An Adventure in the Philippines

The Philippines

This trip begins with Will and Amy. Will is a longtime friend who I have known almost my entire Christian life, and his wife Amy is Filipino. For years they wanted to do missions in the Philippines, and now they are fulfilling that dream. This newsletter is the story of my time with them on their second missionary trip.

The Tale of 3 Cities

The Philippines is a collection of 7,000 islands with over 1,000 different dialects. This means travel and communication can be a challenge. Because of this, our goal was to go to two locations on the same island.

The first team God formed

Cavite

Cavite was our first location. It is also the area that Amy’s parents lived in for a very long time, and the location of a home she still owns there.  It is a very populated area with lots of children running rampant and no full Gospel church.

In our first few hours of being on the ground we had a meeting with local leaders who ran the community recreation center. We gave them some basketballs and volleyballs and asked if we could use the local building to do an event the next day.

As you can see, they said yes. With the support of an amazing team, we were able to put on an event where about 500 youth and 70 adults gathered. Many of them gave their lives to Jesus. It was so powerful and inspiring to see people come together for the sole purpose of winning the lost.

The community there is very low income and so we gave away a fresh cooked meal and 10lbs bags of rice.

We also faced the challenge of setting up discipleship for people who have no full Gospel church or the means to travel. We spent several days praying about this issue, but eventually had to be on our way.

Pangasinan

Meet Erlinda. She is a Pastor from Pangasinan (an area six hours north of Cavite) who started several local churches. Upon her invite, we set off to meet her and join in doing some ministry there.

We started out our time there by by ministering at two schools. In one school I felt lead to put on a song and worship with them. People were so moved. It was beautiful. Sometimes we preached and proclaimed, pointing to Jesus, and sometimes we just lead them to worship. Jesus was moving in both.

In Pangasinan we did a lot of one on one outreach with local churches and encouraging the church through nightly meetings like the ones you see above.

Healing Testimony

We saw several healings while there, but this is the most notable for sure. This man was 81 years old and was in accident 20 years prior. He couldn’t stand up straight.

Will and I prayed with him and asked him to stand up. When he popped up you could see the amazement on his face. He was surprised that he got healed, but Jesus is still healing people today! Erlinda called his whole family, and they all kept asking him with tears in their eyes, “Is this real? Are you really healed?” It was such a precious moment to watch.

Tacloban City

Tacloban was the city we didn’t plan to see. But God had other plans. Will had seen a message from a missionary couple in Tacloban City discussing the problems there and asking for prayer. Even though neither one of us had ever met them before we felt lead to get on a plane to their island for the day, and so we did.

Upon arrival, the missionaries asked what we wanted to do. We responded with our desire to go out on the streets. We were out for a few hours and saw many people touched, encouraged, and surrendering their lives to Christ. It was truly amazing!  What happened next was a move of God.

We hadn’t known, but the ministry there was in a time of prayer and fasting. They were having nightly meetings, and Will and I were given an opportunity to share. We took turns sharing with the youth and young adults at the meeting and then God moved in a way I’ve only read about in books.

The entire room responded when we gave an alter call. They responded with all eyes on Jesus and there were such tears and people encountering God that it was truly moving. Even after prayer ministry people went back to their seats and stood with their eyes closed  and their gaze upon Jesus. There was music but a hush that was truly beautiful. The entire service was over 3 hours, and even after that some of the youth just wanted to sit with us and share about how God touched them and spoke to them in the meeting. It was so precious and moved my heart.

Back to Cavite to close the story

In our last two days in the Philippines, as we reflected, packed, and enjoyed some food and fellowship with Amy’s family, God made a connection. We met this couple who live close by and were looking to do more in the community. They wanted to help us with follow up in Amy’s community, where our mission began. So now in Amy’s home, there is a group people doing weekly Bible Study with youth and adults in the neighborhood. God heard our prayers!

What a beautiful ending to an amazing story. Thank you so much to the people to sow monthly into our trips! You are making such an impact on people. I look forward to the day you earn your rewards for your sacrifices. Thank you!

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