Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Article from our March Prayer Letter


YOU ALONE KNOW!

As I write our 2nd Prayer letter for the year 2012, I am in Palmdale, California.  I am staying with Chuck Keortge, a friend whom I first met in Quito, Ecuador during the first year of the Leader Mundial summit in 2007.  Ever since that year, I’ve been passing through South California after the summit but this year, for the first time, I have decided to visit them before the summit starts.  He’s more than a friend, in so many times and so many ways, he has shown to be my mentor, teacher and most especially a loving father.  I learn a lot from him and through him I have made many connections in the ministry both in the Philippines and in California, particularly his home church in Lancaster, Grace Chapel.

Anyway, on our way home from Grace Chapel last Saturday, the rain started to pour out as forecasted.  In here, it is so true the saying, “When it rains, it pours!”  What was coming down was not just water, it was snow. I thought there will be a blanket of snow in the morning because of the downpour, but it stopped a few minutes after we reached Chuck’s house.  But as we were traveling, I couldn’t help it but see the analogy between the down pour of rain and another kind of down pour we are experiencing in our ministry in the Philippines.

Indeed, we are experiencing a down pour of trials and problems as of the moment.  It started last year when many of our donors stopped giving, both personal and ministry.  It is due to the economic recession the whole world is experiencing right now.  Many of these donors have supported us faithfully in the last five years and if not for what they are experiencing personally, they would have continued supporting us.  We lose more than 60 percent of our personal and ministry support.

Then some of our team members also started experiencing persecution from their own family.  It seems connected to the economic situation but what bothers me is that their family would rather see them go back to their old sinful ways for as long as they can bring home money.  When they stood for their faith consequently, they were literally thrown out of their house.  In our most difficult time, we had to take in one of them because he won’t have any place to stay.  A price both of us had to pay because of the Gospel.

But the down pour didn’t stop there, a few months before the year ends, one calamity after the other struck the Philippines.  Storms came our way damaging many areas, including properties of our ministry partners, specifically, the farm we help put out for the Aetas of Morong, Bataan.  Then two months into 2012, an earthquake hit the southern islands of the Philippines bringing death and destruction to the Visayan region.  Family members of Pastor Junie, who leads the Seed of Love ministry, one of our ministry partners, were cut off from food and water supply as a result of the landslides and other damages brought about by the earthquake.

As the team leader, honestly, I contemplated quitting.  It seems that these are clear signs from God that I should stop, throw in the towel and change career.  They are signs indeed but are they really from God?

Then God made me remember a passage I preached onto at the beginning of the year.   It’s on Ezekiel 37 – the valley of dry bones.  In verse three it says, “He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."

In this particular passage, after the Lord has brought Ezekiel to valley, a valley full of dry bones, and after showing him around, how all the bones were very dry, He then asked Ezekiel a very important question.  “Can these dry bones live?”

Like many of us, I being the first one on the list, it is so easy for us to be affected by what we see, hear and experience.  Our decisions, most of the time, are based on logical thinking and those decisions are affected for sure by the factors that surround us.  Ezekiel could have easily answered, “Of course Lord, it is impossible, can’t you see that the bones are very dry?  They can’t, they are dead, and they have met their end.  It is an irreversible situation they are in.”

To be honest, that’s how I feel.  Everything is pointing to it, we have met our end.  “We have to stop now.  It is an irreversible process and there’s no way out.  It is impossible; we can’t continue without support, the damage is just too big, it is time to quit.”

Then Elijah gave a very powerful answer and I really like how he responded.  He said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."  He was actually saying it is not the dry bones who will determine whether they will live or not, but it is the Lord!  The Sovereign Lord, the God who is in full control of everything!  It is not our situation, nor even what the whole world is experiencing right now that will dictate whether we will continue serving the Lord or not but it is the Lord.  It is the Lord who called us into the ministry; it is Him who knows our beginning and end.  He who started a good work in us knows how to faithfully complete it in Christ Jesus.

We know how the dry bones ended.  They lived!  The valley of dry bones became a valley of an army of the living!  God knows indeed and He completed His work!  He will do the same for us, no matter situation we are in right now!

It is amazing, how God’s word can truly turn you around even though the situation has not turned around yet.  As soon as we decided to keep on believing and serving the Lord with or without support, the Lord started to show us what He can really do.  They are too many to mention, and so I just wrote them one by one in our Praise Items!   One thing’s for sure it is the Lord who knows!

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