July 2024 Prayer Needs from Travis and Natasha Phillips
Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus,
July 1, 2024 means we are already halfway through our time commitment as Culture and Language Acquisition (CLA) program managers. Thank you for praying for our team, and thank you for generously supporting our ministry. We feel blessed by the Lord, and by all of you who partner with us through prayer, finances and encouragement. The Lord is doing great things in opening doors for the gospel to go forth in the Philippines, and we appreciate your continued prayers. We continue to work hard in our role as CLA Program managers, while also continuing to prepare for future work in a tribal village. Praise the Lord with us that all three new missionary families are now several weeks into learning language and culture, and they seem to be doing well in getting adjusted to cross-cultural living. We thank the Lord for His sustaining grace.
Please continue to pray for our friends/coworkers back in Germany for whom we are filling in for as program managers. The husband, Boris, continues to battle Lymphoma, and recently began a new treatment regimen after the chemotherapy and radiation failed to eliminate the cancer. Please pray for healing for his body, continued trust in the Lord and for perseverance for his wife as she takes care of their family. Week after week our hearts are burdened for them, but we know God is close to them in these difficult times. Also, one of our language helpers has a daughter with Lymphoma, and she recently began radiation treatment. Our team has come alongside them to pray for them and help them through this difficult time.
Last week another language helper was in a motorcycle accident with his wife and daughter riding on the back. They got pretty banged up, and our language helper fractured and dislocated his wrist. He just had surgery to re-set the bones before casting it. Again our team was able to come alongside his family in their difficult time. It’s amazing to think how the Lord placed us here and intertwined our lives with these specific people for His purposes. All of our language helpers are currently attending a Bible study going through Romans. We appreciate prayers for protection as the enemy seeks to attack our team and prevent the gospel from going forth. We know the Lord will thwart the enemy’s efforts and accomplish His purposes in ways that only He can do.
Future tribal ministry: A couple of weeks ago, our church planting director and I (Travis) rode our dirt bikes into the mountains to meet with an indigenous pastor who connected us with members of a different language group where the gospel has not yet reached. We went through a word list to do a preliminary assessment of how similar their language is to other mountain languages that have received the gospel. The following week, Natasha and I along with one other couple went into a neighboring unreached language group to get our wives’ perspectives on the potential of moving in there long term. Please pray for wisdom for us and for the family we are planning to partner with in a tribal ministry. We trust the Lord will open the door He wants us to walk through and close the ones He does not want us to walk through. Some progress has been made in getting an official invitation to work in that area.
In the realm of language consulting, our head language teacher (kuya Wendel) and I recently completed a 3-day evaluation of a couple that is around the half-way point in their CLA. The following week we had a follow-up evaluation for a missionary who is close to the end of her time in CLA. The week after that we carried out a full Phase 4 (final phase) evaluation for her husband, which took three days in all.
Finally we thank the Lord for good health (we faced some sickness last month, but recovery was swift), for time in His word in our personal devotion time, and for opportunities to serve the Lord each day. We are undeserving of such blessings; the Lord is gracious and faithful.
Thank you VERY much for your prayers and ongoing support.