Deep calleth unto deep

His feet is where I want to be; 

His heart is what I want to see. 

God is beautiful and so gracious. 

I have experienced the Lord in ways I never had imagined I could. It blows my mind that every time you feel like you know a part of God, He takes you deeper and it makes you fall more and more in love with Him. "Deep calleth unto deep" - the depths of my soul cries out to the depth and inexplainable purity of who God is.

This summer I learned MANY things. So many that it will take weeks to even be able to decompress it all. 64 days... 8 weeks in villages of the Philippines sharing the raw Gospel everyday has not only blessed others with hearing His truth but blessed me in my understanding more of who I serve. I can't wait to share more about what God has done this summer and what He is still doing in the hearts of many!

-Lauren P.
Advance Team
Bohol, Philippines

Pursuit

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. 1 Timothy 6:11

Team of the Day: Advance Team

Country of the Day: Philippines

Pray for team members and new believers to pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Enduring Discouragements-: Advance Team

It amazes me how William Carey endured six years to see a convert. Can you imagine the discouragements he took from his fellow believers and family? Not to mention the death of his son and later his wife. It also amazes me how Jim Elliot and four others faced their deaths from the people they want to share the Gospel to and not putting a fight. Acts 20:24 says”However, I consider my life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace.” These men considered their lives as Paul considered his.

What amazes me most was that Jesus Christ, a God, came down here to earth just to die a sinner’s death. Can you imagine the pain of the lashes He had to bear, the weight of the cross He had to carry and the mockery, scorn and the strife He had to take?

Many of us so become easily disappointed, discouraged when faced by trials of any kinds. Many of us go on default mode when confronted by opposition. When a person rejects to hear the gospel or doesn’t want to come to you for a Bible study how many of us persevere for that person? How many of us really share the love of God everyday intentionally rather than seeing it as an event once a month? How many of us get easily disappointed when we see few or no results? Many of us easily give up when an opposition arises.

If God just gave up on us what do you think would happen to us now?

I would like to quote what C.T. Studd said “If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him.” If Jesus Christ, a God, who endured everything for us then, I believe, just as C.T. Studd said there can be sacrifice too great for me to take for Him. But saying it is a whole different level when we are actually doing it. Faith is seen by its work. As we believed and accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior then we should live our lives following what our “Lord” instructs us to. It may be illogical and hard but we can be rest assured that our Father who is in heaven knows best for His son.

A man once said to me “As we are filled with grace, when we are bumped, we should then spill grace.” We may get bumped by rejections, by persecutions, by discouragements, by disappointments and any other we should still spill grace, nothing else. God didn’t give up on us then how are we to give up on people that God wants them to hear and show His love for them.

--Vi

Perseverance to Finish the Race: Advance Team

I thank the Lord for continually leading, guiding and giving us the perseverance to press on as we continue to spread the gospel to everyone and teaching the truth.its such a great privilege that we have been given many opportunities to share the good news to several group of people and with the increasing number of bible study contacts we have for now.its so vivid that the people are really in hunger for God's word and in need of someone who could be like "Philip" one who could help them understand what the writing (bible) mean. the people whom the team have encountered were very grateful and joyful as they perceived us as messengers of God's word. truly, the grains are ready to harvest and there's a need for laborers to do God's work. May you be with us in our prayer, as we ask the Lord to strengthen the team and make us always sensitive enough as we continue and even complete the task God appointed us even in just a short period of time or days left . let's pray together that may our sovereign God will continue to heal or let the Spiritually blind to see and the deaf to hear so they can know, understand and live the word of truth and live with hope through the only life-saver, Jesus Christ.
-Noemi

Change for Christ: Advance Team

Since coming to the Philippines I have experienced many amazing things. Among these are a naked man chained to a wooden post; two pigs being mated in the middle of the road; climbing a coconut tree; riding a pig; Filipino restrooms; riding on top of a bus while dodging tree limbs and being pelted with rain; and many more!

But these things are small in comparison to what I have experienced with the Lord: I have seen Him save and change sinners. There is one family in particular that we have seen the Lord change. After sharing the gospel with this family, several members of the family made professions of faith. This included the mother, father, and some of the children. Many times after people make professions of faith we are not sure if they have "real" faith, but not with this family. We had the opportunity to hold many Bible studies with them, disciple-ing them. We saw them change. We even heard them share how they were being persecuted by their neighbors for the change in their life! This family has changed so much that even the non-believers noticed a change!

