Joy

Pure, faultless, unending joy comes only from the One who gives life.  These last few weeks have been some of the best ones I have ever had because of the presence of awesome joy from our holy God.  My reader Margie came for the last time and asked some deep, thought-provoking questions.  We had such a great session that we lost track of time as we learned more about God's Word.  The next day, I had my final reading session with David.  Our lesson went very well, and we had many good discussions which were all very enjoyable.  At the end of the lesson, I got a chance to invite him to church, which he came to that next Sunday (along with about 13 other readers!!!).  Before church, he asked for a New King James Version Bible, which the church donated and of which he was very appreciative.

I also had an amazing reading session with two of my newer readers, Irene and Christian.  They are two friendly and inspiring students and I am so thankful for the time I had to get to know them.  Irene has had a rough past, but she was so faithful, saying that God helped her through all of her struggles!  Christian always seemed to be smiling, and always brightened my day!  During our final reading session, we took the time to go through four lessons because they were both so eager to learn.  Each lesson sparked new conversation, laughter, and questions.  They both came to church on Sunday also.

We had our final get-together with all our readers the Thursday before we went home, and we had an amazing turn out (with over sixty people in attendance)!  We had lots of fun, and everyone received a certificate saying that they completed the Luke workbook reading sessions.  Gifts were given, touching speeches were made, and goodbyes were said at the get-together.  One of my readers, John Rey, told me that he knew God was everywhere and would be with us when we left, which was so nice to hear him say!  David also told Brittiny, Kendra, and me that he would see us again, whether that be in the Philippines, America, or heaven.  You can imagine how difficult saying goodbye to all of our inspiring friends was.

We arrived home safely after about two long days of travel.  Wayne and Margie plan on visiting our readers to follow up with them, so we are eager to hear how that goes.  I also have plans to continue reading sessions and Bible studies with some of my readers online.  I am looking forward to that!  Going to the Philippines through LST was one of the best decisions I have ever made, and I will forever praise God for the time, memories, and friendships made while we were there.  Thank you again for the donations, thoughts, and prayers!  God bless!

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of Him"  -2 Corinthians 2:14

Answers

“Why did God choose Mary?”  “Do you believe in evil spirits?”  “Why do we confess to priests and not to God?”  These are a few of the deep questions my readers have asked me within the last week.  After answering to the best of my ability, I encouraged my readers not to take my opinion as their own, but to seek answers within God’s Word.  I really love the discussions I have had with my readers thus far!  Through them, I feel like both the reader and myself grow in knowledge.  One of my new readers, Vergian, loves to ask questions.  He comes up with new thought-provoking questions each session.  I recall that the first question he asked me was, “what is God’s purpose for us?”  I liked him from the start and welcomed the buckets of further questions he presented.  I am eager to see how God works through each discussion as our sessions continue.

On Tuesday night, Wayne came to Brittiny, Kendra, and I with a big smile on his face and a twinkle in each eye.  “I just finished a two hour Bible study with Meyet, and I have news,” he said.  I smiled, internally guessing what the news was.  “Meyet has chosen to be baptized,” Wayne said joyfully.  My spirit began to rejoice!  Meyet-whom I had often spoken with and grown to care for, and who had completed every lesson in the Luke workbook out of a desire to do so-had decided to welcome God into her life.  Wayne excitedly told us about the Bible study and about Meyet’s eagerness to be baptized.  So the next morning we gathered once again beside the ocean to sing, pray, share encouraging words, and witness Meyet as she became a part of God’s family.  “I want God to be inside of me when I go to Singapore,” Meyet said before being baptized (she was planning on moving to Singapore only days later).  After her sins were washed away, Meyet said, “Now I can share with others!”  Meyet’s excitement regarding her baptism was contagious and made my day one of the best ones yet.  Please keep Meyet in your prayers as she shares the Word of God in Singapore.

“I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.” –Luke 15:7

Complete Joy

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.” Then the righteous will answer him, saying, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?” And the King will answer them, “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”

                                                                                                                                   Matthew 25: 35-40

This past weekend, we got to participate in our first “Feeding Program”! Last year, LST began to implement service projects into every college team’s trip that summer. When most people my age think of a mission trip, they think of going and building houses or working with orphans or doing some other kind of manual labor; what they don’t think of right off the bat is sitting across the table from 10 different people a day and reading the Word of God with them for 45 minutes each while building a lasting relationship with the person. I think it is an amazing idea for LST to incorporate an element of service into their trips; I feel like this gives us the opportunity to provide a more holistic ministry for the site we visit.

