Ministry Change

This week I have sent out letters and emails to both financial and prayer supporters informing them of what the Lord has been doing. I realize, however, that some of you only follow me through my blog, so I wanted to share with you as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers over these past several weeks. Your cards, emails, and words of encouragement have been such a blessing during this time.

My health has been steadily improving since my return to the U.S. on October 31st. Although I still tire a little quicker than before, I am able to maintain a normal schedule again. I miss the ministries in the Philippines, but I have, of course, enjoyed being able to spend time with family. I have also been blessed with the opportunity to stay involved in ministry -- both long distance as I work on projects for the Philippine ministry, and locally as I help out in the GFA home office.

I have been doing a lot of praying and seeking counsel during these past weeks. My lupus has flared up now on two different mission fields. When I got sick in the Philippines, I majorly cut back on my activities, staying almost totally in bed for several weeks. Yet even these radical measures did not seem to improve things. However, when I returned to the U.S., I began to improve almost immediately. Because of these factors, I believe the Lord is leading me to remain here in the States. This is not an easy decision, as it means giving up the one thing I have wanted to do for as long as I can remember. But I am confident it is what the Lord would have me do.

This "setback," however, does not mean that the Lord is without a plan. He has opened the door for me to fill a support role in the home office of Gospel Fellowship Association, my mission agency. I am thrilled with the opportunity to stay involved in missions as I minister to more than 280 missionaries in over 30 countries around the world.

Please know that I appreciate so much your prayers and support over these past years. It has been a privilege to serve the Lord as a missionary, and I look forward to the ministry that He has for me in the future.

Improving

Thanks so much for your prayers over the past weeks. Since arriving back in the U.S. on October 31st, I have been steadily improving, and it seems the flare up has resolved. Presently, I am able to maintain a fairly normal schedule, just requiring more rest than usual as I continue to regain strength.

With the wonders of modern technology, I have been able to work long distance on some projects for the Philippine ministry, continuing work that I had begun while I was there. I am also helping out some in the GFA home office, as I have done in the past.

This past weekend, I had the privilege of traveling to Georgia with a couple of friends to put on a short Christmas program for a church there. The church is quite small, without any musicians (even a pianist), and they seemed to thoroughly enjoy our small effort.

Please continue to pray for a return to full strength and the Lord's clear direction for the future.

Made It!

After twenty hours of travel, I arrived safely in the U.S. last evening. The Lord answered prayer by giving strength for the trip and other small blessings as well. For instance, we were given bulkhead seats for the twelve hour flight. These seats have a little more leg room and made the long flight easier and less painful. All the flights were on time or early, and there were no difficulties with immigration or customs in either country. It was wonderful to arrive in Greenville, SC and be met by my dad and brother. I appreciate so much your prayers and concern. Please continue to pray in the days ahead as I work to recover and make decisions for the future.

Home Again

Thank you so much for everyone that has prayed and expressed concern regarding my recent lupus flare up. After being sick for more than six weeks with no significant improvement, the decision has been made once again that I should return to the U.S. to recover. Lord willing, I will leave here on October 31st (Sunday evening U.S. time) and arrive in Greenville, SC on Monday evening. In God's providence, one of the short term missionaries here was already scheduled to leave and can serve as my travel companion.

I must admit that I am surprised by this turn of events. These circumstances were certainly not in my plan or expectations when I came to the Philippines. However, I am confident that the Lord has a perfect plan and that He will make it clear in the days ahead.

Please pray for strength for the 20+ hour trip and for wisdom for the days ahead.

Thanks!

Thank you so much for your prayers over the last few days. I am definitely improving -- not as quickly as I would like but better nonetheless. I still wear out quickly but the pain has decreased and the energy is better. I have been able to decrease my medicine and am hoping to venture out of the apartment tomorrow. I so appreciate everyone's prayers, messages, texts, and posts. It means a lot!

