Chapter 29: A Home for Every Nation
Hi Friends,
This chapter records all the events that happened between September and October. Along with these testimonies, we also had several retreats. Destiny Lucena had a retreat among the leaders and workers last October 12-13. The student and professional sectors had separate Encounter God retreats (EGR). Many attended and gave their lives to Christ.
KINDNESS EVANGELISM by Ronnie
It was a sunny mid morning on September 9, I shared to the Alabang church about “Kindness Evangelism” and that was just the kind of weather needed to demonstrate pulpit words into action.
Kindness Evangelism a.k.a. Servant Evangelism is refreshing new approach of sharing the gospel in action allowing for high volume, culture-current, non-pushy, and fun way of showing God’s love to people. While evangelism for many Christians is like going to the dentist – unpleasant, but has to be done once in a while – Kindness Evangelism offers a way of reaching the unchurched through an emotionally low-risk approach that can be easily done by anyone who can pour a cup of coffee – and that is by anyone for everyone, anytime!
Indeed the sunny weather nearing noontime is perfect for the practice of the new approach. Right after I shared the concept, more than twenty church members went out the church building and passed around bottles of ice-cold mineral water to anyone they meet in the road! Puzzled at first at why in a world a complete stranger would go around giving our free cold water bottles, folks burst into thanksgiving as the teams explain that they are doing it to show God’s love in a practical way!
One said, “Wow! Tamang-tama ‘to sa init. Ang galing naman nitong ginagawa nyo!” (just right for the warm weather, this is really good!) And says another: “Pastor po ba kayo?” (Are you a pastor?) Yet another, “…meron pa po akong kasama, meron pa po ba?” (I have friends with me, do you have more?) While such remarks are at best amusing, there are no words to describe the gratefulness and joy of the faces of people who were served.
Perhaps more than what the people being served felt, the joy and satisfaction of the teams doing the act of kindness is even greater. “Sobrang nakakatuwa yung makita mo yung expression ng pasasalamat ng mga tao,” (I was so happy to see the expression of people’s thanksgiving) says Choy Arzola. “I believe what we did was also a way of breaking strongholds [of selfishness]. It’s counter-culture to do acts of kindness in a world where selfishness has become a norm,” observes Joel.
The testimonies of the Kindness Evangelism done on that day echoed on days thereafter. Nilo’s business partner offered to donate stuffs for future Kindness Evangelism projects when Nilo shared what had happened in church. Challenged with the acts of Destiny Alabang, the Los Baños church quickly went out after a worship service and showed acts of generosity to people.
FEASTAHANG DESTINY ALABANG by Gilbert
God is revealing His love and grace for those who do not yet know Him, and for us who believe, He is consistently showing His faithfulness, His will, and revealing His kingdom. Oh indeed words are not enough to give Him thanks, praises and worship, AMEN.
September 16, 2007 we had our FEASTAHAN Destiny Alabang quarterly celebration at Fresco Resort, at San Antonio, Biñan. Families from the daughter house churches in Biñan, Makati, and Cavite came. We witnessed God’s faithfulness and grace.
Mostly young adults were coming as early as 7am. Children were so excited and dipped in the pool, while others sung their hearts out with the help of the videoke machine. Elders are busy watching over their kids, with some mingling with the other house church members. Family after family came, 206 in all.
We started the Sunday service with Nilo welcoming everybody on a high note. Gifts and tokens were given to visitors. After our opening prayer, Pastor Paul led us in worshipping God in Tagalog. The youths were jumping and rejoicing for God. I really felt how Pastor Paul loves the church of God, the body of Christ, and I was carried away, as if God is saying, “This is how I love these people”. Pastor Paul preached in Tagalog entitled, Ang Pananatili sa Panginoon (Remaining in the Lord). I exhorted in giving to God and shared on water baptism. Pastor Paul later wrote this:
The House Church gathering was a huge surprise to most of us. We were over 200 in all. It is indeed harvest time. You know something supernaturally weird happened the moment I asked people to stand for prayer after my preaching. For the first time the sound system clipped, as if huge amount of power came in. The staff came to rescue and tried to find out the problem and fix the sound system. For a moment, it came back, but the moment I touched the microphone, the system again clipped. I had to pray without microphones. Right after I finished, Gilbert stood up for the giving, grab the mic and it was perfectly all right. How weird was that?
