Back Home!

Dear friends,
I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying this Christmas season. I am back home (in the States) until January 12 for my sister's wedding and am taking advantage of the Internet connection!
I arrived in Charlotte this last Tuesday morning and my parents and little brother, Kevin, came to pick me up. It is so nice to be home, but I do keep thinking of the people in Kensuli where I am working that I left behind. I pray they will stay true to God in our absence!
My parents are actually moving to Arkansas on Tuesday. My dad will be working at Ouachita Hils Academy. So I am happy I will get to see their new home before I head back to Palawan.
Some of you may be wondering how our project was affected by the hurricane. Thankfully, it totally missed us. We were in Puerto Princessa at the time for a Palawan-wide Adventist fellowship. We got a little wind and a lot of rain, but that's about all.
I have really been enjoying my time in Kensuli. Kensuli is a small village about a 45 minute hike across the river from Kemantian, the main mission station. There is another missionary family there in Kensuli and I am teaching their girls, ages 13 and 15, in the mornings and part of the afternoons. In the afternoons and evenings I go visiting people at their houses or I play with the children. These times are focused on language-learning. I feel like I have learned a lot of the language, but at the same time, I still can't understand many of the conversations that go on around me. I know that it will come in time though with God's blessing.
I am really thankful that I was able to start my time there in September instead of January. I feel like I have been able to develop some pretty close relationships with the ladies and kids in Kensuli already. One of the girls, who is 12 years old, told me that it's like it is sad there around my house when I am not there, but when I am there it is a happy place. I just thank God that He has blessed my house with His presence so that others can feel it there. Having experiences like that make me excited to go back. I am glad my year is not over yet!
Please continue to pray for God's work among this people group. They are so precious, but Satan wants them for himself. Pray that God's light will shine into those mountain valleys and that people will see how much God loves them. Pray that God will give them strength to overcome the many temptations that Satan throws their way. The victory belongs to God and He will triumph in the end!

P.S. Be looking for more blog posts with pictures in the near future. I am planning to post some articles that I wrote while I was there, but didn't have Internet to upload them.