My stay at the Ruel Foundation taught me two things about the team working there. 1) They have adopted the supervisor’s passion for the native Mungyan people, and 2) they wanted to do more ministry outside the children’s home. While I was with them, the team often mentioned several plans for various ministries: prayer walking, hospital visits, visiting schools, and street evangelism. Well, after I left the foundation, I received an email from the team leader, Mabry, that was overflowing with excitement. Apparently they got their chance to do some ministry at the hospital with the Mungyan people, and they might have opened doors to do other types of ministry along the way.
Mabry: The Mungyan people are definitely looked down upon in Calapan City, and they are very poor. When they are sick, they can rarely afford a hospital stay and food, so the patient and his or her family often don’t eat while their loved one is receiving medical care. Our plan was to deliver bananas to the families and fellowship with them so they could eat and we could share the gospel with them.
Candace: We had a small problem though. The Mungyan people speak very little English, so simply telling them our testimonies or the gospel would not work very well. Katherine had a great idea. She decided to copy verses that outlined the gospel from the Filipino Bible we have at the home.
Katherine: While I thought my plan would work out perfectly for what we needed, we hit another wall. We went to an internet cafe to type out the tracts and print them, but it was closed. I thought we would have to write out 100 tracts by hand! We knew of one other internet café that was closed, but praise the Lord – it was open!
Hannah: Satan wasn’t done hindering our plans though. I thought it would be good if we let owners of the cafe read the tracts before we distributed them, just to make sure they were correct. It turns out the Bible we copied the verses from is written in a dialect that no one in Calapan City uses! The owners helped us use the internet to translate the verses to Tagalog, then we printed them – God still had the victory!
The team set out for the hospital with bananas and tracts in hand and a mission. Its always good to not have tunnel vision when you are working on a task – even if its one for God – He might have even more in store for you. On the way to the hospital, Hannah met a Filipino girl who was a Muslim. She wanted to become friends with the team. They are trying to set up a Bible study with her in the near future.
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| Our new friend who flagged down the pastor |
Upon arriving at the hospital, plans had to change yet again. They were told that only two people could be allowed in at a time to visit with the people. The team wanted to stick together, so they stayed outside of the hospital giving their bananas and tracts to people as they walked in. The first woman they spoke to was a born-again believer. She was very excited to meet the team. They found out that her husband was very ill, so they prayed for him. A pastor walked by while they were talking with the woman, and she flagged him down. He talked with them for a few minutes and asked if they wanted to go in. They told him about the hospital regulations, but he told them that he knows the workers and it was okay. So the pastor and two security guards escorted the team through the hospital to the patients’ rooms. They gave away all of their bananas and most of their tracts and prayed over each family.
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| A man reading his tract outside of the hospital |
Mabry: It was so encouraging to pray over the Filipino people and to know that even though none of them spoke much English, we were able to share the gospel through those tracts that we made. We're going back as much as possible with more tracts and bananas to give away. Please continue to pray for this ministry!
-Tyler
-Tyler