Life Here.

Since moving to my permanent housing I have experienced several monumental "firsts."

Last weekend I experienced my first typhoon. It didn't turn out as exciting as I imagined; we simply were stuck inside for the latter half of Sunday and most of Mondaywhile it rained incessantly. The first night we experienced a brown-out for four hours which afforded us the opportunity of making and eating tuna macaroni and cheese by candlelight (Yes I could almost imagine myself in a five-star restuarant).

On Tuesday I was able to visit a biblestudy held by one of the church members at Benguet State University for her fellow administrative office workers. I was invited to teach the Biblestudy throughout my stay here and I gladly accepted. Most of the women who attend are young moms who have only recently committed their lives to Christ. They were so kind and excited to have me teach their group.

When I think about having the freedom to develop lessons for these women I feel several different emotions. First of all, I feel so energized. I'm excited about sharing all the things that God has taught me and continues to teach me from His Word. What a privilege to be able to pass on the wisdom that has been handed down to me! I also feel very responsible. I want to remain true to the Word and sometimes I really debate over what Biblical writer was trying to convey. I also know I must first put in to practice what I tell these women. Finally I feel challenged. There is something within me that so passionately wants to offer these women something true, something deep, something that they have never considered or understood before, something lifechanging, something that will make them turn around and exclaim, "What an amazing God we serve!" God is so great and all too often we fail to convey that in our teaching. I know it must first stem from a personal conviction and understanding of His greatness, so I pray that I might grow in my worship and wonder of God and somehow I pray that it would overflow into the lives of these women.

Yesterday, I experienced my first time of being invited into a public school to proclaim the gospel to the students! The Filipino pastor here made connections with a local public school and we were allowed to present the gospel in the fifth grade class as part of their "character" development classes. The school informed Pastor M. that we could not teach "religion" but here it seems that "religion" means promoting a certain church group rather than presenting truth from the Bible. Pastor M. asked me to develop and perform the presentations.

I stayed up late Tuesday night putting the finishing touches on the visual aids and the content of the message. One of Filipino girls staying with me taught me how to fold a piece of paper into a heart, so I began each presentation by a paper-folding demonstration. The kids were excited when they were able to recognize what I was making. I explained to them that just as I had created a paper heart, God has created each one of us and placed a "heart" within us. I had made two large red hearts and had written on them "Love God" and "Love Ourselves." I asked the other short-termer to be part of my illustration and we taped the "Love Ourselves" heart on his chest. I exlained that the purpose of our hearts is to love God, but instead, we are all born with hearts that love ourselves. Becuase our hearts love the wrong thing, everything that flows out of our hearts is sinful. I then taped up small black splotches onto the "Love Ourselves" heart taped on B's chest. As I did so I named off several sins that the kids would have been familiar with. At the end, the "Love Ourselves" heart was covered with black splotches. I then explained that we have a problem becuase our hearts love the wrong thing and are filled with sin. God is just and must punish our sin. He does that both in our lives - by causing us to feel empty inside or foiling our plans - and after our lives - by sending us to an eternity in Hell.

I then asked the kids if they knew of a solution to this problem. A few brave but shy kids raised their hands and explained that we could promise to do good things. I then explained that although that is a good idea, we are incapable of producing good works from a bad heart. I explained that in America we like to eat apple pie. If I had a wormy apple and decided to cut it up and use it to make a pie, would they want to eat it? They all wrinkled up their noses and shouted, "No!" "Why not?" I asked. They replied, "Becuase it came from a wormy, yucky apple!" I explained that the same is true about the "good works" our bad hearts produce. They seemed to finally begin to understand. "The problem is that we need a new heart," I explained. I then proceded to tell them that God's solution to our problem was to send His Son Jesus to this earth. Jesus is both fully God and fully man and He is the only one who has ever had a heart that completely and only loved God. As a result, all that he did was good. In fact, he was entirely sinless. Becuase of this He was able to die and take on our sin, bearing God's punishment in place of us. After three days, Jesus rose again to prove His victory over the power of sin and death. He has the power to give us new hearts, ones that really do love God. As a result, we can live lives that are pleasing to God and when we die, we can experience eternal life in Heaven with God.

After explaining all this to the kids, I offered to pray a prayer of salvation and invited them to join along if they desired to have new hearts. I expected them to pray silently, but to my astonishment, they all prayed aloud after me in unison! I was amazed and a bit flustered. I don't know if their eager acceptance of Christ was the result of an Americano telling them that it was a good thing to do, or if the Holy Spirit was working in their lives. As I sat down and looked around the room as Max reiterated what I had said in the kids' native dialect, Ilocano, I experienced a great peace knowing that the Lord had some of His own elect in that room and I trust that He had used what was said to draw them to Himself and that He would preserve their fragile faith.

After the fifth grade presentation we had a "merianda" of coffee and muffins. Pastor M. then informed me that the sixth grade teacher had heard that we had presented in the fifth grade class and wandered if we could come and do a presentation in his class? What a blessing. So we went ahead and presented again to the sixth graders! The teacher listened from the back of the room as well. It sounds like the teachers of the lower grades also got wind of our presentations and would like us to come back in the following weeks to present to the younger kids as well. What an amazing work of the Lord!

My final "first" of this week was the opportunity of witnessing the birth of nine puppies! The dog of the missionaries whose house I'm staying at was pregnant and when I walked outside yesterday and she wasn't there to greet me, I wondered if she was giving birth. I found her in her dog house and she had already had one puppy. It was about 5:00 pm. I called to the lady who watches over the grounds and she and her husband came and helped pry the roof off the dog house so we could see what was happening and help out if necessary. The dog, a black lab, did very well and around 8:00 pm gave birth to her ninth puppy! Needless to say, we had a rather un-restful night as the house girls and I monitored the puppies, making sure all of them got a chance to eat. However, the opportunity to hold one of these precious newborn pups is worth the lack of sleep in my estimation! I couldn't help but marvel as I watched how God made dogs to give birth without any lamaze classes or prior training! And people say we evolved!

Thanks so much for your prayers. I feel so privileged to be here and have so many opportunities minister!

Please pray that we will be able to return and continue our gospel presentations and further Biblical training in this public school. Pray that the kids will truly understand and that God's Word would take root deep in their soul.

Also pray for the high school/college-aged girls biblestudy I will be leading on Sunday night. This week will be my first time giving the lesson and I will be speaking on Luke 3. Please pray that God will open my eyes to see the truth of His Word that He wants presented to these girls. Also, pray that I might be wise in developing practical illustrations and specific applications that speak to these girls' lives. I desire so badly that they might truly gain a deeper understanding of their Maker and that their lives might boldly reflect His presence.

Also, pray that they might feel safe to be honest regarding the struggles in their lives. I know that one of them has an alcoholic father and a mother who is pregnant with her fifth child. Her and her family live in a squatter house with no electricity. They will most likely be kicked off the property within the year and they do not know where they will go. I know that many of them have very real fear and pain that they are struggling with and I hope that they can find support in our little group.