Cuenca, Batangas & Manila

May 30 to June 2014

Cuenca, Batangas, Manila – May 30 to June 7

My maiden mission trip to Philippines can be said to be a record-breaker. This is because of the many firsts that I had experienced during this trip. In fact of the seven of us who came along, at least five of us were first-timers.

1.       It was my first time leading a mission team of this size. I was not sure what to do but I thank God for the prayers of HGC and the ‘obedience’ of team members. 

I was particularly concerned when Festus came down with fever on Monday.  As Allison and I sponged him to bring the temperature down, I wanted so much to text Ps Khor to ask him to pray for Festus’s healing. 

Somehow the Holy Spirit reminded me that Ps Khor had been praying for us during morning prayers and that God will heal Festus so that he could enjoy the rest of the mission trip. Praise God that Festus’s fever came down the following day after a night of rest, water and panadol! We took turns to do the morning devotion, prayed and worshipped in the Spirit and also had much fun and laughter teasing one another during our first mission trip together as a team.

2.       It was my first time preaching a message on the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This was at the request of Ps Willy who was conducting a 2-month discipleship training session for church leaders and members of the Cuenca Bible Christian Church. Both he and Vicky had been faithfully conducting a discipleship series every Saturday and wanted to cap it with a final series of teaching on the Holy Spirit.

We had a truly awesome time. All our messages flowed with each other. The final session with Allison was to put into practice all that we had taught them for the past two-days. I heard the sound of a mighty rushing wind while Dorothy saw rain falling on the people. 

Many young people were in tears. Psalm saw a vision of halo around people’s heads. The message was that we had been cleansed and had received the Holy Spirit. We are to continue to walk in the Spirit and to keep the halo around our heads burning brightly!

3.       It was my first time praying for people to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. So many spoke in tongues. Many broke down and cried when Tim and I led them to pray the prayer of repentance, some crying uncontrollably. Other team members prayed for the sick and people were falling all over the place, slain by the power of the Holy Spirit!

4.       It was also my first time to receive a certificate nicely framed up thanking me for being part of the discipleship training. For all of us who had received the certificate, we were deeply touched. 

When I held the certificate with my name on it, which certificate was signed by the senior pastors, I felt that I had graduated from Bible school. However the reality was I had so much to learn from the Christians of the Cuenca Bible Christian Church! 

Their humility, hospitality and their eagerness to serve us with their excellent meals, transportation for the seven of us and blessing us with a free holiday to Tagaytay (a volcano island with stunning scenery) was something unparalleled as compared to all the other mission trips I had ever attended. Like one of my team members said, we truly felt appreciated!

5.       To my shock and surprise, we were even given a big offering on our last day! This is also my first time to receive a love offering after ministering. Having ministered in different mission trips in the past, I have more often than not ended up given things away to the locals.  Joy filled our hearts when as a group, we decided with one heart to sow the money back to the church!

6.       It was also my first time to pray for the municipal council of Cuenca, a district of Batangas (province of the Philippines). I was asked to share my testimony during the flag-raising ceremony with the workers of the municipal office and to pray for the city of Cuenca. 

That morning as we took turns to pray during our morning devotion, one of the sisters in the team prayed for the gates of Cuenca to be opened to welcome the King of Glory. I decided to share on Psalm 24 and to lead the council staff gathered on the open space of the municipal council grounds to pray for clean hands, pure hearts asking God to forgive them for turning their soul to an idol.  Then I asked them to pray a prayer with me to invite Jesus into their hearts and into the city.  At least 40 council employees including the mayor of Cuenca prayed to open their hearts and the gates of the city to the King of Glory!

7.       It was also my first time witnessing to so many people. Armed only with the tract ‘Steps to peace with God’, I went through the 4-steps with more than 10 people, leading them to pray the sinner’s prayer, at the mall, at a 7/11 outlet, at a tourist spot, in a home, at Payatas (a slum area in Manila) and at a Dunking Donuts outlet. 

I also managed to distribute a number of tracts to several people that I met during this trip.

8.       It was also my first time to meet a humble Korean missionary, Rev Lee who had started a school in Batangas and a church in the area to reach out to the young people in the area. In fact Ps Willy shared with us that he grew up in BPC (Batangas Presbyterian Church) and that his life had been much impacted by Rev Lee’s 25 years of ministry in Batangas.

This trip is an eye-opener for me as I could see how Ps Willy and Vicky treasured their time with us in HGC. 

They shared with their church that we made their family felt so at home with our love and hospitality during their short time in Malaysia.

They also implemented many of the things that they saw us doing in HGC in the Cuenca Church for e.g. the discipleship training sessions leading to the possibility of starting discipleship groups in the different Barangays (similar to our life groups) with the possibility of turning the discipleship groups into daughter churches, the DISC profile which they learnt from Ps Nicholas Choo and which they brought back to let their senior pastors do (in so doing they discovered the personalities of their senior pastor and wife). 

They even adopted the format of our membership profile, the pre-service prayers, the prayers during services, the ‘harp & bowl’ prayer and worship sessions during their prayer meetings!

I have been so blessed. I have been so enriched. My heart is bursting with joy!

Salamat po Jesus! Paalam Cuenca, Batangas and Manila! We will be back!