Love & Hunger for God's Word

This Bible study & the sweet women who attended, Nanay Mercy & Nanay Prusi, have been on my heart & mind today. I can't stop thinking about their response to the passage in Mark 4, the Parable of the Sower. Both women said they wanted to be like the good soil that received the seed, heard God's word & produced a crop & multiplied. Then they admitted they are sometimes like the seed thrown among thorns, they allow the worries of life & desire of other things to choke the Word. I also shared that I allow school work and family life to choke God's word and make it unfruitful. 

But then, we encouraged each other to make God's word a priority in our lives. What encouraged me the most is the next day, Nanay Prusi came to another Bible study and told us she woke up at 3AM that morning to spend time reading her Bible before she did any of her work for the day. 3AM!! What a testament to her love & hunger for the precious Word of God! 

I pray her hunger is never satisfied and that I would prioritize spending time with my Savior like Nanay Prusi did. Praise the Lord for my Filipino sisters in Christ.

-Meghan
2017 Riverboat Evangelism Team
Samar, Philippines

It was worth it

Wild, crazy, incredible summer. Spending 52+ days in Eastern Samar with a team of students, travelling on boats, hiking across islands, and preaching the gospel to the unreached was a huge opportunity for us. It wasn't always easy and had plenty of ups and downs, but in the end every bit of effort put in by the team was worth it. God reached out to so many people and touched their lives in amazing ways. Being able to witness that firsthand was a huge blessing, and now that we're all home, I'm sure everyone's hoping to see that opportunity again soon. Thankful that we've all made it back safe, and for the work God did in so many towns and regions this summer. Huge thanks to everyone for the prayer and support for our teams, it meant so much. 

-Nat Lloyd
Riverboat Team
Samar, Philippines

Life-Changing Summer

We made it home from the Philippines! What an amazing, life-changing summer we have had serving the King. We are so thankful for the many people that supported us and prayed for us throughout the summer. We are thankful for Nehemiah Teams and for our teammates. We are excited to share all the things God did this summer in the Philippines and in our own lives and hearts.

-Trey & Meghan Dickey
Riverboat Team
Samar, Philippines

*Trey & Meghan are married and served as team leaders. They did a great job! If you are married & considering serving with Nehemiah Teams... please contact us & we can help you find a team that is a good fit for you.

Power to Change Lives

Elizabeth and I were able to join one of our teams for ministry for a few days on a small island just off the coast of eastern Samar. In the afternoon we crossed over on a small paddle boat to an island with only around 20 houses. 

We approached a house and we met Ate S. One of the team members shared the Bridge tract with her, explaining how Jesus' death and resurrection are our "bridge" back to God. Ate S. was very interested and we explained that Nehemiah Teams was not there to bring a religion, but only a relationship with God. When Ate S. heard this she lit up and said "I heard a man on the radio say that!" She was happy to schedule a Bible Study for the next day.

When the team returned and began Bible study they pulled out a Bible in her language, Waray-Waray, and handed it to her. She was very excited and told us that she had never held a Bible before. They showed her the passage for Bible study and asked her to read, and she could hardly wait. The team further explained salvation by faith alone through grace alone in Jesus Christ to be received as a free gift. Ate S. prayed to confess her sin and ask for forgiveness and new life. 

When it was time for us to leave, Ate S. started to hand the Bible back to the team, to which they replied, "No, we want you to have it!" She was almost overcome with joy and hugged the Bible. What a wonderful reminder of how precious God's Word is and the power it has to change lives.

Please continue to pray for Ate S and others like her who have made the decision to follow Christ this summer.

-Joe

Blessings

As the summer comes to an end, I can clearly reflect on how amazing God has been to me and my team. We have been able to witness dozens of people come to Christ, and God has allowed us to baptize 3 of those new believers! On top of this, we have hosted multiple VBS programs and we got to share the gospel with each class at Hinolaso National High School. Some of the fondest memories I hold are from the sweet friendships that have blossomed out of fellowship and Bible studies. 

In San Roque, we had a regular Bible Study with a set of grandparents, their kids and spouses, and the grandkids!! Three generations of one family gathered to study God's word; God sure is incredible. 

A new believer in Hinolaso, Ate E, grows exceptionally in her faith every day. I feel so blessed to witness God move like this. Her hunger for God inspires me. 

I also adore the multitudes of children who love on us daily. Their smiling faces and silly nicknames encourage me even after difficult days of ministry. I feel so blessed to be able to serve God and His people in the Philippines. He is faithful and good. He is doing a great work here and I know that I only saw a small part.

