We are now in Manila, PH prepping to meet up with the rest of our team to catch our final flight to the region where we will be ministering together.
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Some wonderful friends seeing part of Team 1 off!! Thank you Pastor Chuck and Gary, Dr. Jani and Kris for your help and love to see us off!
Banaue, PhilippinesThis is our destination for the 2019 Callis Team Missions!
SO much has happened these last couple of weeks. Our data/internet was limited so I didn't post on this blog as I had planned. Instead, Facebook had better connectivity. In the Philippines, they were called online PROMOS. So be sure to scroll through our FB profile starting with the LIFEHOUSE EVERYTHING Drama on February 5th.
The suitcases are lining up.... Tomorrow afternoon we will start the caravan with the rest of the team to SFO to begin our 24+ hours travel by car, plane, bus, boat/bus to the island of Mindoro Oriental, Philippines. Our flight leaves at 12:05am!! We will then meet up with our additional team members from Africa and China--26 of us total. We covet your prayers.
God did much in our 12 ministry days in the Philippines. We were privileged to serve with 23 team members from all over California, as well as folks from Alabama, Minnesota, Africa and China. As a result . . THOUSANDS heard the Good News of the Gospel, received prayer for healing and made decisions for growing in their relationship with the Lord. 77 Bible studies were started and 10 churches planted. THANK YOU to those of you who committed to PRAY and provided resources to make it possible for our family to serve in this way. To see God move in/through us and bless the Filipino people makes us love Him ALL THE MORE! We serve a great and LIVING GOD! Just a heads up. . . . We've been invited back again. If you would like to experience Kingdom Life from a new perspective and see the Book of Acts come to life, then consider joining us. We will be taking our next team in February 2016. Register on our family missions website for more information: http://callisteammissions.weebly.com/ Facebook is more readily accessible for updates/pics in the Philippines.
If you'd like to follow along you can check out our FAMILY MISSIONS INTERNATIONAL Facebook page: Family Missions International THANK YOU for your prayers! Sorry for the delay in getting this update to you. My phone was stolen the week before we left so I've had to re-think how to post our updates. My borrowed equipment, internet/Wifi access and time are all factors. Please pray that I figure out a new system so that we can post more for you. Wednesday morning we left EARLY (4am) to start our trek to the airport. Denise Kinabrew graciously took some of our team from Madera and joined us there as well. Thank you Denise! By 11:30pm that day we took our 13+ hour Korean Air flight out of San Francisco. Our 1.5hr layover in Korea went well and we were able to take a picture at the cultural center at the Korean airport. The children traveled peacefully the whole way--that's an answer to prayer! With the a band of tired travelers, we landed safely almost four hours later. We are blessed with an opportunity to have a couple slow days to catch up on the time zone differnce and rest. The weather has been VERY pleasant -- not as hot as we expected. Morning devotions with the Filipino team has been a rich time of worship and reading God's Word. Last night Team A lead out our first crusade/concert. Some of the strongholds or vices that the host pastor asked prayer for that town was smoking, lust and murder. Our team got many requests in the prayer lines for protection because there was much fear. One mama asked for prayer for her son due to restricted breathing problems. Our team member prayed and the felt a POP in the boys back. The Lord healed the boy, the mama was very grateful and later we saw him running around with no problems. THANK YOU LORD! Brian, along with Helga, Chris/Bethany, will go to the first follow-up this afternoon to pass out Bibles and see what Bible studies/churches are started. For tonight's crusade/concert please pray for Team B. SUNDAY: Many of our team members have been asked to preach/share at a church. Unlike last night's crusades, we will be driving two hours away. One of the regions that was NOT mentioned in our map is the area of SAN JUAN. Please include that region your prayers. We will hopefully post more pictures in the following updates. THANK YOU for standing with us in prayer for our family and team. You're invited to meet the team! We'd love for you to come and pray over/bless us with your prayers and friendship. We could not do this without our friends and family. Saturday, November 8th
Calvary Chapel of the Sierra 31907 Oak Junction Lane North Fork, CA 93643 6:00pm 5:00pm Potluck (please bring MAIN+SIDE or MAIN+DESSERT) Each night our family shared the Gospel in evening concerts, during the daytime we went to public schools, pray over the Mayors in some of the villages/towns to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The following is a result of our team (our family, P&A from Asia and Chris Hawes), in the TWO weeks time . . . 