Beautiful friends we love,April has arrived, and as many of you on that side of the ocean are looking for signs of spring and promises of warmer weather, we are looking for a breeze. Any breeze will do, but when they come, it kind of feels like the air wafting from the mouth of a volcano. Summer in the Philippines… it slows us down, makes us hover around the water jugs, zaps our energy, drives us to look for the wind.
I’m feeling my limits in 115 degree heat.
We’ve recently been studying Mark 8, where Jesus miraculously feeds the four thousand.The crowd was hungry, their location was remote— no food, no stores, no means.
The disciples were agitated, “Send them away,” they said.
They walked and lived with Jesus, but often failed to actually see Him, because the needs, problems, issues around them distorted their view of Him.
They experienced His touch, and yet missed His invitation to trust deeply, to come, taste and see.
They are there at the feeding, but acted like the wilderness generation of Israelites… they acted a little bit like us: They looked around at the situation and grumbled, thought small, made their own plans. They saw the King of the universe through the lens of their circumstance.
The disciples saw the limits, they saw the lack, they saw how impossibility... They looked for the bread when He was standing right beside them.
Jesus didn’t rebuke them, but instead He asked what they had with them, what they had in their hands.
“Seven loaves and a few fish.”
Jesus made sure those small loaves passed through their hands and they never ran out. There were 12 baskets left over.
Jesus was right there all along, with them. He was the bread. He was the miracle.
We so often bemoan our limits and lack, and shrink back from faith, when Jesus looks at our limits as an opportunity to showcase Himself. God knows your limits, He knows your struggles, He may not remove them, because He wants to show HIs limitless power through your cracks and fragility. He isn't limited by your smallness.
I have struggled for many years with my Tagalog language skills. It has been a source of shame for me as I wrestle and strive and try, as I battle my foggy, tired brain. There are other missionaries who master it so fast, a few who have subtly shamed me and questioned if I should be here if I speak it so poorly. I’ve cried out to Jesus much. And I've just cried. I've tried to hide my insecurities and inglorious bits, but here they are....12 years later and I’m working with a tutor.
Last week I was asked to speak for a Women Of Faith gathering for the pastor’s wives in our area. It’s something I enjoy and do often. These women are my family here, they are gold. They have given me the honor of being their spiritual advisor and I am humbled and honored to serve and champion them, to pray with and love them.
Holy Spirit was leading me to share a powerful message on the spirit of offense and how satan lays the bait of offense to trap us (Matthew 24). When we allow a spirit of offense in our hearts, we grow hardened, become easily deceived, and our Love grows cold. I believe the church is being divided and attacked through a spirit of offense.
I looked out at the faces of these women I love, around 70 of the most beautiful and strong leaders in our community. Several of the women in the group were Mangyan indigenous women, and I wanted them to fully grasp the power of the verses I was sharing. They do not speak or understand English. My Tagalog was choppy at best.
Holy Spirit made it clear that I was to speak English.
I began to pray out loud, “Holy Spirit, I welcome you to come and move powerfully, please translate for me, and transform every heart with your words.”
The Holy Spirit came and moved, all around the room, women began to weep. Roots of offense, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, began to be pulled out. Repentance and forgiveness flowed, freedom came.
Wives went home to their husbands and conversations, prayer, and repentance lasted long into the night.
A dear friend, Nanay (Mother) Florence, is a Mangyan indigenous grandmother, leader, and pastor. She and her husband lead a church high in the mountains, and she is in our home each day... she is strong and fierce, soft and sensitive.
She also does not understand more than 10 words of English. She and her husband both come from lives of brokenness and rejection. Their home is often shadowed with strife and arguments, anger and hurt. They love God, and also desperately need inner healing.
She was weeping in the back row, undone by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit translated every word directly into her mind and heart and lifted out roots of shame and offense. She went home and extended grace and forgiveness to her husband without saying a word. Holy Spirit spoke to her husband through vivid dreams that night, convicted him, he came to her, and for the first time hugged her close, wept, and repented.
She came to our women’s Bible study yesterday to share her story, and tell of God’s goodness to bring hope and healing to a marriage that seemed hopeless.
She has lived a life marred with shame and rejection, but is now beginning to understand her identity as a daughter of God, and walk in freedom, confidence and boldness.
The tears have come easily and fast over the past few days, as I see His goodness. I also see how often I limit God because of my limitations. His power and goodness is limitless and He wants to use our meager loaves and fish, our limits and lack, to display it.
