Well if there is a blog I really want you to read this is the one! I am really excited about what God is already doing with only three days under our belt here in the Philippines. Enjoy reading the work of the Lord!
My team decided before we
came to Puerto Galera that we were each going to ASK God for a specific vision for this
month. What God kept telling me was: to Ask Him each day and to be sensitive to
listen to His Spirit’s leading in my heart. I feel as though I haven’t done
that as often as I could have on the Race or in my life back home. I know I
have the Holy Spirit to lead me and that I need to listen, but it’s a choice
and a decision each day, and I often decide to go my own way and lead myself.
Wednesday:
So after telling my team that God just kept confirming that in me and He was just urging me to be
praying constantly as we walked around town and to the main beach-White Beach with tons of people.
He was also telling me to be aware of things and extra sensitive to the Spirit, to meet people
and remember their names, and just seek out what is passionate in my heart.
I
came back from walking around yesterday and was broken and expectant that God
was going to do great things this month. We met a lot of women who work in the
shops, we saw a lot of the issues that are going on down at the beach, our
spiritual eyes were just open and taking in what God wanted us to see with His
eyes and I am so thankful because it’s often impossible to see/understand
through our sinful eyes.
I wasn’t expecting to see
any of the things that I’ve seen so far on this Island. Men dressed up as women (called Baklas) they actually think they are women…look like
women, talk like women, like men, and are completely confused and in darkness.
This is probably because of past abuse that was done to them. It broke my heart to see this confusion.
Another thing that you see
that is so prevalent are young women maybe 18, probably younger, with old white
men “vacationing� on the island. We all got really upset to see this yesterday,
as we now know a lot more about human trafficking and women being exploited for sex
all over the world. It just made my skin crawl to see the way they touched
these girls and just how wrong it was to see those young girls with these
skeezy old guys.
When looking at one of those
couples, it’s not me looking at them with judgemental eyes, but with discerning
eyes from the Lord…to discern if this situation is right or wrong. Because this
is a vacation spot, people are so much more open with this kind of activity, as
wrong as it is. The islanders turn a blind eye to it and let it go to make the
money they need to survive. This is my first experience seeing Human Trafficking and prostitution right in front of my nose, and God is putting in on my heart to do something about it.
This is where listening to
the Spirits leading and asking Jesus for His eyes and heart to discern these
things and have wisdom, is so important- and this is what God is teaching
me.
After seeing all of this
yesterday and praying really hard about where God wanted to use me in all of
this stuff, I went to sleep with a heavy heart for these women and a desire to
see things change for them. I fell asleep and woke up a little while later to
really bad nightmares, feeling like something was holding me down and something
was just sitting heavy on me. I woke up and just prayed and said Jesus name and
I slept well the rest of the night, but I felt as though the devil was trying
to hold me back for the next day of work that God wanted me to do for His
Kingdom. That wasn’t going to happen!
Thursday:
Today, I woke up
feeling excited and refreshed, finally recovering from the jet lag and
tiredness I was feeling. We did our devotion time and ate a great breakfast and
got to work clearing the land with machetes, and also planned Sunday school
lessons. Went on a run, showered and headed out for our separate afternoon
ministries.
At lunch my friend Bethsaida from A-team Remix,
asked me if I would like to go talk to some of the Bakla’s (men who think they are
women) we had met the day before, for our ministry that day. I wanted to do beach
volleyball ministry but asked God and felt Him pulling on my heart to go
with Bethsaida for the afternoon. We are starting to build a friendship with people and
trying to understand where these guys are coming from…one of the guy’s we met is
named ‘Christian on-the-rocks’…we decided this is a prophetic name for him…he
won’t be “on-the-rocks� much longer.
Anyway after that we started
walking and praying for divine appointments. I really wanted to find Sarah and
Stacey and play some volleyball with them. We met so many ladies the day before
and they all remembered our names as we walked down the beach; “Hi Leah, Hi
Bethsaida� we would hear. We would say hello and smile to each other and say “I
don’t remember her, or oh she’s so sweet I met her yesterday!�. It’s fun that
it’s only the second day and we are already meeting so many people.
Meeting Paris:
We finally found them and
Beth went to look in a few shops. By the time I got there I didn’t feel like
playing anymore so I just sat down to watch. I looked over to my left at the
ocean in front of me and saw one of the older men with a young woman and felt
compelled to just watch them. They were pretty far away so I don’t know how
they even caught my eye, but God wanted me to see them. I watched the way he
stroked her hair once and shivered at the sight. She seemed really
uncomfortable. I kept watching and saw the man stand up…he turned to watch my
friends and their group play volleyball. I had enough and went to browse with
Beth. A few minutes later I came back out and sat down again, I looked over at
the couple and only the girl was there. I looked at the court and the man was
now playing volleyball! I laughed and said to my friend James sitting next to
me, “it’s so strange, I was just watching that old man with that girl over
there…and now he’s playing volleyball.� I got up and went back to the shops,
confused about why I cared. At that moment I asked God why I was confused by
that sight. I asked Him to give me His eyes to see and to tell me what to do.
