Update from Gigi & Eastern Samar

Packed & ready to head back to the area

Not for us but for Christ.....let this video tell a story of what's happening after Filipino NT and American NT last 2015. Please keep the Waray Waray Tribe in your prayers as they continuously growing in Faith and for us, the local missionaries, to be more passionately seeking the lost, to be more understanding and patiently train the people in discipleship and not be weary. Strength and protection from any sicknesses and danger. To have a constant financial provision and good health. Wisdom for the next move, strategies and plans for this year 2016.

"Not to us, LORD, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness." Psalm 115:1

Thank you so much for partnering with us....to God be all the glory!!

-Gigi

Eastern Samar Video

Missing the Philippines

This picture was after 47 hours of straight travel. I immediately went in the house and dropped my bag inside then came out and found this little girl. I couldn't put my contacts in, my hair was a mess, I had mud all over me, my feet and ankles were very swollen, and I was just flat out exhausted, but this little girl made me forget all that. Her joy in seeing me reciprocated with my joy from seeing her. Blessed.

-Hannah
Waray Riverboat 2015

Waray-Waray Prayer Update

Believers are divided in groups to practice leading Simply the Word (STW)

“And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” 2 Timothy 2:2 

Prayer concern:

1. Pray for Waray-waray leaders and disciples to be raised up from every village & that they will also reach out to other villages with the gospel.
2. Pray for Waray-waray people group that the eyes of their hearts may be enlightened so that they will understand the truth and the urgency of the Great Commission.
3. Pray for blessings for Waray-waray people's livelihood.
4. Pray and support for the follow up team's food and travel expenses as they move from village to village up river.
5. Pray for the follow up teams God's guidance, protection, strength and wisdom. 

Thank you to all partners and friends for praying and supporting me in this journey. To God be all the honor and glory. Amen. 

Brother in Christ,
Lovigie Dune A. Almine

Follow up team hiking into their area

How Heaven Became Real

“I’m here because the gospel reached me through their obedience to go… to send… to pray.  I’m here because God used others to share His story."

-Destinie
Waray Riverboat 2014

Read more from Destinie on her blog... https://chasingdestinie.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/how-heaven-became-real-the-journal-entry/

Quotes from the Heart: Chasing Destinie

This past summer, I resided in the Philippines for two months.  It was tough, I was gross most of the time, but it taught me how to love.  The lessons I learned were also tough and gross.  For example, I learned how to hand wash five people’s laundry (even the good stuff, such as undies) in a river before 6:30 AM.  I learned how to rub out stains to the point of blisters and keep smiling.  I learned how to hop from boat to boat; this lesson was a little harder as I took a tumble into the river a time or two and got some pretty sweet bruises.

      

I learned how to cook white rice, almost to perfection courtesy of some awesome translators.  I learned sleeping off the ground isn’t actually necessary for a good’s night rest, because “sweet is the sleep of a laborer, whether he eats little or much (Ecc 5:12a).”  But more important than all these physically challenging lessons, Jesus met me to show some pretty extravagant lessons.  These were lessons I thought I learned, and maybe I had.  Maybe Jesus just needed to refresh my memory.  That’s the thing with Jesus.  He can refresh your memory, and it is a whole new experience, refreshing and sweet.  His lessons are sometimes bitter to the taste, but we continue to taste until we eventually get to the sweet.  Here’s some of the sweet.

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God knew who I was when He called me to career missions.  I’ve known that.  I’ve come to terms with it.  But it is a little harder to believe when your heart’s desire is wicked and you can’t seem to bear another day sharing the gospel.  This lesson was given to me about three weeks into my time there.  The same schedule, the same people, the same Bible study.  I was so sick of it.  I was so sick of being dirty and so sick of those I was ministering to.  I felt they “didn’t deserve the gospel.”  They despised us, so I felt I could despise them back.  It was here that I began to hear whispers, untrue whispers.  “If you’re called to missions, how are you already weary of opposition?  You’re only 2 weeks in, and you can’t wait to pack your bags and grab a 14 hour flight.  It’s pitiful, really.  You say you love Jesus and want to make Him known in a cross cultural way, but it’s clear you’re not cut out for this.”

One night after thinking this over a couple of days, I questioned God.

How is it that I am called abroad, but I can’t bear going to yet another Bible study.  God, am I really supposed to commit my life to this?  If I can’t handle three weeks, how can I handle years?  I understand you’ll be there, but I think we got our wires crossed somewhere.  I think you actually said I’m called to do a lot of short terms.  That sounds right.  You’ve just been silent for so long.

Here is an excerpt from my journal detailing how God was faithful in His word to bring comfort.

This place is so miserable, but we have been motivated by it to continue only through His strength.  God has taught me several things in this baranguy.  1)  I need to soften my heart towards those I’m around.  In Matthew 13 Iv’e been reading the parable of the wheat and the weeds.  I must be okay with growing alongside those who will never accept Him until the day of reaping.  2)  I must be diligent. –from the parable of the unleavened bread and the yeast.  A small amount of yeast takes a lot of work to work through the flour, but after it is done thoroughly will rise all the bread.  3)  I don’t need to understand why I’m not as “spiritual and bold” with those in Bible study.  I’m Mark 4:26-29, I’ve learned we don’t know everything, and seeds grow because that’s what they’re made to do.  I need only have compassion and be diligent in my work for Him as this persecution will probably continue.

