Martin Family Update December, 2008

//Bryan and Jacinda Martin are on a church planting team serving in the
Philippines since 2002 with World Team (www.worldteam.org)/ /

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family!

Our Christmas party was a great success. Although not as many people
came as we expected, the event went very well considering this was the
first year that all of the planning was done by the Christians in Payo
themselves. I attached a photo of some of those that attended (others
were still swimming and others were still eating!). The highlight for
me was to see Eddie preach the message that day on Isaiah 9:6, "For a
child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government
will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." He did a great
job, and I think others were encouraged to see him practice his
spiritual gifts. Thank you to all who prayed for this event!

We miss you all and think of you especially during these holiday times.
We hope you all enjoy the Christmas season, and take some time to
celebrate the greatest gift that God gave to us, His son, Jesus.

Bryan, Jacinda Imogen, Arwen and Elias
/
For more information:
Our Blog: http://simbaray.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.worldteamphilippines.org
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tagapanganiban /

Martin Family Update, December 2008

/Bryan and Jacinda Martin are on a church planting team serving in the
Philippines since 2002 with World Team (www.worldteam.org)/

Greetings from the rainy and windy island of Catanduanes!

WHO WON THE ELECTION?
As we hiked through the jungle on a small island, we came upon a house
made of bamboo and thatch. There lived a family, as isolated from the
world as one can get. No electricity, no running water, no contact with
the outside world other than the occasional person walking on the path
by their house. We asked him if he goes into town very often, and he
replied, "No. I am too busy out here to go into town.". I guess we all
think we are busy, perhaps it is human nature or a result of the fall.
The difference I saw in this family, though, was a sense of contentment
and happiness that I don't often see in the US with people who say they
are "busy". My teammate asked him if he knew the results of the
presidential election in the US. He said "No. Who's Obama?".

BATS IN THE... LIVING ROOM?
Ah, yes. This was a fun one. Arwen wanted to catch it, Jacinda and
Imogen and Elias wanted to stay under the table, and I wanted to get the
thing out of my house! He flew a few laps around the living room, flew
around our bedroom, then went back to the living room and disappeared.
At this point I had opened the front door so he would get the hint and
maybe search for a better place to live. As I did not see him again, I
assumed he had left. But he didn't. The next night as we were eating
dinner, he decided to do a few laps around the living room again,
sending everyone but me back under the table. Then he disappeared
again. Bats are good at hiding, as a thorough search turned up
nothing. On the third day, he must have been getting weary from not
eating, I found him lying in some linens, so I wrapped him up and took
him outside, where he went back to wherever bats like him are supposed
to live.

BIRD PROBLEMS
Elias had a doctors appointment scheduled for his shots. Jacinda and I
were going to leave the girls here with our teammates so we could get a
few things done in Manila. We made all of our appointments, scheduled
our meetings, everything was well planned and set. We rode the bus down
to the capitol (Virac) with our 9 month old squirming boy who just
wanted to get down and put that black piece of gunk in his mouth, and
made it to the airport. Our flight was canceled. The flight the next
day was full. Supposedly, the plane hit some birds on the way in and
was not cleared to fly back to Manila. We canceled everything, took the
bus back home the next day, and we will try again next week. The
animals around here are out to get us!

