Letters from the Philippines |
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2015
- What an awesome day today. We began the day going to the big prison in Cebu. There were about 1000 men come to be part of the service with many more standing outside in the halls and in the field. I spoke on the Grace of God and receiving Jesus as our Lord and Savior. At the end of the message I gave an alter call and there were over 175 men give their heart to the Lord. Very good day indeed for being Friday the 13th.
- We had a very powerful meeting on Wednesday. God showed up and we witnessed His awesome healing power. There was a woman come forward who could not move her right arm. Just before I was going to pray, God said to tell her to raise her arm. She responded that she could not and again He said tell her to raise her arm. Again I told her and she finally responded. She began to lift it up and I kept telling her higher and higher. She finally had it all the way up then she began screaming and crying, saying I am healed, I am healed. We had a boy come up suffering from severe asthma. The pastor told me that the doctors had told him that there was nothing more they could do for him. I laid my hand on his chest and God told me not to move it no matter what. The boy began breathing as though he was having a seizure. Suddenly, his breathing became normal and I told him to take a deep breath. When he did he started crying uncontrollably. When he recovered we asked him what he felt. He said that something was inside of him that was very hot and as it moved he began to be able to breath like never before. The boy began shouting that he was healed and that God had touched him. One more. A young woman come up and said she was 3 months pregnant and the doctors said there was a tumor. They told her that they would probably have to abort the baby. I asked the pastors wife if she would lay her hands on the woman's stomach and I would place my hand on her shoulder. As I began to pray the woman became extremely hot and then fell in the Spirit. The pastors wife told me that she had felt the baby moving all over and that God had said to her that the woman was totally healed. Everywhere we go we are having experiences just like that. Everyone says that there was something in them and that it was very hot. I know that it is the healing power of God and I truly thank Him for allowing me to be a small part of what He is doing. I will try to keep you updated as I can, but most of the time I lose my internet. We are experiencing many brown outs and lose power. Thank you so much for your prayer and please continue to lift up the Filipino people.
- I am now back in Cebu and we had some mighty meetings on the island of Leyte. We had a two day conference in Villa Jacinta and we had several people touched by the power of God. On Wednesday night (Philippines) I had the opportunity to minister to a church in Ormoc and what a night we had. We had one woman who was touched and healed immediately and there were three salvations. We also had a witch who was delivered and received Jesus. The surrender was amazing and it was totally awesome to see the transformation.
Tomorrow I will be ministering in the largest prison in Cebu to over a thousand men and my expectation is that many will surrender their hearts to Jesus. From the prison we will go into the slums and minister there. We will be taking some school kids with us so they can experience true mission work in their own country.
- What an awesome day we had on Sunday. I spoke in four services and the response was great. People letting go and surrendering to Jesus. The evening service was powerful and God definitely showed up. You have to love God and the power He brings when people open their hearts to Him. Speaking at four services took it's toll though, it seems I run our of voice by the end of the service, but I woke up this morning full and complete and ready to go again. Today I am speaking at the school and ministering to some pastors. On Tuesday Pastor Ken and I leave for Leyte and we will be there for two days before returning to Cebu. Friday I am speaking at the prison.
- We are so ready to go with our clothing handout. Starting on Thursday we will be on the small islands blessing those people who live there. After the islands we will be in the slums of Cebu reaching out to the people that live there and again helping clothe them. Tomorrow I will be speaking at four services and it is going to be a fantastic day. Pastor Ken and I have been in meeting most of the day planning our strategy, and our strategy is Trust God and He will lead us where we need to be. We did plan for our island trips and also for the slums as well as the other places we visit. Though I was not able to raise all of the money I needed God is already multiplying what I do have. Awesome and truly blessed.