-Cheyanne

Final Days in the Philippines

As all the teams bring their ministry to a close, many of us are met with a feeling we can't shake. We are so eager to return home to our families, but we are also heart broken to leave the ones we have been discipling. The teams have been investing the time they have remaining in teaching new believers how to start and maintain a house church. We are very blessed God gave us the opportunity to fulfill the great commission, and have no regrets of the decision we have made to spend our summer. God has truly blessed us.

Please pray for safe travels home and the new believers we are leaving.

The Gospel Must Go!
-Sam Johnston

Understanding and Reception

But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the Word and understands it. Matthew 13:23

Team of the Day: Riverboat

Country of the Day: Philippines

Pray for understanding and reception of the Gospel by the lost as team members share the Gospel.

Update from Riverboat Team

H Team has been having a hard time with people being receptive to the gospel. The teams have been praying for the hearts of the people in Tikling. Our prayers were answered when several people became open to hearing the gospel. One woman had previously heard about the gospel by a radio service was curious, and invited us to talk to her. She was very excited to find out that we were also teaching bible studies. When we brought her a Bible to read her excitement couldn't be contained, because she had never held a Bible before, much less read one. She is always eager to read a Bible story and talk about the Bible. God is answering prayers.

Please continue to pray for the hearts of the people in the Philippines, and their willingness to let us in their homes.

-Sam

The Gospel Must Go!

Most of us would say that we were called to go the Philippines this summer—whether it was because of a specific sequence of events that happened prior to enrollment or a desire to go out and share the gospel with a people group that may never otherwise hear about our Lord, Jesus Christ. We are all college students whom perhaps otherwise would’ve spent our summers with our families & friends, at the beach, at our home, or even in our soft beds with the television on. Rather we are in the Philippines sleeping on a pad, hand washing clothes, and doing what we can to endure the scorching heat. 
The fact is we were called to go... not only to the Philippines... but to share the gospel in every place and baptize people in the name of the Trinity. We were commanded by a calling in Mathew 28:18-20 to go out, no matter the cost. It doesn’t matter where we go; it matters that we go. We may endure hard times, rough environments, unresponsive people, sickness, fear, or sleepless nights. We endure all this so that we can see lives changed, hope given to the hopeless, joy overflowing from the sorrowful, a sinner’s immeasurable debt taken away like a breeze in the night. We go because of what our God has done for us, and because He is worthy of all praise. 
We aren’t special. We are no different than other Christians. We are followers of a self-sufficient God that came down to Earth and died a bloody, painful, humiliating death that we deserved, then rose from the dead three days later and gave us a command to share the good news that He has conquered hell and is sitting at the right hand of God. This is the God we follow, and the entire planet must know of him—that they can worship Him or rebuke Him. We are commanded to go and share the good news; we are called to the place that needs the Gospel. In other words it is our responsibility to share the gospel where we are and where we go. We share the Gospel regardless of the cost: social labels, persecution, extreme heat, extreme cold, leaving your family, leaving the culture you know, or enduring sickness. With the God who loves us enough to conquer death, armies couldn’t stop us. What’s stopping you?

Romans 12:1

Luke 9:23

The Gospel Must Go!

Nothing will stand in its way!

Please be praying:

• For physical and spiritual strength to finish the race our Lord Jesus Christ has set before us.
• For healing from sickness of team members and Filipinos
• For endurance that we may finish our final weeks strong and sharing the Gospel.
• That we return home changed and on fire with the spirit.
• That our focus will be on sharing the gospel and not our earthly home.
• For strength, courage, and wisdom as some of us fight spiritual battles.
• For spiritual growth of new believers in the Philippines.
• That non-believers would be open to hearing what the Bible says, and not just their culture.

-Riverboat Teams

Riverboat Supervisor Update

See a current update from the Riverboat Evangelism teams field supervisor. Pictures too!!

www.joeandelizabethphilippines.blogspot.com

God, are you real?

Today (June 19, 2017) my heart was broken, and it took everything inside of me not to weep in agony. It wasn’t from the fact that I miss my friends or family, it wasn’t from abandoning the place I call home to adopt a radically new environment, and it wasn’t from the exhaustion caused by giving up our time that made me weep from deep in my soul. Those things make me sad. What infected my soul with such agony was a broken hearted mother.

