Feb 2024 Prayer Needs from Travis and Natasha Phillips

We are glad to share with you that another group of new missionaries have begun phase 1 of language learning in the southern Philippines. We were glad to arrive back in our city in time for their official “kickoff” where we talked through the details of what to expect in this initial phase of language and culture learning. The following day I (Travis) had an all-day training in language consulting in which we also prepped for a final language eval for another family. This three-day evaluation was so encouraging as we were able to see how much the Lord has taught them and how much language they have been able to absorb and retain from their 18 months of language learning. Natasha is helping a new family get settled here, and she has also been asked to translate a document into Bisaya that will, Lord willing, help many families in the future. We were planning on stepping into this coordinating role in May while our friends/coworkers were on Home Assignment in Germany, but while we were in the U.S. the husband (Boris) was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma. So our second day back in country , we began filling in for them. We so appreciate prayer for their family, including their three young kids. Boris starts his second round of chemo this week. We also appreciate prayer as we begin the search for vacant homes to rent for the three new families that will arrive in March. Praise the Lord for some of the leads we have received already, and praise Him for sending workers into the harvest. A lot of our support team is gone for a chunk of February, so we appreciate prayer for that specific time as we are so new in this role of coordinating the language and culture learning program. We also appreciate prayer for balancing this ministry with the ministry of Bible teaching in the heart language of the local people.