Prayer Request

As most of you know, I have a chronic disease called lupus that reveals itself in sporadic flare ups of incredible fatigue, joint pain, and generally difficulty functioning. The flare ups are rather unpredictable both in when they come and in how long they last. I have not had a major flare up since the one that forced me to leave Papua New Guinea last September, at least until now.

I have been struggling with a flare for the last few days. I have started medication and see some small improvement, but very slow. I would appreciate your prayers that this would resolve quickly and that I would get back to full strength again soon.

Thankfully, unlike in Papua New Guinea, I am in a more urban setting where I can get the rest that I need. Also, much of my work can be done from my bed, so I am still able to fulfill most of my responsibilities. Thankful to know that "His way is perfect" no matter what the circumstances!

Singles Fellowship

Yet another major event is successfully concluded. Saturday was our first Interchurch Singles Fellowship (but hopefully not the last). We had a good turnout with 85 singles from ten different churches. The folks from my church (pictured here) put a lot of work into it, and it seemed to go well. The theme was Glorifying God in Whatever State You Are. We had three sessions -- the first on Contentment, the second on Living Life to the Fullest, and the third was a divided session on Preparing for a Life's Mate. It was fun and I think we all learned something. Thanks for your prayers!

Also this past week, I had the opportunity to speak to the BJMBC music students about using music in missions. I dressed in traditional Papua New Guinea dress, showed them powerpoint pictures, and shared stories about the ministry. Perhaps the Lord will call one (or more) of them to join that work. I am definitely praying to that end.

Quieter Week

The last week has been a little less busy than the preceding ones -- nice for a change. I've been catching up on various projects and responsibilities that were neglected in the push to get the music completed for the concert.

I was finally able to go through the pictures from the Palawan trip and put together a short video report. I'm attaching it to this blog post. If you are unable to view it for some reason, you can also visit the following weblink: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Lcsf4QeJhw

Busy Week

After my return from the wonderful trip to Palawan, I had a lot of work to do to get ready for the concert on Friday night. By God's grace alone, all 14 compositions were completed and edited in time for me to input them into the computer. The last pieces went to the printer on Thursday morning and were ready for sale after the concert on Friday evening. Praise the Lord for a great concert! There were around 400 people in attendance, and all the participants did a great job. Although I could not understand all the words of the songs (since they were in Tagalog and Cebuano), those who do speak those languages said that the message was clearly communicated and was a great blessing. Many folks purchased music so the impact of those compositions will continue to spread.

Since that event is over, it's time to get refocused on other projects that have been pushed aside for a time. My church is planning an interchurch singles fellowship next month, so there is much preparation to do for that. I am also working on finalizing the layout of the first book of the violin curriculum. In addition, the main secretary of BJMBC is out on maternity leave, so I have increased responsibilities there as well. Praise the Lord for the strength He has given in the busy days recently and continue to pray for wisdom in the days ahead.

Medical Mission

Praise the Lord for a safe and profitable trip! I just returned from the medical mission trip to the Philippine island of Palawan, and it was an incredibly enjoyable and exciting experience. I will try to give you at least a brief survey.

We (Dr. Ina Bunyi and I) left Manila early on Friday morning. We landed in Puerta Princessa, the capital of Palawan, had lunch, then rode about 4 hours to the town of Brooke's Point. A former classmate of Dr. Ina's has a clinic so she had a cardiac patient that she wanted Dr. Ina to see (since she is a pediatric cardiologist). That entailed a trip to the provincial hospital where Dr. Ina did an echocardiogram using the ultrasound machine usually used for assessing abdomens and pregnant women.

The next morning we were up quite early and set off about 6:30 for our trip up the mountain. The church in Brooke's Point has a number of outreaches/church plants, one of which is in Tatandayan. It was about a two hour hike up to this village. Once there we had a church service and then had a medical clinic with the help of some of the believers from the church in Brooke's Point. We saw about 39 patients. After enjoying food with the believers there (including fresh coconut milk), we headed back down to the mountain. When we reached the van, we loaded up and headed to the site of another outreach. There we saw 65 patients while the gospel was preached to those assembled. After that it was time to head to the church for choir practice for Sunday. We were able to hep out both by singing in the choir and accompanying on the piano.

