Traveling With a Purpose

Is it worth it? To travel 8500 miles over 48 hours by land, air, and sea just to share the gospel? To give up a summer of work, rest, and family, for just a chance of seeing one soul won for Christ. 

To answer this question, there should be another question: Is Jesus worth it? What would you give up following Jesus? The disciples gave up successful businesses to follow Him, and the early church gave up everything to follow Him, their home, family, livelihood, and sometimes even their life to follow Him wholeheartedly. 

So, to give up a little bit of comfort and travel across the world to follow Jesus’s command to take the gospel to the world is nothing and I would say it is absolutely worth it!

-J

Philippine Summer

Philippine Summer: Meet Teams B & C

Three Philippine Summer Teams have begun their work on one island. Two teams come from the same home church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The goal of these teams is to reach as many people as possible with the gospel! 

Team B

Audrey is a student at Arkansas State University. A fun fact about her is that she works as a college intern at her church in Arkansas. 

Reagan (Team Leader) recently graduated from Arkansas State University. Her fun fact is that she recently accepted a position as the associate campus minister with the Arkansas State University BCM!  

Gage is also a student at Arkansas State University! Gage's fun fact is that he is a Christian rapper!

Lauren also attends Arkansas State University. Her fun fact is that she has her scuba diving license!

Team C

Dawson (Team Leader) attends Williams Baptist University in Jonesboro, Arkansas. A fun fact about Dawson is that he knows & can recite the longest word in the English dictionary! (The word is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis for those wondering!)

Samantha, more commonly known as Sam, is also a student at Arkansas State University. Sam's fun fact is that she can recite every U.S. president... in order!

Brooke is also a student at Arkansas State University. Brooke's fun fact is that she can speak German!

Leah is also a student at Arkansas State University. Her fun fact is that she is a nutritionist! 

My name is Andrew (Media Intern) and I attend North Greenville University! A fun fact about me is that I play the drums! 

Please be in prayer for these teams as they continue to share the gospel across the island!

-Andrew 

Philippine Summer 

God is good to us... always good!!

The Lord is moving in our barangay (village) and our team is honored to bear witness to it. The last week has been jam packed with ministry. We've been busy building relationships with the people of our barangay. This has included playing games with the children, basketball with the young men, and going house to house to meet people.

We have had many gospel conversations and the team has followed up those conversations with Bible studies. The Lord has been kind to us! He has used our lack to open doors to further the gospel! 

One woman, upon noticing we had no way to keep meats and foods from spoiling, brought us her personal refrigerator! The was unbelievably kind and has opened a door for us to meet with her for a Bible study in the coming days.

We are rejoicing in God's faithfulness and kindness to us! 

Continue to pray that the team will share the gospel boldly and that hearts will be soft to receive this Good News! 

-Andrew

Philippine Summer

The Holy Spirit Softens Hearts

Overflowing with gratitude

To summarize all that the Lord has done in the barangay (village) where my team and I are staying feels like an impossible task. 

The Lord has been so gracious and merciful to us in showing how He has been working in the hearts and lives of the people here— years before we ever arrived— to prepare them for His purposes. Our team has been humbled and honored by the privilege that it is to be used as vessels for Him, imperfect sinners though we are. 

Our hearts have embraced the vibrant people just as they have welcomed us with open arms into their hearts and homes. The people are hungry for the Word of God and desire to learn more, but are without much access to Bibles, any church gathering, or solid biblical leadership.

Without another option and because of the cultural standard of Catholicism, many occasionally attend Catholic Mass once a month as an alternative. However, because of their eagerness for the Word of God, the first Bible study we had led to another each night since then. It has truly felt like the start of a church, as many profess that Christ is the one true God and want to know Him more, but are misguided by a lack of access to the Word and by the presence of cultural Catholicism. 

Last night, my team and I praised the Lord for a meaningful victory: our supervisors were able to provide us copies of the New Testament in the local language so that they could have the Word of God in front of them as we had our study. Because of the Catholic tradition so deeply ingrained in this village, many who profess Christ as the one true God still pray to Mary and see her as holy. We had prayed and discussed how to best approach this, and the Lord opened a door in a mighty way. We guided them through Scripture, and they responded with incredible humility and genuine understanding. It was beautiful to see them explore what the Bible says for themself with the Word in front of them, and they even thanked us for being willing to be used by God to come and teach them, just as we explained that Mary was obedient to be used by God. 

