C.S. Lewis wrote, "God whispers to us in our pleasures. He speaks in our conscience. But He shouts in our pain. It is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world." Is God whispering, speaking, or shouting at you today? Francis Schaeffer penned, "God is there, and He is not silent."
This past year, God has whispered to me in gentle ways. He has been so good in his provision for our family, as He healed family members and brought our son-in-law Jon Elliott back from harms way in Afganistan.
In the early mornings, as the sun is coming up and there is even a hint of cool in the Philippines, God speaks to me in His word and comforts, reasons, exhorts, and guides me through my questioning, my pride and my fears.
And then God has used mighty typhoons and flooding, along with a young 35 year old woman in her last days of life on this earth, to shout at me "Be still and Know that I am God".
In the midst of being a missionary the last several years; in a very good and significant work, God has shown me how He works, and how He wants me to join in. I have been blessed to be able to come alongside a great group of like-minded folks, working side by side, hand in hand, sharing what we know, learning, and carrying out God's work in our communities.
The old saying, "Many hands make light work" comes to mind. Team-work, Collaboration, Friendship. My high-school basketball coach drilled in us, "It's amazing how much work can get done, when no one cares who gets the credit." I would add, "....and we give God the glory!"
Join our team and work with us in ministering to the Philippines.
At the Grow Community Ministry Center, there is much happening. God is working in the lives of the people in our community. You can look into the photo album below, and previous stories of what is up with the work that has been going on in the past year. There is much that has been done, and we preparing to meet the needs of our growing fellowship, and connecting with the community. You can stop by this blog and find out what is happening. As well, I am trying to communicate every one to two weeks with our email communication, "Good Soil".
We are excited with the new work that presents itself every week in the life of our new fellowship. Seeing people coming to know Christ as their savior and plugging into the life of the church causes me to realize the weight of responsibility for these new believers. Pray for Julie and I, our pastors, and our young lay leaders. Pray for me as I build fellowship and discipleship groups for the men in our community. And pray that that we can cultivate this new soil, and mature these new believers in to strong bible-believing Christ-followers.
I like to show the pictures of our new fellowship. God is working and we are joining in. It is a privilege and humbling experience to be involved with these peoples spiritual lives, and also work on meeting some of their everyday, physical needs. But I enjoy going down behind the cottage and working with the soil.........fellow-shipping with the men, getting to know their lives, handling the seeds and seedlings, the worms and the compost, and seeing God work.
If you would like to know more about our work, you can email me at phildehart@gmail.com or if you would like to make a donation to our work, follow the NavBar to Phil and Julie DeHart donation button, and you will be given directions.
(CRASH on the roof.) Midweek Bible Fellowship celebrated a two month anniversary today! We were so happy this last week that we had received free bibles from a local ministry. And this week I found out there was a camp that was accepting 50 campers from our church this coming weekend. I said yes on faith, that I could write some letters and get the funding. Today I received an email that money was coming to pay for the campers. This was such a great encouragement for our congregation. (CRASH on the roof.)
This morning when I woke up though, I was feeling a burden that we were not going to have enough merienda during our coffee and fellowship time. (CRASH on the roof.) I knew the kids would want to drink coffee with sugar and cream, and that we didn't have any juice for them, and there was no bread. (CRASH on the roof.) There was another pound on the top of the house, which we hear this time of year as the Mangoes are falling on our house! And I then realized, "God was providing our merienda". I got a big smile on my face, because I knew God will provide and is providing for the needs of our church and community. Our Children's church needs colored pens and paper, chairs and tables. And God did provide for us to borrow 50 chairs from another church for this morning, but we need our own chairs.
God provided us Mangoes this morning, and our Midweek Bible Fellowship is growing. Praise God. We started with six people two months ago and each week we have grown. Last week we had 55 people, and today we had 81 in attendance. God is affirming our ministry in many ways, but at the same time God causing us to grow His way, not our way. (CRASH on the roof.)
We began with 6 people the first week. Then 8 the next week, and 16 the third week. The last two weeks we have had 32 and 33. Our community fellowship is taking form on Wednesday mornings. We have needs for seating for adults, and our young kids (3, 4, 5) need tables and chairs for their lessons. They are learning to read and write tagalog while learning the beatitudes. We will begin Awana for the cubby and sparks ages.
The Lord has given us many opportunities for ministry, but we see clearly that we should respond to this great need in the community. We have a pastor in place, and youth worker has emerged to guide our little ones. Gods glory is shone and majesty present in this young fellowship. Pray that God will equip and bless this work.
Earlier this week I spent some time with Xenia, one of our Children's Garden staffers.
She leads our Community Outreach & coordinates our Alternative Learning System Tutorials. Xenia shared that despite the fact she has been living with and ministering to street kids the past 6 years, God has been teaching her to go deeper & giving her a greater capacity to love the boys & those she meets in outreach. She is the "poster child" for ministry standards; yet she yearns for more.To Give & Love More. Her statements cause me to stop and consider* my capacity* for going deeper with the boys, in our churches and community.
This past week, we ministered again to the families who suffered from the 3 typhoons that ravaged Manila last October and November. We worked with about 12-15 families, representing close to 100 people living under and near a bridge aside the Marikina River. The conditions are "maraming mahirap"(very difficult). Homes washed away. All their possessions gone. Mishap items are their clothes, bed sheets & cookware. They scavenge to sell anything & grow vegetables near the banks of the river.
