Palawan: February

Dear Friends and Relatives,

This is just a quick update to let you all know how I have been doing.

Work in Emrang is going slow.  The people there are not building their school very quickly because they are in the middle of clearing their fields. (They do slash and burn farming here).  If I am not at Emrang, very little construction is done on the school.  I have only spent 4 or 5 days there in the last month because I have been needed elsewhere, but soon I hope to be able to be there full time (once the Georges return from furlough).  In the meantime I can be very thankful for a young man named Dading who is about 17 years old.  This is the same student who was so helpful to me by accompanying me out of the mountains last year when I got malaria and had to hike out to the hospital.  He was one of my level A students last year and is very interested in continuing to learn.  He is basically the one who does most of the work on the school.  Last week, after being gone from Emrang for a wee or two, returned for one day to see how the building was progressing.  There were still the 6 poles in the ground that I had left weeks before, but in addition to it there were two more saplings at the site ready to become part of the structure.  Dading had brought them and said he had more up the mountain that he hadn't brought down yet.  I realized that while everyone else was working on their own fields, Dading had the dedication to stand out and basically be the only one to keep working on the school even while I was gone.  Please pray that he will decide to follow Christ in his life and that his leadership skills will draw others to Christ with him.

Please continue to be a part of this project with your prayers.  I believe that satan cannot work in situations where God's people have asked God to come near.  So please pray that God's presence will be with my friends in Emrang and that they have a desire to do God's will instead of their own so that they will come to find peace and joy in this world for eternity.  Thank you so much for all of your support of me personally.  It means allot to me to know that there are brothers and sisters that back me up! 

In His service,

Brian