After the service, while the wives were preparing the food, and the games were being prepared, we baptized in water seven believers including Mommy Baby from Makati house church. One of them testified that he felt clean right after he was immersed in the water!
Food prepared by Ate Sol was great, I mean so great some were even asking for the recipes! Swimming was non-stop and for the games, we had Pellet Gun Shooting, Apple Eating for Couples, and the very funny Action Relay for everyone! Besides the prizes for the games, we also gave away rewards for the LARGEST CLAN that participated (the Arzolas numbered up to around 50 people), YOUNGEST ATTENDEE, OLDEST ATTENDEE, and BEST SPORTSWEAR!
The celebration lasted until 4pm and it was a great celebration! Kids went home with stickers while adults brought home with them key chains as souvenirs. People I talked with commended this celebration was wonderful, and they were asking when the next celebaration is. The whole workforce who willingly gave their full support is truly encouraging especially to Choy for leading the event!
Truly, God is doing great things in our midst. After the event, more people are coming in the house church, attending bible studies, and longing for fellowships. Others are opening up, even sharing their personal lives, desiring to change their way of living, increase in hunger for righteousness. They receive Jesus as their God and Savior with all their hearts.
Let us diligently continue what God has started in our land and what the early apostles have begun. Let us love the flock just as how Christ loves the church. Let us help them in ways we can.
CWMC TO PEOPLE OF INFLUENCE by Mercelli
It was indeed a glorious course for the graduates of the Condensed World Mission Course (CWMC). The Living Springs International in cooperation with the Los Baños Alliance for Reformation, Revival and Missions (LB-ARRM) offered this course in response to an expressed need during the FOCUS (Friendship of Overseas Citizens & University Students) Missions Awareness Seminar on June 9, 2007. The course ran for eight Saturday mornings from August 4-September 29, 2007. Spearheaded by the Destiny Ministries International (DMI), with some volunteers from FOCUS serving as facilitators. Thirty-three individuals coming from 6 different churches – the Church among the Palms (CAP), Los Baños Bible Church (LBBC), Victory Christian Fellowship (VCF), Evangelical Baptist Church (EBC), LGC-ABCCOP and DMI received their certificates of completion; two received certificates of participation. The participants were university students, professionals (which are mainly from the academe), businesspersons, church leaders and pastors.
The participants very much enjoyed the growth point discussions and the games. During the sessions, they even forego their snack time just to be able to continue discussions. The course opened their eyes on how important cultural barrier is in missions and how it could be overcome. Another highlight of the course was the contextualized worship. As they identified themselves with the unreached, they were greatly overwhelmed with the love that GOD has for the nations. Indeed, hearts were changed and will continue to burn for more. The graduation (where 33 of the participants graduated; two with certificates of participation) was held during The Second Missionsfest sponsored by LB-ARRM.
ADOPTING NATIONS by Mercelli
The Second Missionsfest sponsored by LB-ARRM was held last October 6, 2007 at the Evangelical Baptist Church, with the theme, “A Home for Every Nation”, emphasizing the goal of adopting various nations. Members of 9 different churches coming from Laguna, Quezon and Mindoro attended the event.
The Missionsfest program was produced and participated in by the CWMC graduates. At the helm are Mr. Dennis Gupa and Ms. Alelli Domingo directing their co-graduates. It started with a call to worship through dance by women of the New Century Church. It was followed by an awesome parade of nations (with the CWMC graduates parading the flags). The glory of God just came down heavily amongst the people and truly, our worship and adoration are not enough to express HIS goodness. By HIS grace, HIS presence was made manifest throughout the program.
