On Spiritual Lessons, Mud Rivers, and Filipino Dogs

June 13, 2008

We’re done…sort of. We finished today with the SIL Conference in Bagabag. However, this is only one of our goals while here (the others being checking out Faith Academy and the ministry of Pastor Noel in Manila). Having, completed the largest part of our short term trip there was a certain sense of accomplishment. I felt as though things had gone well. I felt that I had done something good here. Then, God brought me back to reality.

Having completed the conference we all met in the meeting hall tonight for communion. It was a joyous time of celebrating what the Lord has done and looking forward to an eternity with Him. As we prepared ourselves to partake of the Body and the Blood of Christ, the Lord showed me my soul stained with pride. I had received so much positive feedback that I was beginning to think that I had ministered to hearts at this conference. The Lord showed me that I am just a vessel and He is the One Who is deserving of all the praise. To remind me further of my own inadequacies we began to sing How Deep the Father’s Love For Us. I was reminded that “it was my sin that held Him there until it was accomplished”. I am nothing more than a sinner saved by a marvelous grace. If anything good comes out of the work done this week it will because the Lord did it, and not I.

With this reminder the Lord showed me once again the area of my life that has most hindered me in being effective for His names sake. Pray for me for victory over this pride. I am convinced that one of the reasons the Lord has not allowed me to enter into full time ministry is because of my selfish pride. I have found myself often this week saying things to people only to have them think highly of me, there was no other motivation. I have been convicted of this mostly because I have found myself constantly speaking as the authority to people who are much more experienced than me. I do not know what needs to happen to get me to the place of humility were the Lord can more effectively use me, but I know that it probably won’t be pleasant. The Apostle Paul said that lest he grow proud beyond measure a demon was sent to buffet him (2 Cor 12:7). I know that God will be faithful to allow me to overcome my pride no matter what that means.

I would not have you read this and think that I am miserably wallowing in the conviction of my inadequacies. Our God is to gracious for such things. It is the weak things of this world that God uses. I do not dwell on my failure to constantly acknowledge the Lord. Instead I seek to learn from it and I press on toward that for which Christ Jesus has laid a hold of me. I have confessed my sin and received forgiveness. Yet, nonetheless, still pray for me. This is one area where the Lord has shown me I need to have victory before I can go into full time ministry. Otherwise my head would get to big. And bigheaded people can not fit through church doors that well (though they sometimes get in and make quite a scene of themselves). So then, having thoroughly revealed some of my failures let me share with you our Lord’s successes.

We wrapped up our journey toward the Celestial City through the skit of Pilgrim’s Progress today, and I taught the last lesson. Altogether we filmed the entire story in seven acts. We spent about an hour a day putting the skit together and filming. We didn’t want to take time out of the program to have the kids memorize numerous lines, or get all of their parts perfect. Instead we were more interested in them engaging the story by reading it through in a “dramatized” fashion. And filming it gave them an end product by which they can remember what they learned. Each day I followed the skit with a lesson on several attributes that identified Christian as a stranger with his citizenship in Heaven. Altogether, there were about 17 attribute of believers that I covered in 7 days of instruction. Along with these teaching times the kids had morning devotions in which they would study in groups the main Christian characteristic of the day, and memorize a verse in which it was explained. Each member of our leadership team (Matt, Jason, Tiffany, Ellen, Leah and myself) had an opportunity to lead these devotionals for either the guys group or the girls group. Altogether the students responses to all of these times was that of understanding. By the end of the week they could not only answer questions about their faith, but they could explain it as well. It will be my prayer that this will be fruit that remains. I have reminded these kids time and time again that knowledge is nothing if it does not lead to action. I am looking forward to interacting with all of these students via email to continue to encourage them to live out what they now understand.

Some of the activities that we added into the mix where a tubing trip down the river and a movie night. On Tuesday we got a driver to take several of us up a ways from the conference grounds and drop us off at the river, or liquid mud depending on you outlook on life. I have never swum in a river before that was as warm as a Jacuzzi. It made the trip seem extra special to see all the villagers out waving to us with big grins on their faces as they dumped their afternoon trash along the banks of the river. I also learned that it is very hard to go tubing without a tube. We were one tube short at the start of our trip so we had two of the smaller girls share a tube. However, halfway through the trip they decided they each needed their own and took mine by force (it is very hard to fight off ferocious 90 pound Jr High girls in hot flowing mud). Having succumbed to their desire I then proceed to swim/wade/roll/float/bounce/cry out in agony down the river. No matter what the movies say you can not swim through 1 foot of rapidly flowing water over rocks without at least minor bruising (I am not sure what movie says that you can, but they should make one so that I could say that they are wrong). In addition, it is very hard to navigate through rapids when you are legally blind and a water buffalo looks so similar to a middle schooler. It was the faint distinction in the sound of their calls that saved me several times from trying to dunk a water buffalo and take its inner tube (I think). All that said this was a very enjoyable time, and one of the boys, David, told me that he really felt like he got to know me on that trip (I hope that is a good thing).

