Nehemiah Update 11 - Much ado about nothing

Shakespeare had it right when he coined the phrase, “much ado about nothing.” This is especially applicable in our circumstances.

So far it seems that the typhoon has ghosted us. They say it’s out there somewhere, but we haven’t seen much of it yet. We had some periods of rain and wind, but we’ve had far more times where it has been calm. But so far it’s been a no-show. I’m OK with that. Battling through one typhoon is enough for me, I don’t need a second.

Unfortunately, we were unable to arrange for a truck to pick us up tomorrow and take us down to Puerto. So we have to stay with going on Friday instead. But that’s OK, we made good use of today and tomorrow we will officially begin our debriefing process.

One of the things we will be reflecting on is our ministry. Tonight I was made aware of the fact that it seems we have had a profound ministry that we have been pretty much unaware of. Let me explain.

Gilmer Paden and his son Luke, who is 12, met us at the airport in Puerto. Gilmer and his wife Julie are on staff with the missions organization.SEND Intl. They work on the island of Mindanao. The Paden’s  two older children are Royal Servants alumni, and their son Josiah is presently on the Kenya team. Gilmer and Luke have been staying with us the entire time and joining us in all of our ministry.

Gilmer is a Filipino and each evening he has been spending time with the people of this village. Apparently, the villagers have been talking about us a lot. And it’s all good.

As I explained earlier, this is a tiny village. The people are poor and rely on fish as their source of food and income. For the last two days, one man has been patiently making baskets from vines he gathered from the surrounding mountains.

The houses - huts -  are on stilts and constructed from bamboo poles and woven mats. There’s not a glass pane in any of the windows, and no screens for that matter to keep out the mosquitoes. Electricity comes from a single uninsulated wire strung  through the trees. It would never pass code in the USA. Light is usually just a single bulb.

People tend not to come to this village. But when they do, they don’t stay for long and usually breeze in for an hour or two and then they’re gone. So they’ve had a hard time trying to figure out why we are staying here. They were impressed by the fact that we rode out the first typhoon with such great attitudes. And they’ve been pleased that we’ve taken the time to live among them. They have been kind and gracious and have patiently put up with the invasion of American teenagers - you have no idea how loud this team is 😂

They feel honored that we have taken the time to live among them. They feel respected. Gilmer said that we’ll never understand the deep impact we’ve had on the people of the village.

It’s a reminder to me that sharing the gospel is often much more than speaking the words. It letting others see the good news in us as we live together side-by-side.

For the Nehemiah Family,

Tom

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