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A good friend and I often talk about "living the dream" here in the Philippines. When we served at Faith Academy, knowing God had put us right were he wanted and needed us. And now, my friend is running an orphanage and school, and I found Grow Community Transformation ministry 20 months ago. Grow's aim is to share Gods' love in practical ways (development) to pastors, churches and communities, and coming alongside the pastors and their leadership to assist in their churches (christian witness) strategies to reach their membership and community with the love of Christ.
Last week, we trained 10 men in FAITH Gardening and Natural Farming. The whole week I felt like I was "living the dream"or more accurately "living the answered prayers". I have been praying for this ministry, sharing about it with friends and churches, promoting this work with pastors and communities here in the Philippines. Three weeks ago I shared this work with over 300 pastors at a pastors conference. Below is a slide show which show the various activities of our three day seminar. There was much lecture and note taking, sweating an blisters, eating and fellowship, questions and oral quizzes, making effective micro-organism concoctions-- alot of chopping, cooking, charcoaling, baking, smashing, measuring, mixing, bottling.........and now waiting for the concoctions to ferment before we can spray these powerful natural concoctions on to our soil and young seedlings. Food production and Sustainable Livelihood are two major physical needs our Filipino churches and communities need, and we are coming along side to address those concerns.
Grow Community Transformation.......helping pastors, churches and communities
Daniel and I are bachelors for 5 weeks -- Julie, Emily and Maggie left for the states July 27th. It's so quiet here without them and it evokes strong emotion in now having more children stateside than when we left for the field 10 years ago.
Julie & the girls will be together with Jon & Katie for 2 weeks, then on to MN to be with Julie's mom, and get Maggie situated for her freshman year at Bethel. While in Delaware with Katie & Jon, they get to visit some family living on the east coast and the Lindstedt’s (Phil's sisters family). They will also try to take in some historical sites which abound in this area -- the Smithsonian, Holocaust Museum, Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Museum to name a few
Katie took her Nursing’ board exams and passed and she is now a licensed RN in the state of Delaware. We are so proud of her! She is interviewing at a hospital very close to their home on the Air Force Base in Delaware.
Anna begins her junior year at Bethel in Sept. This will be her first year in the nursing program, and she has been selected to be a mentor to gals who are leading dorm Bible studies. She is very excited about this opportunity, but it will add to her already busy schedule. Maggie will be at Bethel too, which will be a great support for both of them. That has been a huge blessing for us, as parents, for the kids to have each other at school.
Maggie will be studying art and photography. Surprisingly, Maggie's senior year in high school was the first year she had time to really develop her art & she grew in leaps and bounds this year. She received an Art scholarship to study at Bethel which was awarded to only 4 freshman -- we are excited for her and so proud of her. Photography is her first love though, and she is always snapping pictures. She contacted photographers in the MN area, and will be interviewing in a few weeks for an internship to work with them. Very exciting!!
Daniel is starting his junior year in high school. He has a full load of courses, volleyball and basketball after school, and good friends returning from furlough. A friend handed me a new Fellowship of Christian Athletes Bible the other day "Gods Game Plan". It is packed with a good Holman's Study Bible, also good bible study lessons. Daniel and I are looking forward to getting into it.
Emily is the "Drama Queen" of our family, and she received that as an "official" title from her drama teacher this last year. Emily loves school, friends and fashion stuff. She is an eighth grader who enjoys life and sleep overs; hates sports; is crazy about boys and not afraid of them at all -- nothing seems to intimidate her. She is a motivated student and definitely has her own ideas about life and "stuff." We are trying to work with that without squealching her God-given spirit :)
Julie holds it all together, keeping our family together on both sides of the ocean. She continues to be involved in different volunteer responsibilities in the Faith Community. This year, Julie will begin a mom's ministry to the women in our Barracks Bible Church community -- crisis feeding and teaching hygiene and parenting skills to the mothers. This is much needed in the community and a great platform to build trust and relationship, and sharing her life in Christ. This kind of relationship building will give us evangelistic and discipleship opportunity with the mothers and young children.
Working with the Children's Garden boys, the Barracks Bible Church, and our GROW Community Transformation ministry keeps me busy. Our 2010 Ministry Budget Proposal is due to our field leadership in a couple months. I shared a glimpse of our work with the leadership recently and received good counsel. The challenge in the Philippines, like everywhere else in the world, is not only the abundance of spiritual and physical needs, but the challenge to stay focused, and carry out God's work in our community. We are confronted with extremely critical needs everyday.
A few years ago, a friend of mine quoted Henry Blackaby and reminded me to, "Find out where God is working, and join in." This is where prayer becomes so important. How can we know for sure what we should be doing, if we don't pray? I ask you to pray for Julie and I in the coming months that we can be intent on God's work to our community.
Please remember and pray as I prepare to share Faith Gardening (Food Always in the Home) with 150-200 pastors in a couple of weeks. Our pastors are very poor, and food is often scarce and not nutritious. We are sharing, teaching and training pastors, church leaders, and members of their congregation to grow vegetables and fruits, raise chickens and pigs, and begin a fish operation. All of the methods are organic, adapted to their
God bless you folks; we appreciate you so much -- your prayers and financial support are what keeps us strong.
Phil and Julie De Hart
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