- Well it is par for the course. I got up on Thursday morning to finish getting ready to leave for the Philippines saying I would get some rest on the plane. Wrong! Not only did I not get any rest, I didn't get to bed until 2:30 am Cebu time. To top everything else off I was wide awake at 5 am. I get up most every day at 5 am so why would going to be at 2:30 am and getting up at 5 am be any different. Oh well at least I got some sleep. I am now ready for a full day. I was suppose to have today off but, I have four very large boxes full of clothes and we decided to go through them and separate boys from girls and also by sizes. I have a full crew of volunteers (who really don't know that they volunteered) to go through and get everything ready for the small islands and the slums. What a glorious day this will truly be. It is okay that there is not a lot of rest because what God has planned is so much more important and helping those people is what He called me to do. Please pray for God's intervention with those who don't know Him that by the end of the visit they will. There will be pictures coming but I am having some problems keeping my internet but I will continue to press in. God bless everyone and a huge thank you.
2013
- Sent Friday Night, November 29th (Pacific Timezone)
We have made it through Thanksgiving and come Monday it is time to get back into the swing of things. I have had a lot of time to reflect on our trip and I will be sharing some of our experiences.
We have new plans to raise money to help us supply shorts and t-sirts for the boys and we will be asking to get more dresses for the girls. It is amazing because we used all of the funds raised and money we did not have and I still wish I could do more to help. The devastation we experienced goes far beyond anything we will ever know and we were not even in the worst of it. We seen things blown over and even a building that had collapsed but nothing can compare to seeing the faces of those whose lives were changed forever by Typhoon Yolanda.
We don't know what things will look like right now but we do know it will be powerful and miraculous.
Keep watch here and on our web site at www.reamministries.com for further posts and information. Remember you can always help by contributing through Paypal on our web site.
God bless all of you. - Sent Tuesday Afternoon, November 26th (Pacific Timezone)
We are here! We are sitting in our recliners and just taking in what we went through and all of the things we got the honor to do to help the people of the Philippines and especially the people in the slums and those displaced by Typhoon Yolanda. Awesome trip, awesome ministry and now awesome recliner. - Sent Monday Morning, November 25th (Philippines Time)
Today is our last day in the Philippines. We have had a trip to remember. We have spoken with survivors of Typhoon Yolanda and heard the first hand account of the devastation. We have been able to be a part of the recovery and minister to those hurting. We have been able to speak into the lives of the pastors and pass along encouragement to them. We have fed in the slum area and have been so blessed and touched to minister to the little children. We are going to miss everything about this trip especially the people.
Everyone here has been so kind to us and have accepted us in as family. We love the Philippines and we love the Filipino people with all our hearts. We will return and continue as God leads us.
Today is a day of getting our baggage re-arranged so everything fits. We are really doing nothing other than resting and maybe some shopping. We are however going to the hospital today to pray for people who are members of Faith Tabernacle Church and then we have to be to the airport at 9 pm to get through security and get our hard tickets. Funny we leave Cebu at 12:05 am and we arrive in Seattle at 10:50 am on same day, Tuesday. Wow a short flight, not. We fly from Cebu to Seoul Korea and we spend 12 hours in Seoul before leaving for Seattle. The flight from Seoul to Seattle is about a 14 hour flight, so the trip is a little longer than 10 hours.
It is sad to leave the Philippines but it will be great to be back in Seattle. God bless all of you and talk with you soon. - Sent Sunday Night, November 24th (Philippines Time)
Our day and our time has come to a close here in the Philippines. What a day it was. We have seen over 100 people come to the Lord and have witnessed the hand of God move on behalf of His people. We spoke at the 7 am service at Faith Tabernacle Church in Cebu and witnessed the hand of God move as many gave their hearts to the Lord. At 11 am we spoke at Faith Tabernacle Church in Lapu Lapu Cebu. We spoke again at the 2 pm service in Cebu then once again at the 5 pm service in Cebu. It has been a full day and it has been a great day in ministry.
Tomorrow we leave for home. We have to be at the airport at 9 pm and so we have all day to pack. Our plans are to sleep in (for me that will be 6 am) and then start re-arranging our things. We have a little more to bring with us as the church gave us a gift for coming as well as a gift from Pastor Ben Tagud and also from Pastor Ken Tagud. We will be going to the hospital to pray for people at the request of Pastor Ben. We will be there because that is what God called us to do.
