I'm Pregnant!

The little boy had the task of making a sentence and gave the teacher this one, "The fireman came down the ladder pregnant." The teacher said, you must not understand what that word means. Do you know what pregnant means? Sure, the little boy replied, It means carrying a child!

I am not the only one pregnant, the apostle Paul was too...

Could we not also describe one who is pregnant as expecting, as in "I am expecting." or one who is full of life and about to give birth? One who longs to give life to another.

That is what I mean when I say I am pregnant.  I am expecting and I am full of life inside of my spirit and soul.

And where does that life come from? From an intimate relationship with God.  He is the one that puts that life within us!

So then we like Paul can say "I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you."  If you are a Christian, you ought to be pregnant too, and today is the delivery day.

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More Than Conquerors

Rom 8:37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

More than conquerors? To conquer is to completely defeat your enemy. So what then is being more then conquerors? John Piper in his book "Don't Waste Your Life" (which can be downloaded for free here) gives some insight.  He shares, a conqueror subjugates his foe, but one that is more than a conqueror, makes that foe his slave.  The conquered enemy starts working for you.  Paul said "This light affliction worketh for me a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory..."

The enemy which came Paul's way was affliction.  Paul conquered it by not letting it separate him from Christ, but then went on to be more than a conqueror by making that affliction work for him that "exceeding weight of glory!"

Earlier in the chapter Paul tells us "All things work together for good to them that love God..."

When the trials, struggles and affliction come to fight us and destroy us, we become more than conquerors and those same problems start working for us.

So then we like Joseph  can say,  "You meant it for my evil, but God meant it for my good!"

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William And His Friends

 
We celebrated our fifth Family Appreciation Day on Sunday and the Lord Blessed. Many gave their hearts to the Lord and we all enjoyed the picture taking afterwards. Here is a photo of William (our son) with his friends. Keep us in your prayers as November 1st we will have our first graduation of our Bible Seminary here in Angeles, and November 2nd starts the Asian conference here. Lots to prepare for and to look forward to!

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The Bajau People

I first learned of the Bajau people from an Anthropology class taught by Sis. Kekel in bible college and probably never thought I would get a chance to share Jesus with them but...

Two Sundays ago, a group of Bajaus were invited out to the church and came to the evening service. The Bajaus are from the southern Philippines and are not native to our island of Luzon. They have moved here to escape from the warlike situation in Basilan with the Abu Sayaf and some of the other Muslim groups there. They survive here by begging on the streets. Because they are from a Muslim area, I at first thought they were Muslims, but they are animists. We visited the people who had attended after the first week and met the chief of their little group. His name is Jaime and I invited him to come to the next Sunday's services. He agreed, and as we talked a little longer, I asked if he knew who Jesus Christ was. He said he did not, I was a little surprised, again thinking they were Muslims, and would at least have heard of Jesus as a prophet, but he had no knowledge of him at all.

Sunday night he attended and came to the altar and with tears in his eyes, received Christ as his savior. What a Joy! Follow @ddevonshire

Thankfulness

I fought back tears as the grateful mother told her tale of thankfulness to God. She has five children and her husband was injured in a construction accident. He can no longer work construction or lift heavy weights. The barrangay captain introduced them to a man that needed someone to care for his animals and they accepted and moved into the caretakers quarters: a bamboo hut with a grass thatched roof on the side of the river and next to the trash dump. Their pay is about $12 a week and she happily said they could live on that. "What would we do if we didn't have this? How would we survive? I think the barrangay captain (area leader) was an instrument of God leading us to this job."

That was enough to touch your heart, but that wasn't all. Their last child is loving 4 year old Down's syndrome boy. He loves Christian music and when they put in a praise song, he pretends to sing to it and sways back and forth. If his brother or sister try to play some worldly music, he covers his ears and pulls the plug on the radio...smart fella....He laid his head on my wife's lap as the mother shared of his last time in the hospital. They were not sure he was going to make it. The doctors told them his heart would grow bigger and bigger and he would have problems. He was struggling to breathe and the parents were praying. She told me her prayer was "Lord, if you take him, we are ready, but God you know how much we love him, so many parents have forsaken their children, take one of the children (to heaven by implication) that have no parents to love them, but Lord you know how much we love him..."

He started getting better and was released from the hospital.

Thank God for His kindness to us all! Follow @ddevonshire

Dangerous in the Philippines

It is dangerous in the Philippines...

Within a short span of time, I have encountered 4 different dangerous situations regarding church members and their families:

1. A young man has a motorcycle accident, the other person involved died. It was in front of a large famous (non-Christian) church known for their solidarity. The victim was a part of this church. They take the victim to the hospital, and then beat the young man. He could have died. He must pass this way daily to and from work, and the hunger for vengeance has at times caused the police to release a guilty party, knowing the family of the victim will track them down and kill them. There is no literal “City of refuge”, no safe place to go.

2. A young man coming back from a late evening was stabbed, this is the second time he has been stabbed. The last time he almost lost his hearing since the knife passed into his skull near his ear. He is recovering in the hospital, the blood draining from his lungs.

3. Another young man walking down the street, when a stabbing takes place across the street, the group involved flees in his direction, and those pursuing mistake him as the culprit and beat him.

4. An older man who works in the local barrangay (town office) goes to the federal government to protest a land seizure in his area. Shortly after that, armed goons arrive and there are threats made on his life. The owner of the land didn't like the fact he was fighting for the occupants. He hasn't slept at home for a long time now, and tries to move from place to place, not staying in one place for more than an hour or two. Is his fear justified? Another barrangay leader was shot to death just the week before. I asked, do you have anything to protect yourself? He said “If I carry weapons, God can't be my protection. The other man that was killed, carried a gun and had two body guards, but they killed him before he could draw his weapon!”

God alone can keep us safe. We do have a “City of refuge” to flee from our enemies. In Christ.

Keep us and the church members and their families in your prayers.

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Doing our Part

 
I read a post here about how God was blessing a pioneer work and it made me think about how many times we have spent time inviting the multitudes but only that one came, but that one brought multitudes.

I can not give everything and meet every need, but I can do my part and maybe that will help inspire someone else to do theirs, or I can point them to the God that can meet every need!

I can not do all the praying, but I can do my part and maybe others will jump in and help.

I heard recently about how one church had a group that prayed through the night, each volunteer offering to pray one hour, and the next one taking over for an hour, until the morning time and that way their was someone praying all night for the services Sunday morning. I thought it was a good idea and started doing it here and was pleasantly surprised how the brothers and sisters began to realize their responsibility in prayer, and we sensed the difference on Sunday mornings.

Thank God for the privilege to do our part!

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Church Family Reunion March 8

Two weeks left! We are excited about a get together we are having on the 8th of March. We are inviting all of the people who had attended before, and the present attendees and members to join with us in a Church Family Reunion. Already there are some church members excited about it and lining up commitments for the special day. We trust the Lord will bless it and bring many souls to Him and they would become a part of the family of God.

Pray for us!

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Church Jeepney

 
Transportation is a problem in many churches and we have struggled with that difficulty here also. Recently the Lord enabled us to purchase our first church jeepney! Around the same time, a church member donated a second jeepney to the church. Another member owns and uses his jeepney to pick up people for church also. To you it may look a little odd, but to many of us here, it may as well be a Cadillac and it gets well used! May the Lord bless it in bringing many souls to the house of God to hear the gospel of Jesus. Keep us in your prayers!

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