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After I finished reading Mark 4 for the M'Cheyne

Daily Bible Reading plan, I was struck by a similar feeling

that the disciples of Jesus had when they held on for dear

life and witnessed Jesus calming the wind and the waves

out in sea. As I sit here and reflect back on the 2011

Philippines short-term missions trip, I feel that Jesus is

asking me the same question that he posed to his disciples,

Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith?

For me, this year's Philippines trip was all about faith.

What do I mean? Well, I believe that the Lord allowed me

to see and experience certain things on this trip so that I

may grow in: 1.) my faith in a Sovereign God (even when

nothing seems to go as planned) and 2.) my faith in a

Loving God (who cares about every people group on the

face of this earth).

How different Calbayog City is now compared

to when I visited five years ago on my first trip to the

Philippines. Five years ago, the NCFC short-term team

had to fly in to Tacloban City first and then take a three

hour van ride to Calbayog City followed by another 30

minutes of driving on uneven dirt roads to get to the

SICAP Center, where Pastor Daniel & Ruth run a bible

school. This time, we were able to fly directly into

Calbayog City and drive on paved concrete roads to the

SICAP Center. What a difference!

Yet, there were still many things out of our

control that made this year's trip a little more difficult than

normal. For one, I was no longer just a team member like

in the first trip, but I was a team co-leader. Especially with

my personality, there was a sense of responsibility for

team members and a need to have everything under

control. But that was just not possible! Why? Well, in the

mission field, you always need to expect the unexpected

and be comfortable with the uncomfortable. That's just the

best way I can put it.

Pastor Daniel & Ruth warned us in an earlier

email before we arrived to the Philippines that this month

was unseasonably rainy. In fact, it had been raining every

day since the beginning of December. Even the Filipinos

were sick of the rain. In addition, Ruth shared with us in

our orientation there that God had placed on her heart to

Faith in a Sovereign God

7

8share with this year's NCFC team the need to be prepared

for inconvenience, discomfort, and delay. How true that

turned out to be!

Because of the heavy rain, our entire schedule

was pushed back a couple of days. We were supposed to

cross a river and arrive in the village of Lingkoro on the

first day of ministry, but we were informed that the river

had risen to waist-high on their village basketball court!

Yet God was sovereign and in control. Instead of Lingkoro,

Pastor Daniel decided for us to visit the villages of

Borabud and Palale. As a result, we were able to share our

testimonies and the gospel of Jesus Christ from house to

house, and to minister to the children in the village through

worship, skits, and other activities. How wonderful it was

for me to hear people pray to receive Jesus Christ and to

see children shouting the name of Jesus!

We were eventually able to cross the river to

Lingkoro, and then set out on a nearly three hour hike on

slippery rocks and through thick mud up the mountain to

the next village of Cagtotoog. It was truly physically and

mentally tough for me (just shy of the infamous four

hour hike into the village of Rojas barefooted and in the

dark, rain, and waist-high mud five years ago). There were

definitely opportunities for complaints and conflict among

the team and physical accidents and injuries. Some of us

older folks (including me) were wondering in our minds,

What have we gotten ourselves into? Can we turn back?

But our Sovereign God protected us the entire way and

there were no major accidents or injuries. In addition, the

team's unity and attitude were amazing! A great team

always makes the team leaders' job easier, and I truly

praise God for every team member he provided this year.

Through all the inconveniences (with weather,

electricity, and transportation), discomfort (with muddy

hikes, humidity, mosquitoes, sleeping situations, and

bathroom situations), and delays (with ministry schedule),

our Sovereign God remained faithful and present.

Ultimately, it was not about me being in control, but it was

about God being in control. And I learned to place my faith

in a Sovereign God and adopt the attitude of Jesus Christ in

the midst of suffering in saying, yet not my will, but

yours be done (Luke 22:42).

Faith in a Loving God

My favorite part of ministry on this year's trip

was the house to house evangelism we did in every

village. Missionary Ruth shared near the end of the trip

that, Ministry is for people, not people for ministry.

We're ultimately here for people. We're not ultimately

here for ministry. How true that is! The reason that house

to house evangelism was my favorite part of ministry was

because it allowed us to sit among the Filipinos, to

interact with them at their level, and to develop the

compassion that Jesus so often had for people (Mark

6:34). My prayer was that we would be able to see them

through the eyes of our Loving God.