Sunday was the start of a week long missions conference at the church. In Sunday school, one of the men in the church gave a presentation about the unreached tribes in Palawan with many sobering statistics. I was surprised to discover how "primitive" many of these villages still are. Then the Sunday school kids came in dressed in the attire of the tribes -- quite a special sight.
Dr. Ina and I were able to share our testimonies as well. We continued to minister through music in the morning service.

The afternoon service was at 2:30pm and included the ordination of the church leaders at Tatandayan, the village we had visited the day before. It was a real blessing to see these mountain people take the first step toward having an indigenous church. After the service we saw about 50 more patients from the various outreaches that had attended the service.

Today we went to the market in Brooke's Point, then boarded the van for the trip back to Puerto Princesa. It was an incredibly fast and packed trip, but the Lord blessed with much strength and wisdom.

Now that I'm back in Manila (feeling as though I was visiting a completely different country), I will be busy this week in preparing the music for the sacred concert this Friday. Please pray that the Lord will bring all the details together to make this concert a blessing to those who attend, and that the music will be able to be used in churches throughout the Philippines.

Preparations

It seems as though most of the week was spent in making preparations for one event or another. I think I have shared about the upcoming concert on August 19, which will be of all newly written and arranged music in the languages of the Philippines. Since we want the music to be a help to church throughout the Philippines, it needs to be published and available at the concert. So I have been and will be busy laying out the music in the computer and making the changes as each piece goes through the editing process.

At odd moments, my doctor friend and I have been meeting to make plans for our medical mission trip. We have made a list of medicines to purchase, found out what is available on the island where we are headed, and made plans to go out and purchase the remainder this week.

Then, at my church this weekend, I was involved in the planning meeting for an inter-church singles fellowship scheduled for early September. (I am in charge of registration for that event.)

In between, all the preparations was midterm exams for the BJMBC students. Despite a day of cancelled classes because of rain and flooding (our 5th major storm in a month when normal is usually 2), all the exams were finally administered. Now I have a huge pile of grading to do, as I help several of the teachers with their grading.

Please continue to pray for the medical mission trip to Palawan. We leave Friday morning (Thursday night in the States) and will return Monday night. Pray for safety, for wisdom in treating patients, and most of all for us to be a blessing to the church there and a tool for evangelism in their outreaches.

Mission Trip

I am excited to share with you an opportunity the Lord opened up just this past week. Since I have been in the Philippines, several people have told me about the island of Palawan. It is an area to the southwest of the island on which Manila is located, and is apparently mountainous and resembles Papua New Guinea in many ways. I am told there are number of tribes living there that have not yet been reached with the gospel.

I have a Filipino doctor friend (a pediatric cardiologist) who has been burdened with the needs of this area for some time. She is friends with a national family that have a solid church ministry on that island. Last week, we were talking with a member of this family, Jethro Malacao. He is leaving for the States at the end of August to work on his doctorate at BJU, but he invited my doctor friend and I to come to Palawan early in August to do a medical mission trip.

So our plan is to leave to fly there on Friday, August 12th, do medical ministry in 1-2 locations on Saturday, participate in the church mission conference on Sunday (including assisting as needed with the medical needs of the attendees), and return to Manila on Monday. There is also some talk of assisting some national nurses in the church with the training and guidelines needed to set up a regular clinic ministry.

I am thrilled to have the opportunity to be involved in medical ministry again and to see this area that I have heard so much about. One concern I had when I heard about the opportunity was where the money would come from to buy medicines (as most of my money has been going toward setting up housekeeping here). But the very night that I heard about the opportunity, I received my monthly GFA financial report and discovered that one of my supporting churches had given an additional large gift that will more than cover the cost of any medicines we will purchase. Praise the Lord for His provision!

Please pray for us now as we prepare, drawing up treatment protocols and procuring medicines. Also please pray for a number of pressing projects at New Song Ministries that I need to complete before leaving.

