TheHolcombes’ blog

We arrived safely in the town of Canilla on Tuesday.  It is a long and tedious drive, but well worth it.  We got to meet the Fickers, and they are an amazing family.  I will write more about them later, but I'm sure you can imagine a little of what it takes to be a family that moves to Guatemala when you don't speak Spanish and sets up a camp and outreach....and then stays for 15 years!

Yesterday we got to visit a small village (aldea) called Chicoxop.  This aldea is of Mayan decent.  Most of the people there speak Quiche which is a dialect of Mayan decent that has mixed a little with Spanish, but mostly is very distinct.  Needless to say, we had to communicate mostly through hand motions and facial expressions.  When we did try to translate, we had to speak, then our translator would repeat what we said in Spanish, which our aldea translator would then repeat in Quiche.  Quite a process!  By the end of our time there we had put on our VBS with some games and crafts, done two dramas, and a couple funny skits.  We loved every second of it.

From a leaders perspective:  It is great to watch as the youth we brought here begin to jump into their roles and begin to find their purpose on this trip.  You can pick out which ones are 'helpers' and which ones are 'leaders' and which ones are great with the kids.  I look forward to assisting these gifts to grow and encouraging these young people to continue to stretch.

I'll write more when I can next.  We leave for another Mayan aldea today.  Pray for our safe travel, a great welcome, and the Lord's love to be communicated.

-Philip

I'm sure you can guess that I am excited about the upcoming trip.  It is 'in my face' already as we get all the last minute stuff done in preparation to leave on the 18th.  Since I am leading the trip, there is a lot more of that to do than I am used to.  I hope you all got my letter and that you are visiting to keep up to date.  Feel free to send me a private note with your email address so that I can update my database. 

The team is pumped up and ready to go.  We are all expecting really great things.  I believe God is going to do some neat works while we are there.  I know we are going to be willing vessels, and God loves to use willing vessels.

The Fickers (the long term missionaries we are working with) are very excited.  We have received a fresh batch of medical supplies to take for them.  We have put together the VBS that we are taking down to use with the children, and the dramas all look great!  This Sunday we will be prayed for and launched by Real Life Church.

This will likely be my last post until I am in Guatemala, so please pray for the following:

Safe travel, health, unity, good communication, love to be shared, pray the devotional time is intimate, pray the young people we are taking are all changed forever, pray the people of Guatemala meet Jesus.

Blessings and peace upon you, I thank God that I have such loving and supportive friends and family.

Real Missions Logo copy

I will be leaving for Guatemala on August 18 very very early in the morning.  We will return around August 28th.  This is going to be an exploratory mission trip for us, as we are starting a new relationship with some local missionaries in the San Andreas area.  They are a team of physicians who have setup a base of operations there and lived in the area for many years now.  You should check out their website at:  www.adonaiinternationalministries.org

I am excited to go because this will be my first trip leading, and my last step in being released to organize and lead trips in the future.  The team that is going is a great team, and I look forward to working with them.  We will do local Vacation Bible Schools, a drama, show 'Facing the Giants', medical outreach (two of our team members are in the medical field), some work projects and general evangelism.  Every trip is unique in its own way, and I am looking forward to seeing what the Lord will do through this one.

Please pray for all the finances to come in.  Pray for our safe traveling and health.  Pray for team unity.  Pray for a great start to our relationship with Duane and Leslie.  Pray that I do a good job leading, and make the right decisions.  Pray for salvation of people, and for them to get connected to God and a local church that will take good care of them.  Pray for signs and wonders.

I look forward to sharing with you all that happens when I return.  I will update this blog when I can.  Thank you all for your support and prayers.

Yes, I love mission trips and I know that God has called me to work on the mission field, but I love coming home.  Flying over Seattle, looking out the window make me feel so good.

Seven years and my dream has finally come true. It was so much more that I ever expected it to be!  The people of the Mo tribe are so kind and welcoming, they have beautiful faces and warm smile.  I can't describe to you the feeling I got the first time I was swarmed by the kids...and when I say swarmed, I mean swarmed!  They learn English in school so we were able to talk to the kids a little, but they younger ones were really shy as they are still learning to speak English.  The older kids were a big help in communicating.  They love to touch our hand and skin because we have hair on our arms and our skin a softer...mostly because we don't have to work with our bare hands from the time we can carry things.

