THANKFUL
This week, as usual we are focusing on many things we have to be thankful for. During this stressful time of being moved out of our house, we are particularly thankful for a nice guest house where we can stay, helpful friends, God’s many provisions and blessings, and especially all of you who are praying and sending us encouraging words.

Here’s an update.

BUGS
The work is done at the house, but it still smells like termite poison. A little less than yesterday, though. So it’ll be after Thanksgiving (at the earliest) before we can move back in. We’re hoping that in a few more days the smell will be gone.

MUD
A big problem is our access road. It’s an unpaved dirt lane, and it’s the only way for us to get to the street or from the street to our house. The construction crews have totally trashed it recently with heavy equipment, softening the road and creating big holes. It’s WORSE than when we left the house. So far their answer has been to pile a foot-thick layer of soft dirt on it! It’s already a mess and there is a risk of our vehicle getting stuck. With another hard rain like we’ve been having nearly every day, it will be totally impassable. We’ve talked to our landlord and she will complain to the engineers overseeing the construction again.

Culture note: Not only is it the landlord’s responsibility, but it’s the Filipino way to file a complaint indirectly through an intermediary. It might cause shame or seem overly confrontational if either of us spoke to the crews directly.

What would really fix the problem is for them to scrape it back down to the hard undersurface and to spread crushed rock on it. Please pray that they will do this, and respond without taking offense, so that neighborly relationships can be maintained. We can’t really move back home very easily until the road is fixed.

MEANWHILE
Just to keep us flexible and to show his sense of humor, the Lord allowed the bathroom plumbing in our guest home room to disintegrate last night, so we had to pack up and move to another room this morning, including all our translation set-up, food in the cabinets, a full fridge, etc. Thanks to our partner who tried so hard to fix it without us having to move!

Yes, we’re still smiling (in between sighs), but pray for us. We’re feeling a little borderline overwhelmed here.

PLEASE PRAY WITH US…

• termite poison smell to dissipate quickly
• for our road to be fixed without incident
• that we can move back into our house soon
• rescheduling of Susing’s translation work sessions
• good progress on translation while we are out of our home

Thanks for praying!

Reaching Palawanos together with you (just from a different location this week),

-Bill and Donna

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