He cares for the least of these

This morning we attended church at the orphanage where we were blessed with songs by some of the orphans and testimonies of some of their lives. The worship was amazing because the kids were unashamed to lift their hands and worship God. After church we did crafts with the kids by letting them braid their own bandana bracelets and then afterwards we had recreate time. We played for a few solid hours and by the end those kids had worn us out! While the kids were playing Angie, Kristen, and I helped Sarah by re-doing the medical charts of the children. The nurses that had come to record their health records did a poor job of keeping accuracy.  In the evening we attended another worship service that was meant for the children and again we were amazed at the way they worshipped God. We stuck around around church finished and we listened to another group speak about the God moments in their day. They invited us to share and we had several girls go up and share what they have seen God do in the time they've been here. Miriam the founder of the New Life Orphanage came and spoke to us when we were finished and shared about the rescue side of the orphanage. It was a real eye opener to see the mountain kids in the health and condition they were in and then to see the after pictures of who they are today. God has truly blessed them and this place. Each day is a day to learn a little more of the God we serve and this day I learned He cares. 

Another day in Haiti

Today we had the opportunity to visit another orphanage that was a little ways out. We brought books and more bandana bracelets for the kids. It seemed like they had tents in their little compound area and I'm not sure if that's where they lived or if it was just a covered area for them. The kids were sweet and so full of joy! They would cling to you and interact with you. The girls all fell in love with them and even Christian and Mr. Rogers were having a ball playing with the kids. We spent about an hour or so with them and then we left to go to an iron works village where there are tons of little stores selling hand made iron art. The girls all had fun bartering for their purchases and they left with some really neat things! We left there and came back to the orphanage were staying at. We hung out with the kids some more and ate dinner and got ready for our flighty devotions with the kids. We planned some worship songs and then a reenactment of David and Goliath! The kids thought it was hysterical! We have had so much fun with these kids. It will be hard to go in a few days. 

Tent city orphanage

This  was our second day in port a prince Haiti. We woke up around 7 and got ready to eat breakfast and head over to a tent city orphanage. When we arrived at the orphanage we were struck with the realness of the destruction left behind after the earthquake. Tents and half constructed homes were dispersed everywhere and children were running around without shoes and barely any clothes. We brought coloring books, word searches, stickers, face paint, and toys. We spent a few hours playing with the kids inside their tiny little one room building. They were very smart. The little boy I sat with could find the words quickly and the ones he couldn't he deducted by finding all the letters that matched the word he was looking for. When it was time to leave the kids sang a song and recited John 3:16 for us and we gave out hugs and kisses and departed back to the New Life orphanage. We ate lunch and got our things ready for VBS. We ended up waiting 2 hours until the kids had eaten and done their chores before we could do VBS with them. By that time it was 4:00 and we only had time for songs and a bible story with coloring time. We colored and played with the kids until it was dinner time. We ate a wonderful meal of Mac n cheese, green beans, ham, and brown rice and beans. We ended the night with praise and worship with the kids ,and a devotional and small talk with our group. Today was a good day and God is working in these girls in a cool way.

Haiti hits home

Today we headed out Haiti. Our team arrived at the Tampa airport at 5:30am and began our seemingly easy journey to Haiti. Our first leg of the flight went off without a hitch, we landed in Miami and boarded our next plane to port a prince. All seemed well until the pilot comes on over the speaker and announces that there is a mechanical error with the pressurizer for the plane. We waited for almost an hour before the pilot tells us to deboard the plane the problem can not be fixed. After another 20 min or so wew are herded onto another plane where we have to wait some more for all our luggage and food to be placed on the new plane. With all that said and done we finally took off for our destination. When we arrived and walked through customs we were bombarded by the local Haitians begging us to let them help us. After much psisting that we do not need any help and finally meeting our driver we make it to our tap tap and again we are faced with the cultural asking of money for their services we did not ask for to begin with. Our group did frat getting through their first experience in Haiti. Driving through the town was a huge shock to a majority of our group. Many have never seen such poverty and it hit them pretty hard. New life orphanage is a paradise in the midst of disaster zone. It's bright colors, sounds of child laughter and beautiful landscape make it a perfect escape from the outside world. In here we feel safe. The children are loved and cared for and many volunteers from all over come to offer their services to help better this piece of heaven.  After settling in a bit the dinner bell rings and we gather in the dining room to eat our meal. Tonight's course was Alfredo with some kind of meat, salad, bread, and sweet cinnamon cake. It was delicious and a real treat. When we finished we took a tour of the compound and saw where the children sleep and play. We saw their garden, fish farm, bunnies and livestock. Afterwards we met as a group and debriefed a little before heading into praise and worship and movie time with the kids. The little ones would come and snuggle on your lap and play with my hair and squirm around. They are such a joy! Today was a real treat and a glimpse into what God has in store for us the rest of the week. He is already preparing us for His will. 