The movie night was last night and we watched a film called Flywheel from Sherwood Community Church (they are the same people who made Facing the Giants). We had been talking that day about what it means to live your faith, and that was the theme of the movie. Throughout the entire movie I found that Missionary Kids in the Philippines are exactly like Jr Highers in the US. No matter how many time you tell them the contrary, they still think that they can talk to the characters in the movie. They will yell out advice, provide running commentary, and suggest possible results of every situation throughout the entire movie. That said I was dully impressed with the middle schoolers abilities to connect what they saw in the movie with what I had taught them that day. I did not tell them in advance that there was a connection they figured it out on their own, and they even found parallels that I had not thought of. Altogether it was a most encouraging experience.

In addition to watching the movie we also did our Missionary Pen Pal raffle. Leah had the idea of giving the kids fake money for each of the memory verses they said that week, and then letting them bid on who they wanted for a pen pal. So we did. I showed the kids all the video interviews from the kids back home who signed up for the program, and then I let them bid on who they wanted for a pen pal. I felt very much like I was auctioning off human beings for index cards with stickers on them, and I guess I was. It was fun. But don’t worry I will not disclose to my kids in the States who went for the highest bid (or the lowest). We also took video interviews of all the middle schoolers here to bring back to their Pen Pals in the States. One of the Middle Schoolers, Joseph, asked us tonight if it would be alright for him to email his Pen Pal right now even though we are not back yet. We told him that was fine, and his enthusiasm certainly encouraged us in this endeavor.

To wrap things up today we had a time of reflection and commitment. In the middle of this time it began to pour rain (you have no idea what I am talking about unless you have been in a tropical climate). It almost seemed that God was using the rain to shut out the rest of the world so that we could simply focus on what he had done in our lives here. Allot of the kids shared during his time some of the things they had learned over the past week, and some of the things that had challenged them. We then let them each (if they felt led) make a commitment in front of us and the Lord to change some aspect of their lives that the Lord had convicted them about during this conference. This was the most rewarding part of the trip. These kids got it, and now they want to live it. Pray for them as they leave this “Mountain Top” experience and go back to the “valleys” of everyday life.

Through all of this time Leah was working in the background to put together a DVD’s of the kids’ skit. She was doing this while trying to wrangle Aubrey who still has a high temperature. When I came back in the afternoon I took Aubrey over to the nurse and she told us to take Aubrey into the city to see a Pediatrician. I stayed behind and took care of Sophie while Leah went with Uncle Matt into town. The Doctor said that it was nothing serious with Aubrey she just has an upper respiratory infection (we were worried because of a strange rash that she has all over, but it was just form the heat). We feel that Satan has been sifting us a lot through our health struggles while here, but God is faithful. And, despite our weaknesses, He has allowed us the grace to effectively serve Him as a family throughout this conference. We have had the Middle Schoolers in our home several times a day (invited or not) throughout the conference. I have not only gotten to know the kids I am ministering to, but Leah and the girls have grown close to them as well.

Tomorrow, morning we leave to make the 7 hour trip back to Manila. Pray for us for traveling mercies, or, specifically, that the majority of oncoming traffic would stay on the right side of the road as we approach them. Pray also for us for guidance in Manila. We have a pretty lose itinerary for the next week, but we want to be faithful to continue to do the Lord’s work despite our fatigue. Pray also for Aubrey that she would get over this sickness soon, if it is the Lord’s will. We look forward to the effects of all of your prayers in our lives…Paalam! (this continues to be the one Filipino word I have mastered, though I speak the language of the Filipino dogs fluently…I know that begs an explanation. So on my morning runs I am often pursued by starving Filipino dogs who recognize that the high fat content of my calves could greatly aid them in their nutritional endeavors. I, however, have learned that while these dogs do not respond to the typical American phrases of skat, aiye, hey, doh, off with you, or begone you filthy mongrel a quick SSS! Is all they need to turn tale and run)