Church

This week I just wanted to praise the Lord for the church He has led me to attend. (The picture is me with some of my church mates.) I really enjoy the people there and feel like they have welcomed me as part of the group, despite my different appearance and the language barriers.

I continue to assist in the music ministry, accompanying the congregational singing on either flute or piano, accompanying for choir and special music, and playing offertories. I also have enjoyed attending the ladies Bible study each Sunday afternoon and getting to know the ladies and their needs better.

I will be leading the Bible study next Sunday afternoon, so I would appreciate your prayers for that. Also please pray that the Lord will give direction as to other ministries in which He would have me be involved.

Since it takes about two hours to commute to this church, I do not go there on Wednesday nights. However, the Lord has given me the opportunity to work with the children in the church close to where I live. Please do pray for these children as well. Although most, if not all, of them are from Christian homes and/or attend Christian school, the majority are either unsure of their salvation or have never even made a profession. They know the truth, but have not applied it personally. Please pray that the Lord will give us wisdom as we lead the program and that the Holy Spirit will be at work to illumine their minds to the truth of the gospel.

Speaking and Music

The Lord continues to open doors for ministry, often unexpected ones. On Friday, I had the opportunity to speak to about 25 BJMBC female students in Ladies Forum. They had submitted a list of topics that they wanted to cover during the year and a frequent request concerned knowing the will of God -- how do I know if God is calling me into ministry, how do I know if I'm called to be a pastor's wife, etc. I was asked to address this topic with them. I enjoyed giving them biblical principles to guide their decision making and several requested me to email them my speaking notes.

Then on Saturday, the church I attended when I was here previously hosted a ladies meeting with a health focus. They had a number of speakers on different aspects of health but asked me to give the devotional (because of my nursing background). I enjoyed sharing about "The Disease of the Soul," and pray that the Lord will continue to use the truth of His Word in the hearts of those who heard.

Today (Sunday) gave opportunities for musical ministry at church as I played my flute for congregational singing, accompanied the church choir in the morning service, and sang in a trio for the evening service.

Next week, we are looking forward to having two young ladies from the U.S. visiting with us. They are here to work with National Hoops (a basketball tournament outreach for young people), but came early to get a chance to see ministry in the Philippines. One of them will be staying in my apartment, so I have been busily trying to finish getting it furnished. I finally have a table and chairs, and got a bed for the second bedroom and hung the curtains.

Thank you so much for your continued prayers for the ministry here. May God be glorified in everything we do -- from the public ministries to the private ones.

Opportunities

The Lord provided several ministry opportunities this week. First, when I was at the grocery on Monday, I had a good opportunity to talk to the young man who was helping me with my bags. He wanted to know why I was so happy and why I would leave America to come to the Philippines when so many Filipinos want to get to the U.S. His English wasn't good enough for a deep conversation, but I was able to explain briefly and give him a tract in Tagalog. Then the girl working the elevator wanted to see the tract and took it out of his hand to look at it, so I gave her one too:-) Pray for this young man. I forget his name, but the Lord will know who you mean.

Then Monday evening, we had a party for about 20 BJMBC girl students who are living near the school rather than commuting in each day. We had a good time of fun and food, but I also enjoyed getting to share the devotional -- thoughts that the Lord has taught me on Psalm 73. Please do pray for these girls. Many of them are a long way from home for the first time, and they are at varying levels of spiritual maturity. They range in age from 16 to early 30s. It is a blessing to have them and we pray that the Lord will do a real work in their lives during their time here.

Rain and Floods

The streets of Manila are slowly drying out after the onslaughts of Tropical Storm Falcon over the past week. We had several days of torrential rains, 6 inches of rain in less than 24 hours! There was much flooding causing school to be cancelled all over the city. It may seem unusual to Americans to cancel school for rain, but its not the rain so much as the accumulation of rain and the resulting flooding. (Just as we cancel school not so much because of falling snow, but because of the accumulation of snow that impedes travel.) Many areas of Manila were underwater and without power and folks were stranded at their schools and workplaces all over they city.