Our God is bigger

I was just able to share at a PTA meeting. The captain of the barunguay and the district super intendent of the school board was there. I was sat in the front alongside all of them and patiently waited for my chance to share God. When I got up its as if God took over and I began sharing of how much God loves them! There were many older people who had big rings and there was one man in the back who after the prayer stayed standing and he was staring at me. I looked him right in the eyes and the stare down began. After a few seconds he bowed his head and sat down. My God is greater! There was lady in the front who kept ribbing her ring as if she was conflicted. There is no power in her ring but there is power in the word! I had just said this morning that I wanted to speak to the parents of a Barunguay and God answered my prayer again! He just keeps on showing up and showing how great He is!!!! After that school we were able to go on a boat ride to 2 other islands. The boat was a tiny little canoe type boat, I dont know how we all fit there were 2 americans and 2 pastors and the boat driver. We dropped pastor Stone off at the first one and the whole way there I was getting splashed on my right side. We get to my island and the boat driver Joey gives me and Bahagee piggy back rides so we don't have to go in the water! As I was walking through the village I was first greeted by two drunk women who offered me their beer. I declined and kept walking to the school. Before I knew it I had a whole group following me to the elementary. I shared the gospel and the children and the parents accepted Jesus!! On our way back it started down pouring on us and pastor stone and I tried to cover ourselves with a plastic sheet. It didn't work very well and when we got to our hotel it was like the heavens opened up and downpoured on us! We were soaked but it was a great day!!

Not so comfort room

It's the third day on Dinagit island and all I can say is WOW! God has shut Satan out and bound up his demons and made way for His Word to be spoken above the noise. Today I was paired with Britt and we left at 6 this morning to head out to our schools. We arrived at the central school in our section and I took the elementary and Britt took the high school. Mars was my translator and together we shared the good news of Jesus Christ with the children! They readily accepted Jesus' free gift and were so happy that I came to share with them the good news of Jesus! This day was packed with Gods love oozing out of every step we took. I was able to share with another group of women who were sitting under a hut, while we were waiting and they all accepted Christ! After that I hiked up another mountain to get to an elementary school. On our way up they were running down to eat lunch. So we reached he top and sat down and talked to the teachers. There were two girls and one man. Pastor Mars and them began talking and shared God in a round about way before we even began speaking to the students. The students came back and I shared with them Gods love and sacrifice of His son Jesus. They accepted Jesus in their hearts! We got to our next school and I was given the high school and Britt got the elementary school. I had to use the CR and so I asked if I could use theirs. They got the key and opened it up and immediately shut it. The principle hesitated but eventually told me there was a dead kitten in there and they needed to get it out. I told them i didnt have to go that bad and inwould wait till the next school. O man, only in the Philippines! Afterward we headed to our next 2 schools and when we got there we saw children in costume dress and music was playing and we saw they were having a festival. The schools were closed and so we wouldn't be able to preach in them. We started walking back but I asked if we could preach to them at least on the basketball court, because we had already come this far. Britt shared the gospel with them, they were mostly boys and men and they accepted Christ! One man even said keep up the good work!!! While Britt was preaching I found a CR and it was at a girls house in the back separate from the house. It was a wood pallet shack and the door was closed by a piece of rope and a nail and it wouldn't close fully, leavin a gap open. The door went up to my stomach and there was just a hole in the ground. Trying to juggle my skirt, toilet paper, balancing myself so I wouldn't be in the opening of the door and squatting to pee in the hole, was a huge ordeal! I thought my legs would give out and I would fall in! Luckily I made it out! Our next few schools more and more people were receiving the free gift of Jesus! It is truly amazing to see how God has shut the mouths and actions of the devil and opened the hearts of his people to hear and accept His truth! I still can't believe that God chose me to be the messenger to this island! He has provided in so many ways that he has done exceedingly more then I could ever have imagined! At our last school I look in the sky and I saw a faint rainbow! That is two rainbows in two days!! It just gives me so much joy that God remembers his people! 

