Education for the street kids

Ptr. Tony and Ptr. Jay have been trying to figure out a way to get a group of kids from Purok Sais off of drugs and alcohol. They're called the "rugby boys" because they sniff Rugby glue. Ptr. Tony was at his local water district office and found out there was a program being run by the water district along with a well-known university in the Philippines. It's purpose is to rehabilitate and educate street kids or kids from very poor circumstances. Ptr. Tony and Ptr. Jay were able to gather 16 kids from Purok Sais to be a part of the program. They go through drug rehab during the day and school at night. A majority of these kids have only a third grade education. The hope of the people running the program is that the kids will end up with the equivalent of a G.E.D. and then be tested to enter the university. We were able to purchase all of the notebooks and pencils for them. Ptr. Tony and Ptr. Jay periodically visit to encourage the boys.

Our New Car

A big THANK YOU to those of you who donated money for us to get a car. We are so excited!

For the last several months we have been praying and believing God for a vehicle. Last month, Ptr. Glen called us up unexpectedly to tell us that he had talked to some business people and had raised enough money for us to buy a vehicle. He also opened it up for our church congregation to participate in this gift. We are so thankful for our God who is so faithful to us. We are also very grateful to the people who were used of God and who gave towards this. Our God supplies all of our needs according to His riches in Glory through Christ Jesus. We used the money to buy a 1990 Mitsubishi Pajero (in the States, it's called a Montero). It is the best vehicle that Jay found for the price range that we were looking for. It has low miles, new tires, tight suspension (important for the roads here), 2.5 L. turbo diesel motor, a sun-roof that probably won't be used much, clean interior, seats 7, and the most important feature is the duel A.C. Having our own transportation is really going to expand what we can do here. Once again, thank you to all who participated. And mostly we give thanks to the One who loves us unconditionally and who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

My Girls

I (Anna-Lisa) call them "my girls". These are the girls that attend my "small group". Usually, we have a book study every week. Every six weeks or so, we have a fun day. This time I had them all over for a popular Philippine treat called halo-halo. It's made from crushed ice with different add-ins, including but not limited to banana, strips of fresh coconut, fruity things (don't know what to call them or how to describe), rice crispies, ube (another item that I don't know how to explain, but it is my favorite ingredient), piece of flan, and evaporated milk. It's served with the add-ins on top and then the person eating it, stirs it up. They tell me that halo-halo means mix-mix. It's one of my favorite things now. We are so thankful to our friends, the Dillman's, who gave Jayson a snowcone maker for Christmas just so we could make this delicious treat. The ice was perfectly shaved. The girls also enjoyed playing on our Wii. Another item that we are thankful for getting at Christmas. We had a lot of fun. I mostly had fun watching the girls enjoy themselves.

Easter 2009

We had an awesome Easter service. Pastor Jay was our main speaker. He shared the Gospel and approximately 50 people came forward at his invitation. Out of those, 36 received Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The others made a re-dedication to Jesus. After the service, we had Pastor Paul and his family along with his sister Pressy and her family over for Jay's famous cheeseburgers. Jay makes the best cheeseburgers around and are requested by all who have the pleasure of tasting them. For fun after lunch we had the annual egg hunt. This was Pressy's daughter's first experience. She talked about it for days afterward. It was a very enjoyable day from beginning to end.

Graduation 09

Last year we purchased uniforms for some youth who wouldn't have been able to attend high school without them. Pictured above are two of the group who graduated this year. Out of the group of 13 who received uniforms, all but three either graduated or are still attending school.

Pastor Bong's outreach

We had a great outreach last night at Ptr. Bong's church. People from all over the community came.
The Ladies made sopas (creamy chicken noodle soup) for everyone.

The band and the tambourine dancers were great. The Trinity Dancers
from EFC also performed. They were amazing and drew in a huge crowd.

After the music and dancing, Ptr. Bong showed a Billy Graham film that had been translated into Tagalog. When the film was finished, it was my turn to preach the Gospel. About half-way through, a fight broke out on the hill and distracted everyone. There was a drunk guy that was trying to disrupt the meeting. Some of the locals (not church members) jumped him and started beating on him. At that time no one was paying attention to me so I stopped speaking and with the authority given to me from God through the sacrifice of Jesus, I told the disruptive spirits to leave and called in peace. The fighting stopped and people came back. When the invitation was given to receive Jesus, a lot of people came up, including one of the church members' husband and her son, the local gang leader. The whole family was in tears as Jesus did an amazing work in their hearts. We then had a time of worship and people came up for healing. It's always fun to see God move and heal people. There was a little boy that was burning up with a fever and as I was praying for him I could feel his temperature drop. God is so good! What an amazing night. Ptr. Bong was very excited that his first outreach was so successful.

Sunday morning at EFC

Jay preaching at our church on Sunday. He taught on, "Applying God's
Grace in Your Life". Of course, I think he did a great job, like always.

Praise Report

This is my buddy Joe. He got born-again last year and healed from Psoriasis. At the time he
was bed-ridden and broke but, God healed him and gave him an idea to make lamps out
of waste banana fiber. Today, he has more orders than he can keep up with. Praise God!