We saw a women carrying a log on her head...a real log about 5 feet long.  They carry everything on their heads so we tried to but didn't do very well.

I put in the video that Philip edited for our mission trip.  Please take a look at it.

Thank you all for your support and prayers!
Becca

I just finished my Tukwila Police Department interview.  I think it went pretty well.  Much better than the one three years ago.  I will find out officially within the next 10 days,  probably sooner.

Becca is doing fine over in Ghana.  If you haven't heard, you can check up on the teams progress at:
www.realmissionsghanateam.blogspot.com  I am looking forward to her return on Saturday. 

Her business is really picking up, which I believe is just God blessing her for being faithful to go.  In the meantime, I am continuing to look for a more permanent position.  It may be that we just have to push her business forward a bit and try to go big with it.  Time will tell.

I'm so looking forward to the weather changing.  Hopefully it will change soon.  I really like the summers around here.  There is some interest in going caving again, and hopefully we can coordinate a team to go.

Becca is heading off to Africa, I'm interviewing with all kinds of different companies, the sun is starting to come out, and missions season has begun.  After about six months of living on partial 'retirement' it will be an interesting transition to move to back to working a lot of hours.  Well, who knows what might come if it.  It all depends on the job that the Lord opens up for me.

I'm reading this book called 'The Four Hour Work Week' by T. Ferris which has changed a few of my perspectives on life.  The main points I am working on wrapping my head around are:  take vacations while you can still enjoy them, and work towards your dreams now, stop putting them off.  Good things to consider, I'm eager to find out what happens over the next six months.

Well I figure I better get caught up a little.  It has been almost a month since we last posted.  Things have been busy as Real Missions works on getting their website ready, and we start our training overlap (Training Ghana and Guatemala teams both in February and March).  Still no job on the horizon.  Although, I have a lead on a local audio company that might be hiring. 

Becca and I took advantage of the nice weather today.  It was sunny and 57!  We were able to head to Snoqualmie.  It is so beautiful there on sunny days.  I had some work up that way and Becca was able to join me.  We had lunch and revisited the spot where I proposed to her.  It was nice reminiscing. 

Other than that, I think I have finished installing the garage door opener.  Yeah!  I will put the finishing touches on it tonight and then I will know for sure.  I hope so, it would be nice to be done.

Well, we finally have our power back!  We lost power early on Friday and just got it back last night around 2:30am.  That was nearly 4 whole days without power.  This is the second time since we moved in this has happened.  PSE really had to do some work to restore power, and they replaced about 1.25 miles of cable.  It was really old (probably laid in the late 60's or early 70's (no that doesn't mean you are old, just the cable).  It was a trying time, as our fireplace smokes pretty badly.  Looks like something more I can work on.  Sorry if we didn't talk to you much during that time, we were negotiating our cell phone battery usage.

Becca is getting really excited about her upcoming trip.  If you haven't received a letter already, you should get one soon telling more about it.  She has wanted to go to Ghana for years now, so this is the fulfilment of many years of desire.  God has placed those children over there on her heart.  I look forward to seeing how this trip will change her.

I have been actively working on Real Missions material over the last few months.  It has been good to be involved again.  The manual and help materials we have produced look great and are very useful.  I am beginning preparations for the trip I will be leading to Guatemala in July.  You will hear more about that over the next few months, but it will be the first trip I have lead from start to finish.  If you know me, you know how exciting that is.  It is possible, Real Missions will take two trips to Guatemala this year, but that is up to God.

We finished the year with Flag Football.  We competed in a total of 9 games and finished 6-3.  We lost only to the two top teams.  We ranked tied for third place.  I had a lot of fun playing and the team has mentioned wanting to compete together again.  I also got to referee in the league as well.  It was a great learning experience on how to make quick calls and to try to stay fair at all times.  I really enjoyed that too.