We will be home Tuesday morning and ready to move to the next thing God has for us. We will not give in nor give up; we will move forward and never look back. God bless all of you who have been praying for us and holding us up before the Lord. Thank you for your support and you have touched many many lives. - Sent Saturday Night, November 23rd (Philippines Time)
It is going to be an awesome day tomorrow. I will be speaking at the 7 am service in Cebu then the 9 am service in Lapu Lapu then back to Cebu for the 2 pm service then one more time at the 5 pm miracle service. At each service we will be handing out 8 kilo bags of rice out the poor in the church. The 2 pm service will be to the people of the slums. We have the balance of our dresses that will be handed out to the little girls of the slums that come to church. We are praying that God will increase everything we have left to bless as many as we can.
We have sent help to Bogo Cebu and have limited funds left. We have spent more than we had but it has been more than worth it. We were able to bless the pastor of the prison and also the pastor that over sees not only the prison but the city jail as well. They have much work to do and very little to do it with. Praise God that we at least had a little bit in our personal account that will help feed us for the next 2 days. We have to be at the airport by 9 pm Monday night because our flight leaves at 12:05 am and it just seems that time went way too fast.
Lorraine and I have so blessed and we now have some new goals that we have to attempt to help these people out. We have met some people who have gone through the worst of typhoon Yolanda and they have told us stories of how they feared for their lives and how the devastation goes beyond anything you could ever imagine. We met a man who is from Saskatchewan Canada and he and his Filipino wife live in Leyte 6 months out of the year and then return to Canada, and he told us about how hard and the force the typhoon had. He had built his own house and it was made out of blocks and it survived the storm other than the roof that is totally gone. He told us that he had a brand new refrigerator and that they only got to use it for 3 days and now it is gone. We heard many stories of the deaths and the destruction and all we were able to do is to pray and thank God for those who did make it.
We are going to miss being here and we know that there is much work to do and many people still to reach but God is in control and we know that He has the people in His hands. We will be back in Seattle on Tuesday November 26 at around 11 am but our hearts will be with those we were not able to reach. - Sent Friday Night, November 22nd (Philippines Time)
If you are interested in the weather here in the Philippines, Pastor Ken told me that a typhoon was hitting Mindanao and that was why we were getting so much rain. No typhoon just a lot of rain. - Sent Friday Night, November 22nd (Philippines Time)
It has been one of those days that you dream of and never think that you would ever get a chance to do, then God says go and you go. This morning Lorraine and I got that opportunity. We were invited to speak into the lives of the men and women who have committed every crime you could think of and have been sent to prison. At the largest prison in the Philippines we were able to speak to those people. God moved in a mighty way and as for me I knew that He was there.
Lorraine spoke to the women and I spoke to the men as we were not allowed to speak to the opposite gender. Lorraine had about 11 women who wanted to come and hear and were touched by what God had put on her heart. I spoke to over a thousand men and how I was blessed just to get that opportunity. At the end of my message I gave an altar call and over 300 men answered the call and made the decision to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. They were immediately put in contact with the prison governor who is just like Joseph. The governor himself is a prisoner who has been there for 13 years and he is in charge of all the prisoners in the prison and has been saved and is now a pastor. The men will get the guidance they will need to continue.
As we were preparing to leave the governor came to me and said he wanted me to meet someone. As it neared the area there was a white man and as we shook hands the governor told me that his name was Hilton Monroe and that he was from Australia. He was arrested for being a part of human trafficking and that he has not been processed yet so he has no idea how long he will be there. He has been there so far for about 6 months and for a white man in a Philippine prison he said it is not easy. As we talked he wanted to talk to me and tell me that last week he had accepted Jesus but that he did not think God loved him or even cared for him. What an open door, God began to speak to me and as He spoke to me I spoke to Hilton. get thee behind me satan and again I told him of how much God loved him,
Hilton told me that he reads the monthly books from Charles Stanley and I told him though those books may be good they are not the bible. I told him that he needed to read the bible. As I looked at Hilton God spoke to him and as I starred at his eyes, tears began to form and I knew that God was there and He was at work in his life.