I had the opportunity to lead this family in a Bible study about Nicodemus. Nicodemus was the Pharisee to whom Jesus said, "To enter the kingdom of heaven you must be born again." I shared with them when I had my "second birthday" and how you must have a "second birthday" to go to heaven. They eventually realized that a person has their "second birthday" when they become Christians. I asked them if they knew the date of their "second birthday." They responded with excitement, jumping up from their seat to look at the calendar. They found the date of their conversion and I encouraged them to write it down. It is amazing to see God change people and excite them about their new life!

This family is a very good candidate to host a new house church, but they are yet to be baptized. Please pray for this family and my supervisor as she will be doing follow-up ministry with them after the summer. Pray that they will be baptized and begin meeting with the other believers in the village on Sundays. Please pray for our team as we are searching for more families of peace like this one in a new village. Thanks!

--Seth

God's Work in Village One- Advance Team

The people here are super friendly here it doesn't matter how busy they are if you want to have a conversation with them they'll stop what they are doing and talk to you for hours. We are now in village 2. We stayed in village 1 for 3 weeks. The first week we did a lot of house to house evangelism (H2HE) we eventually made several Bible study contacts through H2HE. 

The next 2 weeks consisted of Bible studies every day. One of the coolest things so far has been getting to see people hear the gospel for the first time... ever. Over the past 3 weeks we have seen several people come to to know Jesus on a personal level. It has been super encouraging to see God tear down the walls of Satan in village 1. 

I now ask that you continue to pray for me and my team as we move to village 2. Be praying for the people that surrendered their life to Jesus will continue to keep on doing Bible studies with one another, because there was already some backlash from the other villagers about being a born again believer.

--Cory

Relationships, Laughter, and Love - Advance Team

This past week has been filled with relationships, laughter and non-stop love being out-poured by the team as well as the villagers in our new village. We have officially moved to our second village of the summer and completed a week of ministry. It has been great! 

We have thankfully been able to share the Bridge Gospel Track 82 times since we have arrived in the new village! People are very open and welcoming as we ask to return for Bible studies and just hang out. The kids love hanging out with us also! The elementary school is right next to where we are staying and we always have sweet faces saying "good morning" and saying "good night". 

We have really appreciated the friendliness of the people here. God's hand is definitely working through the relationships and I can't wait to see what more He does! God is so faithful and continues to reveal Himself through working in this kind of ministry with us relying on Him more and more as we go along. He is truly all in all and is all we need.

Please continue praying for endurance as we only have about 12 days of ministry left! The days seem like they are not long and there are still so many who need to hear. 
Pray for our hearts to continuously be broken for the people that are lost as well.

-Lauren

A Day with Advance Team

The beeping of watch alarms mixed with rooster crows and dog barks serve as the wake up call for the Advance Team around 5:00 each morning. We take turns making breakfast while the others start their day with personal time in the Word and in prayer. We normally have a few visitors stop by before school or work, so we glady say "Maayong buntag" (Good morning!) and greet them with a raise of our eyebrows. After breakfast we have our team time where we quiz each other on memory verses and read our Bible studies together for the day. After a team prayer, we slip on our Chacos and adventure out into the barangay (village). 

Going house-to-house, handing out tracks, getting treated with Filipino snacks, and fellow shipping together in Bible studies take up our mornings until we join together again for lunch. Lunch always consists of rice and something else that our translators have taught us to cook, so it's always delicious. With full stomachs and refreshed spirits, we venture back out into the barangay to minister to more people and strengthen our relationships with our current Bible study contacts. 

Once we get back to our home away from home, we gather to make dinner and talk about what the Lord has done that day. With content hearts, we eat together, finish up chores, talk with some visitors, and get ready for bed. 

Please continue to pray that we will rely on God above all else and that we will take advantage of the time the Lord has given us here to share His Gospel and His love with the people of the Philippines.

--April

Preparing & Planting

Sharing the Gospel can be compared to the planting process. The preparing of the field is an intense process. The seeds are planted one by one. It can be hard, lonely work. Encouragement comes from working together throughout the process. 

