Greetings from the other side of the world! Here we are writing for the first time from Manila, the capital of the Philippines! For the last three months we have been staying on the 200-acre Bullock Farm with Sonya’s parents in Cumberland county Virginia, which has a population of less than 10,000 people. Now we are staying on the 42nd floor of an apartment building, surrounded by nearly 13 million people, so many of whom need Jesus! According to Wikipedia, Manila is the most densely populated city in the world.

We have been here about two weeks, and God has blessed us tremendously. Today we had our first day of Tagalog at the language school. We like our teacher, who told us she was a born-again Christian. Today, Sonya is trying to make her first Filipino dish since our arrival—pancit! Luke and Lily are her eager helpers.

God is giving us divine appointments and words to speak. We met a kind taxi driver named Abel who told us that he prays regularly but is too busy to go to church. “Is that okay?” he asked. God used us to gently give utterance to what the Holy Spirit was already speaking to his heart. He said before we reached our destination, “We shouldn’t put other things before God.”

It is our goal to learn as much Tagalog as we can before joining the Georges and the rest of the team in Palawan next March, Lord willing. Please continue to pray for us that God will give us the gift of tongues! Thank you so much for all your prayers and support. In the triumphant words of the sermon we heard last Sabbath, “Jesus is coming soon. Go forward to victory!

• Twitter