Hello my friends,
just a bit of an update on what God has been doing in the Philippines. Well, our small little part in and around Dipolog Mindanao that is, tee hee.
We still have been going to various different churches each Sunday, in the region. New doors seem to open up quite regularly and we go to our own church the first Sunday of every month. Tomorrow we will be going to a local jail to minister with a Pastor here in Dipolog. We continue to bring an apostolic message pretty much every where we go and continue to build new relationships.
Two Sundays ago we returned to Iligan, a larger city about 5 and half hours drive from here. It is not that far but traveling here is much slower than in the U.S. God has graciously given us our own car recently. We had been without a car for over 7 months. We have an 18 yr. old S.U.V. that we have named Esther 2. ( Our S.U.V. in the states was Esther) . We are very happy to finally have our own set of wheels but with it comes the blessings of having to maintain her. She was not in the best of shape so it seems every other day we find something else that needs replaced or repaired. She did come with a brand new set of 5 tires and 4 new shocks and seems to run very well. She has a diesel motor. WE are blessed and highly favored of the Lord!
We ministered at an Assembly of God church in Iligan 3 separate times. The first night Cathy counted over 50 youth who came forward to give their hearts to Jesus Christ. It was a beautiful sight indeed. When ever we give a call for salvation we always speak about how serious this commitment is and that don’t come forward if you are not truly ready in your heart because God knows your heart and knows if you are being true. I think almost all of them came forward and many were just sobbing in the presence of the Lord. Cathy spent a lot of time with some young girls who had been sexually abused, repeatedly. Some by their own fathers. Daddy gave freedom to those girls. The Lord then graciously filled them all with His Holy Spirit.
In the morning service the church was packed with well over 100 people. Holy Spirit just begin to move on the people. Again, it was just a beautiful thing to behold. He called out one lady and spoke some specific things to her about her heart it seemed to break something open over the entire church. Nearly everyone in the building ended up at the altar and many of them were just weeping and sobbing as Father ministered His heart to them. Lives truly were being touched and transformed by the Father’s heart.
We had everyone who needed a healing in their bodies to raise there hands and come forward. Over half the church came forward. Then we had those who were willing come and lay hands on them and just ask Jesus to love on them and heal them. We then asked who knew that they were healed, raise your hands, and I believe that over 20 of them raised their hands. We then called up the worship team and prophecied over each one of them. God really has great plans for them!!
To begin the evening worship service we had some of the youth come up and testify to what the Lord had done for them in the morning service. This one young lady, who had been sexually abused gave a really heart-felt, moving testimony. She spoke about how the presence of God had just come in on her and touched her broken heart, and changed her. I ended up giving my own testimony and thought I was done. The Pastor asked me to pray for these 3 women. They all had been saved that very day in an evangelistic outreach to their neighborhood. ( I found that out after the service). One woman seemed to be in her 40s. The other one was a young teenager and the other one was a girl under around 10 years old.
I took the older woman by the hand and asked her is she had given her heart to Jesus Christ. She replied yes. She seemed really uncomfortable with me holding her hands so I let go and backed up a ways and just begin to pray for her. I spoke over her what I felt Holy Spirit was saying and begin to break off stuff. The other two girls just began to weep and weep. After a little while the older lady just fell out under the Spirit, with no one touching her. There definitely was a deliverance that happened, as her and many others here were dedicated to idols at their births.
I continued to pray for the other two girls in the same manner with the same result. Eventually they both fell out under the Spirit as well, with no touching them. It was amazing. I could just imagine what it was like for them, getting saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, touched by the Fathers love and experiencing something strange and new all in the same afternoon and evening. Reminded me of when I was a teenager and had some of my first encounters with God. So beautiful!
Last Wednesday we ministered a Thanksgiving celebration in Sindangan, about 40 kilometers away. A thanksgiving celebration marks the birthday of the forming of the church. I think in this case the church was 14 years old. It was a smaller church but it was packed. The Lord spoke over them prophetically and encouraged them to depend on Him even more, using the scriptures from Luke about Peter fishing all night but catching nothing, but at Jesus’s word, casting his net out again and over filling it to the point the net was breaking. Again Father moved on the hearts of the people who came forward for His touch.
The next morning we spoke over and encouraged the youth, talking to them about Samuel, David, Josiah and Esther. All young people who ended up making a huge impact in God’s Kingdom. We had them pray for a man who had fallen out of coconut tree and had been limping for many years. We also had them pray for a woman who had a stroke over a year ago and was partially paralyzed on one side of her body and had to use a cane to walk. Immediately the man could visibly walk much better and the woman could move her partially paralyzed arm as good as her other arm, and could walk without her cane. She had such a big smile on her face and was praising the Lord!
This last Sunday we ministered at another Assembly of God church in Roxas, about 20 kilometers away. It was our 2nd time there. They are very open to Holy Spirit and the Apostolic and Prophetic ministry there and are very hungry to equip and send there people out under the power of Holy Spirit for these end-times. I spoke about how God is raising up His end-time Warrior Bride to do the impossible through His love and how He wanted to use each and everyone of them. We then called up all the people who needed a healing. There was at least 20 of them. Then we had anyone else come up who wanted to pray for them. There were older adults and teenagers alike praying for them. I asked for everyone to raise their hands who knew they were healed. Many hands went up. I then asked for a show of hands for those who had NOT been healed. Not a single hand went up. My intentions were to have the healed ones pray for those who had not been healed yet but praise the Lord!, there was no one left!.
This coming Sunday we will back at our own church with our precious and beloved Pastora Edna and with the rest of our family there at Glory to Jesus. Can’t wait!!! Our Sunday schedule is filled until the middle of May now and we will be doing some Friday night meetings in Roxas with the youth there, helping them to discover their gifts, practice using their gifts, equipping them and sending them out into the market place, in obedience to the Great Commission. We will be traveling to a couple of mountain churches next month as well.
It is our determination to get the word out to as many Pastors as possible about walking in and utilizing the foundational ministry of the Apostle and Prophet according to Eph. 2:20. We believe God has commissioned us to start a ministry for just the Pastors that God called a “Coalition”, where Pastors can come and be ministered to at least once a month and learn more about how the Apostolic and Prophetic ministry works, as well as the function of all the five-fold ministers and their purpose and what it looks like for them in their own churches. This is all about equipping the saints for the work of the ministry in all the gifts of the Spirit, in Gods love and the Holy Spirits power. Unlimited power especially for this end-time work that God has called us all into. The billion soul harvest! Amen!
We love you all! Mark and Catherine