He’s reminding me of the time He answered me and multiplied the spaghetti when we were feeding the hungry and knew it wasn’t enough. He’s met us in big and small moments when we looked to Him, and sometimes I miss it. I don’t see the miracle of Jesus right beside me, In me. He wants to be my next breath.
Don’t wait until you have enough. Don't miss how He's moving right now.
He is asking me, asking you, “What do you have in your hand?”
Use it and give Him your mustard-seed of faith. Watch Him bring the miracles and power.
Our team has been praying for many years for land to build our own maternity center, ministry/healing center and home.
Two years ago, at the start of a pandemic, God said that the time to step out is now.
We began to look for land and pray and fast more fervently.
We are now praying over a plot of land that was once a ministry center, built by missionaries to be a place where Jesus is made known. It has been lying dormant for years now, and we are asking God to give it to us if this is it. We feel that it is.
Our hearts are peaceful, filled with anticipation and joy as we envision all the ways it could be renovated, built back again to be a place of healing and life.
We meet TOMORROW with the organization that currently owns it— please pray that God will make it clear if it is for us, and for the financial provision needed.
Our team of six incredible women are growing in this season like never before. God is bringing a fresh anointing as they grow in their love for Jesus and each other. They are ministering to the community powerfully, and we are so proud of them.
They gently and expertly palpate pregnant bellies, pray for the broken-hearted, walk people through inner healing and deliverance, cry with the hurting, feed the hungry.
We continue to walk in faith, as we do medical outreaches in tribal villages several days a week, bible studies, lead home fellowship, buy van loads of rice to give out, and help empower and disciple Mangyan indigenous leaders. As we pray over sick patients, we are seeing healing and deliverance. God is moving!
Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, a large part of our ministry has been supporting the local churches in our city. The majority of these pastors and leaders are living well below the poverty line, and many of them supported their family through driving tricycle (motorbike and sidecar) for public transportation, as well as being in full time ministry. Since there are so few tourists and travelers now, they have lost their business. Most of them struggle to feed their families, while continuing to pastor their churches.
We are led to love and give to them generously, so that they can continue to pour out the love of Jesus to the community. We financially support many of them monthly, and also provide food for their families.
If you would like to give towards supporting a pastor’s family, or any of these other outreach projects, please connect with us.
Thank you for continuing to pray, intercede over us, remember us, and give financially. We thank God for you every single day.
Through you, we are able to extend the hands and heart of Jesus generously. We’re so grateful for you!
I’m feeling my limits in 115 degree heat.
We’ve recently been studying Mark 8, where Jesus miraculously feeds the four thousand.The crowd was hungry, their location was remote— no food, no stores, no means.
The disciples were agitated, “Send them away,” they said.
They walked and lived with Jesus, but often failed to actually see Him, because the needs, problems, issues around them distorted their view of Him.
They experienced His touch, and yet missed His invitation to trust deeply, to come, taste and see.
They are there at the feeding, but acted like the wilderness generation of Israelites… they acted a little bit like us: They looked around at the situation and grumbled, thought small, made their own plans. They saw the King of the universe through the lens of their circumstance.
The disciples saw the limits, they saw the lack, they saw how impossibility... They looked for the bread when He was standing right beside them.
Jesus didn’t rebuke them, but instead He asked what they had with them, what they had in their hands.
“Seven loaves and a few fish.”
Jesus made sure those small loaves passed through their hands and they never ran out. There were 12 baskets left over.
Jesus was right there all along, with them. He was the bread. He was the miracle.
We so often bemoan our limits and lack, and shrink back from faith, when Jesus looks at our limits as an opportunity to showcase Himself. God knows your limits, He knows your struggles, He may not remove them, because He wants to show HIs limitless power through your cracks and fragility. He isn't limited by your smallness.
I have struggled for many years with my Tagalog language skills. It has been a source of shame for me as I wrestle and strive and try, as I battle my foggy, tired brain. There are other missionaries who master it so fast, a few who have subtly shamed me and questioned if I should be here if I speak it so poorly. I’ve cried out to Jesus much. And I've just cried. I've tried to hide my insecurities and inglorious bits, but here they are....12 years later and I’m working with a tutor.
Last week I was asked to speak for a Women Of Faith gathering for the pastor’s wives in our area. It’s something I enjoy and do often. These women are my family here, they are gold. They have given me the honor of being their spiritual advisor and I am humbled and honored to serve and champion them, to pray with and love them.
