Jeremiah Weaver and Rita Klassen both recently visited HIF on short term mission trips. We received these testimonies from them since their return home to the United States (Jeremiah) and Canada ( Rita). Enjoy and be blessed!!!
RITA KLASSEN
As I think back on my time at Hope For The Island, it seems sort of surreal. Like a 
dream. Towards the end of the month that I spent there, the words came out of my mouth: "Lord, how could You bless me so much?" I really wanted to go to HIF to serve them and to bless them in some way. But I came away being the one who was blessed. My heart was touched very deeply and was filled to the brim.
I had the opportunity to help in an administrative task as well as be involved with Children’s and Youth ministry. I participated in a Medical Mission by praying for some of the people who had been helped. I loved reading stories and verses to the kids and teaching them songs. I taught the Youth Discipleship class for three Wednesdays and taught them a couple of songs too. I loved hearing those songs being sung later.
I was struck over and over again by the dichotomy of the beauty of the island and the poverty of it. As I looked out at the ocean, trees, beach and sky, I realized that I could never have my fill of the amazingly beautiful surroundings. I tried to take it all in, but I don’t think that is possible. And at the opposite end of the spectrum are the people who are struggling for their daily needs. It made me think of how much I have 
in Canada and really the responsibility that I have to steward what God has given me. People need their spiritual needs met, yes, but many also have physical needs that are not being met. I think Christians are also called to provide for those needs.
I am anticipating going back to HIF someday soon with my family. My brother and nephew spent eight days at Hope For The Island in March. My sister-in-law and their other three kids are excited to go for their first time. I will travel back with them.
This experience is now part of who I am. It is a brick in my life. This place is in my heart and I am excited to be involved in some small way and to see what God does on Siargao Island.
JEREMIAH WEAVER
This has to be the easiest and hardest thing that I have had to write. Easy because of how 
amazing my time at HIF (Hope for the Island Foundation) was, and difficult for the very same reason. How can I put into words that reflect accurately the experience that I had and reveal the intimacy of the relationships that were formed with God, the staff and the Filipinos in the middle of the Pacific? I think that the best place to start would be what led me to the Philippines.
I was at a place in my walk with God that was more of a backwards stumble. I had faith, knowledge, belief and trust in God, but unfortunately my individual life wasn’t a mirror to that. God was merely God not Lord. I was struggling to find God and honestly was burning out when God through a friend of mine, invited me to sit in on a meeting with the Men of Hope Chapel in Hawaii. They were planning and preparing for doing God’s work in the Philippines. I listened and gave it a week’s worth of thought before deciding that I had nothing better to do and that I really needed something to reconnect me with God, hoping for the joy of my salvation to be restored. I didn’t feel compelled or called to go, but out of a desire to know God, that God placed in my heart (how good is God, not only does He call us to Him, but gives us the desire to answer), I went hoping, praying, and expecting God to move, and He did. He showed up in a big way and gave me His heart for the people of the Philippines that compelled me to remain for an extra month after the team left.
I feel that the two most important things, amongst the gamut of others, are that God desires to use you where you are physically, spiritually, emotionally, globally, etc. Wherever you are, God is there and He can use you. He is faithful to answer as 2 Tim 2:13 says, “though we are unfaithful He remains faithful for He cannot deny Himself. He just needs you to become available first. I was definitely not at a place in my walk that others were coming to me seeking discipleship. I was struggling but made myself available and God in His grace and love brought me to a place where I learned to trust and lean on the Lord and not on my job, finances, friendships, insurance, etc. In that place of dependency, God was able to use me to minister to others, and while this was taking place I was being transformed
more into His image and likeness.
In Psalms 51 David is confronted by Samuel after his adultery with Bathsheba and murder of her husband and responds in verse 10 by asking God, “Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence. And do not take your Holy Spirit from me.” David had messed up, but so have we, with the result of any and all sin being death and eternal separation from God. But thanks to the Lord Jesus Christ’s blameless death on the cross as the embodiment of sin, we are able to come before God with David’s request, and in faith, receive that clean heart and renewed spirit. This is what God in His goodness has given me and I pray that you would also receive that gift. You may have a different experience. If you do decide to visit the family at HIF, God will be faithful as He promises in 2 Tim 2:13.
If traveling there isn’t an option; know that God still has the ability to transform your life right where you are, as He has done for me. Allow Him the time.
You can become a partner in Gods blessing upon the HIF family by supporting them prayerfully and/or financially. Ang Ginoo nahigug ma kanimo (God loves you) ayo ayo (take care)
Your brother in Christ
Jeremiah
