Philippines: Barangay Pontavedra | February 22
I had the best night of sleep yet- I think it’s because I put pants on and didn’t get too cold. Probably shouldn’t write that…
Breakfast was rice, eggs, dried shredded fish, and bananas. We also had what I think was called a star apple- I took a picture because I can’t describe it, other than that it’s weird and purple. After breakfast I led worship for morning devotions and we had bible study.
After a few hours in the car, we made it to the Regional Government offices to thank the Mayor’s assistant for letting us come here. We were even lucky enough to pray over all the staff there, and for all the communities in the area!
Back at the base, Amy worked on preparing the message for the crusade while I went out to read by the ocean. I hadn’t sat down for more than 5 minutes when an older man came up to me and asked If I was reading the Bible. I told him that no, it’s just a book, but I do read the Bible, and we are giving Bibles away if he would like one. His eyes got big and he said, “ I am a Christian!” He said when he saw me he felt like I was a Christian too. He sat down with me and we talked for a little while. He was 56 years old, and he was the pastor of a church in his village. He said his wife almost left him when he became a Christian, but now she leads the church with him, and now about 50 people attend his church regularly. He said he prayed for 18 years for God to give him a son before his son Emmanuel Judah was born. They had come out to the oceanside to celebrate his nieces birthday. I was of course invited to come and meet the family and take part in the celebration. Everyone was so happy and encouraged to just have me there. I totally forgot to peel one of the shrimp given to me and had parts of the shell stuck in my throat for a couple hours!
At 3pm Amy and I headed out with the follow up team to the barangay Tacas where we had the crusade the night before. We had the classic minivan/loudspeaker combo that we came to love so much in Haiti. Within minutes we had a few adults and a TON of kids. We talked a whole lot about God, Jesus, and salvation, and then I taught the gospel story with the Evangecube as a visual. Afterwards we led the group in the sinners prayer. Then they had to decide if they were willing to form a Bible study, and commit to a day and time, then Amy and I would give them a Bible of their own, in their own dialect, and a Bible study guide. And guess what- we ran out of Bibles! A good problem.
We then drove about 25 minutes to a village on the other side of the river for the evening healing celebration. We would be in a dirt field on the edge of a sugar cane field. This community was much smaller, more spread out, and had less homes. It was very “wild” looking, but still very clean. Dogs literally everywhere, roosters too. Amy did a great job with the evangelical message even though the light system was going bonkers at times during her message. We had another massive alter call and we laid hands on and prayed healing for at least 100 people. I prayed for a woman who had a very hard time breathing and she was healed instantly! We had people with back pain, headaches, tumors, seizures, UTI’s, headaches, drug addiction, and prayed healing over all of them! It was a good night.
~ Joel Doorlag