Philippines ministry continues

One might think that our ministry to Philippines is over since we are back in the US.
But I am still in almost daily contact with many of the people I met there. Recently, I spoke with one of the young people and explained "speaking in tongues" and what it means to be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Many of the youth are hungry for the deeper things in God and they need a teacher.
Please pray for our need to provide teaching materials to the youth of the Philippines, they need to know about the Holy Ghost, healing and the greater works of God.

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New Healing reports from the Philippines

Great news from the Philippines. Flor Capilitan emailed me today with news from the Initao church of Pastor Lumbab. She also reported news about the baby with a tumor, (I posted in an earlier post) and about her nephew. Here is her email when she writes about the miracles,

"From Pastor Lumbab Church located at initao. A child was healed from the wound caused by fungus without applying medicine that through your prayer alone the child wound was healed testified by pastor lumbab. Two babies from the church pastored by pastor saluna was healed from sickness one is that having tumor at the back of her head i personally met the child and the grandmother........My nephew got healed from swelling of both feet & legs(beriberi)my mother got healed from back ache and shoulder without applying medicine praise the Lord for the instant help.We have motto" sa hirap ng panahon ngayon bawal magkasakit"(due to difficulties avoid sickness)."

Praise the Lord for these healing reports! All glory to the Lord.

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Shabach, Church of Jesus Christ Cagayan De Oro

This is the Church of Jesus Chirst in Cagayan De Oro. Cagayan is a city on the northern part of Mindanano. This church is in a village in the city, but there are no roads leading to this church. There is a path that you wallk inbetween the houses. This path opens up to a small lot on which that this church is being built. It is only about 10% complete but that does not prevent the saints from meeting. It is pastored by Pastor Barrero. He is pictured below standing by me in the red shirt.
The day I visited this church the Lord led me to teach the people about Shabach. Shabach is a hebrew word for "praise" that means to shout to the Lord with an "earsplitting sound." As soon as I showed the people to shout at the top of their voice and sing praises, they began to shout and praise. The Spirit fell and soon the people began to praise the Lord with zeal. The Spirit took over and I eventually lost the service to the Holy Ghost. I finally sat down and let them praise the Lord.
There is no sound system. The only music is a guitar.
I had a DVR and recorded the message, it was able to pick up most of the praise. It is inspiring to listen to the Philippino to praise the Lord with such zeal, and fire of spirit.

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Below are pictures of the house church called Jesus Chirst Great God of the World church. This church is several miles farther out from the Church pastored by pastor Suluna. It is very far out in the jungle mountain area. This church is pastored by pastor Jalagat. The day we were there was very hot, but the Lord met us. We sang and worshiped the Lord together and then prayed for every person there. Pastor Jalagat had 10-15 young people there, they were very shy however none refused prayer.
After the meeting we went to another room in the hose and took our lunch. There was fish and rice and roasted bannana. And we had more the sweet coconut milk drink Fellowship was good with much singing and Love of God.

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Here is the Church of Jesus Christ in the mountains near Initao. I wrote about this church in an earlier post called "the story of Pepito." There was a baby here who had a very bad tumor on the back of its head. I was told it was caused my malunutrion.

I just got an email from the Philippines with a report that the baby was healed at our prayer of faith. No medicine was applied.

Sis Flor writes,

"Praise the Lord! Pastor Winston and I just arrive from Initao to met the child and all the ministers. The child was completely healed from tumor without applying medicine just through your prayer the baby got healed."

As I have told this story, several people have asked about how they can help this family. Sis Flor writes that this family of 5 can survive on a bag of rice for 2000 pesos a month or $40, formula for the baby is 1,900 and vitamins are 399, for a total of about $92.

If you are interested in helping with this family please contact me. Sis Flor will buy the food directly and distribute and provide reciepts with signatures of the recipients. Every dollar will go to feed the hungry, 100%.

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The Church of Jesus Chirst in Plaridel.

Pastor Sosa, his wife Alicia and Alvin

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The Church of Jesus Christ in Intiao pastored by Pastor Lumbab

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Churchs of Jesus Chirst Initao

This is the Jesus Chirst Free church in Initao pastored by Pastor Delano.

Pastor Delano

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Don Arco Beach

After ministering in the two churches in the town of Initao, our party traveled to the beach to "take lunch."
This was certainly a beautiful place to have a quick lunch before we went to minister in the two mountain house churches, of Pastors Saluna and Jalagat.