Holy Spirit was leading me to share a powerful message on the spirit of offense and how satan lays the bait of offense to trap us (Matthew 24). When we allow a spirit of offense in our hearts, we grow hardened, become easily deceived, and our Love grows cold. I believe the church is being divided and attacked through a spirit of offense.
I looked out at the faces of these women I love, around 70 of the most beautiful and strong leaders in our community. Several of the women in the group were Mangyan indigenous women, and I wanted them to fully grasp the power of the verses I was sharing. They do not speak or understand English. My Tagalog was choppy at best.
Holy Spirit made it clear that I was to speak English.
I began to pray out loud, “Holy Spirit, I welcome you to come and move powerfully, please translate for me, and transform every heart with your words.”
The Holy Spirit came and moved, all around the room, women began to weep. Roots of offense, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, began to be pulled out. Repentance and forgiveness flowed, freedom came.
Wives went home to their husbands and conversations, prayer, and repentance lasted long into the night.
A dear friend, Nanay (Mother) Florence, is a Mangyan indigenous grandmother, leader, and pastor. She and her husband lead a church high in the mountains, and she is in our home each day... she is strong and fierce, soft and sensitive.
She also does not understand more than 10 words of English. She and her husband both come from lives of brokenness and rejection. Their home is often shadowed with strife and arguments, anger and hurt. They love God, and also desperately need inner healing.
She was weeping in the back row, undone by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit translated every word directly into her mind and heart and lifted out roots of shame and offense. She went home and extended grace and forgiveness to her husband without saying a word. Holy Spirit spoke to her husband through vivid dreams that night, convicted him, he came to her, and for the first time hugged her close, wept, and repented.
She came to our women’s Bible study yesterday to share her story, and tell of God’s goodness to bring hope and healing to a marriage that seemed hopeless.
She has lived a life marred with shame and rejection, but is now beginning to understand her identity as a daughter of God, and walk in freedom, confidence and boldness.
The tears have come easily and fast over the past few days, as I see His goodness. I also see how often I limit God because of my limitations. His power and goodness is limitless and He wants to use our meager loaves and fish, our limits and lack, to display it.
He’s reminding me of the time He answered me and multiplied the spaghetti when we were feeding the hungry and knew it wasn’t enough. He’s met us in big and small moments when we looked to Him, and sometimes I miss it. I don’t see the miracle of Jesus right beside me, In me. He wants to be my next breath.
Don’t wait until you have enough. Don't miss how He's moving right now.
He is asking me, asking you, “What do you have in your hand?”
Use it and give Him your mustard-seed of faith. Watch Him bring the miracles and power.
Our team has been praying for many years for land to build our own maternity center, ministry/healing center and home.
Two years ago, at the start of a pandemic, God said that the time to step out is now.
We began to look for land and pray and fast more fervently.
We are now praying over a plot of land that was once a ministry center, built by missionaries to be a place where Jesus is made known. It has been lying dormant for years now, and we are asking God to give it to us if this is it. We feel that it is.
Our hearts are peaceful, filled with anticipation and joy as we envision all the ways it could be renovated, built back again to be a place of healing and life.
We meet TOMORROW with the organization that currently owns it— please pray that God will make it clear if it is for us, and for the financial provision needed.
Our team of six incredible women are growing in this season like never before. God is bringing a fresh anointing as they grow in their love for Jesus and each other. They are ministering to the community powerfully, and we are so proud of them.
They gently and expertly palpate pregnant bellies, pray for the broken-hearted, walk people through inner healing and deliverance, cry with the hurting, feed the hungry.
We continue to walk in faith, as we do medical outreaches in tribal villages several days a week, bible studies, lead home fellowship, buy van loads of rice to give out, and help empower and disciple Mangyan indigenous leaders. As we pray over sick patients, we are seeing healing and deliverance. God is moving!
Since the beginning of the pandemic two years ago, a large part of our ministry has been supporting the local churches in our city. The majority of these pastors and leaders are living well below the poverty line, and many of them supported their family through driving tricycle (motorbike and sidecar) for public transportation, as well as being in full time ministry. Since there are so few tourists and travelers now, they have lost their business. Most of them struggle to feed their families, while continuing to pastor their churches.
We are led to love and give to them generously, so that they can continue to pour out the love of Jesus to the community. We financially support many of them monthly, and also provide food for their families.
If you would like to give towards supporting a pastor’s family, or any of these other outreach projects, please connect with us.
Thank you for continuing to pray, intercede over us, remember us, and give financially. We thank God for you every single day.
Through you, we are able to extend the hands and heart of Jesus generously. We’re so grateful for you!