November 2010

I went to southern Mindanao with Howard Ferris, Terry Goodwin, Paul Hernandez and the EFC worship team. We traveled with General Omar and Commander Spider of the M.N.L.F. (Moro National Liberation Front) along with Paul Abraham and several pastors from the A.R.M.M.(Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao). We were able to preach the Gospel in 11 different locations. We had meetings with Muslim tribal leaders, city officials, college students, and at several large open air events. We estimate around 70% of the people who heard the Gospel received Jesus. Thousands were brought in the Kingdom during these Peace and Healing Festivals. At the end of the meetings, when we prayed for the sick, God showed off in a big way, healing eyes, ears, sickness and all sorts of ailments. God is truly alive in Mindanao.

Tribal leaders and city officials of Aleosan raising there hands to receive Jesus.

Preaching the Gospel at Southern Baptist Collage.

Praying for the sick at Bagumbayan.

Pastor Paul and me in Midsayap.

We preached the Gospel at the MNLF anniversary.

GPCP6

These are some of the kids of GPCP6 (Gods Precious Children of Purok 6). This group was started by Pastor Tony in Purok 6 as an outreach to the "Rugby Boys", a group of street kids that sniff Rugby glue. Pastor Tony invited them to come to the church on Wednesday night for a snack and a Bible study. The first night 7 came to the Church and it has grown every week. Now over 40 attend regularly and it has turned into a regular youth service. We let them know how much God loves them and how precious they are to Him. We decided to change their name from the "Rugby Boys" to "GPCP6", so they would have a new identity. Every week we continue to speak to them about God's love and every week more kids accept Jesus. It is truly amazing to see God's love transforming these kids' lives.

School Supplies

This year we were able to to send almost 100 kids to school by providing them with uniforms, backpacks, shoes and school supplies. Thanks to all who helped with this endeavor.

FCC Youth Mission Trip 2010

In June the youth from Faith Center Church came for their annual mission trip. We held 3 healing festivals in the Northern provinces of Luzon, a dance competition, a band competition and another festival in our local area. Many people accepted Jesus and the local churches where we went were strengthened. You can check out more pictures on the sidebar.

David Carroll came to visit

David came to visit in March. He was on a business trip to several places in Asia and was able to arrange to come and visit us for a week. We had great time showing him around and doing ministry with him. He filled in on the bass on Sunday morning and spoke at one of our local outreach Bible studies.

Bible study Purok Cinco

Dined with Pastor Paul and his family.

We had a great time at the beach with him.

Trip to the Northern Provences

Preaching at pastor Bong's church

Praying for healing

The last weekend in February we visited in three different provinces. The first one was Pangasinan where Ptr. Paul and I led a pastor's mentoring session. There were around 20 pastors and their spouses from around their province in attendance. We then traveled on to Nueva Ecija and spent the evening with Ptr. Bong and his wife, Pilar. The next morning, I preached in Ptr. Bong's church. After the message about God's grace, 12 people accepted Jesus as their Lord and many people were healed. Praise be to God! In the afternoon Ptr. Paul, Ptr. Bong, Ptr. Nestor, Ptr. Jayson and I led another pastors/leadership mentoring time. There were around 75 people in attendance. Again, they came from all over the province. Monday morning we traveled to Tarlac and spent the day with Ptr. Zaldy and his outreach pastors where again we had a mentoring time. In between travel and mentoring, Anna-Lisa, Jayson and I fit in a dental cleaning time, which was long overdue. Ptr. Zaldy's wife is a dentist and did a great job of cleaning our teeth. While I was with the pastors, Anna-Lisa and Jayson had a chance to visit with the pastor's families. Jayson had a great time playing basketball and riding a bike with a sidecar attached. We even experienced a flat tire on the way home that added to the exciting weekend.

Back Home in the Philippines

A few days after arriving, we drove with Ptr. Paul and the youth leaders to Baguio City. This was taken at Mines View. The weather reminded us of a nice summer day in Washington State. Jayson had fun picking strawberries at a local farm. We had a wonderful time.

