many hands make light work

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.

God bless, Phil and Julie DeHart

Good Soil

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.

God bless, Phil and Julie

GROW Community Ministries photo album

Mangoes from Heaven

(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.)

LWF Midweek Community Fellowship

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.

Marikina Feeding with Childrens Garden and World Race

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.

To going deeper & loving more.