n April, Markus and Katja Neufeld had the privilege of attending two conferences and were greatly blessed and encouraged. First, the regional conference took place on their island where they are serving in the Philippines. And then as they are planning to work on the island of Luzon in the future, they were also invited to the conference there. At both conferences, the theme of ‘a life of devotion’, was evident.
Every year in March and April, in the town where they live, there is a huge festival celebrating the seven ethnic groups in the region. Dozens of bamboo huts are erected, in which many local restaurants and cafés offer their food and drink, sell souvenirs, particularly items that the people from the ethnic groups have made themselves such as baskets, clothing and jewellery. Various events were also held in connection with this festival. It was all very exciting to watch. On another day during the festival, there was a mass tribal wedding. They were thankful that their language assistants could explain and translate for them but they were saddened to see and hear the rituals and spirit worship.
Markus and Katja’s daily routine has changed. They now have one-to-one lessons. Markus continues to spend time with his language tutor from 8am to 12noon, Monday to Friday, whilst Katja starts her session with her language tutor at 10am until 12noon. Their son Theo keeps himself occupied or listens in on Katja’s lesson. After the lunch break, Katja has another two hours with her language assistant.
In the first phase of the language course, they learnt words and phrases with the help of objects and pictures. In the second phase they go through picture books with their language assistants. The language assistant describes the pictures and then tells the story. This is recorded, and then they go through the recordings with the language tutor. If a word is new, the language tutor explains it to them and writes it down. Later, all the new words are recorded separately. They then listen to all these recordings in the afternoon or evening. Once they have finished a picture book and listened to the recordings a few times, they retell the story – this is how they practise speaking too. Markus completed the second stage last week and is starting the third stage this week. Katja still has a few new words to ‘pick up’ in the second stage.
Alongside language learning are normal life routines including family time. They are very grateful for their domestic helper, she speaks Tagalog very well, so they can practise the language with her too.
New missionaries arrived in the Philippines in February, some were from Germany. Theo is very happy that he now has playmates with whom he can speak German. But he also plays with the other children and understands almost everything in English. Speaking English is still a bit difficult for him. Last week they went on a trip into the countryside with the two new families. They had a dip in the river to cool off and had a picnic.
They are grateful to the Lord for:
The conferences – for the fellowship and the encouragement. Pray that they will continue to put into practice what they have learnt. They are also grateful that Theo enjoyed this time.
The insight they have already gained into Filipino culture and language. Pray that many more people will hear the Gospel and be saved and that they would be a blessing to those around them.
The family unit. Pray that they treat one another with love, and honour God in their marriage and in bringing up Theo.