This summer changed my life!

Hundreds of people heard the Gospel, many bible studies were held, homes visited, and life-long friendships were made. It was extremely hard at times, but the Lord was with us through it all. All glory to God!

-Kirstin Carlton
Philippines

Taytay sa kaayohan (Bridge to Healing)

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

Refreshed & Ready to finish!

Two of our teams got to take their mid summer break together! 
Pray as they travel today (Thursday) to new areas of ministry for the rest of the summer.
Pray for open hearts as they share the Good News in some hard places.

-Colleen
IMB Journeyman 

Team of the Day: Tropical Harvesters

Location: Philippines
Team size: 4

Job description: Travel by jeepney and motorcyle into remote villages along the Agusan River & on the island of Socorro to share your life and His story. They are ready. Are you?? In partnership with nationals, continue to push into areas where the church doesn't exist yet. Encourage local believers by joining their harvest force... going from village to village, sharing about the greatest story ever told.

Beautiful Feet

We've finished our first few weeks of ministry and are absolutely in love with this people & these people. Our aim is to focus on house to house evangelism & Bible studies... with the goal of seeing every household turn to Christ, training them to be reproducible disciple, passionate for the Lord and for growing His church.

We have already entered & shared the Gospel with every home, held multiple Bible studies and have seen 3 people give their lives to Christ. We will continue to disciple them & help them grow in the grace & knowledge of Christ. The bondage here is great, but the power of God is greater still. We will stop at nothing as we proclaim His name.

We consider every challenge a blessing & every obstacle an opportunity to grow. Some challenges are funny... for 3 days straight it had been raining relentlessly. We would have to hike up the mountain, shin-deep in mud to get to the area where we were visiting homes. And on the return trip... we would end up sliding back down the hill. We don't even recognize our own feet at this point... they are so constantly caked in mud.

Through it all we press on with job, knowing that these people's eternities are at stake... and the salvation of their souls is worth it.

Until all have heard,
Tropical Harvesters,
Philippines


As the team will be transferring to a new location, pray for the those who will be following up in the original location. Pray for the growth of those who have already made decisions to follow Christ... pray for a harvest in the lives of those who have heard the Good News and have yet to respond to Christ's free gift.

Tropical Harvesters team checking in...

Hey friends! I have been in the Philippines for about a week and a half and it has been amazing to see all that the Lord has done so far in the village we are staying in. We are in a village in the mountains for the next two weeks (we are in the city for the day) and village life has been hard but so sweet! 

I have seen the Lord work in the lives of the people there but please pray for our friends that the blinders of these cult religions would be removed and they would truly see Jesus and the truth of the Gospel. There's only one name by which we can be saved so please plead with the Father with me that these people may come to know Christ! 

We will head to a nearby island in a couple weeks for our last part of the summer! Thank you all for the support, God has been so faithful!

-Kristin
Tropical Harvesters, Philippines

Life with Tropical Harvesters

Had a great few days with the Tropical Harvester girls! These girls are tough- hiking to their area in the mud!  Leave it to the girls team to be organized and hardworkin'!

-Colleen

Team with their national partners