Because of the flooding, I did not attempt to commute to my church on Saturday. However, I was still able to go on Sunday by riding with another family from my area that goes each week. I continue to enjoy the church and helping with the ministries there. The people are incredibly appreciative for the small things that I can do.

This evening we are having a get together for the 20+ BJMBC girls that live in 2 apartments near the school. I have been asked to share the devotional and would appreciate your prayers for that ministry.

Commuting

I am safely home again after commuting to my new church for the first time. I drafted a Filipino student from BJMBC to accompany me this first time, so that she could speak Tagalog and ask directions if we got lost (which we did once:-) In addition, another BJMBC student will be accompanying me each week, but she is from Vietnam and doesn't speak any more Tagalog than I do.

Anyway, it took about 2.5 hours to get there yesterday. First we walked a few blocks and caught a jeepney (sort of a short, squatty bus with the two long bench seats facing the middle of the vehicle), then we got on the MRT (like an elevated train), then a bus. We apparently missed our stop on the bus, so we had to walk a little ways to get to where we should have been. Then we got on another jeepney, then got a tricycle (a motorcycle with a covered sidecar) to the church.

Coming home, we followed a slightly different route that included tricycle, jeepney, bus, and jeepney. That only took about 1.5 hours. We stayed with Gary and Edie Jones, the missionaries that lead the church. They have been in the Philippines 30+ years.

I was able to help out with the choir and piano and am excited to see what ministry opportunities the Lord will open there. It is a smaller church than the one I attended when I was here before. They have a Tagalog service of about 30 people, then Sunday School, then an English service of around 60.

I am also safely moved into my apartment. I moved early (about 6:30am) on Wednesday morning, before it got too hot. It's rather bare at the moment -- just a refrigerator, a stove, and a bed.:-) Little by little!

Thanks so much for your continued prayers. It's exciting to be right in the place where God wants you to be and know it!

Provision

The Lord's provision has been so evident this week, that I want to share it with you. First off, I have an apartment! I met with the apartment manager on Friday, and after looking at two different apartments, I signed a contract on one. That's exciting because I had no guarantee there would one be open so quickly after I returned. It is in the same building that I have been staying in and is only a few doors down from the building where New Song and BJMBC are.

Yesterday (Sunday), I had the opportunity to visit a church on the other side of Manila. I had been praying about finding a church where I could be involved in the ministry, and it seems that the Lord has answered. It is a smaller church, pastored by another GFA missionary, and they have many areas where I can be of help.

I'm pretty much over jet lag -- actually slept from 10:30 to 6:30 last night, instead of waking up at 5am:-) It's been good to be back and reconnect with friends.

I'd appreciate your prayers as I furnish my apartment and figure out how to negotiate the public transportation to make the trip to my new church. Pray also for opportunities to build spiritually edifying relationships with girls at BJMBC and at church.

Arrival

After 24+ hours of travel, I am safely back in the Philippines. All the flights were without incident, and my luggage arrived when I did. Thanks so much for your prayers!

I am eager to jump back into the ministry here. Now if I could only figure out what time zone I'm in:-)

Leaving

The nearly two months of stateside ministry as come to a close and I am busily preparing to leave once again for the Philippines. I have enjoyed the time to connect with some of you, see family, and fellowship with other missionaries. On the other hand, I am excited to be returning to the field and the ministry the Lord has given me there.

I fly out of Greenville, SC Tuesday morning (June 7th) for a trip lasting just over 24 hours. If all goes as scheduled, I will arrive in Manila at 11am EST on Wednesday, June 8th. I would appreciate your prayers for a safe and uneventful trip, for my luggage to arrive without incident, and for a quick transition into the Philippines ministry.

What a blessing to know that the Lord is not confined by geographical boundaries and, as He promised, He will be with us wherever we go. And yet another blessing is knowing that neither are your prayers limited by distance but through them, you can impact a ministry that you may never see. Thanks so much for your partnership in this endeavor.