Demon possession and Baptisms
Step of Faith
We had a faith-building experience the other day. The head elder, Lito from the Cabar church and his family had been humbly asking for our help in finding a sponsor for their daughter to be able to go back to the Adventist academy here on Palawan. She had gone last year but they were unable to afford for her to go again. They had asked a couple times and I had to tell them we still hadn't found anyone but we would keep praying. Then school started and I forgot about it until a couple weeks ago while Jim was here. On Sabbath afternoon during one of the Bible studies, Jim leaned over and asked who the girl was helping with the children's program. I know God was impressing him to ask me because how would he know to ask about her when there were half a dozen young girls there. I told him she was the elder's daughter and from a very dedicated and sweet family. I told him it was sad that she was not able to go back to the Adventist school this year (so I thought) because they didn't have the money. Most of the young people here are not able to go to Adventist schools because they can't afford it. He asked how much it cost for one year of tuition here and we told him $300.
On Monday when Jim was getting ready to leave, he told us that he would like to sponsor, the girl, Joanne if it wasn't too late. So I found the principle's number right away and asked her if it was too late to enroll a student. She said, "no, it's not too late!" So I excitedly texted Joanne to see if they were still interested. I got a couple texts back confirming my suspicion that they would be pretty excited. She kept saying, "Thank you, Thank you! I'm so happy! Thank you, Thank you!" They came to my house later that morning with tears in their eyes and told me their experience. They said when Joanne got the text she was jumping up and down! Her parents who were farther away thought something was wrong! When they found out they were all so excited and praising God. You see, we didn't know it, but they had heard someone promoting church members to step out in faith and put their kids into Adventist academy even if they did not have the money. They decided to try it. They prayed and they took their daughter to enroll at the beginning of the school year. They told the principal their problem and she said "Yes, she needs to stay here, she is a bright student and her grades will suffer in the other schools where they have many Sabbath issues." She continued to go to school and the principal tried to find them a sponsor but when that failed the family began to get discouraged. The morning I texted them they were trying to figure out what to do. That was the only day of school she missed since the beginning of school! God really honored their faith! It was a boost to me that day too and I praise God for allowing me to be a little part in it.
Demon Possessed
Another story that boosted our spirits lately was about a man we met a couple Sabbaths ago. The story starts a few weeks before that, right before we went to Manila. We were hiking up to a Palawano village where a lot of our Bible study members come from. We met a really deep-mountain, old man who was hiking down to the market with his loincloth and home-made woven backpack on his back full of heavy, dried tree sap that they sell to lowlanders for starting fires. He was related to our friend and guide and he was telling him about this man who was "sick." The description was obvious to us that he was not "sick" but demon possessed. He even described some really weird symptoms that he saw himself like his tongue hanging out down to his belly button. They all agreed that it was a "bad spirit" not a regular sickness. They had taken him to a doctor but they couldn't control him. We offered our help and the man said it was probably too dangerous for us to go to him right now, but "yes," they wouldn't mind our prayers from afar, and maybe we could arrange something for another time. So, on our way back down the mountain, we stopped for a health lecture near their market, then we prayed with them and specifically prayed for this man.
When we got back from Manila, we had long forgotten this man. We went to Cabar church Sabbath afternoon for our usual quick meeting and prayer before going out to the Bible studies. When we got there, we were introduced to a young, quiet, man who they said was going to church now and interested in baptism! When we talked a little more, we found out that it was the same "sick" man we had prayed for a few weeks before! Apparently he had been possessed for months. His poor wife and kids from 5 years old up to 18 were at a loss. He had come out of his possession slightly at some point while we were gone, enough to ask for the SDA church members to come pray for him. He was already a Christian of another protestant religion and was active doing Bible work for them in another area when he became possessed. They had brought him back here where he was originally from to try and get help. Anyway, our dear Mario with the crippling gout who can hardly hobble around went to this man and prayed for him. And he has been completely free since then! Praise God! He is still weak and unable to work much yet, which seems to be common after demon possession from what I've seen. But he continues to give God the glory for his healing and he plans to be baptized this Sabbath!
