(say Bug-AW-bawg)

Well, I mentioned in a recent prayer update to some of you who’ve been praying for us that we especially desired prayer this coming Friday when we head to one of the local villages on our own by public transit. For one thing, we found out today that (since we’ve never been here before), they won’t be sending us anywhere on our own (that’s a relief!). So someone from that village will be coming to pick us up and drive us out to the village.

But secondly, I should have asked for prayer for today!! Everything went fine, but it was a flight on a helio … a 6-seater propeller plane that is about the size of a large car, but still manages to take us 7500 feet in the air. I was so scared!! But of course everything went fine.

We actually had beautiful weather, and it was a very smooth flight. I hadn’t thought I’d be nervous. I’d ridden in a 16-passenger plane before, and don’t generally fear air travel. But there’s quite a difference between 16 and 6. I was seated in the very back, by myself, and then the two other passengers were seated in the two middle seats, and Daniel sat up front by our pilot Brian Graham (Mom P, I just read your email and you mentioned them! So we did get to meet him. What a great guy. He said he recognized our names from hearing about the “tree removal experiment” back in 2000, when he was working out of Nasuli – can you believe he heard about it way out there??).

So my anxiety wasn’t helped by the fact that, as we were waiting, our traveling companions began to tell us the tale of their most recent flight in a helio. They had been in S. America, and there had been a thunderstorm (an extraordinary experience in such a tiny plane, apparently) … then there was the cargo: a large (live) turtle and an enormous cooking pot full of some kind of food … then there was the fact that they’d had to make an emergency landing on a new airstrip, and both of their front wheels sank into a huge pothole, and they all had to try and lift the plane out! Then they had to hike to a better airstrip so they could take off again, and had the unnerving experience of watching their plane fly off without them, leaving them in an unknown village. What a nightmare. I smiled bleakly, telling myself how sure I am that those things don’t happen all the time.

I was really glad Daniel got to sit up front, but I wished I didn’t have to sit all by myself in the back! As we taxied toward take-off, my mind began to go into overdrive and I wondered if we’d die (!), and was close to tears. (I hope this isn’t too upsetting to my poor mother – I’m not sure exactly why I felt so afraid, and it did pass after several minutes).

Thankfully, the Holy Spirit waved a hand in front of my mind’s line of sight, and I remembered Him and began to pray. I began to feel more at peace and my heart found refuge in him.

I began to notice that it was really neat to be able to feel a real breeze while riding in a plane (since the plane is not pressurized, there are tiny windows so we can get fresh air – so nice!). Then, more and more, I became fascinated with seeing the tiny, perfect green rice paddies, and wondering why some of them are brown (fallow?). I could see the rivers’ cursive writing. We passed an inactive volcano. The clouds were incredible: one set of cumulus in particular looked like a massive stalk of cauliflower hanging in midair below us. We even saw rice terraces as we approached our destination! (We hope to visit Banaue this week – home to some of the best rice terraces around.)

Then I noticed the neatest thing: the reflection of the sun in water was following right alongside us the entire way! What a reminder of God’s presence so near and with us. Of course the sun was there all along, but so high above us that I never noticed it until I saw a pale white disc reflected every so often in the water bodies below us. I realized it was the sun! Its incredibly beautiful and constant reflection peeked out every so often in the gleam of a flooded rice paddy … a square so vibrantly green from one angle, but glitteringly silver from the next! Like that woven irridescent fabrice that is purple from one angle and pink from another. The sun’s reflection faithfully accompanied us the entire trip north.

By the middle of the flight, I was actually enjoying it!

So now we’re here in Bagabag, and love it so far! It’s like coming to the country out of a big city. In fact, that’s exactly what it is. We’re staying in a lovely, clean guest house with delicious meals (it feels like a B&B), and there is even a swimming pool! We have our meals with our traveling companions, and have enjoyed getting to know them better. One of the things they’ve been working on in Asia Area are sign language translations of Scripture in Asia. It was fascinating to learn more about this!

There was an awkward moment when we arrived and learned that there had been some confusion among the project managers of the various Wycliffe projects we are visiting, wondering why Seed Co. would be visiting them (not realizing that we are also representing Wycliffe). But I guess it was all worked out by Joe McAlpin, the regional director here, and now they are glad we are here. It was something that had been out of our hands, but was still somewhat embarrassing.

We were then given a tour of the facilities by Joe, and then took a nap after lunch (we were needing it, after getting up at 4:30 this morning! Ugh.)

Tomorrow (Wed) we will hopefully be visiting the Ifugao people nearby. Pray that interviews and photos go well – I’ll be using a tape recorder we bought in Manila (since the small video camera we’d planned to use was stolen in Singapore ). Then we leave Saturday morning for a few nights in the town of Bontoc, and then on to visit the Butbut for a few nights.

Hopefully we’ll be putting up a few pictures from our flight later today!