Dinagit, Philippines in 24 hours

Dinagit, Mindanao. January 22-27 Since the moment we stepped onto our boat to head to the island of Dinagit the Lords hand was over us. He had already prepared a way for us and heard our prayers. Ben shared the gospel on the boat and around 15 people out of 70 accepted Christ! On that boat was a women who accepted Christ and she is a teacher at one of the schools on the island, she was excited for us to come to her school, there was also a teacher at a college on our boat! We stepped off the boat and we were a little nervous but knew God had us in His hands. We got to our hotel and it was beautiful! It is new and has balconies over looking the ocean and mountains! There is aircon and thick mattresses to sleep on! We also found out that we have a personal chef to cook for us the whole week because of the safety of our team and the chance that the people here might poison our food. After we got settled we decided we wanted to walk around and look at the market before it got dark. As we were walking we were praying that God would show his face on this place and scales would be removed from the eyes of these people. We walked around the market a bit and purchased some kalamatse and bananas and we were about to leave but something in me said that we should preach to the people that had begun to gather around us. At that point I asked our pastor if I could share the gospel to the people there, and he said yes. I began sharing and I was speaking more people started to gather around me. Children were listening intently and adults faces started changing. You could see a visible change in their countenance as if lightness was overtaking the darkness. I looked to my left and I saw a man who was recording every word I was saying so I made sure to look at him when I spoke so that he knew this message was for him and everyone else there. Out of 60 people that had gathered 20 or so accepted Jesus!!! At the end the man who was recording came up to Pastor Boy and asked what religion we were, Boy said we were non sectarian, not a religion but a relationship with Jesus Christ. He seemed satisfied and told us that he was from a radio station and was going to put us on the radio for everyone to hear!! God was already working to save ths island and we hadn't even begun to preach in any schools, it was just our first day! Walking back to our hotel we stopped to get some fresh water and the man came back with his friend and approached us again. He said that he wanted to video tape us and put it on their news station and he wanted us to come back to the market the next morning at 9:30 so that he could film us! We were absolutely blown away by how awesome our God is! I felt so blessed that God had allowed me to come to this island to share His love with these people. We continued walking back and as we neared our hotel steps I saw that there was a wet patch on the ground and I thought I would bypass it so I didn't slip on it like Beverly did early that evening at the water station. What I didn't realize was that there was no walkway except for that small area and when I took another step I fell straight into a sewage gutter. Immediately my knee started throbbing and pain was shooting up by leg! When we were able to look at it there was blood everywhere and it was swelling a little bit. We took some water and washed it off. There were scrapes and bruises on my knee but I was fine. I began thinking that this was the beginning of spiritual warfare. The verse in Ephesians 6:12 "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Satan will do whatever it takes to attack this body but he can not attack my spirit because I belong to the risen King Jesus!! The next day we were able to sleep in and we had an amazing breakfast of eggs with tomato and onions in them, toast, and fried eggplant and we got ready to go to the market. We all met in our room and we started speaking scripture and praying over Beverly as she would be speaking in the market. We walked to the market and we set up the speakers for the gospel to be shared. The girls and I sang amazing grace and Lord I lift your name on high to set the tone for message to be preached. Beverly started sharing and we began covering her in prayer and covering the situation in prayer, lifting up the people for their hearts to be receptive to Gods word. During her speaking I began to feel weak and sick. After she was finished 40 out of the 100 people accepted Christ!! We hung around for a few afterwards and spoke to the people who were filming us and interviewing us. I started to feel weaker. We moved over to the pharmacy to get some gauze for my leg and there I began feeling cold and very weak. I felt like my hearing was clouded and the blood was draining from my body. It came on quick and strong. I almost fell and Ben caught me, my face was starting to lose color. The group had been asked to go to the radio station but Pastor Stone insisted I go back to the hotel and rest until lunch. Ben came with me along with Pastor Ninoy and Pastor Bahagee (Emil). On our way back I shared the gospel with our motorcycle driver and when we stopped he accepted Christ! Pastor Bahagee shared with his driver and he accepted Christ too!! Even after I was being attacked God still got the glory!! The Pastors and Ben laid hands on me and prayed for healing on my knee. Ben and I began quoting more scripture and waited for the others while they were at the radio station. We went to our cooks place to eat food and she had prepared a feast for us! Lumpia, poncit, pork chops, fruit, it was some of the best food I've ever eaten. To top it off she was blasting Christian music! It's only been a total of 24 hours on this island and already every expectation has been blown out of the water and God is on the move!!!

