From eating "sea spaghetti", meeting new sisters in Christ, breaking down spiritual strongholds, and seeing hearts changed, the Philippines has been amazing.
After fives days of traveling using over five different kinds of transport and sleeping anywhere we could find, from airports to piers, we finally arrived in the Philippines. When we arrived we were greeted by the short term Philippines team (affectionately nicknamed the Beauty Pageant) who would be working with us with a local pastor.
Our minestry was mostly evengelical, which was a new experience for most of us. We would start the day with house visits in poor comunities, sharing the gospel and praying for people, then a childrens feeding program later on in the day, more of a childrens service, and ending off with a cursade in the evening, sharing the gospel through songs, dances, dramas, and movies. We also had the privilege to be invited to a local university to present a christian anti-drug program.Also while we were there the minestry we were helping opened the first evangelical church in Cebu and we had the honor of participating in the first service.
Towards the end of our time in Lapu-Lapu we were invited to the island of Olango to help with the church there. We only did one feeding program and crusade while on the smaller island so we had some time to recover from our hectic schedual of the past week or so. While we were there we had the amazing opportunity to witness the baptism of one of our team members, Danica Frose.
All together it was an incredably blessed time. I think we all learned something about ourselves, God, and His heart for the people of the Philippines. Please pray that the hard hearts of the Filipinos would be softened and against the spirit of religion and depression over the islands.