A good start

It is our second day in our first village & we can already see that God is working here. This village has a population of about 1,300 people who have not heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. So far we have split up into two teams of three to go house to house evangelizing and building relationships. Around 16 people have already heard the gospel and three households have agreed to have Bible study with us later this week. We have been praying to find persons of peace and God answered that prayer today. We are continuing to go house to house building relationships and sharing the gospel with those who have never heard. We ask that you pray for our team to be able to discern what the spirit is telling us to say and where to go.

-April

Advance Team Pictures

Pray for the Advance Team as they daily share the Good News with those who are seeking for Truth. Pray that the seeds scattered with take root & bring a Kingdom harvest.

Sowing & Reaping

6/18/2017

Planting rice

Today has been a really great day! The Lord definitely guided the group as we went out into our village for Bible studies. We planned on holding two Bible studies today but instead we were able to present The Bridge Gospel tract twice and do one Bible Study. We saw one woman accept Christ as her Savior today! Praise God! As a team, all together, we have presented the Gospel about 50 times and have had 10 receive Christ as their personal Lord and Savior! We have been amazed to see how the Lord has prepared the hearts of the people here. I have loved having the privilege and opportunity to be a part of such a great story that the Lord has orchestrated.

There are always new relationships to build and to invest in and I love that! Tonight April and I were hanging out on the basketball court behind out Barangay Hall spending time with the kids. They were joking that we were ghosts because our skin is so white to them! So funny.

God has blessed us during this time with protection, kind hearts in the community, and seeing His hand in all of these things.

Please be praying for the team to not grow tired or discouraged by any of the long days and that we may stay focused on why we are here and who we are here for.

--Lauren

Meet the Advance Team

Five days of training, four airports, and a fourteen hour plane ride later, the Advance Team has safely made it to Bohol, Philippines! A week ago we were all strangers, and as we grow closer together, we would like for you all to grow to know us better.

Seth, Lauren, April & Cory

Hello my name is Cory and I’m currently a senior at the University of Tennessee at Martin. I ask that you will pray for endurance for us to run the race that has been set before my team. In His Great Name,
--Cory (Hebrews 12:1)

Hello! My name is Seth. I am student at Arkansas State University, studying Electrical Engineering. I am involved with my school's BCM, and I have met many Nehemiah Teams alumni there. They told me about NT and challenged me to go. Please pray for the lost souls that we encounter daily. Please pray that we will be able to discern the SPIRIT so that we may reach them in truth.
-- Seth (Mal 1:11)

Hi, my name is Lauren and I am 20 years old. I attend Tennessee Tech University and am Majoring in International Business with Minors in Spanish and Religious Studies. I felt called to the Philippines after hearing the testimony of a Filipino woman who said that she just needed someone to tell her the Gospel. She had never heard it! But when she heard the Gospel for the first time everything changed and the Lord had a grip on her heart. All she needed was a person there to share. I knew I had a summer to go and that I was able. God said we are to go and share the good news. I knew that this was my calling for this summer after she spoke.

--Lauren (Psalm 90:16-17)

Seth, Cory, Vivi (translator), April & Lauren

My name is April and and am a 19 year old college sophomore from Kentucky! I am studying English Literature and Art at Eastern Kentucky University. Being here serving Christ in the Philippines has been such a blessing already. Last summer, I attended a camp with my church and understood that God commands His children to go and I felt the Lord calling me to international missions. I wasn't sure where or when this would happen, but after much prayer and guidance from my family, God lead me to Nehemiah Teams and softened my heart for the Philippines. My main prayer request at the moment is that Christ would sustain us and work through us so that unreached people can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ for the first time. Our goal is to make disciples who make disciples. Thank you so much for your prayers, and God bless!
-- April (John 12:35)

My name is Noemi and I am 24 years old. God has been orchestrating His wonderful plan for the Philippines. I am humbled to be a translator for this team and be a part of the work of God's kingdom. Help us pray for strength each day and that each precious day we would be filled with the Holy Spirit and be united.Pray for the courage of the team and that we would be sensitive enough to always follow God's guidance.
--Noemi

Honoring God's Word

Team of the Day: Advance Team

Country of the Day: Philippines

Please continue to pray for the rapid spread of the Gospel as the teams minister among the lost. Also, pray that God's word would be honored as it is proclaimed.

Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2