Highways and byways
We're nearing the end of a busy and tiresome, but enjoyable couple weeks of evangelistic meetings. We brought people back and forth on our truck and trailer from our Bible Study areas every night until our tru
ck broke down for a few days. We never did find the new parts we needed for the steering rod, but Dwayne was able to fix it somehow anyway. We got 44 people in the truck one night without the trailer! I did health talks every night and Michel translated for me. Tagalog is the common language that everyone communicates in around here in the lowlands, and unfortunately I'm far from speaking it yet. The meetings were put on by Share Him and Quiet Hour and we enjoyed our speaker, Pastor Mike, originally from Zimbabwe. It's now after the meetings--we praise God for 89 baptisms, 37 were from our Bible study areas. Plans for follow up are in place. Please join us in praying for these new Christians.
Legitimate needs
The meetings bring extra patients each night, but we're glad for the opportunities and just pray for patience and love. I just praise God for Michel who is now here to help me decide what to do with each case. We have more and more requests each day for one thing or another and most of them really are legitimate needs. The church members (from Cabar mostly) have their own needs they often come to us for (out of food, kids need sponsoring, need a loan, etc.), but now they're getting more and more people coming to them to ask for our help as well.
The Gift of blood
Michel has been so helpful in managing the hospital patients (not to mention everything else she's been doing since she arrived to ease the load!). We have started to have patients' family members (and those requesting loans, etc.) work on our land in repayment or "Thanks" for our help. The government hospital does not charge for the doctors or the rooms, but the medicines and lab fees get quite costly. We give medicine from our stock whenever we can. Almost all the patients, it seems, need blood. Their frequent Malaria, and often poor diets, give them chronic anemia. The whole blood donating process can take days sometimes. Finding willing donors with the right blood type and getting them to the lab is the first step. (Most of the people don't have phones and they live 30 mins drive away and don't have transportation often from that far away). Then the screening process rules out about 90% of the donors (I'm exaggerating but not much!). Many are too skinny, too anemic, have some disease they're carrying or their blood pressure is too high or too low. The labs will also not let anyone with any kind of tattoo donate so that rules out about half our donors as well. Last night we put a little plug in for donating blood, since we were talking about service and prejudice, etc. Most people won't give unless it's their own family members and even then it's sometimes hard to find people. They're afraid they'll get weak or sick and they don't understand how our bodies regenerate the blood over time. We keep giving as we can every 3 months. We're all type A unfortunately. We need to pick missionaries by their blood type!
Home for the helicopter
Dwayne finished his goal this week of finishing the floor of the hangar. We've had some rainy days that slowed him down, but amazingly things have been going pretty smoothly and on "schedule." You can't get too attached to schedules around here, but it's nice to have a goal. Jim Hippler, architect from Andrews, came a couple weeks ago and was a huge help. He brought a special tool for making the floors that they don't have in the Philippines. The team of guys are still working every day and seem to be pretty good and faithful. They'll get a little pouty if they're not all needed every day, but they get over it. Dwayne's been letting them off a little early so they can come to the meetings.
New church for Cabar!
We praise God for a recent donation for the building of a new church for the Cabar members! They'll need it especially with all the new interests in that area. Dwayne is helping them when he can with some of the details, but they really need someone who can spend a lot more time with them in overseeing things. They are not builders, they are just humble, rice-field workers, surviving off their land. They are doing what they can, though, and God has honored their faith. They are pretty excited about it.
I guess that's enough for now. We thank you, as always, for your interest, prayers and support for this project. We are amazed each month when God provides again for the needs of this project.
It's so easy to forget how short and precious our time left on this earth is. Let us keep our minds and conversations on Him and encourage each other to stay on track with the most important work of our lives on this earth--to spread The Gospel to the world!
Wendy and Dwayne
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