6,732 heard the Gospel 6,210 received Jesus as their Lord and savior 925 received prayer from our prayer lines 113 Bible studies started 1 church started Many of the Bible studies grow into churches! Hallelujah! What a privilege to be a part of this ministry. Your prayers made such a difference! Honestly, when I heard about the progress of the typhoon from our leadership, there was a point where I didn't know if we would be separated from our children or ever see them again that day. That is when I texted/emailed you, friends and family back home to pray. Truly, we believe we experienced a miracle in that the destruction was WAY less than predicted in our area. We believe it was your prayers that made ALL the difference. Thank you for standing with us. Only heaven knows the total impact of your faithfulness to lift up our family and team before the throne. We look forward to sharing MORE of what the Lord did during our trip. We serve an AMAZING God. In all sensitivity, there were many that were devastated by the typhoon. One of our dear team members, Gracey, (lead singer and sister in the Lord) traveled back to her home now without a roof and all the belongings in the home destroyed by the rain and flooding from the typhoon. Praise God her parents (pastors) were safe and are alive. The average wage for the Filipinos is about $4/day. How long will it take for some of these pastors, their families re-build their home? It may take a L O N G time. Please read the updated post on how to send funds to help. The donations are tax deductible and all 100% of relief funds will be directed through local pastors whom CMC has standing relationships with each province affected. No administration costs are taken out. House to house evangelism. Our team would go door to door to share about Jesus and pray for folks. We would also invite them to the evening's concert. Daytime Activity: Pastor Jill Boyonas translating our message at one of the high schools. We were blessed to have Charity's mom (Auntie Inday) SAFELY join our team in the second half our our trip. She was a good participant and a joy to have around. Be sure to find her in the team video! Hanna on a bench while waiting for the shuttle to a hotel Korean Air provided for our 12-hour layover. Our final activity in Korea at the Korean Cultural Center before boarding to come home. They had FREE arts and crafts and activities to learn about the Korean culture. Had we known we could've spent more time here--we highly recommended it. This is how we were able to manage on the plane. Overall, Brian calculated over 50-hours travel coming home. We would do it again. A request from Pastor Jill Boyonas
(Philippine Director for the CMC Evangelism/Church Planting movement): NOTE: All donations are tax deductible and all 100% of relief funds will be directed through local pastors whom CMC has standing relationships with each province affected. No administration costs are taken out. If you've already sent funds from the last post, THANK YOU! Marcy B. is the national Treasurer and your donation will still be directed appropriately. This just gives other options to make it easy. Feel welcome to pass it along and share with others. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dear Partners in the Philippine Ministry, We have decided to extend our help to the victims of the recent typhoon in the Philippines in addition to our help for the earthquake victims in Bohol. Today, I have finally made contact with our Provincial Coordinators in Leyte and Western Samar after many days of trying to reach them.They told me of the great devastation and need in the area which has also affected our CMC Pastors and their church members. I have yet to hear from our Provincial Coordinator in Eastern Samar. The power and communication lines in these areas are still down until now. We just finished our last crusade this year and I will be going to Samar and Leyte early next week to meet with the CMC leaders and plan with them how we can effectively distribute any help that we will send them. I covet your prayers for this trip. Please disseminate this info to your crusade team members as well as to those may be able to help us with funds. They can send their help to the same channel I mentioned in the Bohol fund raising campaign: 1. CMC International website paypal donation (www.4cmcinternational.org) 2. Send check payable to CMC International with notation: FOR Phils Typhoon to: CMC International 2839 Coleman Glen Lane Santa Rosa, Ca. 95407 USA 3. Send check payable to Bethel Christian Center with notation: FOR Phils Typhoon to: Bethel Christian Center 4665 N First Street Fresno, Ca USA 3. Wire your donation to CMC Phil account: a) Dollar account Name of account: Church Multiplication Coalition Inc Name of Bank: Bank of the Phil Islands Account Number: 002174 0085 18 Swift number: BOPIPHMM b) Peso account Name of Account: Church Multiplication Coalition Name of Bank: Bank of the Phil Islands Account number: 2173072093 God bless you all. Jill The night of super typhoon Yolanda Eden shared the Gospel message. Despite the weather, 100 people still came to hear. There was a woman, a Christian, whose mother suffered many ailments and was dying. Despirate, she was brought to receive prayer at the crusade. God healed her. By the next day she was feeling so well she came to the follow-up to share about what God had done. The sick woman's neighbor (a non-Christian man with pain and swelling from a wound and infection on his leg) had heard about what had happened and drove to the next village where the concert/crusade was at to receive prayer. Brian prayed for the man. God healed him. He shared his testimony at the front of no more pain and the infection had gone down. Hallelujah! Thank you Lord! Bible studies started with house to house evangelism. Mellie received jesus and wanted to start a Bible study at her house. Her neighbor was part of a cult, but let us pray for them then was willing to hear our message of relationship with Jesus. We could see the pressence of God on one of the women and she accepted our message of love and relationship with God. She will be invited by her neighbor to attend the Bible study next Saturday at 3p. Beer & Prostitution House Making a restroom stop, Chris Hawes and Ptr Jill talked with the owner about Jesus. She not only accepted the free gift of salvation through Jesus, an invitation to start a Bible study was extended. The host pastor pulled Pastor Jill aside and in the local dialect he said, but sir, this is a beer and prostition house! Ptr Jill, with compassion and wisdom said, "this is who Jesus came for." Praise the Lord!