I cannot believe how powerful it was at the prison and my only wish was that we could get some pictures or video but it is a prison and therefore it was totally banned, and I understand that, but it is etched in my mind. When it comes to your mind, please pray for Hilton that God will move mightily in his life. Pray for all of the prisoners, I know I will. - Sent Friday Morning, November 22nd (Philippines Time)
Today is going to be a very interesting day. Speaking to the women in the prison. I know God is going to do an amazing thing there. Please pray for His holy spirit to move and set these women free from their bondages, and they will know how much Jesus loves them and nothing can separate HIS love for them. Thanks. Lorraine - Sent Friday Morning, November 22nd (Philippines Time)
It is now 7 AM Friday November 22nd and Lorraine and I are getting ready to leave to go to the largest prison in the Philippines. I will be speaking to about 2000 men and Lorraine will be speaking to about 1000 women. We have to speak to our own gender as some of the men and women there have been in for some time. We don't need a riot breaking out. We will have to be prepared to provide an hour and a half message. Whatever it takes it does not matter just as long as lives are touched and men and women are set free. Something inside of me says that we are going to see a mighty move of God's hand and have the opportunity to touch lives like no other time.
I had a thought this morning that my book has now gone to the world. I have given it to pastors and now it will be in a prison in the Philippines where by the grace of God men and women will be touched when they finally realize that God can save them, that God can touch them, and that God can heal them.
Please pray for us today or as the case may be this afternoon on Thursday back home. Pray that God will move in such a mighty way and use us far beyond what we could have ever expected. God bless everyone and we love and miss you.
Steve and Lorraine - Sent Thursday Night, November 21, 2013 (Philippines Time)
What an awesome and humbling time today in the slum area. We had to park the jeep-nee and then walk about a half a mile to get to where we were going but what an experience. We have been in the slums before but never like this. The slum area has grown by over 5000 due to displaced people from Tacloban. These people have no place to go and they end up in the slum area just to have someplace to be.
We brought a message to the people of hope and the love of God, then came the most exciting thing for Lorraine and I and that was getting to hand out the food and drinks. We had over 400 bread and meat. Every one got a bread and juice and the look on their faces was priceless. These people have nothing yet their faces showed appreciation and happiness. We had a great time speaking with those who can speak some English and getting the opportunity to have people come up for special prayer.
Our hearts were broken and we just wished that we could do so much more. We will be reaching out after we return home to raise money to purchase shorts and t-shirts and maybe a basketball or two to send back to the Philippines for those we met and ministered to today.
We also had a great time handing out the many pillow case dresses that we brought with us to the little girls and it touched our hearts more than anyone will ever know. Thank you Bonnie Cutting Fishler and all of the special ladies that help to provide these dresses for the kids. Your work and dedication to this is worth more than I could possibly express and the way the little girls were touched goes beyond any words. Thank you will not even get close to what it really means to us but THANK YOU!
We will be adding another video soon as well as pictures of the slum area and those special people that we had the privilege to meet and share with and we know that the kids were really blessed.
Tomorrow it is off to the prison and ministry that will go far beyond anything I could ever imagine. I will be able to place the copies of my book that I brought along to be put in the prison library. My prayer is that the book will touch lives and change those lives to become disciples of Christ.
It has been a very long day and we are off to bed early because we will be on the go early again tomorrow. We will keep you updated on what is going on and make sure you keep checking our web site for pictures and videos.
God Bless You. Steve and Lorraine - Sent Thursday Morning, November 21, 2013 (Philippines Time)
We are having a wonderful time. God keeps taking us out of our comfort zone. When we are weak HE is strong.
We are so excited to minister in the slums today and see Gods hand move on these precious souls. Thank you all for your prayers. Happy hump day to you in the USA. It is Thursday 8:05 am here. There was a small earthquake, shook us a couple of times thought it was the wind then found out earthquake. Wild adventure!