GETTING TO MANILA
The time came for our rescheduled trip to Manila. This time, it had
been raining all week, and the day we were to leave we heard that the
road was blocked by a landslide. Our neighbor is the owner of one of
the buses, and he offered to take us to the landslide, where his friend
would pick us up on the other side. We set out on what sounded like a
good plan, only before we got to the big landslide, we were blocked by
another, smaller landslide. As we were trying to decide what to do,
another van drove up on the other side, so the 2 vans just switched
passengers, and we continued on. When we arrived at the big landslide,
there were no vehicles on the other side like we had planned. Now we
were in a tough situation - we could not get home, since there was a
landslide and no vehicles there, and we were blocked from getting to the
airport as well. We needed to leave within 15 minutes or we would miss
our plane, which I had all but given up on getting to in time at this
point. Right then a jeep pulled up on the other side of the landslide,
and I thought there was hope of making it again, so we trudged through
the knee deep mud along the side of a cliff. When we got to the other
side, the jeep had left! It was raining with 30mph gusts of wind, and
there we were standing next to a big pile of mud, which we were covered
with, with our suitcase, backpack, stroller, and Elias (now 9 months).
I didn't think all of that could fit on a motorcycle, but there was a
guy with a motorcycle who did, so after 5 men carried the motorcycle
across the landslide, we tried tying everything on and we fit! Thats
how we made it to the airport, just in time to catch our flight, despite
everyone staring at our mud-covered clothes as we boarded the plane.

CHRISTMAS PARTY
It is time once again for our annual Christmas party. This is one of
the few times that we bring everyone who is involved in the ministry
here together for an event. We expect up to 60 families will attend.
Please pray that his will be an encouraging time for all. Pray also for
Eddie, as this will be his first time to preach in front of a large
group. We will send an update with pictures after the party.

For more information:
Our Blog: http://simbaray.blogspot.com/
Website: http://www.worldteamphilippines.org
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/tagapanganiban

Bryan

Martin Family Update, November, 2008

MEN'S RETREAT
This month we planned a mens retreat to a remote place on a small island
not far from Catanduanes. The waves were too big for us to make it
directly to the place we were going by boat, so we had to hike from one
side of the island to the other. After 2.5 hours of hiking through the
jungle and the mud in the rain, we arrived at Kogon, Panay Island. The
beauty of this place is not easy to describe, so I attached some
photos. Overall, the retreat was a great success! We were able to
build on the relationships with these men who are essential to building
a strong church in Payo.

Martin Family Update September, 2008

Greetings to you all from the rainy town of Panganiban, Catanduanes!

MARRIAGE SEMINAR
One of the needs that we have seen come up over and over among the new
Christians is for some teaching on marriage. Many are experiencing
trouble in their marriages, and there is nowhere for them to go for any
help, advice or guidance (let alone counseling!). To try and meet this
need, and to strengthen the marriages of the believers here, our team
hosted a marriage seminar. At first we just planned to have a few
couples, maybe 10 or so, but as word got out, more and more people were
interested in signing up. It got to the point where the principal at
the local high school started signing up parents that he thought needed
some help! Another purpose was added to our seminar - reaching out to
families that have never studied the Bible before. The high school let
us use their buildings for the seminar, and we flew in a pastor from
Manila (from the same organization as our team leaders) to do the
teaching. 28 couples came to the 2 day seminar, which finished off with
a "date night" romantic dinner and dancing, as well as a renewing of
vows ceremony. Overall, everyone was very positive and we still hear
reports of how this has helped their marriage, and there are at least 2
new families who are studying the Bible as a result of the seminar!

