Hope For The Island August 2007

There is extra joy and excitement for us this month! Let me start by reminding you of our Mercy Ministry to the widows of Siargao Island. The Bible clearly states… “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress.” (James 1:27)This scripture has been Hope for the Island (HIF) Foundations' guiding principle to minister through God's Word in accordance with the leading of the Holy Spirit. In relation to what the book of James' message says about a pure and faultless religion acceptable to God, Mercy Ministry (MM) was established with a mission to reach out and take care of orphans and abandoned and malnourished children by providing them with milk, food, vitamins and toys. Appropriate counsel was provided to guardians and parents.Widows also suffer because of poverty, loneliness and a scarcity of the basics required for quality of life. Currently eight widows ages 70 years old and up are being ministered to through our weekly Bible sharing (study) where they have learned and accepted the salvation message. We not only meet their spiritual needs, we meet their physical needs by giving them rice, vitamins, clothing, soap, medicines, eye glasses, and slippers donated by HIF supporters in Canada. Those love gifts and prayers reach so many needy people on the island.One particular widow named Nanay Bili has had a special impact on us. She doesn't know her exact age but she is around 85 years old. We can not find a birth certificate so this is unconfirmed. She is a widow who had two children (one died in 2000 the other has been missing for over 40 years). She has never attended school so is unable to read or write and has never left the island in her life. In her younger years she wove mats, fished, farmed root crops, and broke large pieces of rock into smaller sizes by hand with a hammer. This is extremely back breaking work even for a young person and one 50 lb cement sac worth of rocks is sold to construction projects for 10 pesos each. Approx 45 pesos equal one Canadian dollar. Her medical history is one of Tuberculosis, Pneumonia, Congestive heart failure and Edema (swelling of the legs), difficulty breathing and a very weak body.We first met Nanay Bili when her only son died. We were convicted God would want us to help her. We gave her food and water and visited daily with her in the tiny Nipa hut she lived in. It measures 6ft by 4 ft. When she cooks, smoke fills the hut making it unfit to breath even from outside. She does not have a CR- comfort room or washroom as we refer to it in the Western world.Our desire was to bring her to HIF to live with us, but God, in His perfect timing had her two sisters come and take her to live with them. She and her sisters lived in MIA, (Manila International Airport). This is not really an airport but is an area superstitiously known for 'witches landing'. Nanay Bili was one of the first widows that were involved in witchcraft to later accept Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior through our Medical Missions Clinic. Because of our exposure to Nanay Bili, God showed us this area was in special need of Jesus. As we ministered to her, others there saw love and hope right before their eyes. They became curious and a Bible sharing and follow up was started. This specific group of widows experienced love and acceptance. Because of God's mercy, the spirit of alcoholism, gossiping, gambling and laziness changed! They were beginning to have a positive and hopeful outlook on life; praise God!We have been ministering to Nanay Bili for over 2 years by providing food and physical care each week. Nanay Bili’s body is deteriorating. God is stirring our hearts once again to bring her to HIF and care for her. This would give her a better quality of life in the time she has left. Her sisters are aging as well and cannot care for her.Out of love and compassion God prepared the way for us to receive her into our family for the remainder of her days on this earth! We desire to see her find peace and ease for her tired soul and body. We prepared a nice room for her 2 time what the size of her hut was before. She was overwhelmed with joy and thanksgiving as we moved her to her new home. She is surrounded by love and praises God for meeting her needs. Again website has pictures of her moving with all her belongings in a bag the size of an American hand bag.The message of James in the Bible challenges us to live the Gospel and to step out of our comfort zone. It is not enough to just know who is in need in our community but to take part in caring for and loving the needy ones. Being part of God's hand reaching out and helping through God's wisdom and provision-Being God's voice to encourage and comfort is indeed a great privilege and honor! To those of you who partnered in prayer, love gifts, and financial support, you are fulfilling James' instruction. WE THANK YOU FOR DOING YOUR PART!San Mateo is a small village a few kilometers away from Hope For The Island. This a place that we have been doing outreaches for six months. The road going in is very rough and challenging to drive. There is no Christian church. Poverty, malnutrition and disease runs rampant. Eighty percent of the people have some form of parasites and 40% suffer sistomiasis (deadly disease caused by a parasite). The majority of children that HIF attend to have skin disease and rashes caused by poor hygiene and contaminated water. After performing some external cleaning, distributing soap to families and PRAYER, we found almost all these children healed when we returned on our next outreach!!! Some people thought that the soap we gave was magic soap!! We had to inform them that these samples given by hotels are not magic. Many people thanked our staff and testified that these healings were a miracle. This gave us the opportunity to give glory to God!!! The gospel is falling on fertile soil and it is evident by the changes taking place all around the community!! Please keep them in your prayers and ask God to help guide and protect Hope For The Island as we minister in these areas. We have also begun ministering in an even smaller village a short distance from San Mateo called Matinao. The conditions there are just as harsh. We Praise God in advance trusting more souls will be saved and lives will be transformed!Jenn's parents (from Canada) recently visited HIF. It was a joy having them here for 5 weeks! I have asked them to share their experience in an upcoming newsletter. They will share insights and experiences from a western mindset that I know you will find interesting to read. Visitors always remind us that after 8 yrs as a couple in the mission field our perspective has changed and that what we find commonplace could be sometimes be shocking and even odd to you.Please pray for a mission team from Maui, Hawaii. They will be here Sept 16-Oct 2. The theme of the camp is "Walking on Water". The teaching emphasis will be on the life of Peter. There is so much to draw from Peter's life that ties into the culture, struggles and even occupation of many of those who will attend. HIF has invited 300 youth that attend high school in our neighboring village of Burgos. Many currently attend our weekly Youth Ministry. We are believing God to stir the hearts of these youth to fully commit their lives to the Lord as disciples who will make an impact for the gospel!
Thailand Trip - Recently I was sponsored to attend a Global Hope Network International Conference in Chang Mai, Thailand! God used that time to confirm the direction God was leading HIF. Our heart has been stirred for area of the world that the gospel has not reached. These are places that our ministry can partner through prayer and send future teams. What a great day that will be when we commission our first overseas missions team! I believe God is in the process of showing us how to prepare for this.We have had confirmation from God that HIF must move in the direction of beginning to work towards being more self sustaining. HIF presently operates 10 ministries with 17 staff with only 20% committed financial support! God has always provided and we believe He will continue to rise up supporters to partner with HIF.
Focusing on agriculture HIF will be creating opportunities for cash crops. Sandy soil and salt air limit us in our choices. As well we hope to eventually reduce our current food budget by growing 70% of our daily need. God knows we desperately need a better balanced and more nutritious diet to stay healthy and strong for our busy schedule. Beyond these advantages, HIF would also be able to use a project like this as a launching pad to train local communities for self sustainability and independent living. Through our existing community development programs our desire has always been to see lasting fruit. This only comes by empowering individuals with education and skills to break the cycle of poverty and dependence. Though we have faced many obstacles in our attempts to break this cycle, we are now seeing progress and hope. By modeling these methods and having trustworthy locals take accountable ownership of a project, hope can be stirred in the heart of others to also apply these techniques that they see effectively working through their own people. Please pray that God will continue to direct us as we pursue these avenues of community development. Also that God would call Filipino and non Filipino missionaries who would be willing to join HIF in this pioneering project. HIF would provide training. If you are interested and have a green thumb Email us at byfaith65@hotmail.com