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Lake Apo

Pastor Jonald Magto and Pastor Jered Ramada




This picture was taken on beautiful lake Apo, "Apo" means elder or grandparent. This lake is a "rift lake" formed by plate subsidence related to movement along earthquake fault lines and is about 26 meters deep. There was a little hut that was built on the water. We sat on the hut and had a relaxing afternoon, eating maurung, before visting the famiiles that make up an outreach church in this mountain area.

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Pray in the name of Jesus Christ

When I was in Valencia I taught a leadership conference. There were 29 leaders who attended.
I taught them the basic doctrine of one-God and that his name is Jesus Christ. I taught that prayer, baptism, and salvation is in the name of Jesus Christ. That was on a Monday, on Thursday this pastor went to lake Apo with me. He told me that I had "changed his life." That he knew that he had to add the "anointing" (Christ) to his prayers. He said is was going to always pray in the name of Jesus Christ!

Pastor Teresito Tupaz

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This is Will.

He was a confirmation for me. I divided my 20 days in the Philippines between Iligan and Valencia. I was in both places for about a week, not counting travel days. I first had planned to leave the country from Valencia. But after spending a week there, I felt that I should cancel my final speaking engagement at the church of Pastor Benito and return to Iligan. Several factors made up this decision...but it was personally hard for me to cancel a meeting so I struggled with the decision. This was the first time I was traveling "on my own" without and escort. When I got on the bus to travel to Iligan, this young man sat next to me and began to ask me who I was...they all understand the word "missionary" so I told him I was a missionary. He asked me what church and I told him "non-denominational but Christian." I said we believe in Jesus Christ and I preach "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever." He said, "Oh so you are Apostolic, so am I." I knew he was not talking of an "apostolic denomination" like we have in America, but that he believed in Ac 2:38baptism. We talked for about an hour about the oneness of God and the "truth."

Of all the thousands of people I could have sat by on this journey...God allowed a fellow brother and believer in Jesus Christ to sit next to me.

He got off at a stop before I did and left me with the words, "see you in the Kingdom my friend and brother."

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This is Christian.
Pastor Jered took me to a small village in Valencia. We visited the home of Edward Suarez, he owns a field of sugar cane. This picture was taken in his back yard. He had a Rambutan tree and when he found out I liked the taste of Rambutan he wanted to give me some from his tree. The fruit was ripe at the top of the tree but we could not reach it. So Christian was hailed from the street and promised some fruit if he would climb the tree and pick me some ripe fruit.

Rambutan is white, sweet and has the texture of a grape, it is about as big as a large grape.



This is how the following website describes Rambutan,

http://www.philippines.hvu.nl/fruit3.htm

"Rambutan fruit has a thick skin that is covered with fine, short hairs. It's a small fruit, not bigger than the size of a hen's egg. Inside is a small seed covered with half transparent flesh. The color of rambutan is red or yellow. The fruit has a soft sweet taste. The name "rambutan" comes from the Malay world "rambut", which means 'hair'. There is a great demand for this fruit. This resulted in the establishment of many plantations, among others on the islands of Mindanao, Panay, southern Luzon (region Batangas) and Mindoro."

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Nilson

This is Nilson. He was a good friend to me when I was in Valencia. He is an English major in college and has just finished his final exams. He helped translate to me what people were saying and he knew English word origins. I told him he should teach me English! We discussed regional english and regional expressions. I tried to explain to him about the south and our drawwwwwlll. I don't know if I got "ya all" over to him.

We had a lot of fun talking about such phrases.

Nilson has studied leading in worship and the whole team in Valencia is held together by him.

His life consists of school and church. He goes to the church every Saturday and practices with the band. Then all day in Sunday worship. Whenever I asked about where Nilson lives I was always told, "it is very far." ?? So considering how the Philippino must travel I know it is a great sacrifice for him to get to the church both Saturday and Sunday.

Most memorable thing about him was the Sunday that I preached "Jesus Christ" as the salvation name. Nilson got up and was leading in worship as I was praying for the people and he started singing, "I belong to Jesus Christ...Jesus Christ is my God...Jesus Christ is my Saviour." He received a seed of the word of the gospel of "Jesus Christ" and that was worth all to make my journey to Valencia.

Pray for Nilson as he seeks God's will for his life.

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David Adrales and Heidi

This is David and Heidi. They live in Valencia. She leads in praise and worship at the Jesus for all Missions Church, she is a front singer and has great stage presence.
When we did the open air meeting in a province about our hour motorcycle ride outside of Valencia David and Heidi drove a motorela and took many of our team to the site. David plays the guitar and sings, he has a very good voice. David has a great heart and passion for God. He is always smiling and has leadership potential. He is praying for direction for his life and wants to always serve the Lord. He and Heidi plan on being married at some date in the future.