Today we were visiting a house where we had previously been invited to share the Gospel. The woman that had told us to come back the following day invited us in once again as we walked up to the front door. She looked young compared to most American women her age. She was round-faced with thick hair and a joyful personality. We shared the story of Lazarus and the rich man with her. Lazarus was the one who went to heaven and the rich man went to hell. The rich man begged to raise Lazarus from the dead so that the rich man’s family could be warned of the torment they would face if they didn’t repent. We then shared the Gospel and asked if the woman was assured of her salvation—if she would go to heaven when she died. 
The once joyful woman now was embracing a child-sized, stuffed Winnie the Pooh bear, and unintentionally expressing sorrow on her face. Soon after, she handed me a sheet of school paper with a letter on it. The letter was from a woman whom had just given birth and lost the child 8 hours later. The letter described the mother’s sorrow and pain. The mother wrote that after barely surviving herself; she prayed and asked, ”God are you real?”, “Do you care?”, “Are you good?”, “How can you let this happen?”  
After Roy finished translating the letter for me, the woman pointed to a picture nearby and told us that the mother who wrote that letter was herself and the baby in the picture was hers. In that instant I felt breathless, powerless, and heartbroken all at once. There was nothing I could tell her that would change anything. All I could tell her was that we live in a broken and sinful world and that God sent his Son for us so that we could spend eternity in a perfect heaven with Him. It is in Christ alone that we can find joy and relief from the pain of this world. She was excited to follow Christ and be forgiven of her sins. She looks forward to reading the Bible we gave her and finding the never-ending joy God has for her.

God is good and working in Barangay B.

-Riverboat EV team

Riverboat: Our First Barangay!

Dolores Team

Barangay (Village) B.

Maupay! The Dolores Team arrived at their first barangay (village) on Sunday, June 10. The barangay has about 200 houses and 2000 residents, and is currently undergoing renovations to provide indoor toilets to residents. The Filipino people are extremely hospitable.

Upon arriving in the barangay we introduced ourselves to the Barangay Captain and asked permission to sleep in the barangay hall. The barangay hall is at the center of town, and is where major events can be hosted. The hall has a massive tin roof covering. Under the roof the full size basketball court occupies 4/6 of the space, in the corner a stage takes up 1/6 of the space, and the barangay hall building uses the rest of the space. If you couldn’t tell already, Filipinos really enjoy basketball.

On the first night our neighbors brought us chairs, a rice mat (to sleep on), and if we had let them, an additional table that we could eat at. The barangay hall building is a two story building where official meetings can be held if necessary. The first story had a room to stay in with a bathroom. The second story is a meeting room where we sleep. The second story is nice because cool breeze during the morning and afternoon can roll through the windows. A short, pleasant breeze is like a sweet piece of candy after only having salty things to eat.

The first few days we went from house to house, hut to hut, person to person sharing the gospel, telling Bible stories, sharing testimonies, and inviting people to Bible study groups. We are moving swiftly through the barangay, and we are eager to see what God is doing in the people of B. The Gospel must go!

Please be praying for:

• The health of the team
• The endurance of the team through the rough climate
• The spirit to be moving in the people we meet
• Spiritual growth in people who follow Jesus, and strength to not conform to the world

Thank you, for your support and prayers. We will run the race our Lord Jesus has set before us.

-Sam

Riverboat Teams: First Days in the Philippines!

Maupay! We are the 2017 Riverboat teams in eastern Samar, Philippines. We arrived in Tacloban City on Thursday June 8, where our translators and our local IMB supervisors greeted us. The teams couldn’t have been happier to have finally arrived in the Philippines and have a warm welcome from our friends (in Waray) after nearly three days of travel. Everyone hugged and greeted each other, then got to know each other better by piling approximately twenty people into a jeepney .

We spent the first two nights in a hotel where we could have air conditioning and a private comfort room for a short time while we adjusted to the environment. Both nights we ate at a local mall. The mall was very nice and very much like an average American indoor mall. Most of the Filipinos in that area knew enough English to have an average conversation, so it was not difficult to pick up supplies.  The first morning we ate a Filipino breakfast at an eatery around the corner from where we were staying. Afterwards our local contacts assigned the teams a scavenger hunt that had to be completed at the street market.  There we found fruits that none of us had seen before, bought malongs, drank coke from a bag, and bought

Coke in a bag!

fans to keep cool. As much as it was an exciting experience, it was an opportunity for us as a team to learn to trust our translators to haggle prices for us and take care of us; otherwise sellers may take advantage of our American ignorance. After resting up and being briefed on our locations we were ready to disembark for our destinations: Hiliba-an, Oras, and Dolores. I hope to provide more updates in the near future. Salamat!

Please be praying for the team’s health, endurance, that the Holy Spirit would be moving in us as well as the people around us, and our translator’s ability to understand and translate specific dialects effectively.

-Sam

Discerning Open Doors

Teams of the Day: Riverboat (all 3 teams)

Country of the Day: Philippines

Pray for team members to recognize doors that have been opened by the Holy Spirit. Pray they would boldly proclaim the Gospel.

Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me. 

2 Corinthians 2:12

...because a great door for effective work has opened to me... 1 Corinthians 16:9

...so that you may be able to discern what is best... Philippians 1:10