Eebbie Jeebbies

All the little things that many people think are strange or gross end up being normal or just apart of the culture depending on where you live. Here in the Philippines getting lice is very normal in our village, and if you are hugging and loving on kids it happens quite often. A day with ants in your food, cockroaches running over head, with the lizard in the corner, and a dead rat by your bedroom door is somewhat common.  That does not happen most days, at the same time but it has happened. You know what? God gives you the grace to handle it, doesn't mean you still don't get the eebbie jeebbies, but He helps you. And one day you wake up and you don't  care; it just is. His grace is sufficient.

Others Reaching Others

Its such an honor, and glory to God, to watch people that you have raised up. To watch God move in their lives and for them to began their own bible studies because they are leading others to Jesus, it is totally exciting. When I think about it, that is the way it should be. One day, Lord willing, one or more of the people from that group will began teaching and loving another group. One of the few jobs that you try to work your way out of your job. It will really never happen until Jesus comes back because as I look across the field, it is white for harvest and that is where we will go. Until then we are so proud of them. We have two leading this study,  (Johcery, the one standing in the back, and Dario in the blue) which started Johcery sharing with her family and others have started from our street outreach. What a joy to be apart of God's math, and He gets the glory.

MAKING THE ORDINARY FUN

  Making the ordinary fun, two of the guys I am teaching and mentoring, wanted to help me get water from the pump (the kind like on Little House and the Prarie).  Usually it takes around 45 minutes to fill up our water containers.  So I said, "Let's do it Star Wars style!"  Even though they were a little embarrassed, we did it, and had a great time.  We asked everyone we passed, "Where's your helmet?" and then warmed them that the enemy was coming out of hyper-space.  We had fun being goofy, and including others in it.  In the end we took a normal ordinary activity, and made it into a life long memory.

Fun in the Sun

Fun in the sun, sharing the Son, because it needs to be done. Were making the area bigger to do more things. Play, talk, laugh, and sing. Bigger court, with teams that I teach. That I am making them great, would be a reach. More families, more people, all want to come because... remember, its more fun, at Subangan ( | Sue-'bong-on | ).

It is Worth the Fight

Is one person worth thousands of dollars and hundreds of dollars. Many families make the choice to let their child die if the funeral bill is cheaper than the medical bill then they let them die. Now understand that they are very sad and morn and miss them, but that is how many make their decisions.  

This little girl. Reza, was living with us because her mother was somewhere else working so she has become like a daughter to us. When she got sick it was up to us, and mama came to be by her side. It was a battle that took many people to help, to pay the bills, to pray, and so many people to help see her though 24 days of being sick. Patti spent much time with her and her mama, helping make medical decisions, and advocating for better medical care.  It saved her life. She would have died if it was not for the help of hundreds of prayers, money, love, wisdom and God's grace.

It cost us more than we had but we paid it anyway, paying for a coffin as a choice is not an option to us. Glory to God money was sent to help us, but what mattered is that we fight for those that can't, and we make a stand no matter how uncomfortable it is. I am happy to say she is running around the house and almost 100 percent again. And she is totally worth it.

Step By Step

At our activity area at the beach we have started a bible study call 4 at 4, meaning four minutes of God's word at four o'clock. Now this happens to be right before the basketball league that we have started called Sand Dunk.  Now in order to get to the court you have to walk by the bible study.  So many young men have stopped by to check it out and in return some have given there lives to Jesus.

Milestone

In long-term mission outreaches, like living in the Philippines for 9 years, there are certain goals or milestones that you try to reach.  One for us is to raise up believers that are rooted and grounded in Christ and have a love and desire to share and testify to others the truth of who God is and what He has done in their lives.  I have been doing daily training with a group of boys in the book of Mathew, then has led to "How do you live out and share the love of Jesus everywhere you go no matter what."

So today was our first official going out playing praise songs and sharing our hearts to other neighborhoods.  The boys even designed their own track and picked out the verses they wanted to share and the pictures to go with it.  It was a true team thing and what God did was beyond what I could tell you.  So many made choices to follow Jesus and now we have a new bible study that came out of it.  The guys were so excited about God, it showed in everything they did all day long, even when they left our house at 10 at night. God grace, power and love is amazing.