FIRST AID
My teammate Tom came over the other day and asked, "Can I borrow your
motorcycle?". I said, "Sure. Oh, wait, let me wash all the blood off
first". Tom looked at me in surprise and said, "OK, what's the story?"
After returning from a Bible Study one night, I came upon a group of
people and motorcycles in the road. It just happened that the location
of this disturbance was in a known terrorist hang-out, so I was very
quickly trying to figure out what was going on and what I should do. As
I got close enough to the people on the road, I could see that the
expression on their faces was not good - the situation was tense. They
noticed me and motioned for me to come closer, and as I did, they
carried a young man over and put him on my side car. A couple of other
guys jumped on and they were telling me very urgently in their local
language "lets go!". As we got further away from the apparent accident,
I looked down at the man they put on my side-car, and he looked like he
was in a lot of pain. I asked one of the men where they wanted me to
take them, and I guessed form their answer the hospital. When we got to
the hospital, as usual there was no doctor or nurses there, so they
would not let us in. My passengers were not coming up with other
options, so I said I would take them to my house. When we got there I
was finally able to get a look at the man's injuries: a good size chunk
of his knee was gone, and there were several deep gashes in his leg.
This went way beyond the little first aid kit that I got out, but with
no other option I decided I would do what I could for him. As the dirt
and rocks washed out of the wound, I could see the bone showing
through. I poured a little peroxide on it and covered the wound with
some bandages and neosporin. One of the men had a cell phone and pretty
soon half the town was crowded outside my house. There was a discussion
about what they were going to do, and from what I could gather from it,
there were some who wanted to go and retaliate against the other party
involved in the accident who were from a different town, but the men who
suggested this were drunk so they didn't listen to them and decided
instead to take him to the hospital the next day. After that, they all
thanked me and left. Later, I heard that the 2 motorcycles collided and
that the driver of one of the motorcycles got angry and punched one of
the men on the other motorcycle. He then got his machete and started to
go after the guy, at which point I think I arrived on the scene. I
heard later that the young man with the injury was healing well,
although he was not able to walk for a while.

THE TEN COMMANDMENTS
"Why would God give us laws that we are unable to follow perfectly?"
That was my question to a new Bible study in a coastal town last week.
As they struggled to answer the question, I thought about all of the
other Bible studies this week where we studied about the Ten
Commandments. There has been a variety of reactions, from those who
would rather hold to their traditions and idols, to those who in
response to the lesson ask, "what should I do with all the idols in my
house?". Probably the most surprising reaction came after one group
finished reading a passage in Jeremiah 10 where it says, "They are
altogether stupid and foolish in their discipline of delusion - their
idol is wood!". There was a long pause after they read the passage.
Then the most respected man in the town said in a loud voice, "We are
all stupid!". In the discussion that followed, the believers traced
back their roots of idolatry to the Spanish who imposed Catholicism on
the people as a means of control, and who punished anyone caught reading
the Bible with a beating - 100 times with a large stick. Pray for the
believers who are struggling with their traditions which are opposed to
the Bible, that they would trust God and not bow to the pressure of
family and community.

Thank you all for praying!

Bryan

Marriage Seminar

28 couples attended the 2 day seminar with a banquet on the evening of
the last day. Everyone enjoyed the time together and for most it was
the first time that they had ever heard any teaching about marriage from
a Biblical perspective. Some were already asking when we were going to
do it again. We are hoping that God will use this to help strengthen
the marriages of those who attended. Some of those that came have not
studied the Bible yet, and have signed up for a follow-up small group
Bible study on marriage.
Since this was such a success, we are looking into doing a seminar on
parenting (another great need!).

Martin Family Update August, 2008-2

Forgot to attach the promised picture! Here it is...

Martin Family Update August, 2008

/Bryan and Jacinda Martin are on a church planting team serving in the
Philippines since 2002 with World Team (www.worldteam.org)/

Greetings to all from Panganiban, the hard way to say "Payo".

THE BATTLE FOR SLEEP
As parents of a 7 year old, a 5 year old, and a 5 month old baby, we
know that we are not the only ones who are having a little trouble
sleeping. There are some additional enemies in the battle for sleep
that we have encountered since arriving in Payo:
Roosters - I don't know what kind of rooster only crows in the morning
when the sun comes up, or where that myth came from, but the roosters
here crow ALL NIGHT LONG. Men here like to raise them to fight in a
competition and make bets on which one will win, so there are a LOT of
roosters here.
Electricity - Why would electricity have an impact on sleeping? The
other day the temperature got up to 97 with 80-90 percent humidity, and
at night it went all the way down to 90. Most people here cannot sleep
in that kind of heat, myself included! So when the electricity goes off
and the fans go off, we just sit on the tile floor and fan our kids so
thy don't wake up.
Events - What do you do in the middle of nowhere, with no movie theater,
no fast food, no entertainment... you have events! This means that you
must have big sound, that way the whole town can hear that you are
having an event and can come participate. And yes, we can hear it from
our house, too, usually until 3:00am.

