휄로쉽 교회 월간지 우리 하나 되어 2011년 3월
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휄로쉽 교회 월간지 우리 하나 되어 2011년 3월 http://www.fellowshipusa.comTRANSCRIPT
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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
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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).
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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
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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
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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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