LST leaves it up to the missionary to decide what type of service would be most beneficial in their city; we can help them with a building or repair project, we can play with children in the streets, we can clean the church building, or we can feed the hungry. We use these service projects in the place of one of our parties that we normally host each week. At both events we invite the local church members and our readers; so it gives them an opportunity to meet each other in an easy-going setting. The intent of both our parties and these service projects are to connect our readers with the local church members so when we leave at the end of our trip, there are a group of Christians ready to follow up with our readers and continue to build lasting relationships. Depending on the receptiveness of the reader, the local church will continue to follow up by simply providing more opportunities to practice their English or by going into deeper Bible study with the individual.

At our initial meeting with Wayne and Margie, we set the dates for the two Feeding Programs we would have while we were here—a 3 week LST team has one service project and a 6 week team has two—and we have been looking forward to our first one ever since! So, early Saturday morning, Wayne and Margie went shopping and then Margie began cooking at her house with the help of a few of the church members. Brittiny, Jen, and I joined them shortly after and they taught us how to make lumpia, which is essentially a small pork egg roll.

At 1pm, we took the rice soup, hardboiled eggs, lumpia, and juice that we had prepared to one of the many slums in Talisay City. We gathered with the children who live there and sang songs with them, prayed, and then served them the food we had prepared. Gerald, the church’s intern for the months of May and June, helped us lead songs that the children knew in Visayan as well as in English. Gerald has been with us at the church during our reading sessions every day, so we have gotten to know him well. Brittiny, Jen, and I were all extremely impressed with how well Gerald stepped up and interacted with the children during our time of song and prayer. I think it is safe to say that the Feeding Program would not have been as much of a success if he had not been there and been willing to lead.  So, thank you Gerald!

After about an hour of singing, we served the children their snack and spent time walking around and talking with the children. Though these children have next to nothing to call their own in this world, you could visibly see the complete joy that it brought them to have the chance to eat a small meal and just sing and dance and play with us.  I am so blessed to be able to have the opportunity to interact with these children even for the small amount of time. God gets all the glory for blessing us with the ability to come to the Philippines and be able to serve Him through serving the children this past weekend and this coming weekend. We could do nothing without Him and nothing that we attempted to do would mean anything without his grace.

How you can pray for us: Pray for the children at the Herbas Compound (where we served food). Pray that God blesses their lives with rich, meaningful relationships and that the community continues to minister to them. Pray that they will have someone in their lives that will show them God's love for His children. Pray for their parents; pray that they will be able to find the work that they need in order to provide for their children's needs. Pray that the people who live there will continue to find complete joy in the small things and will always remember that their Creator is watching over them. Pray for our feeding program next week...that we are able to spread more joy and that God will continue to receive all the credit for the good work being done. To God be the glory!

Growing Deeper!

My discussions with readers have taken a huge leap this week!  The fourth week is known to be the week in which conversations grow deeper; I just did not know that they would grow deeper so rapidly!  My readers have grown more comfortable around me, and one boy, Vladimir, seemed more relaxed than ever yesterday.  Another reader, John Rey, was so engaged today.  As I write this though, my mind is still reeling from my most recent discussion with a young man named David.  I have learned that David’s beliefs are based on the Bible, but he is also very focused on a variety of prophesies.  Last week, David asked to come to the church’s Bible study on Thursday to learn more about our beliefs.  So we were able to pick him up on our way, and he seemed to enjoy the lesson.  David is so intelligent and has agreed with all of the lessons we have read.  Yesterday and today, he told me about some stories in his life that related to the lessons, which sparked some good conversations.  He also gave me some pamphlets that tell more about his beliefs, so I am eager to learn about them.  I pray that I will be able to maintain an open mind and be patient as I learn more about his beliefs.