PTA OFFICER INDUCTIONS
We have the privilege of being invited and participating in our PTA
officer inductions. Since we arrived after the elections for the PTA,
we do not hold any of the important titles like president or treasurer.
In her absence, however, Jacinda was voted to be the "Muse", and I her
escort. If you don't know what a Muse is, look it up on the
Miriam/Webster <http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/muse> online
dictionary and
you'll get the idea. Fortunately for us (and for those watching) we
weren't required to perform a "special number" this year. These events
are a great way to be involved in the community and to get to know the
parents of Imogen and Arwen's friends at school.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES
Since we arrived a couple of weeks into the school year, we had to rush
to get all of the school supplies that our kids needed: pencils, paper,
folders, backpacks, and a 12" long knife. Actually it is a machete, or
itak as it is called here. Any student who does not bring their machete
to school gets marked down in their grades. The kids use these to do
gardening and weeding at their school. We will have to make sure that
Imogen does not put her machete in her backpack when she goes to school
again in California!

MINISTRY AND RESPONSIBILITY
We have been busy getting back into ministry again here in Payo, and it
will take us a while to get our bearings. A lot of things change in a
year, and some things don't change at all. Our current field director
is on home assignment in California for a year. Just before we left
California to come back, we got word that our Interim Field Director
(filling in for the FD who is on home assignment), whose name is Bob
French (some of you may have met him) was diagnosed with prostate
cancer. The treatments are intense enough that he was advised to get
rid of stress as much as possible, so I was asked to be the "Acting
Field Director" while Bob is unable to perform in that role. So that
makes me the Acting Field Director to the Interim Field Director to the
Field Director. Since there is only so much I can do in that role from
our location in Payo, it has only had a small effect on my ability to be
involved in the ministry here. I do need prayer for wisdom as I am
tasked with managing various conflicts and issues that arise, and also
that Bob would make a full recovery.

Attached is a picture of Imogen as a "pom-pom girl" in our towns Fiesta
parade.

Thank you for all your prayers and support,

Bryan Martin

/To Make a tax-deductible donation to the Martin's ministry in the
Philippines, make checks payable to World Team with Bryan Martin in the
notes section, and send them to: World Team, 1431 Stuckert Road,
Warrington, PA 18976/
To give online, go to: http://www.worldteam.org/content.asp?id=98
/

Martin Family Update July 17, 2008

Hi all! Just wanted to send out another update, this time from home!
We are able to connect to the internet through the cell phone network
here. It is about half the speed of a dial-up modem, but it seems
really reliable, and it costs only 50 cents per hour. We are glad we
will be able to stay more in touch with everyone. Here are some recent
photos: Imogen in her school uniform, Arwen fitting in with her
neighborhood friends, Elias trying desperately to crawl, and our house
now complete with glass in the windows.

We celebrated Imogen's 7th birthday with a little party in her classroom
(sweet spaghetti and juice drinks), and then a little party with the
neighborhood friends at our house.

One of the challenges we are facing on our return has been that a lot of
things are broken! Our TV, some electrical things, our motorcycle, and
now our oven! It is taking a lot of time to get all this stuff either
repaired or replaced, but slowly we are getting things back in order so
our household can function once again.

Thanks again for your prayers for us. Next week we will start attending
the various Bible studies to get a feel for how they are all doing, and
the week after that I will start teaching and discipling again.

Bryan

Our House in the Philippines

Here is the progress on our house in the Philippines as they ad a second
story. On the final photos, what appear to be windows are actually just
the bars with no glass! We will have them put in the glass soon
(hopefully!).

Elias Photo

Here is our latest photo of Elias.

Welcome!

Welcome to our website, where we will post all of our updates and latest
photos!