When I took this picture David was moving and the digital camera I had required a few seconds of no movement or the picture would be blurry. I told David they were all bad pictures and if he wanted me to get a good one he would have to sit still and pose. When the Philippino put their hand under their chin like David is doing it is saying, "I am handsome!"

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This is Jimuel and his little brother Jimboy.
Their father died when Jimuel was five, and Jimboy 3. They do not remember him and have never seen a photograph of him. Their mother remarried and their step father could not afford to raise these two boys, if I remember correctly they told me their was then 7 children. So he left them with their grandmother. This is a common story in the Philippines. She lives in Iligan City and is very poor and she thought that the boys would be better cared for in the orphanage. They have lived there for the last 3 years. The first Sunday I was in Valencia I opened my Bible (gold page, leather bound, etc). Jimuel commented and said, "beautiful Bible." I noticed that Jimuel was reading from a Gideon Bible. I asked him if it was his Bible and he said, "No sir, I have no Bible." It hurt my feelings to think that he did not have his own personal bible, so I gave him the pesos to buy a bible. He asked me to sign it for him and I took his picture. From that momemnt on we were friends...he brought me hot coffee every morning, washed my clothes, and climbed the volcano with me. If there was any way possible, I would bring him and his little brother to America to live.







Jimboy plays the guitar. It is a cheap china made guitar but he makes it sound like a "martin." He is a pretty good singer and will sing harmony with his brother. They love to sing worship music by Hillsong and Don Moen.

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This is JohnJohn. He is an orphan child and lives in the Ramada orphanage in Valencia. He was one of the saddest cases of children I saw. When I got there they told me that he was mentally retarded and that he had a skin disease. I looked at his skin and he had 3 ringworms, one on his arm and the others on his legs. He was not being treated and the ringworm was as big as a silver dollar. That night I went to the Pharmacy and bought the anti-fungal cream and asked that it be put on the boy twice a day. He was a lot better 1 week later when I left but was still not cured. I think that if he were in America we would say he was "autistic." And that he had behaviour problems...maybe ADD. We would get him some special education classes and send him to school. But that is not an option in the Philippines, unless you pay, it is very expensive for them. So Johnjohn...is just existing; not being educated or properly cared for. He will forever be at the mercy of those around him.
He has only a mother, who lives many hours away, his father is dead. His mother is remarried and cannot care for Johnjohn. She abandoned him at the orphanage. The night I arrived he tried to tell me his story and sat on the dirty concrete floor and cried for an hour. I could not understand him...except for the word, "momma."

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The day before I left the Philippines I want to Cagayan De Oro, my flight left at
9AM and Cagayan is at least a two hours bus ride from Iligan, so we had to get a hotel.
I saw the traditional dress of the Philippine men, it is called a Baroung. The traditional one is white and is wore with a white T-shirt underneath. Then they have this style that is pictured. I bought Pastor Winston and his Assistant Pastor Ernesto a Baroung.



Bro Ernesto and his wife Edith

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Here is a beautiful family that attends the Church of Jesus Chirst Iligan. The childern call me Unle Bill. Sis Lois married a wonderful man and when they had children he wanted to provide them with the best life possible. So he did what many many Filipino men do, he took a job overseas. That means he cannot visit his home but one time a year. His children have only seen him a handful of times. But he is a good provider for them and his wife. He lives in Malaysia, I spoke to him on the phone...but his English was not good enough for me to understand. But he was trying to thank me because his wife had received a miracle when I prayed for her. Two weeks later I saw and heard her crying and thanking God for giving her this healing.

Just before I left the Philippines I wanted to give this beautiful family a gift. Because their father makes such a huge sacrifice for his family they are able to afford a few things that other Filipinos will never be able to buy, they have a telephone and have Internet in their home. So I gave them enough US $ to buy an MP3 player. Lovelychristin was my interpreter for many trips and helped me in many ways, she helped me carry some of my equipment and watched it for me during meetings and while we traveled. She, Johnbronson and their mother were a great blessing to me.


This is Sis Lois leading the worship at the church.



This is the oldest child, Lovelychristine.
She was the first to teach me of the Philippine custom of taking an elders hand and placing it on the forehead of the children. This is their way of showing respect to the elders. As soon as she saw me she grabbed my hand and placed it on her forehead and said that this was their custom and "welcome elder Bill."



This is Johnbronson. I took the photo of him playing the bass and his sister took the other two and emailed them to me.

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