Jayson and Sherwin chillin.

Purok Sais Learning Center

The Preparatory Class

The Kindergarten Class

Jayson passing out toothbrushes and toothpaste.

Anna-Lisa showing the kids how to brush their teeth.

Ptr. Tony invited me to speak at the Parent Teacher Fellowship. I talked to them about
speaking life into their children. Proverbs 18:21. I think we all need to understand
that our circumstances don't need to dictate our future but that we can speak
our future into existence through the creative power of our words. Mark 1:23,24

Pastor's Conference in Tarlac

Ptr. Jay

Ptr. Zaldy

Ptr. Paul

Ptr. Jun

Last Friday we were up in Tarlac doing a Pastor's Conference at Ptr. Zaldy's church. About
100 pastors were there from that area. God's amazing grace was the main theme. The point
that God really brought out is that we don't need to keep beating ourselves up with the law,
but God's grace has set us free from sin and condemnation. It was an amazing time!

Pray for Unity

This is a friend or mine and a member of Ptr. Tony's church. There was a situation recently where a nephew of a fellow church member stole out of his store's register. He caught the person in the act and, in defending his store, he attacked the thief with a bolo knife and injured him. When he realized who it was, he had mercy on him. He turned him over to the neighborhood police and told them to go easy on him. Now we have some bad feelings between two family's in the church. Please pray for a spirit of forgiveness and unity as we deal with this situation.

Cock fighting is a local past time. There is gambling involved, of course. While we were talking with these guys, we got chastised by a local woman who told us that as pastors we should not be hanging out with these guys. Hmmm... that sounds familiar. I told her that our purpose here was to share the love of Jesus with the people that needed it the most. I think she was ok with that.

The kids don't have roosters so they catch spiders and fight them. The black spider won.

A typical day in Purok Sais

These are the local gang members that we visit with and minister
to on a weekly basis. They just got a new pool table.

Continuing on with Saturday visitation in Purok Sais with Ptr. Tony.
Stopped and visited with this mother and her child.

This is Alondra and her little brother. She broke her back
when she was 4 years old and didn't receive medical care.
Now her left leg bones have fused together and she's had a
hard time getting around. We lay hands on her and speak
healing and blessings over her every time we see her.
She has been getting progressively better. Her brother helps
her get out and about, which in the past was not possible,
because the pain was too excruciating for her.

This is where Alondra and her family live. The house
has the possibility of falling over at any time. The local church
from Purok Sais is raising money to rebuild a house for the
family. They have so far raised P1,000 (approx. $23). Their
plan is to build the house so that Alondra will have an easier
time getting in and out of it. Let us know if you'd like to help.

Field Trip

We had an opportunity to accompany the Evangelical Christian Academy on their annual field trip. What a day! We left the school at 7:30am and drove to the Lucky Me noodle factory where we watched them make packages of top ramen noodles. We then drove to the Gardenia bread factory. Both factories didn't allow pictures to be taken. After breaking for lunch, we went to the Philippine National Museum of Science. We had fun doing a lot of hands-on stuff. The day continued on at Ocean Park, where we saw a lot of different sea life. That was our favorite place by far. We topped off the day outside of the Mall of Asia where we watched a fireworks display. We made it home just before 9pm. Long day, but a fun one!

We're back!

We are back in The Philippines! We arrived just in time to watch the inauguration of President Obama. Anna-Lisa is actually the only one who stayed up to watch. It was broadcast live and so she didn't go to bed until 2:30am. The next day we went to our church here and visited with a lot of our friends. We got to see Ptr. Paul and Rucelle's newest addition, Josiah. He's so cute! Such a happy baby. On Saturday, we spent awhile in Purok Sais and visited with people there. At church on Sunday we listened to Ptr. Sonny who is our Philippine church's missionary to Thailand. The rest of the time we've spent killing ants and putting our house back in order. We're very thankful that we haven't seen any evidence of cockroaches taking up residence here too. The weather has been beautiful with highs in the mid to high 80's. We'd love to hear from you, send a note via the email link.

Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas!

We are in awe at “Christ”mas at the wonder that God would send His only Son, Jesus, as a baby to be the “Christ” that would save the world. And to think that all we have to do is accept this gift which was given freely to us.

We’ve spent the past year in the Philippines sharing with people about the gift of Jesus. We’ve had the opportunity to watch the miraculous power of God work in so many people’s lives. We saw blind eyes see again, deaf ears open to hear, the lame walk, cancer completely gone and many others. Part of the time, we’ve been working with an area where the poverty level is so high that most people here could not fathom it. We’ve started a school there for 30 children where they are receiving an education and are being fed one meal a day. The cost to do this is approximately $20 a month per child. We are looking for businesses or individuals who would be willing to commit to supporting this venture with any amount on a monthly basis. If you know of anyone who you think would like to help us with this, please let us know. We anticipate this school growing by a grade each year. The children that are attending would most likely never get an education otherwise. The results of the school are already being seen in a positive way. The parents of the children are now attending the local church where the school is housed. Also, the community is seeing the good that is happening there because of Ptr. Tony and the church and are also starting to attend. The church has grown from 30 to over 100 since the beginning of the school. Needless to say, this has been a rewarding year for us. We are so thankful to so many of you who support us. Because of your commitment, the Gospel truly is being preached to the Nations. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. I know the Filipino people are so thankful to you also.

