Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer!

 Believe it or not, we have now lived in the Philippines (almost) a year. Nearly eleven months, to be exact. It was in late February last year that we were given final, official approval to transfer from Bucharest, Romania, to Manila, Philippines. So much has happened since last February that I thought I’d give a brief highlight of one event that happened each month. This blog post is, then, something of what the Hebrews called an ebenezer, a stone raised to commemorate and celebrate God’s faithfulness. While each of these last year’s events were by no means easy, we joyfully commemorate and celebrate God’s faithfulness to us.

February 2022: Official Approval from IMB to transfer to the Philippines.

March 2022: Landed in Manila

April 2022: Full-time Tagalog language study

May 2022: After submitting our documents to obtain Philippine visas, we took the kids to the Manila Ocean Park

June 2022: Finished our three months of full-time Tagalog study

July 2022: First vacation in the Philippines. Switched to part-time language study. Began attending IBC Manila.

August 2022: Jessica started teaching high school algebra at Faith Academy, Sara started kindergarten at Faith Academy, and Noah started preschool. Cameron’s first cohort of ThM/PhD Orality Studies, for which he serves as Program Director, officially launched with their first course.

September 2022: Cameron preached at Philippine Baptist Theological Seminary in Baguio for their Spiritual Emphasis Week.

October 2022: IMB Philippines and South Pacific Cluster Retreat

November 2022: Our first Thanksgiving in the Philippines.

December 2022: Our first Christmas in the Philippines. We spent the week at the beautiful Doane Rest, a missionary retreat center in Baguio run by ABWE (American Baptists for World Evangelization).

January 2023: Cameron taught his first PhD-level course, Intro to Qualitative Research.

February 2023: Jessica successfully registered Noah for Faith Academy’s Pre-K and Sara for 1st grade.