We are halfway through our missions trip! We just finished at the second barangay a few days ago and are wrapping up a three day vacation. Again, the Lord blessed our efforts and the Holy Spirit worked in the people's hearts. The second barangay we visited was very different than our first. The people were not as open to responding to the message of the gospel. It was evident by the questions that were asked by the locals we had Bible studies with that the Lord had already begun a work here. We were able to reach about half of the village of 100 households.
Many of the questions asked were regarding many of the different beliefs of the religions in the Philippines. The people of this barangay had been solicited by many different denominations, all of whom believe in salvation by faith with the addition of works. In the first barangay we visited, most of the locals we encountered understood that God was the creator, believed the Bible was inspired by God, and believed that Jesus was a sinless sacrifice for our sins. Because of this, our gospel presentation was pretty straightforward with an emphasis in faith alone without our works. In the last barangay, we had to start from ground zero and ended up giving a "Creation to Christ" message as well as answering various questions they had. When we left the village, one person had professed faith. Praise the Lord! My overall impression of the work we had done was that we had planted and watered. How wonderful it is that it is the Holy Spirit that moves and works in hearts and not our presence. We left thirteen Bibles there.
The next to barangays we go to are going to be very remote. Pray for us. We have had many different challenges the last month. Satan has attacked us daily. It seems like for every hurdle we jump, there is another one waiting. But the Lord has blessed us with health and open doors which is more than we ask for. We are excited to see what the Lord will do in the next barangay and we thank everyone who has been praying for us. I have realized more than ever this summer how significant prayer is to our ministry. The Lord has been working in our hearts as well. Pray that all of us will humble ourselves before God and never lose our passion to be the chief servant of Christ.