Love you, again thanks for the prayers we feel them daily. Lorraine - Sent Thursday Morning, November 21, 2013 (Philippines Time)
We had a wake-up call this morning and it was not by choice. It was about 5:15 am when I looked at the clock on my phone just after our bed shook twice, it was an earthquake. It only lasted a few seconds but shook hard enough to let us know.
There are no worries though, even being on the 7th floor of our hotel everything is back on track and moving forward. We did get a lot of rain last night as a big storm passed through but it was at night and it is just cloudy today. According to the weather forecast there are more storms on the way and they say that five of them are big. No worries though God is in control and he has called us to a certain task for such a time as this. - Sent Wednesday Night, November 20, 2013 (Philippines Time)
Here is another update we just got from Pastor Ken and it appears there is another storm coming through and as I am writing the rain is beginning to beat against the window of our room. Nothing will stop us and we will prevail in what God has for us. - Sent Wednesday Night, November 20, 2013 (Philippines Time)
Well here it is Wednesday night and not far from bed because of a busy day on Thursday. Tomorrow we will be in the slum area ministering and feeding as well as handing out hand made pillow case dresses to the little girls. I am so very excited to go and even meet some of the people who have been forced into the slums due to Yolanda. Ministry time will be like always heart breaking and know that there is no way you can meet all of the needs of those poor people. Yet, through it all they have a smile on their face and most have hope in their heart.
Today I had the opportunity to teach at the bible school and minister values to the elementary school. Our time teaching the upcoming pastors, evangelists and missionaries was anointed with and by God. I think I walked away with more than the students as I could feel God speaking and using me. I never much thought of myself as a teacher, but when God began to intervene I heard myself saying things that I knew could only be God and definitely not me because I don't know those things. With God working through us we were able to speak into their lives and the really cool thing about it you could see that they got it. What an awesome God we serve. I can't wait to see what he is going to do next because I know it will go far beyond anything I could ever imagine. - Sent Tuesday, November 19, 2013 (Philippines Time)
Tomorrow will start our ministry time that will probably change our lives forever as we get to minister to the children and hand out the beautiful dresses that were donated to help the displaced from Typhoon Yolanda. This is going to be such an awesome honor and we just pray that God will increase what we have so the more we have the more we can give and help.
As we flew into Cebu this morning from Davao City, as our plane taxied down the runway we saw several C-131 Transport planes and pallet after pallet of supplies that are headed for Tacloban. We understand that only the military is allowed to distribute the relief supplies as there is such a high need that people are actually attacking others so they can get the food and water first.
We had the opportunity to speak with a man who was from Tacloban and he told us that the destruction goes far beyond what we can really imagine. He said that what you see on television does not cover the full extent of the disaster. God is going to do mighty things in that devastated area and with the military now in charge the people will get the much needed help.
Well it is hi ho hi ho it is off to minister we go. God bless all of you and thank you so much for your prayers and comments. We love you all. - Sent Monday, November 18, 2013 (Philippines Time)
First let me start by updating you from our miracle service last night. God was most definitely in the house. You could feel his presence and it was almost like you could see him move. At the close of the message we invited all who wanted to receive healing and all who just wanted to have a touch from God to come forward. It did not take long for the entire front of the church to fill up. As we ministered to the people and prayed for them God used us in a mighty way to speak into some people’s lives. Not everyone received a word from God but everyone who came forward got touched by the power of God. As we prayed for people they began to fall out in the Spirit as hands were laid on them and even those who were in the proximity were falling out. What a totally awesome time we had, it really felt good to be able to minister the word of God once again.
This morning we headed far up into the mountain area of Davao to minister to pastors. The trip was very long and in traffic that would make Seattle traffic look like there was no one else on the road. I have never seen so many cars in one place and how the drivers would swerve in and out like the other cars did not even exist. It is amazing to me how they don’ have more accidents or why there are not more walkers killed by swerving cars, but they are at a minimum. When we arrived at the church where the pastors were meeting we were amazed at the location and just how beautiful it really was. The entire church was surrounded by trees and the temperature felt like it was about 10 to 15 degrees cooler.
