We began first with a VBS for Pastor Millet Buenafe at her pioneer church at Christian Development Centre. Although this church just began 2 months ago, about 20 children participated in this 3-day VBS.

Our second VBS for Pastor Mao Hernandez’s church was a 5-day VBS. Pastor Mao sent his jeepney out and brought in children from all around the city, and each day they came to sing songs, play games, make crafts and listen to God’s Word. Through the lives of Moses, Esther, Daniel, Jeremiah, Joshua and Caleb, our Bible times ’special agents’, they learned to 1) Trust in God’s plans for their lives, 2) Unite with God’s people, 3) Train for God’s service, 4) Follow in God’s path, and 5) Lead others to God’s promises! Each day they came, not wanting to miss out on their badges and shiny ID tags displaying each day’s mission and memory verses. I will never forget the sound of their voices singing, “Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise” (Prov. 19:20), or repeating their memory verses one at a time to Mama Opal! The joy and delight on their faces as they sang and danced (hmmm…maybe they were laughing at my dancing!) is something that will remain with me always, as well as their faces as they said goodbye, they will miss me, touching my hand to their foreheads in blessing (a filipino sign of respect). Please pray with me that the seeds that were planted in their hearts will bear good fruit and that, God willing, I will return to the Philippines and see them again!

It was especially rewarding to me this last month, to have my daughter Judy come with me to this country. God used her to teach on prophecy to our students here and I truly love having my family minister with me!

This past weekend, we flew to Baggio City where we ministered in Pastor Ric Chen’s church. I was so happy to see them! We missed them last October because of a typhoon in that area. I have heard “Go” from God about the school in Baggio. They are saying that ‘08 is the year of new beginnings. Is it a coincidence that this word came on the 8th day of the month of the 8th year of 2000?

Before I was awake this morning, I heard the Lord say, “You are beginning this work here. Take heed how you build. See that you make it according to the pattern.” He is letting us know that we are instructed to begin with prayer…..community prayer once a week, and daily prayer in the house.” Of course, the school is coming, but we begin with prayer.

God is also speaking to us about surrounding countries and pastor seminars…..lifting up the hands that hang down. One of the major words we hear here is ‘discouragement’. My heart hurts for the pastors because many are discouraged. I don’t want to see them quit. I want to give them materials, strengthen them and equip them for their ministries.

We are in the middle of ministering to the children in the churches here in Tagaytay and will write a report of this ministry in the next post. We will also report on the recent Pastors’ Conference here in Tagaytay with Pastor Junior, Pastor Phil and Pastor Simeli soon!

Sunday morning, all the ministers were invited to different churches. There was a flowing in the Spirit as we moved to the end of the conference. On Friday evening, we again gathered in CDC for the graduation, our first in the Philippines. Fifteen students marched down and received their diplomas. I was overjoyed as four of them are already pastoring. Four more have Bible studies in different Baranguys (small villages) here in Tagatay.

Nasugbu Bataanaus
Our second Pastors’ Conference with Pastor Erwin was held in this city. You may remember that I have asked many of you to pray for him last year. He has a weak heart and has a difficult time breathing. But when I saw him, I knew he had been touched by God. His color was good and he was breathing better. Keep praying! Some of the symptoms are still acting out. We met a new pastor who pastors the largest Pentecostal church in Nasugbu, and we have an invitation to speak there sometime.

2008
Can it be? As I look back at 2007 and realize how much was done, I am amazed at how God has kept His Word of three years ago when He spoke to us to ’stretch out the tent stakes and enlarge our borders, to spread abroad to the right and to the left.” Last year, our two schools became five, with two in Fiji, three in the Philippines. In 2006, we began Pastors’ Conferences in Tagaytay and Nasugbu. Again, this past year, God met us in a wonderful way and pastors and workers met and were refreshed by the presence of God and the teaching of anointed speakers, giving of their time to join us in Tagaytay in encouraging and ministering to the servants of God.

This past summer, I was blessed to have my daughter Miriam and her two daughters join me in Fiji. For three months, they went from island to island, holding Vacation Bible Schools, five days of ministry for over 300 children. This year, God willing, they will do the same throughout the Philippines and again in Fiji and as God permits in Vanuatu, another Pacific Island not far from Fiji.

Well, we have spread out and God has graciously given us laborers to help in the spreading. Some from Texas, some from Indiana, some from California and some from Idaho. The scripture says that He sets the solitary in families, and our family is growing!

Save (Saw-ve) and Paul are alternating playing the bass guitar on the worship team, and Micah has been appointed the new worship leader for Shiloh Worship Center. Meraiya will take over preparing the worship songs on power point and projecting them each week with the new projector and screen.

Choir rehearsals, with about 15 people learning to read and sing choral music, began last July and we have sung for Sunday morning worship services as well as for Pastor Joseph’s church in Sigatoka. Shiloh Worship Center is making music to the Lord!

This coming week, Shiloh Worship Center will join with other churches in Nadi to sponser a World Impact Tour. Pastor Simeli has been meeting with a network of pastors since last spring to plan this tour. The tour involves the Power Team ministry and GX ministry, along with Island Breeze, a Fijian singing and dancing group who will come and do an evangelistic outreach in several cities of the islands. Last week, their outreach in Labasa brought out 8,000 people in attendance and the pastors here in Nadi are expecting even more to pack out Prince Charles Stadium. Leslie and Stephanie have joined with the other young people of our churches and attended training session by YWAM (Youth With A Mission) to be counselors for all those who respond to an invitation to accept Jesus. It has been a wonderful opportunity for them to learn how to share their testimony and lead a person to faith in Christ and we are so grateful to be here in Fiji to be a part of this outreach. The outreach will be here in Nadi this coming Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Last Sunday night, we combined services with several churches in Nadi at the Assembly of God and enjoyed a tremendous worship service with the believers here in this city. The man known as ‘The Praying Man’, a local Fijian pastor who is known for his praying ministry brought the message and after the service, all the counselors from all the churches stayed for some additional training and preparation. Pastor Simeli has committed Shiloh Worship Center to prepare lunch for the GX team on Saturday so our whole church will be involved in ministering to the team that rides bikes and skateboards. Pray for this outreach in Fiji and pray for our ability to follow up on all those who commit their lives to Christ during this outreach!