Just yesterday, I met a man who is new to this group of families; his story is moving & pathetic. Unfortunately, it happens all too often. When we arrived at our ministry site, we found him crawling around on the cement. He doesn't have the use of his legs & looks to be in his 70's, but is 55years old. He is Reynaldo De La Cruz from Montalban, Manila.
As the story goes; late one night a car stopped on the side of the road, opened the door and lifted this man out of the car, set him on the ground, closed the door and sped off. Tragic, isn't it? And, shocking? How can someone do that? They must have known him! Yet, betrayed him & turned their back on him. In talking with him, we discovered he has four older children, and he doesn't know where they are. How does this happen tosomeone? His wife has left him and he is alone.
We had the privilege to feed him hearty noodles and bread, and cold water. He had seconds.
Reynaldo is very difficult to approach. He is not a precious child, or a smiling young person, or an engaging adult.. His clothes do not cover him entirely, and dirt is caked over all his body. If he needs to get somewhere, he must crawl amongst the garbage. He is probably 5'7", and is very skinny... probably 80 or 90 lbs. But Reynaldo is a child of God, and we have been called to minister to him. Pick him up, give him a haircut, give him a bath, get him to a doctor, nurse him back to health, tell him that we love him, tell him about Jesus.
Xenia's words are still ringing in my ears, "going deeper in ministry", "have a greater capacity to love these people".
Do I have the capacity to go deeper in ministry to Reynaldo, and serve him in his basic physical needs?*
Do I have the courage to go deep with Reynaldo and meet his spiritual needs, setting aside personal fears and inadequacies?*
In my prior business, we always talked about raising the bar, setting new targets. As Gods' ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to listen to His speaking to us through the Holy Spirit. We need to be willing to listen, hear, and obey. We need to continually be raising the bar, expanding our capacity, and going deeper in ministry.
"I need a deeper rootedness in God, a closer walk with him so that I am able to hear the thud of his footfall in our history. Amid the gore, and grime, and grinding poverty, among people who serve quietly in the armpits of cities, making a space for grace in the squalor and violent hate, life springs forth from the Word, bringing a fresh blast of wind, carrying the weary and the wounded on its wings. . . ." (Filipina theologian, and educator)
How should we respond to the physical and spiritual poverties of our cities? How should we accept our responsibilities as believers of Christ? What should our mindset be? And where is God in the midst the injustices and sins running rampant in our dying city.
(Bethge on Dietrich Bonhoeffer)...The man who felt the whole weight of the pacifist position and weighed the "cost of discipleship" concluded in the depths of his soul that to withdraw from those who were participating in the political and military resistance would be irresponsible cowardice and flight from reality. "Not" as his friend Bethge says, "that he believed that everybody must act as he did, but from where he was standing, he could see no possibility of retreat into any sinless, righteous, pious, refuge. The sin of respectable people reveals itself in flight from responsibility. He saw that sin falling on him, and he took his stand. Here he acted in accord with his fundamental view of ethics, that a Christian must accept his responsibility as a citizen of this world where God has placed him.
We need to win the battles that are being waged inside our hearts and mind and soul. In the midst of the horrors and injustices that are happening around us, we need to step out of our safe zones. That looks different for each of us. In the West, time is a high value. And then there is the "stuff" we hold dear. On the mission field, missionaries in tinted windowed vehicles travel from their subdivisions to their destinations, and no one is the wiser.
(John Owen)...[More important than all ] is a diligent endeavor to have the power of the truths professed and contended for, abiding upon our hearts, that we may not contend for notions, but that we have a practical acquaintance within our own souls. When the heart is cast indeed into the mould of the doctrine that the mind embraceth, when the evidence and necessity of the truth abides in us, when not the sense of the words only is in our heads, but the sense of the thing abides in our hearts, when we have communion with God in the doctrine we contend for. Then shall we be garrisoned by the grace of God against all the assaults of men.
If we are in Christ and he is in us, then we should understand his vision for the city and his people. If God has changed our minds and our hearts, and made our thoughts and affections his, then we are prepared to fight his battles for his people. We have been commissioned to act as his social and spiritual agents to right the injustices of the enemy, bring relief to the sick, hungry, oppressed and down-trodden.
Great lessons can be learned from Melba Maggay, John Owen, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. We need to submit our wills and hearts and minds to the teachings of Jesus, and allow the Holy Spirit to rush into our lives and shape our thoughts, hearts and actions. We certainly are not at a want for more evidence of the need. And we have been more than educated and indoctrinated with various teachings in different mediums. We cannot allow the words of the wise, and the teachings of the holy to acquiesce to useless platitudes.
What say you? There are peoples and cities out there to be won for Christ. We are Gods' instruments for change and relief, and He has already won the battle. Rev 17:14 They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful."
"Tragically, the Philippines’ social, economic and political problems remain dire." Maggay continues, “There is a hardness to evil, a mystery to its persistence, that cannot be fathomed nor remedied by mere politics. . . . We continue the fight. Yet we need to mine more deeply the resources of our faith if we are to make even a small dent in the monolith of injustice that fazes us.”
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