We ministered the word of God to the pastors and at the end of the message we prayed and laid hands on every one of them and allowed God to work through us into them. It is so awesome to see the power of God working in people’s lives and especially in the lives of pastors.
After we had lunch Lorraine and I went with Pastor Ken and Pastor Orielle to see the largest eagles in the world the Philippine Sea Eagle. I have never in my life seen a bird that big. The largest one they had there had a wingspan of over 14 feet. Now that is one big bird. We then went back to where we left the other pastors to pick them up and return them to the city. After everyone was dropped off, Pastor Ken, Pastor Orielle , Lorraine and I went to the Crocodile farm and that is where we had dinner of wild boar and salt water croc steaks, neither of which we had tried before and you have heard the old saying it tasted like chicken and that is what it tasted like in most ways. Anyway, we are experiencing exotic food at its finest and loving every minute of it even down to the Civet coffee which by the way is considered the most expensive coffee in the world and which I purchased to bring some home with me.
Well in the morning at 6 am we have to be at the airport to catch our flight back to Cebu. Once we hit the ground ministry will kick into high gear as we reach out to those displaced by the typhoon and to those in the slums. God is about ready to do more than the miraculous and the awesome thing is that he is going to use us, life don’t get any better than that.
We will be sending along some video very soon provided we can keep our internet connection long enough. It never fails that you start to do something then all of a sudden bam the internet is nowhere to be found, but we will keep trying. God bless all of you and you don’t know how much we appreciate your prayers. We will write more after we return to Cebu.
God Bless You All - Sent Monday November 18, 2013 (Philippines Time)
Thought I would drop a short message to let everyone know we are doing very well. It has been amazing to see what God is doing. In the crusade last night we had several people healed right on the spot and we many others delivered and encouraged.
We got a chance in our rest time to go see the largest salt water Crocs in the world and what an awesome sight. We got to eat Durian ice cream made with crocodile eggs and drink some coffee that passes through a Civet Cat. After church we went and Lorraine and I got an opportunity to try the Durian fruit and let's just say it will be a very long time until I try it a gain if ever.
Well it is 6 am here and we are getting ready to go to a sectional meeting in the mountains so I will say bye for now. We will write again later today.
God bless you and thank you for your prayers. - Sent Sunday November 17, 2013 (Philippines Time)
Well it has been quite the journey to say the least. We spent what seemed to be weeks in an airplane and it is now Sunday morning at 4:30 AM. After we arrived in Cebu at 11:45 pm on Friday night, we were taken to the Pension House we are staying and by the time Lorraine and I got things ready to go to Davao it was like 1:30 AM and we still had no sleep. We finally got to bed and had to get up at 3 AM to leave for the airport again. We got to Mactan airport in Cebu and after we had checked in and went through security we found out that our flight had been delayed and instead of leaving at 5:30 it was not going to leave until 11:15. We finally made it to Davao and into our hotel.... Anyway to make a long story short, after over 30 hours with no sleep, we went to bed at 7 PM....
Besides our flights and connection problems we are doing OK. We have had God do some interesting things for us and are looking forward to what He brings next....
Saturday morning we got some news that was not to our liking but God knows. Lorraine and I will not be able to go to the typhoon devastation due to the fact that the rebels are just killing people at random and the Philippine military will not let others come unless they are directly associated with the relief efforts. We are however going to send the financial help with the Red Cross for our little part. Things are not exactly as they seem here because of the typhoon and there are people everywhere trying to get money from you even if they did not go through the typhoon or not as one might expect. Cebu for the most part received damage but nothing like north of here.
I wish I had more to report right now, but we have only begun and this morning we are speaking at 4 services at church and tonight I will get the opportunity to speak to over two thousand youth at a place we got invited to just last night. We know the pastor there and he asked that if we could make arrangements to come and speak we were welcomed. Because of what the typhoon had done the conference was cancelled and now we have the time to go and do it, God is awesome and knows exactly what to do.
We really have no idea at this point what tomorrow brings but we do know that it is going to be exciting to say the least. We will get some video today and tonight and internet connection available we will get them right out to you.
Steve