This past week, Mama Opal, Leslie, Stephanie and I flew to the island of Kadavu to hold a 3-day VBS. Kadavu is one of Fiji’s most beautiful islands, but it has it challenges as it has no power plant. but is powered by a generator that shuts down every night at 10 p.m. and comes on again at 6 a.m. And the current government has cut back what power they have so the power goes off for 2 hours at noon and 2 hours more at 4 p.m.

So, each day when the children arrived at about 5 p.m., we would begin with the games and crafts, then at 6 p.m. we could use our CD player and projector when the power came again. This was our first challenge! The second was when 80 children arrived the first day and we were only prepared for 40! The children came from the village where we were staying, as well as two other villages further away. Those children from the two outlying villages came to us by truck each night. Most of them came from single parent homes, no father, and very little resources.

What a blessing it was for us to show them Jesus’ love as we taught them the songs, played games with them, and made the crafts. Tema, our hostess, and her daughter Vive, as well as other young people helped us each night with the puppets, the crafts and even translated the Bible stories into Fijian so the young ones would understand. We love Kadavu and its beautiful people and are praying that we will one day be able to come again and bring materials for Tema to teach the children in her Kids’ Club. She does this with only a Bible, and it is our hope that we can bring crayons, coloring pages, flannelgraphs, paper, glue and scissors when we come again!

Please pray for these beautiful children and for the believers that are there on this little island. Pray for pastors and teachers that will teach them God’s Word.

“Before He made the mountains, before He made the seas, before He made the islands or the coconut tree….oh, God loved you and me!” This is the song that the children at the Bulileka VBS are singing! Children from Hindu and Christian homes gathered for this 3-day VBS and by the end of the 3 days, they had listened to our Bible stories, made the crafts (which they love!), played the games (also a favorite), prayed the sinner’s prayer all together, and could sing 6 songs at the top of their lungs! This song, “Before All Time” was their favorite but they also loved “Follow the Way of Love” which is I Corinthians 13:4-8…..Love is patient, love is kind, it does not envy, it does not boast……” They can now recite this by heart.

On the other side of Labasa Town, we held another 3-day VBS for four churches which combined together for this event. The first day, Sunday, the pastors and many of the parents stayed all day waiting for us to begin at 3 p.m., watched as we set up and remained throughout the first day of VBS. You should have heard the laughter and shouts of the mothers as they sat on the church porch and watched the games that Stephanie and Leslie played with the children. What an awesome opportunity for the believers of this town to join together in a community event for the children!

God is doing a great thing in this nation in bringing down the walls between the churches, uniting the believers together. Pastor Simeli will soon write a post for this website telling of the “Impact World Tour” that is coming to the islands in September. This tour will be an evangelistic outreach for the whole nation and the pastors and churches are working together to make this happen. We are very excited to be a part of this outreach and to see what happens in Fiji through this ministry.

We appreciate your prayers and the support of our friends and brothers and sisters in Christ. Please don’t hesitate to post your comments or send us email!

Speaking of rain, it POURED on the last day while we were showing the slide show of all the pictures we had taken. The children cheered and roared with laughter at each of the 50 plus pictures and nobody minded the rain, even though it came down hard and heavy! All of them raised their hands and prayed to accept Christ, although most of them acknowledged doing it before. Everyday as we left, the children would all crowd around the van, waving and saying ‘Moce’ (Mo-thay or Goodbye), then they would line up along the highway and continue waving as we pulled out. God’s love through us made an impact on the children of this village!

It is our plan to hold at least 5 Vacation Bible Schools around the islands. Three of them are on different islands and because of the travel and lodging expenses, we will reduce the number of days from 5 to 3 days so that we can still touch the hearts and lives of children who live in remote and poor villages. Our theme for the school is SonTreasure Island where we will discover the treasures of God’s love using I Corinthians 13 as our text. We will have DVD skits, puppet skits (we have 10 puppets and a theatre), crafts, games and lot of island songs! Pray for children’s lives to be greatly impacted as they learn that God’s love is giving, caring, kind, forgiving and forever!

Shiloh Worship Center in Nadi is growing! Pastor Ladd is preaching a ‘Break-Through’ message to the church. This is a message that teaches us that God helps us break through upon our enemies of sin, sickness, poverty. Starting with a prophetic word from the Lord, we are learning to not accept the lies of our enemy, to give of our resources to God, and with the power of praise, we can access the power of the Holy Spirit to help us break through the problems in our lives.

We have started a music class on Saturday evenings and currently have 6 students learning “Beginning Worship Keyboard”. The addition of the piano and the bass guitar, and a projector with Power Point Worship songs has greatly added to the worship on Sunday mornings.

We are posting pictures of Pastor Joseph’s sister and Meraia Kenewai beside a tapa (a Fijian fabric made from the bark of a tree that is hand blocked painted) that Pastor Joseph’s sister is preparing.

The other picture is of some dancers presenting a tribal dance at a hotel on the beach which we greatly enjoyed!

Finally, here’s Stephanie learning to climb a coconut tree!