See, here is water... what prevents me from being baptized??

A lot has happened since my last post. I asked for a lot of prayer, and I know we got it because this past week has been great! God has been so good to us! We've gotten to see His Spirit move in mighty ways, and it's been incredible to be able to be part of that movement! God is building up His church, and we're lucky enough to be able to be servants in His will. What an honor it is!

Alright, story time! So I mentioned last time that we had done a Bible study with a few teenage girls and that they seemed to be genuinely interested in what we shared with them. We met with them again last Thursday, and asked them what they had experienced over the two days since our study. They said they felt different, that they knew they were born again! It wasn't that we had told them that because they had prayed a magic prayer that they were born again, we just begged them to cry out to God in repentance, and plead with Him to change their hearts and lives. And they did it! It was so encouraging!! So LynLyn and Philame are two new members of our family, sisters in Christ! Keep them in your prayers, they have a rough road ahead of them, as we all do, but they know that God is faithful and He is worth it! 

So after the girls told us they were born again, we shared about baptism. We took them to Acts 8, the story of Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch. The girls gave us the same answer that the eunuch gave Philip, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” Obviously, we're on an island, so water is pretty easy to find. They said they wanted to get baptized as soon as possible! So that afternoon, we took them to a place recommended by a friend, Mantayupan Falls (home of a 300+ foot waterfall), which is about 30 minutes from where we're staying. It was incredible! Joshua baptized both girls, and then we took some time to swim and enjoy the beauty of where we were. 

After enjoying the waterfall, we invited LynLyn and Philame to join us in the Lord's Supper. That was a really cool experience for me, taking communion with Americans, Filipinos, new believers, and mature disciples. Growing up in a Catholic environment, the girls had taken communion before, but I could tell this was different for them; they realized it was different. So we've been going back everyday to share more with the girls, teaching them how to be a healthy disciple of Jesus. We shared how to share their faith with those around them, teaching them to make disciples that make disciples. LynLyn and Philame have been a huge blessing from God.

On Sunday, Clayton, Lindsay, and Nathaniel took 3 others to a beach near here to baptize them as well! And this afternoon they are baptizing another girl! Praise God for that!

Throughout all these adventures and misadventures, we've been playing basketball with people, sharing the gospel, and trying to glorify God with all we do. We got to play ball with a group of pastors from the area here, and that was really cool! We even got to play on a hardwood floor!!!
Needless to say, this week has been FAR more encouraging than the week before! God has been moving in us and through us, and His will is being done here! But it's not over! We have one more week in the Philippines, and we need more prayer! We can't even begin to describe how grateful we are for your prayers thus far, and we are eternally grateful to God for answering them! Keep it up, brothers and sisters! Check out Mark 10:29-32, you'll see that His kingdom is worth our every effort! 

-Daniel & Impact Cebu