Batangan

Greetings from Mindoro!

Thank you so much for all of your prayers in regard to the expedition to the
highland Batangan! The short and simple is that the expedition didn't go
through.

I'm certain that this was actually an answer to your and my prayers. I had
privately worried that it was not the right time for this expedition.
Since it was their own initiative, however, and was proposed by a very Godly
man whom I highly respect, I went along with it not wanting to quench the
Spirit if it was Him. I prayed, though, that God would prevent any harm
from being done. The expedition was postponed because of a simple
misunderstanding, and I think Gods had was in it.

Thank you for your prayers in this, and in all aspects of this project. I
want you to know that I pray daily for you also.

Sabbath our first hurricane of the season hit. I was supposed to travel up
to the Conference office for Workers' Meetings Sabbath night, but I couldn't
safely get out. The rivers between us and the nearest road were so high
that anything but emergency travel was too dangerous. This area is known
for bad flash floods and just Friday evening one of the church elders nearly
died crossing the river on the way home. It's an interesting place I live
in at the moment, usually not all that isolated, but in minutes I can be
completely cut off from the world.

Most of the force of the hurricane has passed now, but it has left its
signature. Though I usually don't notice the humidity anymore, almost
everything in my house is covered in several millimeters of mold and the
rechargeable silica packs I use to keep my laptop and satellite phone dry go
bad in a single day. And this is just the beginning! I look forward to the
peculiar mold that grows on the type of bamboo used for walls. By the end
of rainy season my walls should be glowing a beautiful bio-luminescent green
at night!

Thank you again for your continued support of the Batangan project! May God
richly bless you!

John Holbrook