Continuation of the journals

Day 6: Saturday
Time: Morning to Evening
Place: Olango

Took a boat to a nearby island from Lapu-lapu called Olango, where Faith has one of its pioneering churches. The local pastor came to fetch me on his motorbike. On Wed, I had been talking to the local pastor after the pastor's conference and he had been telling me how hard the ground was in Olango. Intense persecution, with many ministers giving up. Even Pastor Brian (his name) wanted to give up a lot of times. Only recently had he been enjoying some very fruitful conversions.

I didn't expect any ministry, thinking instead there would be a tour of the church and then I'd be given some time to rest and pray. I was wrong. The moment I touched down on the church I was promptly informed that there were Bible study groups waiting for me. I asked how many, and they said 2.

I was shocked. I didn't prepare, but what's worse, I didn't even bring my Bible! I asked quickly to borrow an NIV. As the pastor was sharing to me, I felt the Lord speak: do not worry what you will answer in your defense, for it will be the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. So I prompty took the NIV, and felt the Lord say something about signs of the age. So I flipped till I came to Mark 13. Then I felt the Master impress something on me. So I decided I'd just obey. The total preparation time for that sermon? 2 minutes.

So in faith I went. We went to the first home, realised that everyone was gone, so we went to the 2nd home (or so I thought). I didn't know it was a children's church meeting! I had 15 seconds to come up with a Bible story to teach. So I taught on Gideon. Nothing much, just really cute talking to the children and telling them a story.

So we progressed to the next house. It was a sister named "OT" (that's how they pronounce it...don't know if it's really spelt that way). A eight month old Christian with a fire and a thick skin that would put all of us to shame, she was there with her daughters, father and mother, and a sister. So I shared what the Master impressed on me. That:

1) Brother will betray brother and kids their parents, but he who stands true to the end will be saved;
2) That the Son of Man will come in the clouds with power and glory. He will send his angels to collect you and me (I substituted "the elect" with "you and me"), and we will be with him forever.

So since we have this hope, we should press on and not give up.

God was good. The message was well received, and as a result, we were given entry into another three homes, for me to preach the exact same message. As a result, the whole household of "OT" heard the Word of the Lord. That's around the size of a village! (Their relatives spread throughout until they filled a whole village)

Something about the island: immense persecution from Devout Roman Catholics. To make things worse, the RCC has control over the cemetary and denied its usage to anyone who was "born again". The threat was very effective-- people denied entrance to the evangelists who travelled around the villages 'cos they didn't want to be expelled from the cemetary. No chance to even preach or follow up!

Back to the visits. So we went to another home. I didn't know that this home was laden with trouble. Three groups were there. 1) The oldie Christian family: first batch of Christians who had been Christians for 10 years now. But very weak in the faith, and almost wanted to backslide! 2) The slightly more stable family: with a kid trained in Bible school to be a Pastor. But this pastor was actually one who was kicked out. Disciplined for (unrepentant) immorality. The guy refused to confess until he was confronted with all the evidence left right centre. So expelled. 3) Another Bible school student with his future wife. Also has problems with immorality.

Needless to say, I had no idea of this when I went there. All I knew was-- I needed to minister. But while I was preaching I felt no flow. So I decided to just ask if there's anything I can pray for them. So they said their requests. And actually I was very shocked because the first request that came out was a request to pray for the old couple 'cos they wanted to backslide permanently! Talk about a prayer request! Then there was that (immoral expelled) pastor who wanted healing for his brother. Then some girl (the one bethrothed to the Bible school student) who wanted prayer for finance for wedding.

So I prayed for the old couple. As I did the Master spoke through me, and I began to cry in the Spirit. I just cried and cried and cried. And the Lord did something. For once I saw the old couple open their hearts and weep. That was good. Then I decided to take a step of faith. There was that (now defunct) pastor's father who was deaf in both ears. So I decided to do what Jesus would have done. I lay my hands on his ears and prayed. Nothing happened. So I prayed for the woman who was about to be married. Realised she was not filled with the Spirit and so prayed. Felt the anointing. Yet nothing happened.

But after I prayed for the sister, I felt a tremendous faith within me. I looked back at the deaf man once again. I felt a kind of holy irritation at seeing him not healed. So I announced loudly, I'm gonna pray for this man one more time! so I went back, and prayed for him. Something confirmed with me in my spirit that something was right. So I left it as that and went on.

Prayed for the Bible school student for direction but had no flow. (I now understand why.) But I asked the Spirit to glorify his name. And he did. He hit me with a mighty dose of power and I began laughing my head off. By this time there were bystanders coming from the village. I laughed even louder upon seeing them. And I told the Master, this is good, dear Master, you're getting free advertisement! And there was such a change in the atmosphere from there. There was a sense of the fear of God over that room. So I prophesied over the man.

Once Pastor Brian sensed that the Spirit of God was in that room, boy was he in a hurry to get me to lay hands on everyone! So we did. We prayed for the deaf man's wife, almost anyone we could get our hands on. And after all the minstry was over, then Pastor Brian began to explain what had happened in that room. As it turned out, it was the first time they had seen a manifestation of the Spirit. They began to ask what was weeping and laughing in the Spirit.

But I saw less in that place than everywhere else, although I felt more than I did everywhere else. It was a hard ground. And I feel deeply for the pastors. Anyone in that environment too long might wilt. But these guys did not. They hung purely by believing God's promises to them.

It was no wonder they needed rest: that was what I was led to pray for them on the Pastor's Conference. But after experiencing one day of what they had for 8 yrs, I concluded that these guys were giants already. I don't need to tell them rest in the way that I needed to tell the rest. I needed to tell them continued faith. And they agreed, with even more faith than I had. Hallelujah! That's way beyond anything they learnt in Bible school.

I was very challenged. I told the villagers, I'll be back to visit you. And I want to. I want to visit them next year, find out they're still walking with the Lord, encourage them if they're down, and have a mighty move of God. Each time I come I want to strengthen the pastors. Ohhh! God, send more of your workers! Especially to the hard and unfruitful grounds! Raise up a powerful army of ministers who will take these areas by storm. Who will go on and never give up, just as Pastor Brian has.

And an interesting sidenote: I realised that the Pastora (female pastor) there was filled with the Spirit as a result of City Harvest's initial trainings of their leaders in the Philippines!