He said, “get Bethsaida and go over to the girl now�
Beth jumped at the
opportunity and we walked straight over there, when you know it’s from the
Lord, I find we don’t hesitate…you just listen and GO! So we went to her,
walked up beside her and said something about how beautiful the ocean was. A
young Philippino woman looked up at us with eyes that were hopeful. She started
making conversation and I asked if we could sit down. We sat down and we all
started asking questions. Within the first few minutes we learned her name is
Paris, she’s from another island close by and she is 22.
-You could almost tell
from the very beginning she knew why were coming to talk to her. She could see
Jesus in us. She told us she loved our hair and we all became instant friends.
I asked her what she did for a living and she said she worked at a bar. Paris
said she is the oldest child in her family and has to work to support her
family, parents, and her own baby and she lives far away from them. I asked her who
she was with…she said she was with a friend, the one playing volleyball.
She looked down and got a sad look on her face and said; “I’m not going to lie
to you, this is fast money. My family doesn’t know I do this and I know it’s
wrong. I have no otherchoice.�
At
that moment I felt my heart break as the Lord’s breaks for His children.
The
words “No other choice� kept flying through my head and I wanted to cry. She’s
on the island for 4 days with this man she doesn’t know and she feels so alone.
Paris knew we were Christians when she told us this, we had told her what we
were doing this year and she wanted to tell us this so we could offer her hope.
She knew the Lord had something to say to her through us and was so ready to
hear it! Paris told us she feels guilty and has dreams that God let’s her
family go to Heaven but tells her she is too bad to get into Heaven. She was
raised in church and knows who Jesus is, but has lost her way in an attempt to
provide for herself and family.
Bringing Hope:
We
told her just how LOVED she is, that there is hope for her future, that God
doesn’t see any of our sins as too great or beyond hope and He wants to wash
away any of those hurts or sins that she is holding on to. She doesn’t need to
believe those lies any longer.
- I honestly don’t know what we said, because God
didn’t bring us there so WE could speak to her. HE wanted a moment with Paris,
one on one. He wanted to use us to speak to His daughter loud and clear. She
said she wanted to cry and that we God was using us as HIS INSTRUMENTS. I thought that was
so beautiful and exactly right, my eyes welled up and I said: “That’s exactly
right Paris, God wanted you to see just how much He loves you, He sent us to
you today. I saw you from over there and God told me to come talk to you.� She
said, “I know He did!� laughing and full of joy. We talked for a while longer,
just encouraging her and talking about what she loves to do in her free time,
her family, music and she said she was so happy to not be lonely or bored. - Paris was overwhelmed with how and why God sent these two new friends to her
and by His love and provision. I was overwhelmed with the same exact things.
She felt no judgement from the Lord, and she said that before talking to us her
chest felt really heavy, but now her heart feels light. She was ready to hear
from God and He is happy His daughter got to hear the message.
What happens Next:
I
asked Paris if she would want to meet us tomorrow for lunch. She bubbled with
excitement and said yes of course. She would find a way to meet us in the same
spot and we would go eat lunch together. She said there are some other girls
with her and she wanted to bring them…we said we would love to meet them! We hugged
her and said our farewells, all overjoyed with our Lord and Savior.
***It’s
amazing when you get even the smallest glimpse of God’s love for His children.
He sent Bethsaida and I at that exact moment to tell His daughter Paris that He
LOVED her. He told us to bring this message, “I love you,
I have plans for you, come away with me, your future is bright, Trust me!�
God
wants all of us to hear that message. He wants believers to truly BELIEVE that
so that they can share it with people that don’t know it yet.
God
tells us to ASK Him who to love each day, He gives you a glimpse of that love
He has for them and there’s no way you can’t be changed. Forever I am changed
by His love…
PRAISE:
Paris
is meeting Bethsaida and I for lunch today at 2pm, in the Philippines, by the
ocean…the past pain is getting washed away with each wave of God’s love! Praise
Jesus that sin and lies have no hold on her any longer! She is Free, I saw it
from the moment God told her through us, His instruments. I can’t wait to
update you more on how God works.
**
A little side note, it’s really awesome to look back on the whole situation and
see how God orchestrated all of these meetings today. Even just our friends
playing volleyball, the timing of it all, what I had been learning about
listening to the Holy Spirit. The girls were going to stop playing volleyball
at that same time and they decided to keep going, which gave us the chance to
meet Paris. Many more amazing things, I am obviously in AWE of the Lord!
Let God use YOU as HIS Instrument!
Leah
