Yesterday typhoon Ondoy (international name Ketsana) pummeled Metro Manila and surrounding provinces. We had a month’s worth of rain in about 6 hours which has caused the worst flooding this area has seen in over 40 years. Metro Manila and 25 surrounding provinces are now in a state of calamity. (See the article link below for the story. You can also do a search on the internet for other news stories on the Manila flooding.)

Mary Ann and I are safe. However, as we helplessly watched the rain hammering the city yesterday, I was inundated with text messages and phone calls telling me about stranded children who had gone to school, homes being washed away, people scurrying to safer ground and a church requesting food because they had become an evacuation center. Due to the worsening conditions all we could do was pray and advise people to stay put if they were safe. Since last night until now the weather has calmed down and God has heard our prayers for mercy. Some of the kids are now being accounted for and I am still waiting for word on others. Our relief team has been affected as well so pray for wisdom as I am sure we will receive many requests for relief aid in coming days. Fire is also a concern in some areas. We are waiting for confirmation on the ACTION missionaries and staff to be sure all are safe and accounted for. Fortunately the power and internet at our apartment have remained on so that has really helped in communicating.

Isaiah 43:2 (NIV)
When you pass through the waters,
I will be with you;
and when you pass through the rivers,
they will not sweep over you.
When you walk through the fire,
you will not be burned;
the flames will not set you ablaze.

Pray for strength and needed material resources.

Sincerely in Christ, your hands and feet in Manila,

Jeff
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jSvmEJ57ktsFxVCZq7aG_8T9rXpAD9AV0I8G0

I'm reading "Jesus Christ Disciple Maker" by Bill Hull written over 20 years ago and it's very good. Yesterday I read Matthew 9:37-38 when Jesus teaches His disciples about the readiness of the harvest to be reaped but there's a shortage of workers to do it. This is an agricultural illustration to show the situation with world missions and Jesus says the keys to increasing the shortage of workers are *prayer* and *going*. To those of you who know you're called to go, but hanging back, what's keeping you from going? Take courage and fulfill your calling. The Lord of the harvest has invested a lot of training in us as disciples but His goal is for us to become trusted laborers who don't need our hands held and can do the work that needs being done.

This week, Micah our daughter and Pami the daughter of another career ACTION Philippines couple, were accepted as career missionaries with ACTION. This is a huge blessing from the Lord, congratulations to both of them and welcome to the team. Pami is a nurse and will work with our midwifery ministry while Micah's field and work is yet to be determined.

This time of year each ministry leader of ACTION Philippines prepares their ministry's proposal-budget for the next year so there's a lot of discussion, thinking, praying, writing, and number crunching going on right now. We call this "faith-planning". Each leader will present their proposal-budget to our Council for polishing before they go to our Board for final approval which will happen by the end of November. Believe me this is quite a process. This week I wrote six proposals-budgets with one more to go so when I finished was I saw God's faithfulness in providing what was needed thus far in '09 and we'll trust Him to do the same in '10.

Writing proposals and crunching numbers is *all* about doing ministry in an orderly manner for God's glory and the good of those we serve. Yesterday we visited two six month Fish and Bread feeding sites and the kids and their families are learning about Jesus, being fed good food, re-gaining their health, learning literacy and hygiene. The children are precious, the parents appreciative and the host churches are serving them in a Christ-like manner.

A friend from our church, Greenhills Christian Fellowship, brought to the office yesterday a very healthy donation for our educational ministry for street kids. She also told us 30 women from the church have volunteered to be trained by the Department of Education to become tutors for street kids and their families and she's requested the church to provide a classroom for street kids in the vicinity of the church which is being considered. GCF women who are involved are also talking with their friends in other churches about this ministry in order to raise funds and recruit tutors so the word is spreading.

We've also talked to my friend about a very poor teenage girl who was severely burned in a house fire about 10 years ago who needs medical treatment so she's talking to doctors in the church who may help this girl free-of-charge.

My friend is from a wealthy family, a business owner and a world travel yet cares for street kids, prisoners and slum dwellers. *Why?* She's been given a passion by her Lord and is using her influence to mobilize other influencers on behalf of the poor. This is true religion.

When we closed our meeting yesterday I thanked her for her help and passion for the poor and she said something like "people want to help the poor but don't know how and are looking for credible ministries to get involved with and ACTION is one. I was exposed to the ministry when I went out with you guys. It's time for people to get their hands dirty." AMEN!

Wonderful orientation for new missionaries
We had a wonderful two days of orientation for new ACTION missionaries at 2nd Mile our discipleship-vocational training site about 2 hours south of Manila. Mary Ann, as our HR person, organized the orientation, did most of the teaching and did a great job. Her care for our new people really shines through. My session was walking through the history of ACTION Philippines which entails lots of stories as to how God has shaped our team over the 35 years of our existence.

Honest Hands
When we arrived at 2nd Mile I was asked to lead a short devotion for the eight Honest Hands students who're going through this 10 month life skills discipleship ministry. They're all former street kids who have trusted Christ and are growing in Him. This is a "green house" of spiritual growth for these guys with lots of Bible and literacy classes as well as learning responsible daily routines. I taught from John 14:5-6.

August 7 Typhoon Kiko (Philippine name) or Morakot (international name) pummeled northern Zambales Province in Luzon on her way to do the same in Taiwan. A few days later I received a phone call from a long-time pastor friend requesting relief for many families who were washed out by severe flooding much of which was mud from Mt Pinatubo which erupted in 1991. Due to our street children camp schedule we weren't able to respond as soon as we would have liked but on August 28 we distributed kitchen ware and rice (as requested) to 300 families in coordination with 15 churches. ACTION social worker Luv Zacal delivered a comforting message from the Bible so we trust some encouragement was received through this ministry of compassion. The recipients are members of the participating churches and many are staying in hot stuffy tents in evacuations sites while trying to start over because they lost all their earthly possessions as well as their livelihoods. The cost of this operation was $7,481 which was provided by two large gifts for this purpose.