Hey Everyone!!
We have made it to our ministry site for the month here in Dumaguete City. We are on one of the southern islands of the Philippines in a beach town. There is so much to be said about the Philippines that I almost feel like it would take more than one blog to get it all in here, but I will try to give you an idea of how beautiful the people and culture are. One of the first things I noticed when arriving here is how hospitable the people here are. If you walk into a room, they will all get out of their seats and insist that you sit down. They will feed you from what little they have to eat, and they always smile and treat you like a friend.
The children here are beautiful! They follow us around wherever we go and just want to sit with us. We could just sit and giggle
together all day and they would be content with just that. The other day, we got the blessing of sharing the story of David and Goliath with a group of children who had never heard a Bible story in their lives. They laughed as Kate stood on a chair pretending to be Goliath and Krissy stood on the ground like David. They listened so intently to everything we had to say about the Lord and just took it all in.
As we have been blessed to go from village to village and pray over each household, the people are so willing to receive prayer. Many of them are catholic in the villages, so we pray for the Spirit of revelation to fall on them so they know that the blood of Jesus covers it all. Even though they have so little, their love toward us is so big.
One thing I could do without is the CRAZY traffic here.. haha.. People have no problem just passing eachother up on the road, even if there is oncoming traffic. Honking here is a sign that you want to pass someone up. And, there aren’t really any speed limit signs, so it’s pretty normal to go way above a normal speed on any road. Needless to say, I am so glad we don’t have a car. We take trikes everywhere we go, which are motorcycles with carts attached. They can hold approximately 7 people, but it’s normal to pack about 15 people on one. One ride costs 7pesos, which equals 14 US Cents. Things here are really cheap!
This month, we are partnering with International Care Ministries. They basically target very poor communities that haven’t been educated in good hygiene, farming or health. They go to the pastor of that community and have him get the community together to learn good and healthy ways to live. They also do a Bible study as a part of the less
on plan. This program lasts 6 months and each community is visited once a week to check on how people are doing and to do lessons with them. When we first arrive in the morning, we go do house visits. We pray over each household and then get together to do lessons with them. We have been able to speak to the communities before the Bible lesson and share our testimonies, words the Lord has put on our heart or just the straight gospel with each community we have been to so far. The Lord is moving so mightily this month and through International Care Ministries! Be praying that as this door has been so widely opened to us, that we would fully walk in what God has set before us this month! Please be praying for these people. Some of them don’t even have birth certificates, therefore they can’t go to school or the hospital if they get sick. This month can only get better day by day. The Lord has so much in store because we are calling on His name to be magnified through us! I love you all so much and will update again soon!