We’ve also had some exciting times back in the States as we’ve gotten to enjoy our son, Greg’s last season of football with EWU. He has had a stellar year. He broke his school’s career and season records for sacks. He ended the year #1 in the nation for “sacks” and for “tackles for loss” for his division. He’s been named the Defensive MVP for the Big Sky League. He’s also been named to a few All-American lists as well. WOW. And to top it all off…we are very excited to announce that Greg has received the “Buck Buchanan” award. This is a national award given to the defensive player of the year for FCS. We gathered all of our air miles and traveled to Chattanooga, TN to witness the event. We are very proud of our son both in the accomplishments on the field and the way he handles himself off of the field. There were many compliments given to us because of the humble way Greg has handled the accolades he has been given.

Our youngest son, Jayson, is doing very well. We’ve decided to “home school” him now in order to make school successful for him. He was struggling in the Philippine school that he was attending and we want to make sure that education is something that he enjoys. We are also using a language course together so that we can be proficient in the Philippine language. He is really enjoying competing with mom. In the Philippines, Jayson has been taking Karate-do classes. That seems to be the only organized sport that he’s going to be able to do there. He does practice basketball daily. He has made quite a few friends both in our neighborhood and at the church. When asked how he enjoys the Philippines, he gives one thumb up and one thumb down. It is definitely a different world than what we’re used to here. We just focus on the exciting adventure that he has the privilege to be a part of.

We are getting ready to pack up and go back in just over a week. We’ve committed to 2 more years there. Please keep us in your prayers. We also enjoy receiving emails. You can email us via the link on the home page.

God bless you this New Year.

FCC Youth Trip

The youth from our home church, Faith Center Church, located in Vancouver, WA joined us here for about two weeks.We traveled around doing Healing Festivals throughout Luzon.Everywhere we went, people were set free and healed.God showed up in amazing ways.We saw heart conditions healed, people coming in with canes and walking out without them, people healed from asthma, numerous aches and pains gone, stomach problems healed.Most importantly, hundreds received Jesus as their personal Lord and Saviour. We all had a great time.

We did a Healing Festival up north in Santo Domingo, Nueva Ecija. We chose this location because the entire town needed healing. Over the last three months there have been 19 unsolved murders in this town. The little boy I'm holding is the only survivor from his family. We gathered all of the pastors that attended the festival and prayed over the city and broke the spirit of murder in that place. Then we prayed over the police force for wisdom in solving the case. We then prayed and prophesied over this child. It was a powerful time.

This man came to the Healing Festival in San Pedro, Laguna with a cane and could barely walk. When we prayed for healing, he was right up font. When we finished praying he handed his cane to his wife and tried to move his legs but I could see he was still in pain. Little by little he would bend his knees. It looked painful at first but the more he did it, the stronger he became. Eventually, he worked his way over to the stage stairs and one by one he climbed up getting stronger every step. It was truly amazing how this man was determined to get his healing!!! He walked out of there without using his cane!!! Praise God!!! There are lots of pictures in the slide show to the right. Check them out.

Praise Report

I visited this widow, Maria, a few months ago along with her niece, Linda. Linda has been praying for her aunt for many years. I was privileged to share the Gospel with her. After she prayed to make Jesus the Lord of her life, we prayed for healing in her body. She had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer. I explained to her that God would confirm his Word and that she was healed. The next month we went back to visit her. Her eyes were glowing. She really looked good. Her daughter had been trying to raise funds for her to receive chemo. I told her firmly not to get the chemo until she was checked out by a doctor, because she was healed. About a week and a half ago, Maria ran into Linda and told her that she had been to the hospital to be checked out. Four doctors and a specialist checked her out and were completely baffled because they couldn't find the cancer. They wondered if she had an operation or something because it was gone. Praise Jesus!!! This is an encouragement to you....sharing the Gospel is powerful. God WILL confirm his Word!

Update 2

Jayson Preaching the Gospel

Howard's boss sent some money to bless children so we were able to buy school supplies for 100 kids. Before we passed out the supplies, Jayson shared Jesus with them. This picture shows the hands that were raised when Jayson asked who would like to make Jesus the Lord of their life. Almost all of the children raised their hands. Afterward, Jayson helped pass out the supplies.

New Uniforms

After talking to some of the kids from Purok Sais and finding out that they couldn't enroll in school because they didn't have uniforms, Jay and I took them on a shopping trip to Binon. We started off by eating lunch at Jollybee's where they all ordered chicken and rice, of course. They were having so much fun. We then went to the market and found shoes for them. The uniforms were not available for their particular school so we headed back to San Jose to the market near our church. There we found all of the uniforms. This is a picture of the kids we took plus some others who stopped by the church after school today. We've also added a slide show of the event. Thank you to all of you who support us. This is just one way that we're passing on the blessing. We made sure to tell them to give thanks to Jesus for everything. Please pray for these kids. They are really trying to live for God.