A Story of How God Used You

Posted by: wrguptill on Friday, September 16th, 2016

Luzon Team

This is a special letter to say thank you so much for your gifts to this ministry! Since we started fasting and praying with our teams three days each month (for the past few months), we’ve seen a notable change! It seems our teams are growing spiritually and becoming more united, which helps us to serve better. Let me tell you a story of how God worked through you with your prayers and support to answer some specific requests in a recent time of united prayer.

Recently we were getting lower on funds for several months and yet the needs were continually growing bigger. We had upcoming insurance bills due for the aircraft, another shipment of fuel was needed, and a large bill to pay on aircraft parts. All of this was on top of the regular monthly needs and several church building projects. We were confident that God wanted to provide for His work, but maybe something was holding Him back. We decided to pray more specifically and more unitedly as a team during our next session of prayer and fasting. We felt more united than ever as we met together and prayed three times each day. We prayed specifically for an amount of donations to come in the next month which would take care of all the needs. The Holy Spirit also inspired us to pray more specifically for the revival of many neighbors and backslidden church members from our nearby church.

We anxiously awaited the next donation report with confidence and excitement in continuing God’s work with the funds He would provide. We were amazed, and yet not surprised when God answered above and beyond our expectations! First of all, the next donation report showed three times the average amount of donations that had been coming in! This took care of all the extra needs for the month (aircraft insurance, fuel etc) as well as the ongoing monthly needs and projects! On top of that, God provided a large donation that took care of the whole debt on the parts as well as some needed equipment for the new Mindanao airbase project! The rest (and the bulk) of the large donation will go towards an exciting, and big need that you can read about below! And the icing on the cake was that the very next Sabbath the church was full of the specific people that we had prayed for that hadn’t been to church in months and years! This experience has reminded us that no matter what else we do, we must take time for earnest, united prayer with our teams! There is power in praying with others! Thank you for being a part of this miracle with your prayers and support!

We’re excited to share with you another answer to prayer, which is, that with the recent large donation we now have $100,000 towards a helicopter for our northern Luzon project! This is only a third or so of the estimated cost, but it’s a great start and we know that God will provide the rest, just like he's done over and over again! We are looking at helicopters that are already here in the Philippines, and praying that God will lead us to the right one. Northern Luzon has huge areas of unreached people groups, and the efforts being done to reach them are slow going. We are working together with Philippine Frontier Missions as well as local pastors and medical missionaries to help spread the good news to these remote areas, and the helicopter will greatly speed these efforts! We hope to have more news for you as soon as God directs us to just the right helicopter for this work. See below for how you can help!

With all the great things that God is doing lately, Satan is also working extra hard to counteract it! We really value and need your prayers! If you’re following any of our missionaries’ newsletters, you might have read some of the issues we’ve been having with our remote schools and projects. It seems new government regulations are making it harder for us to legally have “informal” schools in the mountains.  Along with that is the challenge of some of the corrupt government leaders who are trying to get the missionaries out so they can take the native people’s land without interference. It’s already happening in other parts of the island. If you could visit one of these mission schools you would be convinced, as we are, that God would NOT have any of these schools to be closed, or any of these children to be left without the opportunity to learn of Him and a better way of life! So please remember these schools and the missionaries in your prayers.

We hope that this email will somehow help you realize how important and significant your part is in this ministry and how grateful we are for all that you do!

May God richly bless you and keep you until He comes again!

Comments are closed.