Now how does that secure that I’m to continue on in the hopes of becoming a long term cross cultural disciple maker?  Because God taught me those things in such a beautiful way.  I was by a beautiful, slow moving river as the sun set.  My hunger was satisfied with rice and soy sauce.  I heard the breeze shiver its ways through the palm trees as I heard God speak.  But where was He speaking?  On the other side of the globe.  “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”  I’ve never heard a voice as clearly speak into my soul as I have heard Jesus’ when I struggle.  If Jesus’ voice is made plain to me on the other side of the globe, that is where I will follow Him.  If Jesus’ voice is made plain to me down the street, that is where I will follow Him.  His voice is the compass to navigate the map of uncertainty, and personally His voice calls from across the globe asking me to follow.  His hand stretches from across the ocean to reach me in my need and one day I must trust His arm to carry me across that ocean.  Then His hand will reach from down the street to guide me, all the while making disciples as I go.

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God confirmed my calling abroad, but He continues to confirm it each day in the way He has molded me to love adventure.  It’s in the way He is teaching me to make disciples of Him, not of doctrine or morals.  His disciples are made from love, and He shows me more about love each day than I can even detect.

-Destinie

Read more from Destinie's blog:  https://chasingdestinie.wordpress.com/ 

Tasting and seeing

See what Ruth has to say from her summer...  read her blog & watch her video

-Waray Riverboat Team, Philippines 
 

Not if, but when... not should, but must

As Christians, we are all commanded to share our faith to the ends of the earth. It's not an if, it's a when. It's not a should, it's a must. So... when I see others condemning intercultural mission work & calling it useless & selfish because there are lost here, I would challenge them to think of the world out there who has NEVER heard of Jesus or what He did for them. 

It's hard to believe until you experience it, but there are millions who will give you a blank stare if you talk about Jesus.

God desires to bring every nation, tribe, & tongue unto Him. 

 He will do it, with or without us. 

So... before you call international missions selfish or pointless, think of the one missionary assigned to a people group of six million who have never heard. Think of how hell grows every day with the cries of those who had no one sent to them. Let God break your heart for the millions lost with no one to show them the way.

-Destinie
2014 Waray Riverboat

Unfinished

There is immense gratification in seeing a job all the way through, start to finish. To step back and survey your work. To determine that there is nothing left to be done; to have closure.

That is not really the feeling that I have as this summer ends and we head home. Our 52 day assignment is over. God has done mighty things in those 52 days, yes, and we will testify to how we've seen Him work. But the work is not done. We didn't start it, and we sure haven't seen it through to the end.

We leave behind some unfinished conversations, some unanswered questions, some baby Christians, the beginnings of local bodies of believers. We leave the rivers and there are yet people who haven't heard the Gospel.

Please PRAY...

--with us in thanksgiving at God's goodness and faithfulness and the amazing work He's done this summer among the Waray-Waray

--for us as we head back to the States; for traveling mercies, but also that we will know how to walk forward in the newness of all that God has revealed to us in these two months.

--for the Waray-Waray. For all the seeds that were sown, all the friends we leave behind, all the Bibles we left in the hands of new Christians. Pray for the Holy Spirit to work powerfully. Pray for missionaries who will go behind and follow-up on the rivers.

Moments Like These

We've been having nightly Bible Studies for the believers in the barangays with each team for the past three weeks. They're always set for 7pm which means that, according to FST (Filipino Standard Time), without fail we were starting sometime between 7:30 and 8:30. I may have said this before, but out here 8 o'clock is the new midnight. Our days start so early, and mindless tasks that take a fraction of a second at home and only require the turning of a knob or the pulling of a lever entail long minutes of labor in the draining sun out here. Not always, but often. No complaints--I think it's a beautiful way to live, and I actually love it. But at the end of a day (or sometimes the middle, depending on cloud cover and amount of laundry), I am spent.

It's much harder out here to live life past nightfall. Most places lack good lighting, and "brown-outs" (power outages) are so common. Cooking, using the toilet, washing dishes, reading--everything is harder by flashlight. At at a late Bible Study one night during a brown-out, I was sitting on the stairs overlooking the group, just beat. It was after 8, and people were still just trickling in. In the weakness of my flesh I did not want for there to even be a study that night. I felt it was just too late. My woven grass sleeping mat was calling out to me from through the ceiling. I wrote in my journal next to the date and time, "When I feel like Filipino time will be the death of me.. Give me perspective."

Not 15 minutes later I looked up at the Bible Study that had finally started. This is what I saw:

Nine brand-new baby Christians hunched over their new Bibles, hungry to learn more about this great God who had only just become real and personal to them, pouring over every word in flickering candlelight. At that moment, in the appalling weakness of my flesh, my eyes were opened to see the beauty of the work that was happening before my very eyes. By grace, he sent his Son Jesus to make it reconciliation possible. By grace irresistible, he drew my heart to himself. By grace I am here on this island, by grace I get to be a part of life-changing work and by grace in my moments of weakness and struggling I am given eyes to see.

