We’ve made it to the Philippines! Our flight from Bangkok to Manila was wonderful and we received flowers. (I love the Thai silk they wear!)
Here it is! The long-awaited Christmas Address!!
Kari Stembel
c/o Jeff Long
Faith Academy
PO Box 2016
0706 MCPO
Makati City
Philippines
Since there are so many of us, it would be best for us to only receive one package each. It may be good for things to be sent to my parents’ house and then all sent out together as one entity. Also, keep in mind we will be flying out soon after Christmas and the weight of our packs has to be under 40 pounds!
We leave this house in Manila on Monday morning and will be out on a 23 hour boat ride to our island and village of ministry. For ministry this month, our team, Beloved One will split up. Heather, Caitlin, and Becky will be going by themselves to an island to do ministry, while Renee, Jenn, and I (Kari) will be joining team Seven:Eleven in ministry this month. Check out more details for this month below:
Information gathered by Hanna (AIM staff) –
Three teams will each
be traveling south into the Visayas and staying in different cities.
We are partnering for the first time with ICM (International Care
Ministries). ICM provides feeding and medical programs through local
churches in the Philippines. As they do so, they have regular
fellowships and training seminars for Filipino pastors who are/have
recently church-planted. They also train lay people in how to lead
others to Christ and do basic discipleship. All of their staff (with
the exception of one couple) are Filipino, which makes it an extremely
effective ministry. It is funded and guided in leadership by an
international executive board in Hong Kong made up of an American, a
man from Hong Kong, two Australians and a Singaporean–all who are
international business people living in Hong Kong and investing their
money and their business connections into spreading the Gospel and
changing poverty in the Philippines. So far, the Filipino pastors who
are connected to ICM have never worked with foreigners. The chairman
of ICM asked me to visit many of them and access the needs they have
beyond what ICM provides.
I (Hanna) spent two weeks visiting 30+
pastors, most of whom are extremely poor and pastor churches less than
2 years old. Congregation sizes range from 5 to 60 adults and
denominations vary. (ICM is interdenominational, with a basic faith
statement.) What WR teams will be doing is each staying near to one
ICM base for one month and working with churches there. Poverty is a
HUGE problem and something they will see very closely. Their main
ministry focus is to help meet needs of pastors that ICM can’t. They
will do this through construction, evangelism, delivering supplies,
crusades, children’s ministry, leading church services, film showings
and school outreaches. Many times they will have huge opportunities to
pray with pastors and encourage them. I can’t tell you how many of the
pastor’s I met have given up good paying jobs and moved to an area
where they can’t even get a job and put everything they can into their
church and the growth of their members. As a result, they have no
income and they feed their families off of unripened bananas while
living in one-room bamboo structures that leak when it rains (every day
for 8 months/year). They do all of it because they know the Lord has
called them to that place and they won’t have anything but his will.
We will help these pastors, yes, but to encourage them in their work
will be just as significant as any ministry we do alongside of them.
In
addition, each base has about 20 Filipino staff. A good number of the
staff are in their twenties and would love foreign friends. There are
huge opportunities to build relationships with them and informally
disciple them. In addition, teams will be blessed by the genuine
friendships they can make with the staff. Honestly, they’re doing much
the same work as we are!
Teams can check out my blog to find
out more about what these places are like: hannam.myadventures.org. I
still have a lot more to post on there as well so if you check today,
make sure to check again next week as well.
Team city assignments will be:
MANILA — LESS
BACOLOD — Ignite
DUMAGUETE — Seven:Eleven + 3 members from Beloved One (this is me!!)
TAGBILARAN — 3 members from Beloved One (including their leader)
The
Dumaguete and Bohol teams will be close enough to see each other for
Thanksgiving, and they have been invited to a gathering of western
missionaries who celebrate the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The other
teams will have the day off for Thanksgiving, but they will be on their
own to plan an activity. It’s quite possible that the Manila group can
find a gathering of western missionaries as well. There are many in
the greater-area. The Bacolod group are likely to be the only
foreigners anywhere in their area 🙂
Less: will have no
travel except from the airport to Jeff’s base. They will be staying in
dorms with beds and bathrooms there. (This wasn’t a factor when I
planned it, but after reading some blogs, I discovered they have a
couple people with bad backs so the non-travel aspect should be a plus
to them!) Ignite + Less + Beloved One will all take a ferry from
Manila to Bacolod, one day’s travel, but they have rooms and beds on
the ferry. (It should be a nice rest day.) Ignite will be picked up
and taken to the ICM base there, where they will be living. They have
mattresses on the floor and some beds, plus two toilets (called “CRs”
or “Comfort Rooms”). Less + Beloved One will get off the ferry and
proceed immediately to the bus station, where they will take a bus to
Dumaguete (5 hours, but there are movies on board). Both teams will
spend the night at the house of western missionaries who live in
Dumaguete and teach at a Bible college there. Less + 3 members of
Beloved One will live here their entire month. The next day, the other
3 members of Beloved One will catch a short (2 hour) ferry to
Tagbilaran. They will stay in a hotel there for the month. At the end
of the month, everyone will do reverse travel back to Manila except the
3 people at Tagbilaran. They will actually stay an extra day for a
special outreach on December 21st, and then they will fly back to
Manila.
…with willing hearts and a desire to obey, where you say to go, Lord, we will go!
