After thinking more about last night's commissioning service I think these services are very important to the life of a sending church and the missionary for a couple profound reasons.

First, the missionary being commissioned and the sending body are united together in the Spirit with a strong sense of mutual accountability and responsibility. Truely we're interdependent individual members of Christ's community of faith.

Secondly, the Spirit through the praying, reading of the Word and testimony of the missionaries provides anyone else in the congregation who may be sensing God's call to the mission field courage and strength to overcome any fear or obstacle that is keeping him from stepping out in joyful obedient faith.

Truly the Great Commission has given all followers of Christ a global mission.

Our commissioning service last night was a huge blessing. The large classroom was packed with folks standing in the back because several family members and guests from other churches also attended. I spoke from Romans 10:14-15 saying we as missionaries are sent by God's people so we're not "lone rangers" but their representatives in the Philippines. I went on to say that followers of Christ have three options in regard to the Great Commission:

1. go if the Lord of the harvest has called to do so

2. if we're not called to go we are to send those who are

3. or disobedience to the the Lord's Commission to the church

Mary Ann expressed genuine gratefulness for people's prayers, love and support because we don't don't take their ministry to us for granted.

Micah gave a thorough explanation of her deployment and how she views it as God's assignment for her. I asked John Mark to give his testimony and he did very well.

All of this was followed by prayer from several elders and a couple pastors from 1st Baptist. The chairman of the elder board commissioned us from Titus 1:9 and the prayers were for our purity of heart, provision of spiritual and material resources, protection from enemies of the gospel and patience under trial. Several from the crowd also prayed.

We thank God for these faithful saints and for being members of His body.

Here are the prayer requests we shared:
1. Remaining approximate $400 month of support pledged before we depart
2. Smooth transition back into life and work in Manila. We depart on August 11 and will arrive the night of August 12.
3. The Lord's wisdom in knowing what to do after the next 2 years as Field Director.
4. Receiving and placement of several new missionary units over the next several months.
5. Funds raised for a new birthing clinic and for Paul Ortiz and his family who are applying to come and serve as the construction manager.
6. Facing a serious food shortage in the Philippines, we are working through the process and trusting the Lord in order to be regular recipients of food from Feed My Starving Children for our various feeding programs.
7. Preparation and direction for short termer Tracy, an intern from Moody Bible Institute. She will be arriving 12 hours after we arrive.
8. Amos and his work toward finishing his PhD program and God's direction for the future.


Micah's Prayer Requests
1. Be an effective witness for Christ
2. Safety, good health and good work/rest schedule
3. Ability to complete online correspondence courses to move forward on her Master's degree
4. That her spiritual walk will grow with the Lord
5. Growing relationship with fiancé John Mark and family

Considered to one of their missionaries--an unknown blessing

Follow-up on Feed My Starving Children

Yesterday Mary Ann and I ministered in a country church in a town of about 700 people located on beautiful Milacs Lake. We taught in Sunday school and I preached the message to a packed house of about 150 people. This church seems to be very healthy--the worship was God-centered, the people liked to be together, they're active in community outreach and involved in world missions. The pastor and his wife formerly served with NTM Philippines as a pilot so they know ACTION, are concerned for the Philippines and aware of the plight of the poor there.

After a delightful lunch with the pastor, his wife and parents who were visiting and a young woman from the church the wife mentioned that we're listed among their missionaries and prayed for on a regular basis which we didn't know. This was mentioned to us as a side comment as we were leaving which lead me to ask Mary Ann as we were driving away "how many other churches pray for us regularly and consider us to be one of their missionaries and we don't know about it?" It doesn't matter, I guess if we know or not, as long as people pray. We continue to be overwhelmed by God's blessings through His people regardless of denomination.

Last Friday we went to one of Feed My Starving Childen's sites and packed two 216lb boxes of food totally over 2,000 meals to be shipped to Manila this week. This will be perhaps just the beginning of boxes going there on a regular basis to assist us in feeding malnourished kids. I consider this a breakthrough as a result of the prayers and dedicated work of two godly men--Jerry and Ernie-- along with those they've mobilized to feed starving Filipinos in Jesus name.

This Friday I'm going to the Feed My Starving Children office to met with Pastor Ernie, a local man who sends FMSC food to the Philippines regularly and a FMSC representative to see if ACTION can receive food for our feeding ministry. Pray this happens because over the past few years I've gone in circles trying to make this happen but now we're getting some traction through the tireless efforts of folks who want to assist us.

July 30 7pm a supporting church in the MSP area will have a prayer send-off for Micah for her deployment and for Mary Ann and me as we return to Manila. I think it was more than 10 years ago that Mary Ann and I were sent back to Manila through prayer by elders of a supporting church. This offer of ministry is a tremendous encouragement to us!

We thank God for those who are making both events happen because we their hands and feet serving among the poor.

We decided to delay our return to Manila by one week until August 11. We need the extra time to prepare our apartment for the missionaries who'll stay in it after we leave, to better prepare ourselves for our departure after Micah and John Mark leave and to rest. It's a good decision.

Today we spoke at our home church and gave a 2 minute "missions moment" in both services. It's extremely difficult to share what the Lord has done in and through us during a previous term in that amount of time but we're glad for the opportunity. After the second service we had a nice lunch in the church cafeteria with several long-time friends at the initiation of an 85 year old prayer warrior.

Tomorrow morning we speak at a prayer breakfast for seniors at a church we've never been to. We'll be presenting our work among the poor particularly our feeding program called Fish and Bread because this group is involved to packaging and sending highly nutritious food to famine stricken areas around the world so we'll be looking into how we may work together in getting some of this food to Manila. Pray about this please.

This past weekend Mary Ann and I ministered at a supporting church where we showed our power point and I preached in each of their three services. The people were very responsive and we could tell they tracked with us. We've ministered at this church several times over the years but I think this time they were the most responsive. One senior saint mentioned to me she prays for us daily between 4-5am and asked what time that is in Manila. She was glad to know it's 5-6pm the same day.

After each service people stayed for a long time to talk with each other and us. Their was a buzz in the air which shows me the folks liked to be together sharing life together. After Sunday's services (our presentation was about 45 minutes in each one) I was tired, hungry and thirsty but stimulated in my inner man.

We returned late last night from our ministry trip Denver and Colorado Springs which we think was very fruitful and refreshing. We ministered in three churches and had plenty of other opportunities to share our lives and ministries with friends of our hosts the Ortizes, Friginals and Kathy. We also had lots of fun playing and watching baseball (including a Rockies game) with the Ortiz and Friginal kids. God only knows the long-term fruit of this trip which was made possible by a generous donation so we could fly instead of drive and the thoughtful planning put into arranging the schedule.

We were picked up at the airport by Mike and Rebecca who stayed in our place while we were away and I think we stayed up until 1:30am talking after we got home. Mike and Rebecca are ACTION missionaries who formerly served in Manila and are now raising support so they can serve, Lord willing, in Uganda next year.

Today we're preparing for John Mark and Micah Ann to arrive tomorrow so we're looking forward to having them with us this month before Micah deploys and we return to Manila.