the items we shipped, and moving in. We have really enjoyed our time at the guest house, meeting lots of new people, but we are also excited about getting settled into a place of our own.

In the coming weeks we will be going on a few “cultural excursions”. Basically these are opportunities for us to venture out and start getting more familiar with the sights and sounds of Manila and Filipino culture. We look forward to sending ya’ll back some pictures!

After that we will be ramping up into Tagalog language study and buckle down for the next year and half as we work towards proficiency in Filipino language and culture.

Below are a few photos from this last week.

I (Jared) had the opportunity to go with another couple here who are planning on using their 4×4 truck to help bring in supplies to some of the tribal works that have access by road. Those “roads” are not always passable and so we went out for a test of their vehicle’s off-road abilities. This isn’t their truck but every vehicle in the group ended up taking a run at this particular mud hole. Lots of fun!

This is a jeepney. They are one of the most common forms of public transportation here. You pay around 25cents to ride the route. They all seem to be very personalized with different decorations, paint jobs, horns, and lights.

Taking a jeepney ride to go look at a few apartments. The lady sitting beside Bana is Sesil Morris. Sesil was a huge help to us in finding apartments to look at.

This is a picture of us headed to church on Sunday. It looks like we are walking through a shopping mall… because we are. There are some churches here that meet inside shopping malls.

Here at the guest house Ed and Debbie Jerimas take care of the day to day operation of things. On Sunday’s after church they usually stop off to pick up some fresh fruit at a local fruit stand. That’s Ed in the background. We certainly can’t complain about fresh pineapples, mangos, bananas (real bananas that is), etc. for breakfast every morning.

Thank you all for your prayers! We will try to keep you updated as we get the opportunity.

Just wanted to let you know we did get in safe and had a busy day today, our first full day here. Lots of introductions, looked at a place to live, bought two cell phones, rode a Jeepney, ate pansit, and (drum roll please) CROSSED THE STREET! That part is more exciting than you might think. Anyhow we hope to send out some pictures soon.

Thank you for your prayers!

The Major Family