Pray that these new believers on the Dolores River will continue to meet together faithfully to spur each other on. 
Pray that the Holy Spirit would be powerfully present and active in their midst.

Uncover Your Face

A little girl was sobbing outside of our window. Her bangs were sticky with tears and the hands that covered her face were dripping with dirty, salty tears. She just squatted there, crying. I attempted to rub her back and comfort her. No tickling or pulling could pry her hands from her face. All I wanted was for her to look at me so that I could make her laugh, but she refused. She saw there, in her shame, and rejected my affection. Her friends surrounded us and watched, waiting for a reaction from her, but there was none, Lunch was waiting on me but I saw with her a while. I tried to encourage her and remind her that I would have to leave her soon. Still she cried. Still she rejected me. And so I left her and went to eat.

Then, I was aware of my own sticky, hand covered face. How much time I’ve been wasting squatting in pain! How often I refuse to uncover my face because that would mean vulnerability. That would mean I would have to face my sin. So instead of looking to the Father (who only desires our joy in Him) I sulk in my shame. AND I HAVE BEEN FORGIVEN. 

This moment with the little girl helped me realize how He loves us, in His patient pursuit of our hearts. Those of us who already know our place in His kingdom, our sonship in His family, it is time for us to let go of our shame and the pride it takes for us to keep our faces covered. BECAUSE WE ARE WASTING OUR TIME. 

There are so many who have no idea that God awaits them on the other side of their shame. And there will come a time when the Father will go to His feast without them. We already know His forgiveness; we already know the way to His feast. There’s simply not enough time for us to doubt His forgiveness; we already know the way to His feast. There’s simply not enough time for us to doubt His forgiveness or remain in our selfishness. WE HAVE BEEN SET FREE! 

We must share Christ’s redemption with those squatting in pain, trapped in their own hopelessness. We won’t be the ones to give them joy, we won’t even be the ones to uncover their faces, but we will be the ones to show them the One who can. We will be the ones to pray for the Holy Spirit to remove their hands and captivate their hearts. We will be the hands, the feed w ho bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the lost. And we ARE the ones He has forgiven, the ones He has CHOSEN to make His name known. We just have to get out of the squatting position and GO.

-Hannah C

The Main Thing

When people welcome us with open arms

To take away time from family, job & farms

We boast in none other than our King

And we keep the main thing the main thing.

When doors are closed and everyone hides

When soil is hard, and people are blind

To truth that opens eyes and sets them free,

We keep the main thing the main thing.

When we get to play with kids & see smiles on their face

When we get to teach them songs & play some games

When we get to swim in the river & throw the Frisbee

We try to keep the main thing the main thing.

When kids just stand there and watch everything we do

Whether it’s bathing, washing clothes, talking or cooking food

When their constant presence takes away from the solitude we need

Still we always try to keep the main thing the main thing.

When people are eager to hear about God’s word & love

When they want to follow Him whether times are good or tough

When they put their faith into the Gospel of truth that we bring

We definitely keep the main thing the main thing.

When people don’t want to listen & have closed hearts

When they let us in to talk, but their attention parts

When they simply don’t care & just want us to leave

It can be hard, but we keep the main thing the main thing.

When the team is unified in the name of Christ

When we all work together and are filled with life

With servant hearts and our minds set on the King

We sure do keep the main thing the main thing.

When attitudes flare and tempers are quick

When there’s constant exhaustion and people are sick

When nothing goes right and it’s hard to even call us a team

Only by God’s grace we keep the main thing the main thing.

When we finish up our work and the summer comes to a close

When we go back to normal life as we all head home

The mission doesn’t stop. For life we’re called to share this love & mercy

And in all of our days, we keep the main thing the main thing.

-Hannah G.

I will refuse to be silent

“I will not refuse the word of God, it is precious,” she said.

And I knew in my heart, and I knew in my head

That I will see this woman in heaven someday

But as I realized it, I was filled with dismay

Because even though this woman has opened her door

So many have not, there are so many more

Who don’t know God’s love, who are drowning in sin.

So many children of God who don’t know how to swim.

I walk around this place and I see dry bones,

People more concerned with earthly than heavenly homes.

I see hard hearts in desperate need of love

I see Satan at work and my flesh wants to give up.

But my spirit is fueled by someone greater than I

A man who knows what it is to die

And then rise to overcome the black of the grave

A loving father who seeks only to save

People all around the globe and being swallowed whole

Because they don’t know the good news, they’ve never been told

Father, may their blood be on my hands

If I let my own comfort take precedence over your command

I cannot save souls, only speak of your grace

Only complete the task given to me and finish the race

I pray that these people would open their eyes,

Would stop wholeheartedly buying the enemies lies.

But until the day you come again

I will refuse to be silent, I will refuse to give in.

-Morgan A