Deborah visited Family Circus in Davao City.  Darrel Blatchly is the founder and Pastor of the Ministry that ministers to over 7000 children every week!

Wow, it's almost October already

Ray had his 53^rd birthday on September 5.  (Needless to say, the last few weeks have been kind of busy, but we managed to do some celebrating anyway.)  We are thankful for health & strength through your prayers & God’s blessing.  Please continue to pray that the Lord will strengthen us & give us good health & protection from accidents, disease, etc.

We got the rest of the financing on the vehicle, & were able to pick it up from the dealer on Monday, September 10.  It is a Ford Ranger pickup, perfect for the roads (& other areas we will need to drive) on Mindoro.  Thanks to the students in our Michigan District churches for all your help!  (Hopefully we can get some pix up soon.)

We had the puppet factory at Floodway on Saturday, August 25.  11 puppets were completed by a group of about 18 attendees.  It was a great time of building relationships with a number of members & children’s workers there.

We are planning another trip to Mindoro during the week of October 8, & will be accompanied by the Michigan District Foreign Missions Director Reverend Norm Muhling & his wife Sharon.  We are hoping that they will have a chance to meet the leadership there & some of the pastors with whom we will be working.

We're having some homemade onion rings for lunch today.  Mmmm!  Speaking of food, how about a recipe from the Philippines?  It's not exactly for fall weather, but maybe for Indian Summer you might like to try it.

Mango Shake:

1 tray of ice cubes (small cubes)

1/2 ripe yellow mango

1/2 banana OR 1 tablespoon of sweetened condensed milk

Blend up the ice cubes as finely as possible.  Then add the mango &  either the milk or banana for a little extra sweetness.  Makes 1 shake.

Typhoons, broken toes, & puppet factories

We came through last week's typhoon just fine.  It missed most of the Philippines, so mostly we just got a lot of rain for the last few days.  No power outages or major flooding.  If you are interested in tracking such things, go to www.typhoon2000.ph  Because of the rain, 4 days of our language class have been canceled the last 2 weeks.  The break is nice, but we really need to be there more consistently in order to learn more.

A few days ago we bought a desktop computer.  During the setup Deborah dropped the computer’s cpu on her big toe & we were sure that is was broken.  But we prayed, put some ice on it, & asked the Lord to touch it.  The next day it was a little sore, but we spent about 8 hours walking around on cement floors in a huge outside market, helping another missionary get supplies for his children’s ministry, & it was as if the toe had never been hurt.  God is good!

We had an interesting experience one night.  After borrowing another missionary’s vehicle to do some shopping, we made a wrong turn on the way home & went a few kilometers out of our way.  We then decided to put some fuel in the vehicle, & stopped at a gas station close to where we had lived before in Manila.  One of the employees there had been there 5 years ago & we had conversed with her to practice Tagalog.  Her name is Geneva.  Please pray for her, as she is separated from her husband & is working to pay for her daughter’s expenses.  The daughter lives with her grandmother in a different part of the Philippines.  Geneva said her daughter is 10 years old, but she only gets to go & visit her once every 2 years.

We will help in a Puppet Factory at Floodway AG on this Saturday, August 25, for several hours.  The goal is to make about 20 puppets that will be used for children’s ministry in that church & its outreaches.  Pray that the workers will be able to use these puppets & the new skills to increase the effectiveness of their ministries.

Thank you for your faithfulness in prayer.  You are our lifeline as you stand together with us in ministry.

Ray's Adventures in the US

It’s nice to be back in the Philippines!  I was in Michigan for almost 3 weeks (just long enough to get used to a regular keyboard; now I have to get used to a laptop again) because my step father passed away.

One advantage of the approximately 20-hour flight from Michigan to the Philippines is your perspective on what a “long” flight is.  Nowadays, a flight from Detroit or Lansing to Oregon or New Mexico, with layovers, can be as long as 6 or 8 hours.  Piece of cake!  Also, it doesn’t take long on trips like this to add up a lot of air miles.

Daytime temperatures & humidity in Michigan during July & August were very similar to the Philippines.  But the nice thing about Michigan is that it usually cools off a lot at night, often down into the high 60’s or lower.

It was great to attend several services at Charlotte Assembly of God, the church where were involved for 4 years before coming to the Philippines in 2002.  In fact, one Sunday morning I was on the way to the morning service there, & Deborah called me on our US cell phone.  We continued to talk (thank you, Vonage!) as I entered the building.  She was able to talk with a number of our friends who were visiting in the foyer of the church.  A good time was had by all.

I’m now & for next week or 2, living in the “limbo world” of jetlag.  About 6pm last night it seemed like bedtime, & I was awake by 5am today.  Gradually the system adjusts to the 12-hour difference.

One of the real highlights was finding out that one of our nephews, Isaiah, had recently given his life to the Lord, & going to a Christian bookstore to get him a Bible to use.

My mother will be 75 this year, & lives in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan  about 2 hours west of the Straits of Mackinaw, where they had lived for around 15 years.   (She is a true Yuper!)  My main concern in coming home was to make sure that she will be OK continuing to live there as she desires to do.  She lives 8 or 10 miles out of town, doesn’t drive, & the winters there are really cold.  She has a good network of people watching out for her, keeps her cell phone on 24/7, & is confident that the Lord will help her during this time.

My brother Barth is getting more familiar & comfortable with his computer.  I worked a lot with him on communicating with us & other family members by chatting & email.

We had an addition to our family while I was away (funny how that happens).  Deborah will probably want to tell you about it next time.

Welcome To Our New Apartment in Manila, Philippines!

  This is our driveway just inside the gate.  Notice on bothsides you can see the roof of the houses on each side of us.

As we get closer you can see our front door!

Missionary Sheree Moon from Texas live next door on the right

We live to left!

This is the front of our Apartment!  Welcome!

When we call the states we have to sit to the bench in front of the block of windows.  Right on the end, is where we pick up the best singnal!

Of coarse we have to show you our garden before we go in!

All of the clay colored pots are different things that we have planted so far.

In the garden itself we have spinish planted.  We are still working on getting it all cultivated up.  The sunshine in this location is not the best, but we are still very happy to have the garden to help us take a few minutes each day to enjoy God's creation.

These are two pots of Logans!  They are the size of a cherry, with a brown skin.  The insite is clearish white.  They are very good! One day we will have some to share!:)

These little guys are some of the creatures who are living in the garden.  If anyone know what kind they are or if they turn into butterflies please let us know!  Also if they are good for the garden or not good!

Well Kissy's waiting for us to come in and visit with her! this is our living room!  Praise the Lord the apartment came furnished so we don't have to move so much when we move to Mindoro in a few months!:)

This is the dining area.  The Tan doors go into our office area, which is very multi purpose,

This is Joanne,  Deborah's assistant.  Today they are working on learning how to pin a pattern on material.  Deborah is training Joanne to help with Puppet Factory Seminars!  Soon they will be making puppets for children's ministries!

Looks like Kissy has had enough of the sewing lessons for one day!

We better go for now thanks for visiting our new Apartment.  Hope you can visit us again real soon!

God Bless you

Ray and Deborah Miller