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Final Blog Philippines 2019

What a phenomenal trip that our team got to experience. One thing that partically challenged our team was praying for people to be healed. It was not the praying itself but asking people if they were healed afterwards and if they weren’t, praying again. This challenged our faith, our theological perspectives and backgrounds. Through this we saw God heal people instantly. God healed people of physical pain and people with blurred vision. God chose not to heal some and one in particular Astra got to encourage by sharing her best friends story with. You see, one of Astra’s best friends is an above knee amputee and this friend is convinced that she would not know God the way she does today if God would have regrown her leg but instead knows him so much deeper because of how he has saved her life from NF. The woman in the Philippines she prayed for was sobbing and I believe this encouraged her to trust God no matter what. We saw people come to know Christ in droves. I believe the most important thing that we saw was how effective the organizations that Becky and Juno Llamado serve in. We also asked a lot of questions to really understand what they do. CMC, Church Mutiplicaton Coalition is a phenomenal organization, they train believers to share the gospel, and how to make disciples. But most importantly they train the locals to reach their own. Through small groups, bible studies and pastors being developed. Then they send them off to plant a church in a barangay (village). There are 23,000 barangays left without a church in the Philippines. CMC support the local pastor who wants to evangelise their area by doing a crusade in which a concerts is put on in the local basketball court to attract people and then there is time to share the gospel. They’re then invited back to a follow up bible study the next day where they receive a free bible. The local pastors then take over from CMC. CMC checks up on the those pastors to see how they are doing and has so far helped plant 4,000 small churches in the Philippines. Their goal is one church in every village. Juno has also taken the CMC model and has trained pastors in countries where it’s illegal to evangelize. Becky Llamdo is a Doctor who serves at a women’s birthing home. They give medical care to women who can’t afford it. Through that they lead these women to a relationship with Jesus. I want to thank all of you for your support for our team and for Becky and Juno’s mission. As a church we are supporting the right people on the field. Let’s continue to pray for them and how God might use us in the coming years. If you want to here some more stories from the trip come and ask us. We are excited and can’t wait to share more with you.

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Day One-Three

So we have been in the Philippines now for three days and we have been seeing God move and really learning about what Becky and Juno do.

CMC is the organization that Juno works for. CMC’s goal is to work to train up pastors to plant churches in every village in the Philippines - 23,000 in all.

Edwin, Astra and myself (Kevin) went to the Municipal of San José on the south western corner of the island of Panay.

Kecia and Heidi stayed initially in Antipolo with Becky to help in the medical clinics for two days then joined us here this afternoon.

For the crusades with the local team we put on concerts, dramas and share the gospel. For the dramas they have one funny one and another that represents how Jesus rescues us from Sin.

Astra has typically done the welcome, Edwin has shared his testimony and I have given the Evangelistic message.

At the end of the night our team has prayed for a whole bunch of people believing for healing over their lives. One Pastora was so blessed by this that she came back the next day and gave Astra and myself two live chickens.

The next day after every concert they invite everyone and especially those who have begun their relationship with Jesus to come back for a follow up bible study and then they are invited to another bible study with the local pastor who has been trained.

Thank you all for your support and continue to pray for our team.

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Well, we made it to the airport and through security. We made it through the challenges we encountered because of Hurricane Dorian. We are now awaiting boarding time at JFK Airport in New York. We are ready to experience all God has for us. We believe God is going to use us to help the Church in the Philippines spread the gospel and plant churches. I have come to discover through my own experience in missions is that God makes it so we need others nations to accomplish His will. Pray for us as we partner with the church in the Philippines and with Becky and Juno LIamado. We will bring updates to you, as much as we can thoughout the trip so you can experience it with us. God Bless.