We have arrived safely to our first ministry, we are in
Malaybalay, Philippines!!
It is gorgeous, we are in the mountains living at this camp
where they have a children’s home that holds 24 orphans right now. Our #1
priority this month is to be working with the kids and loving on them. I spent
8 hours with the toddlers/infants yesterday and hearing the stories of how they
got there can break your heart, but all I could do was praise the Lord that
they were there and that God has placed them at a home where they are loved and
where the name of Jesus is being taught.
Outside the children’s home is a large field where we are
working on removing bad grass and replacing it with healthy grass so that they
can use the field for the community. So we will be working hard on that, it
will probably take up the whole month.
Our first day here,
they took us to the prison in town where they have been doing ministry with the
juveniles there.
It was a site I had never seen: there were over 60 men in each
room, rooms that should hold no more than 8 men. But it wasn’t the number of men in the room
that shocked me: it was the joy of the Lord that radiated from their faces as
they proceeded to sing praise songs about God’s faithfulness and grace. It was
meeting for the first time, 14 new brothers in Christ who had just been
baptized!! God is AMAZING! I never thought I would be so blessed by a
cell full of inmates. God loves to use to least of these doesn’t he!
Please be praying for the prisoners, for God’s love to
continue to pierce the hearts of the inmates as well as the guards. Carmen, a
girl on my team, is going back today to share more about Christ with one of the
guards! He asked her if he could learn
more about this Jesus!!! Love it!
I will post some pics soon, our ministry has just begun so
the stories are in the makingJ
Here is a little video we made in Manila:
Update on Finances:
I have $11,421 out of $14,300!!