We had a 15 hour layover in Seoul. Jay took the first watch. We had a great flight and the layover wasn't bad at all. The airport had a nice resting area.

Faith Center Youth in the Philippines

The youth from Faith Center Church came to stay with us for 2 weeks. Our goal was to keep them busy. First we traveled about 5 hrs north to the province of Nueva Ecija, where we did 2 music and healing festivals. We did one in the town of Quezon and one in the town of Santo Domingo. Then we brought them back here to Cavite where they used their gifts at a multi-church youth conference. About 20 local F.R.E.E. Mission churches together brought over 700 of their youth. We had another music and healing festival in a new upstart church in Kubuhan. We then took them to the beach for a couple of days of R&R. We did one more music and healing festival in Purok Sais to end their trip. It was a very busy 2 weeks to say the least. The team did a great job of sharing and showing the love of Jesus where ever they went. There were hundreds of people born again at the festivals and many lives changed through the healing power of God. The impact that they had here was great. We are still hearing testimonies of their love and generosity. From all of us here, we love you and thank you very much. Maraming, maraming salamat po!

Music and Healing Festival in Quezon

The people came by truckloads to the evening event in Quezon, Nueva Ecija.

The venue was an outdoor restaurant. They were expecting 200 people and were pleasantly surprised when 300 showed up.

Everyone loved the music

About 150 people came up to receive Jesus. After the healing prayer a lot of of people testified of how God had healed them.

Faith Center Youth in Santo Domingo

There was close to 1,000 people at the "Music and Healing" festival in Santo Domingo, Nueva Ecija. People came from miles around.

The Elevate Generation worship team set the atmosphere for the evening with exciting praise music.

Lots of people accepted Jesus after the Gospel message was shared.

People also came up to receive healing. This man suffered from the aftermath of a stroke and could not walk without a cane. Our friend Luke felt moved to pray for him and walked the gentleman around the court until he could walk on his own. The whole crowd was focused on him until he received his healing and then erupted with a loud cheer.

Faith Center Youth in Kubuhan

The day started off with the team going door-to-door inviting people to the afternoon Children's program and to the evening "Music and Healing" program. In this picture the team is being introduced to the children. Pastor Bong's wife, Cielito planned a wonderful program filled with traditional Filipino dances, games, and the Gospel message presented by our son, Jayson and Pastor Seth's daughter, Zoe.

Jayson did a great job of sharing the Gospel message.

Zoe did a wonderful job of sharing the healing story of blind Bartimaeus.

After the Gospel, the kids prayed to receive Jesus and to have hands layed on them for healing.

Pastor Bong and his wife Cielito (who is expecting their third son) and their 2 boys.

Traditional Dances and Games

The church members in Kubuhan performed some traditional Filipino dances for us.The object of this one was not to get your feet pinched between the bamboo poles.They invited the American guests to try it, which gave everyone a good laugh. It was a lot harder than it looked.

This is another traditional dance done with candles.

These are the guys that spent 5 hrs working their way up a 30 foot, greased bamboo pole to collect a bag of money that was attached at the top.

Music and Healing Festival in Kubuhan

The day started off wet and rainy but cleared up in the afternoon. By the time the festival started, all that was left was mud. If we had known ahead of time, we would have all bought rubber boots.

The musicians and the dancers were amazing

There were around 300 people present that night. Several people came up to receive Jesus. When we were done praying, people came up to have hands laid on them for healing. It was amazing watching God's healing power set people free. Pastor Bong has a church of around 50 people. The majority of them are women. The biggest miracle for him happened within the next few days as the men of the community started receiving Christ and coming to church.

Faith Center Youth in Purok Sais

We started off the day visiting door to door and invited the children to come to the church for a children's program in the afternoon. We also invited everyone to the "Music and Healing Festival" being held that evening.

The kids had a great time playing games, singing songs and getting their faces painted. Jayson and Zoe gave the Gospel message through an interpreter and they all prayed a salvation prayer together.