Praise the Lord!

Our team with the local officials

Bible study with the children from the barangay, where we taught the parable of the lost sheep, and explained the gospel on the blackboard, drew the story from Creation to Christ, played games, and enjoyed chocolate rice for a merienda (snack)!

Prayer Requests: 

• The Holy Spirit would continue to soften the hearts of this village to the gospel, and that we would continue to be faithful to God's Word as we reach them.
• That we would gain more insight into their beliefs and culture to better share God's Word with them.

-Lenna

Philippines Rural Healthcare

Welcome to the Philippines

The Philippines Summer teams will spend the next 5 weeks on an island in the southern Philippines. There are 14 villages (called barangays) on this island, and our team has been assigned to live in one and share the gospel with everyone in it. Around 400 people live in our barangay, so we have a challenge ahead of us. This would be too difficult for us to complete under our own power, we will have to rely on God. We are confident that the LORD has prepared a path for us and is drawing people to Himself in our barangay. 

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. 

-Ephesians 2:10 

We will walk around the barangay meeting people building relationships, and trying to start bible studies with the ultimate goal of sharing Christ, making disciples, and building the Church here.

 Meet the Team

E is 20 and attends Journey Church in Lebanon, TN. He is going into his senior year at Middle Tennessee State University. His favorite cereal is Cinnamon Toast Crunch. 

Prayer request: The Lord would use our team to harvest seeds that have been planted by previous teams.

E is 18 and attends Nazareth Baptist Church in Rainsville, AL. She is a senior in high school. Her favorite cereal is Frosted Mini Wheats. 

Prayer request: The Lord will continue to work in the hearts of the Filipinos we encounter and that our team will avoid distractions, keep our focus on Him.

D is 19 and attends Journey Church in Lebanon, TN. He is going into his freshman year at Tennessee Tech University. His favorite cereal is Honey Nut Cheerios.

Prayer request: The Filipinos will be open to the Gospel and their hearts softened. Also that as a team we will continue to fellowship and grow closer to each other.  

Meet the Team: Philippines Rural Healthcare

Hi everyone!

My name is Lenna & I'm the media intern for the Rural Healthcare team this summer in the Philippines. I will be sharing various updates on what the Lord is doing through this team over the summer as well as photos of our experiences. 

Let's get started.... meet the team! 

Our team leader, Lindy (19) is currently a junior studying nursing at Mississippi College. 

Madison (19) is at Samford University studying Health Sciences, pre-PA. 

Emily (19) is also studying nursing at Murray State University. 

Lenna is 21 and just graduated from Central Ohio Technical College with an Associate of Arts in English. 

Kristel (18), one of our translators, is working towards her AB English major in English language at a local college. She also teaches the Bible to students ages 7-16. 

Roselle (17), our other translator, currently goes to high school in another province. Her favorite subject is history. She is also a worship leader at her church. 

We are all eager to see what the Lord will do as we encourage one another in pursuit of surrendering ourselves to His will daily. We have already been filled with joy by the welcoming people of the barangay (village) where we are staying for the next couple of weeks. Saturday morning, we met with the barangay officials and made our schedule for the week— they eagerly included us in the village’s scheduled activities for the week, and we worked together to schedule Bible studies & health classes the team will be teaching.  Our prayer is that as we lead these bible studies, people would have open and receptive hearts and minds to reading from the Bible and seeing what it says for themselves— and that from this, we would have an open door to share the true message of the gospel with them. 

We have already been so blessed to see how the Lord is working here. We have been able to specifically connect and share with a few of the teenagers in the barangay who are expressing interest in the gospel. 

Our prayer?? We would be faithful in sharing the truth with them and that the Lord would use that in their hearts to draw them to Him!

-Lenna
Rural Healthcare Team
Philippines

Opportunities & Strongholds

It’s been a little over a week in our new location and I can already tell... leaving will be hard. We’ve met so many young girls our age and gotten to know and connect with almost each and every one. We’ve heard their stories and learned more about their beliefs. We're thankful that God has opened doors for us to share ours too. 

This place has been like no other place I’ve been to. The strongholds the devil has on the people here are heartbreaking. Thankfully, God has provided opportunities to share and has opened some of the hearts and
minds to want to know more. I continue to pray that that doesn't cease even after we leave. 

-Loren

NT365 Gap Year participant

Asia Pacific Rim