After our early morning boat ride from the island to the mainland we arrived at the port city where we would board the large ship that would take us to our next island destination. The city looked different from before even though we had been in this same spot just a week earlier. The sun was starting to light the sky and neither of us had a clear idea of what day it was.
Our Journeyman term has been filled with different seasons of mobilizing Filipinos to be World Christians and to lead this generation to finish the Great Commission, but this summer we have served as traveling supervisors for several American Nehemiah Teams here in the Philippines. As Traveling Supervisors, our main purpose is to visit the teams and make sure that they are doing their discipleship materials as well as functioning well as a team; however as we travel around to teams our favorite part is joining them in ministry for the few days we are there. We have been exposed to the deep darkness and lostness that penetrates this country from the muddy mountains to the small island fishing communities that the teams are serving in. This last week, our traveling took us to an island that is known to be the birthplace of the Catholic stronghold that so deeply entangles people and leads them away from the true gospel of grace.
After our overnight boat ride, we then had a three hour bus ride, and an hour motorcycle ride through the mountains ahead of us before reaching the team. Once we finally arrived we were excited to see that they were in an area that no team has ever been to before and we learned that the people were eager to hear the gospel. We did a film showing in a neighboring village that was a modern day “5 loaves and 2 fish” scenario. The waiting shed we planned to show the movie in was not big enough to support the crowd that had gathered so someone suggested that we could move to the local catholic chapel and then suddenly a man offered to bring his TV so we could play the movie on it instead of the projector. Our group quickly set out and as the men and women walked up the hill, umbrellas lined the road and we grew excited to see how eager the people were to watch the film about Jesus. The showing went well and the guys on the team followed up with a very clear presentation of the gospel and an invitation to learn more about how we can receive the gift of salvation.
Later that evening, we visited a house in the area to do Bible Study. The father had asked that we come after dinner so that he could invite the rest of his family and friends. When we arrived we were shocked to see how many men and women had gathered to study the word of God. We began with the story of Lazarus and the rich man and talked about the urgency of eternity and how all people will spend eternity in either heaven or hell and cannot switch back and forth.
We continued with the passage from Ephesians 2 and talked about being spiritually dead or spiritually alive in Christ. All of the men and women there were very attentive and asked lots of questions about how someone who was dead could be made alive! Throughout the study we took turns reading the passages and quite unexpectedly one of the daughters said that that was the first time anyone had come to read the Bible with them. Before we left, the guys asked if we could pray for the family and Tatay (the father of the family) mentioned the family’s health and work. But then he simply added not knowing the truth in his statement, “tingali taytay sa kaayohan kamo” which translates to “maybe you all are the bridge to healing”. Although he was referring to physical healing our prayer was that the team would truly be a bridge to spiritual healing for this community.
For some reason the Lord has sovereignly chosen to use us to be the messengers of the gospel. We must be the bridge for people to hear the only message that can bring true healing. If not us, who will?
-Sarah
Philippines
Our Journeyman term has been filled with different seasons of mobilizing Filipinos to be World Christians and to lead this generation to finish the Great Commission, but this summer we have served as traveling supervisors for several American Nehemiah Teams here in the Philippines. As Traveling Supervisors, our main purpose is to visit the teams and make sure that they are doing their discipleship materials as well as functioning well as a team; however as we travel around to teams our favorite part is joining them in ministry for the few days we are there. We have been exposed to the deep darkness and lostness that penetrates this country from the muddy mountains to the small island fishing communities that the teams are serving in. This last week, our traveling took us to an island that is known to be the birthplace of the Catholic stronghold that so deeply entangles people and leads them away from the true gospel of grace.
Later that evening, we visited a house in the area to do Bible Study. The father had asked that we come after dinner so that he could invite the rest of his family and friends. When we arrived we were shocked to see how many men and women had gathered to study the word of God. We began with the story of Lazarus and the rich man and talked about the urgency of eternity and how all people will spend eternity in either heaven or hell and cannot switch back and forth.
We continued with the passage from Ephesians 2 and talked about being spiritually dead or spiritually alive in Christ. All of the men and women there were very attentive and asked lots of questions about how someone who was dead could be made alive! Throughout the study we took turns reading the passages and quite unexpectedly one of the daughters said that that was the first time anyone had come to read the Bible with them. Before we left, the guys asked if we could pray for the family and Tatay (the father of the family) mentioned the family’s health and work. But then he simply added not knowing the truth in his statement, “tingali taytay sa kaayohan kamo” which translates to “maybe you all are the bridge to healing”. Although he was referring to physical healing our prayer was that the team would truly be a bridge to spiritual healing for this community.
For some reason the Lord has sovereignly chosen to use us to be the messengers of the gospel. We must be the bridge for people to hear the only message that can bring true healing. If not us, who will?
-Sarah
Philippines