That night, even though it rained, we had about 200 people listening to the program. Some of them were standing on the other side of the fence or were listening from their homes. A lot of people came up to receive Jesus after the gospel was preached. Unfortunately, the night was cut short because of rain. Later that week, Pastor Tony told us about some testimonies of miracles that took place that night. One of the coolest things that happened was that several members of the local gang were present and they stayed for the whole time. Anna-Lisa, along with our friend Pressy, was able to personally lead one of them to the Lord at the end of the evening.

Amazing Day

I had an amazing day today. It started off with a text that one of my little friends in Purok Sais was still sick. So I went and got Pastor Tony and we went to where he was staying. When we got there Kenzu got up on my lap and I could feal that he had a fever. As we prayed for him the Holy Spirit put an urgency in me to pray for somthing deeper than just a fever. When we were finished I knew we had prayed him through somthing a lot more serious. Kenzu is one of the kids in our school that is close to my heart. His father died just before he was born so I try to pay special attention to him when I am there.
As we were leaving a lady across the way that had heard us praying asked if we would come pray for her. So we went into her little one room house to find out what was wrong. She had just been sent home from working overseas because they found out she has cervical cancer. I spent some time talking to her about the goodness of God and and about the people we had prayed for that were healed from cancer and other diseases. Then I made sure she knew that God was not only able, but willing to heal her. We laid hands on her, prayed and spoke life into her body.When we were done Pastor Tony explained the Gospel to her and led her in a prayer to accept Jesus as her Savior. I still felt like she was missing something so I spent some time talking to her about how much God loves her. How she is His daughter and He wants to hold her in His arms and take care of her. Well by the time we got done both her and her sister who had come in were both in tears. I believe she is completely healed. She is very excited to come to church on Sunday. I have been praying for divine appointments and I believe this was one of them. God is so good!

Pagadian Healing Festival

Our last 3 days in Mindanao we spent in Pagadian City doing large Healing Festivals every night. They got bigger every night as word of the miracles got out.

We estimate that over 1500 people came forward to receive Jesus during the 3 nights.

Hundreds of people received healing for there bodies.

Several people came up on the stage to testify of healing. There were tumors that disappeared, paralysis gone, people that didn't need glasses anymore and lots of aches and pains gone. It was also fun to here some of the testimonies from people that were healed last year but didn't know until it was confirmed by a doctor.

We were able to visit with the mayor who was amazed that it had not rained since the team arrived. He looked at his calender and said, "It has rained every day for the last month. Then you come here, and it stops for 3 days." Leslie said, "that's because we prayed that it would not rain and disrupt the festival. But, tomorrow you're on your own." We could see the clouds and lightening storms all around us during the 3 days, but it never rained on us. The festivals were held in an open field, so not having rain was important. At 2am the next morning the rain, thunder and lightning cane back with a vengeance. That was quite a testimony to the mayor.

Davao Pastors Conference

A group of us spent a week in Mindinao. We started off with a 3 day pastor's conference in Davao for the pastors and leaders who came from the areas where we did healing festivals last year. The organizers decided it wouldn't be a good idea to go back into those places because of the war going on there and the recent kidnappings. So we brought the pastors to us. There were over 300 in attendance. We had a great time teaching and training. Pastor Paul taught on the love of the Father, Pastor Jun taught on God's grace, Howard taught them how to preach the Gospel with signs and miracles following and I finished up with a teaching on the infilling of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues.

On the second night, Howard and Leslie demonstrated how to preach the Gospel just like they do in their large healing festivals. The main point of this conference was to train these pastors and leaders to do this so they can go into their communites and reach the lost and see the amazing power of God heal the sick.

After the preaching of the Gospel, God always confirms his Word with signs and wonders. Several people received instant healing and more were healed later that night and testified about it the next day.

The last night, I spoke on the in-filling of the Holy Spirit to a pretty conservative crowd. About 60 of them came down to the front to receive. As we layed our hands on them, some of them hit the floor and some of them started speaking in tongues. It was an amazing time watching the Holy Spirit move and set people free. There was a lot of dancing after that. What a fun time.