Pastor Paul Yadao, the current LB-ARRM chair, gave a heart-stirring talk about his experiences as a missionary. He also presented a video of the Healing Crusade in Pakistan with Pastor Leif Hetland. In the crusade, Pastor Paul was also one of those who ministered to thousands of Pakistanis so hungry for the knowledge and love of the true God. About 55,000 people attended the crusade.
During the Missionsfest, everyone was informed on the status of unreached nations in the world. Afterwards, a challenge was given to everyone to adopt a nation. This means praying for the nation and willingness to fulfill all the responsibilities inherent in the act of adoption, such as reaching out to them, giving financially, praying and mobilizing others. After the challenge, the people took time to fill out the adoption certificates with the nation that GOD impressed upon their hearts. They also signed the certificates signifying their commitment to co-labor with GOD. A total of 19 nations and 3 unreached major blocks were adopted.
GREAT A-HA! MOMENTS by Dr. Mely Hoque
For the past four months, we at FOCUS (Friendship of Overseas Citizens & University Students) have had many resounding praises to our Lord Jesus Christ! Early in the first semester (1st July), 31 Internationals were welcomed by 31 Filipinos from 6 local evangelical churches; 14 of the Filipinos work (faculty and staff) at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB). We prayed that the UPLB workers would personally befriend the students so that the latter could be involved in the FOCUS Kapamilya and Kabarkada programs. (‘Kapamilya’ means a member of the family and ‘Kabarkada’ means a member of a group of friends).
On October 20, 2007, FOCUS hosted a sem-ender get-together for the international students. Fifteen came, representing Cambodia, East Timor, Indonesia, Myanmar and Vietnam. The 15 students were partnered with either a graduate of CWMC or a worker at UPLB to help them form friendships. Praise God! We are excited more than ever that each of the students will now have a ‘kabarkada’ whom the student may talk to or ask for help if needed. Surprisingly, most of the international students who were partnered with a Filipino had similar interests or areas of discipline. Help us and pray with us that this FOCUS program would flourish. Thank you very much.
DESTINY PRAYER ROOM by Patricia
October 21, 2007, 6-9:30 pm, we have been watching and claiming testimonies of signs and wonders from people around the world. Manifestations of His presence in the lives of Todd Bentley, Joshua Mills, Patricia King, Bill Johnson, and others are truly our inheritance. We continue to claim their testimonies are our inheritance too.
God just prompted me to share a testimony of what happened during the Joel 2 Army prayer meeting tonight. During the prayer meeting, we watched the video of Rolland and Heidi Bakers’ testimony: their ministry with the people in Mozambique, Africa. If there was one impartation we asked God for from what He did with them, it was the impartation of love.
Love compels us to pray for other people. And it is not even about our love that will compel us to pray but His great love for us. We asked the Father to expand our hearts so He could impart His great heart and love for others, which will really compel us to pray. There was just an outpouring of His great love that time and everyone was just wrecked. We prayed and asked God for His love, and then, we asked that He would increase our faith – to have faith for something, we really
have to see it in the spirit. We have to get it as a revelation from God. Only the prayer uttered in faith would please God.
As we were in the middle of our intercession, Prince, one of our intercessors from SOD, seemed to shake and stammer in prayer. He declared a great harvest (multitudes) for the second semester in UPLB. As he prayed, I could feel my body shiver inside and I felt the strong presence of the Lord. As I looked at him, he had a strange expression on his face and he showed me his shaking palms. And there was oil in his hands, which almost dripped! Later, Prince told me that his hands were numb the whole time the oil was in his hands. I had a sense of holy reverence as I saw it. This just gave us great joy during our intercession. Our God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
We declared a multiplication of that manifestation to every member of Destiny, even outside the church walls. I believe one of the keys for greater experiences with God are to treasure what He has given, and how we treasure His move! More and more, we are expecting greater things from God! As this has caused joy and greater desire for the intercessors to seek more of God, I pray this will also lead us to pursue greater experiences with Him. Amen.
For the Nations,
Ahlmira