My time in Bangkok

I have had a wonderful time in Bangkok. Before I arrived I expected that I would be doing some kind of relief work cleaning up after the floods, but to my surprise there was not much work left to be done. So then I thought I would do something with the children in the slums, but there were no ministries going out. I was beginning to get very discouraged, thinking " Lord, why am I here, what am I supposed to do? I am ready to serve but where?". Well, god had a different plan. You see, for the past 3 years I have started off my New Year with a missions trip, and it has been an amazing way to set the tone for my year to come. This year I think God is trying to teach me a few lessons, that I may otherwise have not understood had I not been here in Bangkok. The first lesson is that He is number 1. That idea seems so obvious and trivial but in fact it is the hardest thing I struggle with. I put God first in the big parts of my life; the decisions, my desires, my needs, but when it comes to the smaller parts (which combined make up the largest part of my life) I am putting other things as number 1. With the increasing use of the Internet and the ease at which it comes, I find myself checking my phone every five seconds just to make sure I haven't missed anything. I "stalk" Facebook throughout my whole day catching up on everyone's lives. I watch T.V. even when there is nothing to watch! No where in any of that junk am I putting God first! There is no way to justify it. God says thou shalt have no other gods before me....oops, I failed at that one big time! The second thing He is showing me is that I need to be more dependent and content in Him. I find myself always wanting something more. Whenever God provides me with something I don't always respond with contentment but rather with "what else?". Watching all of my friends getting married and having children and starting their new lives, I wonder "when is it my turn?". But I have realized something, I am not ready yet. I still have more to do for God. I still have more adventures that I need to have with God, just the two of us, and that makes me excited! It even makes me more excited to think of what my future husband is doing with his extra time alone with God! There is no greater joy to me than to be serving my God with all that I have, and to know that whoever He has for me is doing the same thing!  This time spent in Thailand has shown me that God truly cares for me. That He knows my desires and that He is not afraid to show me how fiercely He loves me! That His timing is perfect and that if I trust in Him, He really does know best!  Enough rambling....I have one more day in Thailand and then it is off to the Philippines! Whew, it's gonna be good!!!

Give it all away

On Thursday I went to the IDC, Immigration Detention Center, something I used to do almost every week when I lived here. It is a "prison" for people who violate their visa and either have no money to be able to go home or chooses to stay for fear of going back to an unsafe home (for a full description of what the IDC is you can read about it in a previous blog I wrote the last time I was in Bangkok. Blog site is meghanflammer.blogspot.com) I was assigned to bring out a Sri Lankan man named Mr. Balahamaran. He and his wife have been inside the IDC for a few years. Over the course of our visits to them they have accepted Jesus as their Savior! In fact many people have come to know Jesus inside this "prison"!!! What really struck me to the core was the amount of obedience this Sri Lankan couple had despite their current situation. You see, they have very little inside their concrete walls and chain fences, and what very little they do acquire could be used to help set them free or just survive day to day, but on this day they reached their hand over the fence and handed an envelope marked "tithe" to my Swedish Pastor friend, Daniel. Daniel and his wife and family have planted a church called lifecenterbkk, after being called away from Sweden by God to Thailand. They have been pastoring these people inside the IDC and now this Sri Lankan couple consider lifecenterbkk their church. It was so humbling and also convicting to watch a man walk in obedience despite being in "prison" and having no earthly possessions, give his money as a tithe to God's church. It reminded me of the story in the Bible about the widow who had only two gold coins but she gave all the she had. "And He sat down opposite the treasury, and  began  observing how the people were putting money into the treasury; and many rich people were putting in large sums. A poor widow came and put in two small copper coins, which amount to a cent. Calling His disciples to Him, He said to them, "Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on." (Mark 12:41-44 NASB) What an example to follow. To give all that we have to God, even when it's hard and there may not be a lot. What fools does it make us if we give only to our comfortability? Does that say how little we trust and value or Savior?  Do we give our all to Jesus? Or do we only give what we have excess of? This story is extremely convicting to me and it is my prayer that I will walk in obedience and have enough faith in Jesus to give all that I have. 

Genesis 17:17 Abraham laughs at God

When the Lord told Abraham that at the age is 99 he would have a child of his own born by Sarah, he laughed at God. Even though Abraham had asked God to give him a child and the Lord had specifically said to him that he would make his descendants more numerous than the sands and stars, Abraham still doubted Gods ability to deliver on his promise. How often are we like Abraham? How often do we ask God for something and then when He finally says ok we laugh and say "you're kidding right, there's no way". Who do we take God for, a fool? Do we not really believe when we hear His promises that if we ask we shall receive. When we pray, do we have a heart of unbelief, do we come before God with trepidation, not believing that through Him all things are possible? When God tells us that he has something for us do we deny it because we believe there is no way it could be possible? I know I have laughed at God because He has called me to do things that are outside of the realms of possibility in my mind. I think "there is no way I could do that", Well DUH! Of course I can't do it, I can do nothing apart from God who created me. I can't even breathe apart from Him. If He can keep my heart beating and my lungs breathing he can fulfill a promise or provide a way to a means, that part is easy for Him. How is it that i think i can do anything in my own strength? When He wakes me up every morning I do not question how he did it or why, I simply praise Him for another day. Our first response to God should never be laughter or doubt. The gracious kindness of the Lord is the only reason He hears my laughter and doubt and still says "just wait and see".