Monday, October 1, 2007

My Cup Runneth Over!

I had had the idea that I would take time today to reflect on our past 6 mths since we arrived in the Philippines; however, God totally filled my cup this weekend, so I find myself wanting to write about the results from this weekend instead.

It all starts with Paul driving into Cavite to preach a missions conference for one of the pastors there Thursday, Friday, and Sunday; we would have someone drive us into Manila to meet him on Friday night in order to take care of getting Rachel seen by a pediatrician. All went according to plan on Thursday and Friday but Paul came in late Friday so we did not share in his events until Saturday morning. At that time, he informed us that on both Thursday and Friday evenings, there were many visitors present...which in itself is amazing, because most of the time it's a struggle just to get your regular members to attend! Instead of this being a normal time of challenging the members about reaching the lost world through missions, God decided He would just send the lost world to them! He proceeded to tell us that there were 8 of those visitors saved on Thursday and a total of 21 saved on Friday night. AMAZING! Man, can I hear anyone else out there shouting with me...what a wonderful, mighty God we serve!

Saturday morning just after breakfast we took Rachel down to the clinic and had her seen by the pediatrician as planned. The second opinion is that Rachel has traces of evidence that she has been exposed to TB but not enough to treat her for the full blown infection. Out of the set of 3 "Anti-Tuberculosis" meds, she is going to be taking 1 (this is the one that will work to kill any TB bacteria in her system) and then we will have her checked again in 3 mths to see the progress, etc. Whew! They were {as most are} concerned about her weight {or lack of} so they gave us some liquid vitamins and made many suggestions on how to "beef" her up a little...poor thing, she just came from small & will always be small!

Come Saturday afternoon, we took the kids over to a new place called the "Big Red Barn". There is still much construction left before it's complete, but we had such a great time. From toy stores to carnival games, to bumper cars, and kid friendly restaurants, we had a blast! At dinner, there was a magician and let's just say that Jonah & Jared became part of the show! We cannot wait to go back when the building is completed to have more fun.

Sunday we finished up the missions conference in Cavite...such a sweet church. They had many of the visitors return and are speaking to them of baptism and membership...praise the Lord! Just after lunch we would have to drive back into Pasig in order to be part of the missions conference at Pastor Tabanda. Their choir offered an amazing cantata of music to focus our minds on missions. 5 pastors who have started missions out of their church were also present with some of their members...they honored Paul's mom & dad for coming to this place...each of these men are a direct result of the work they have been called to do here in Manila...wow! Paul ended the evening with preaching about having a God centered mission. I love to hear him preach, but let me tell you, he was filled with the power of God last night and made a real impact.

Whew...like I said in the beginning...my cup runneth over! Oh how the grace of God showered over us this weekend! I am revived, relieved, refocused, and ready to face what ever else God brings my way. Thank you for letting me share! Keep watching because I will also be posting pictures and video...you won't want to miss 'em!

"Oh God you are awesome, you have shown your grace and power in amazing ways these past few days and I want to praise you here and now. I thank you that you are still a God who saves and that you have given us the privalege to see your work first hand. As always you are worth following. Thank you for filling me to the brim!"

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