On every house to house evangelistic visit that we did

in each village, we were accompanied by SICAP pastors

or staffs to help us translate when we shared our

testimony and the gospel of Jesus Christ. I have to admit

that I learned so much from the SICAP pastors and staffs.

One thing that they always seemed to stress was the fact

that Christianity is about a relationship we have with God

through Jesus Christ and not simply a religion like all the

other religions of the world. I believe this truly resonated

with the villagers that we spoke with because many of

them come from a Roman Catholic background, where

religion was simply trying to do the right things and going

through the motions.

As a result, God impressed upon my heart to

emphasize his love in my testimony sharing. I had not

planned to share about my love story with my wife, but

God nudged me to share that story to bring out the

amazing love of God. I would usually begin my testimony

by saying, We're here in the Philippines to share about

the love of God with you, but I have two love stories that

I would actually like to share with you.

What's so special about my love story with my wife?

Well, throughout the one and a half years of pursuing her

before we started dating, she actually said no to me

three times, and in the last time she even said never

toward the possibility of us ever being together. The

deeper heart issue was her fear of abandonment and her

self-image since her parents divorced when she was

young and her mother left the family. She had always

wondered why a mother could do this to a child, and

9

believed perhaps she was simply unlovable even in the

eyes of God. She would say something like, If you knew

who I am and what I have done in my life, you wouldn't

want to love me. But God impressed upon my heart to

share with her Song of Songs 4:7, which says, All

beautiful you are, my darling; there is no flaw in you. I

shared that verse because I believed that as a child of God

and washed by the blood of Jesus Christ, she was perfect

and flawless in the eyes of God. It's not to say that she will

never sin again in her earthly life but to say this is her new

identity in our Loving God. Her new identity trumps all the

bad things she has ever committed in her life and all the

good things she could ever accomplish in her life as well.

For the Filipinos, sin seemed to be more an issue about

shame (who they are) rather than guilt (what they have

done). Ultimately, even though many of them admit they

are sinners, they still profess that they have not really done

anything extremely bad in life. But, of course, sin keeps us

from a relationship with a Loving God. Sharing the two

love stories seemed to spark the interest of the villagers,

which then allowed me to share the gospel more in depth

and to ask if they would like to have a personal

relationship with God through Jesus Christ by praying the

sinner's prayer. Most of the villagers that we shared with

say they would like to pray the sinner's prayer. But Pastor

Daniel mentioned that 99% of them will probably say

yes out of respect. This made me wonder many times

whether they were sincere in praying to receive Jesus

Christ.

There was one particular mother that I shared my

testimony with in Palayan, the last village that we visited.

It was a hard trek through the muddy rice fields just to get

up to her home. Thoughts of the hike up to Cagtotoog

came flooding back, and I thought to myself, God really

must have a divine appointment for us with this lady.

After sharing my testimony and the gospel, I thought to

myself, Wow, I did a great job. This lady will accept Jesus

for sure. She was silent for a while, and then turned to our

translator to say, I'm not ready to accept Jesus. What?

How could this be?

Reflecting back on that evangelism encounter, I

realized now that whether they are or are not sincere and

whether they say yes or no really is not my responsibility. I

10

simply needed to trust that a Loving God who cares about

every people group on the face of this earth will provide

salvation according to his timing and his will. I realized

that I was supposed to place my faith in a Loving God and

not in my abilities or skills to share the gospel. After all,

we do not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as

we proclaim the testimony about God but with a

demonstration of the Spirit's power (1 Cor 2:1-5).

So who will God use to continue to follow-up with

each villager that we shared with throughout the two

weeks that we were in the Philippines? Some of the

villages seem so remote without any infrastructure or

roads leading into them, yet God has not forgotten them.

He reminded me that he has risen up local pastors and

staffs through SICAP to continue the follow-up work and

to bear his light. These servants of God are truly the

heroes of faith. The NCFC team had to endure the hike

into Cagtotoog once this year, but they hike in once every

week. My prayer and hope is that our Loving God will

continue to use them until every village in Samar is

reached.

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