This past weekend, Kendra, Brittiny, and I went to a restaurant called the Garden Café.  The Café first caught our attention because it was very American-based and reminded us of Texas Road House, with a horse and saddle available to sit on.  As we read the menu, though, we noticed a chart of how to create different words in sign language.  This sparked our interest, so we read the paragraph above the chart which explained why the restaurant was formed.  The Garden Café began as a simple food stand and was created with the intention of employing deaf individuals.  It has since expanded into a nice, spacious restaurant which includes twenty six deaf workers and eleven hearing workers.  I was really moved by the motive behind the Garden Café.  I have seen how difficult it can be in cultures such as the Philippines for deaf individuals to find employment, so the restaurant was a brilliant idea!  We were overjoyed to support a restaurant that provides such an amazing opportunity for the deaf.

Last night, my reader, Xela, was baptized.  Wayne baptized Xela in a pool near our house (it was high tide and the ocean was too rough) while a few of us stood by to watch, including another reader of mine, Meyet.  Xela was filled with joy and praise as she entered God’s family and is still very eager to read more of God’s word as we continue our reading sessions.  I was thankful that Meyet was able to witness the baptism.  She told us that she had only recently opened her Bible for the first time in years, so I pray that her witnessing Xela’s baptism touched her heart in one way or another.  Please keep both Meyet and Xela in your prayers as Meyet seeks the Lord and as Xela embraces her place in the world as a child of God.

God is great, and I thank Him for all the opportunities and blessings He has bestowed upon us!  “I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever!!!”  Psalm 145:1

Cora

Dioscora, or Cora for short, has been my most consistent reader over the past three weeks. I know these reading sessions are not a competition about who comes the most or anything like that, but I have been so encouraged by my conversations with Cora and the fact that she is always here every morning.

Cora is a 19-year-old young lady who lives in Talisay City by herself in order to have the opportunity to work at the Gaisano Mall—the mall that is right down the street from the church building where my team eats most of our meals and goes grocery shopping at. She works 7 days a week from 9am to 6pm with a one-hour lunch break. That by itself is pretty impressive for any 19-year-old, but for Cora, it doesn’t stop there.  Most of the time, Cora is also asked to work an hour of overtime…which she cannot refuse or she will lose her job. Not only does Cora work extremely hard in children’s section of the department store at the Mall to make her minimum wage salary of around 350pesos (about $8USD) per day, but she also chooses to send the majority of her salary back to her family instead of keeping it for herself!

The first week I read with her, I always started our conversations off by asking her what she did after she got off work the night before. I quickly learned the pattern was always the same: go home, wash her uniform for work, eat a small dinner, and then go to bed. She doesn’t have time to do much more than that. The workers have to purchase their uniforms and normally have two sets. Unfortunately, the zipper is broken on Cora’s second uniform, and she does not have the money to repair it. Thus, she washes her one and only uniform each night after she gets home.

Cora has impressed me with every conversation we have had. She has an adequate level of English conversational skills, and her desire to improve herself further motivates her to wake up an extra hour early each morning to come and practice her English before going to work. Not only does Cora attend each and every day that she is signed up for, but she takes the time at night to pre-read and answer all of the questions written in the workbook thoroughly. In the second picture below, you can see a sample page our of Cora’s workbook. Sadly, I don’t think I would be as diligent and dedicated to preparing for a lesson where I don’t receive any grade, but she is.

As my first reader of the day, every day, Cora gets my morning off to a great start. I am so thankful that God has blessed Cora with the ability to come to class each day. He has blessed me so richly with the conversations I have been able to have. Cora has inspired and taught me to take every day as an opportunity to not only work hard but also be continually passionate about whatever God puts in my life. Cora has taken a hard situation and has chosen to serve God by being loyal to her family even in a time where she could be completely selfish and keep all her earnings for herself. She is thankful for the opportunity to simply work even if that means living far from her family and rarely getting to visit them. She is thankful for the opportunity to work even if that means working long hours every day of the week. She is thankful for the opportunity to work even if it is only for a temporary period of time (she is a contract worker and her contract runs out in August).

How many of us would be that thankful for the simple opportunities that arise every day that call us to work hard?

How you can pray for us: Pray a special prayer for Cora. Pray that she will never loose her sense of motivation and the drive she currently possess to strive to continually better herself even in the most difficult situations. Pray that her job will be extended so that the opportunities will continue to be there for her to provide and give back to a family who has given her everything. Pray that God will continue to bless Cora in all that she attempts and that He will continue to open doors that lead her in the path that he has planned for her to follow. To God be the glory!