Monday, June 18, 2007

Kid's Korner

David will be a member of a sports evangelism team, Buhay Sports, this July 2-9. They will be playing games from Cebu City all the way down to Dumagette over the course of the week.

  • Pray for the team as they use this outreach opportunity to share Christ with the Cebuanos of metro & rural Cebu.
  • Pray for David as this is his first opportunity to venture out on his own in ministry. Pray the Lord will give him boldness when sharing his testimony and a clear mind & quick tongue when translating for others!

A few recent pictures to share....








Volunteer Opportunities

July Medical Clinics
A Filipino Nehemiah Team was given open access to a Higaonon village this past April & May. Why? A local leader's father was treated & was healed of an awful infection during a 2006 medical clinic. This family had been blessed through that ministry so were opening their village out of indebtedness to those who had conducted the clinics.

A team from Dekalb Baptist Association will be spending a week, July 14-21, among the Hiagonon tribe outside of Butuan City. We ask you to commit to pray for the team as final preparations are made & the team heads this way. Through a partnership with our local health care worker, "Doctora Glee", the team will be conducting clinics in 4 remote areas.
  • Pray for team members, Mike, Tammy, Debra, & Kat. Pray also for Doctora Glee and the other nationals who will be assisting with the clinics.
  • Pray for hearts to be receptive to God's love that is shown & shared during the clinics.
September Construction Project September 15-22, 2007
Be a part in training nationals for evangelism & discipleship. Partner with national believers in the on-going construction of a camp/training facility. Various skills are needed: basic carpentry skills, concrete block building, electrical & plumbing work, as well as a heart to be a blessing! For more information on this team, contact us or Doris Elliott (doris@fbcfp.org)

Nehemiah Teams Updates






Nehemiah Teams Filipino
We praise the Lord for the 43 young people involved in Filipino Nehemiah Teams during April & May! These 7 teams shared the gospel in more than 20 villages. Thousands of seeds were sown as evangelistic tracts & VCD's were distributed house to house. More than 200 indicated a decision to follow Christ. We praise the Lord for the harvest!
  • Pray for our local partners as they continue to follow up in each of these areas.

Nehemiah Teams American
Backpacks, quick dry clothing, dehydrated backpacking meals, self-inflating sleeping pads, buckets, tents, tracts, neon green bandanas, rice... and a cross. These are things 29 American college students are carrying across the Philippines these next 2 months. All the equipment in the world can't help them if they've left their cross at home though. As they were challenged during the orientation commitment service, each must be willing to give up everything in order to follow the one who only carried a cross.

You can keep up with the ministry of these teams, see prayer requests, view team pictures, and leave comments for the team members on our web log: http://www.nehemiahteams.blogspot.com/

  • Pray they will be received into communities.
  • Pray they will be bold in their witness.
  • Pray the Lord will speak to their hearts and they will respond in obedience
  • Pray that Bible study groups will be formed, new believers will be baptized, and God's kingdom will increase in each place!
Nehemiah Teams Korean
The first Korean Nehemiah Teams will arrive in the Philippines in a few weeks. This team will be ministering on Dinagat Island, doing some follow up ministry begun by the Filipino & American teams. (www.mobkorea.net)
  • Pray for the Lord to provide the right translator for the team.
  • Pray that the Lord will continue to speak to the team members hearts about their role in world missions and that they will respond in obedience.

Way to go Lottie!!

What a privilege it is to thank Southern Baptists for their giving to the 2006 Lottie Moon Christmas Offering. The goal of $150 million was surpassed by almost $200,000! How exciting it is to be a part of group of people who not only say they believe in reaching the world for Christ... but are willing to give sacrificially to help see it happen. How does this affect who we are as an organization?

  • The offering supports the work of more than 5,100 missionaries across the globe. This year's gift is expected to have a notable impact on the number of personnel being sent to the field. Board leaders anticipate sending 200 extra missionaries over the next two years, in additional to the normal appointment numbers.

  • More unreached people groups will have access to the Gospel, more people will be won and baptized, more churches planted and leaders discipled and trained around the world because of such a generous level of giving.

Personally, it continues to provide us with a home to live in, a vehicle to drive, children's schooling, resources to purchase tracts & Bibles, and funds to travel to the unreached & hard to reach areas of the Philippines to see what needs to be done to bring to Gospel to those places.

Never be the same again...

A man had suffered for over 40 years with a severe illness. After semester missionaries B & A heard his story, they asked if they could pray for him. B tells the story, "We laid hands on him, prayed, and then left. After leaving, we decided to buy him some pain medicine since he was in severe pain and couldn't do anything.

The next day we returned to the village and went to see the man & his wife. We gave them the medicine, explained how it was to be used, and asked if we could pray for him again. They said yes, so once again we prayed. After we were done and were about to leave, his wife said, 'By the way after you prayed for my husband the other day, his pain is gone, he has not had any pain since.' She said he even went to the fields today to work and went out and got water.. he has not done that for 20 years!

My prayer when we laid hands on him was that God would heal this man and that through that healing God would turn them to Himself. So with tears in my eyes we shared the gospel with this family and at the end, the wife looked at us and said, 'How could we not believe after you prayed for him and he was healed. God healed him.' Isn't God amazing!!

God is just breaking my heart through the realness of the lost and the searching. We need to be bringing the gospel to all peoples, the hard to reach, the unreached, and the dangerous places. How it hurts to hear, experience, and see the ones who are just waiting and longing for years for the truth. If only someone would go to them!!!! I pray God just utterly breaks my heart for those lost on this river, in this country, and all over the world. My earnest prayer is that I will never be the same again!!!"

  • Pray for those who have made decisions to follow Christ. Pray they will be grounded in their faith and they will continue to grow through the study of God's word. Pray for leaders to come up out of the local groups of believers.