God is so GOOD! Yesterday was the new believers conference. Brian/Charity, Eden, Philip, David and Chris all shared a word of encouragement at the conference. Wow! What a delight and privilege to walk with our children and see the glory of the Lord being radiated from their lives. We are truly humbled. Who would've ever thought that we would receive such honor. I have no greater joy than to see my children walk in truth.
God has granted favor as we minister to the people in the Philippines. Here is a picture of our team ministering to the Mayor of Gumaca. He is a believer and was touched to the point of tears that we would pray for his city and his leadership. The second mayor (of Antimonan) was not a believer but God gave us a plan and words to pray over him. In the end, his eyes revealed that he too was blessed. God granted us much favor. The Above mayor's jurisdiction was over 59 viliages, 20 have churches with a population of over 70,000. God will surely bless his territory. Abigail with her interpreter for door to door evangelism. Already we have shared the Gospel to thousands who have not heard a adequate presentation of the Gospel before. This young man was one of the students (a Christian) that we shared the Gospel to at his public high school. We challenged him to share using our large Evangecube. The ONE Bible study that had been held at his school had been closed down so our coming brought renewed hope and affirmation for the Christian teacher. Apparently, on the map, the Philippines is considered a "Christian" nation (predominantly Catholic) yet many are only familiar with the death and NOT the resurrection of Jesus and why He came. So it's only about 12% evangelical Christians. Due to the super typhoon Yolanda, our two school outreahes were cancelled as the schools were closed. So this afternoon, we will be praying for the sick at a hospital nearby then directly to the concert/crusade. Eden will be sharing a Gospel message tonight. We are told that she is good--looking forward to hearing her share about Jesus.A group of us went by the sea to worship and pray for the typhoon to be re-routed and dissipate. Will you agree with us in prayer? Please pray that the rains cease and that the the people are not discouraged to come to the evening concerts?
Thank you for partnering with us in your prayers! I believe that we we've experienced a miracle! Super typhoon Yolanda has passed the damage was less than predicted. Your prayers have done this. We are so grateful. To God be the glory! Obedience is better than sacrifice . . . Our team felt that we we're to still supposed to hold our concert. We set up in the rain, the children sang and danced, a message of love and hope inviting a relationship with Jesus was presented. Though the streets were flooded, amazingly, the people still came. By the end of the night all the storm and rain had stopped. The response was worth all the effort. A lady came back to today's follow-up (from last night's concert) to say that her one blind eye can see--one of many healings from that typhoon night and 10 Bible studies have started. Wow! God is so good.
May we be faithful to continue to share the Gospel and forcefully advance God's kingdom. One testimony from our door to door evangelism. Thank you Lord!
Thank you for your prayers! This is the view from our room before the typhoon hit our area. We are in a pension house (the equivelent of an older Motel 6 in America). We were fortunate in that we didn't have to use our own bedding as it seems that these had been changed and cleaned. Posting Marcy's update on Typhoon Yolanda in our area. Backtracking . . . UPON ARRIVAL: Our journey took 34-hours from North Fork at 3:45a with a 2-hr layover in Korea, then to our final destination in Lucena City at 4am (that's 1pm California time). We were blessed with a peaceful journey, the children did very well and the only complication was that the interrupted sleep for our babies (Hanna & Lilja) caused them to be sensitive to waking up easily. That only took a day of uninterrupted sleep to catch up and now they're sleeping well. We were blesssed to run into Philip and Ashley while on our way to immigration and customs! Then outside waiting for us was EDEN to pick us up and take us to our home base several hours away! On our first leg of our jouney we partnered with Pastor Powel Lemons (Fresno) and Jonathan Morris' (Malibu) team. However, since many of the team had traveled with CMC to the three national conferences weeks prior, many had already left. We were privileged to meet with some incredible people. This is Omar from Venezuela. A man on fire for God and was already awake all hours of the night mobilizing leaders and pastors in his country to utilize CMC for evangelization and church planting. Hallelujah! This is new believer Cassandra (just SEVEN weeks old) already sharing her testimony and the Gospel. You may recognize her from Hollywood as a model and actress (soap opera: Young and the Restless, among others).
Praise God! THANK YOU FOR YOUR PRAYERS! We made it safely after 34 hrs of travel from North Fork, Korea, to our final destination here. God is doing amazing things among us. Many have come to Jesus, Bible studies are starting, we now have an appointment with the Mayor who is not a believer. We are preaching again tonight. SAD NEWS: I had already put together a detailed report of our time so far including pictures but came back to find it all gone! Agh! So due to a much needed prayer request, I'm just sending something quickly. URGENT PRAYER REQUEST: Please pray! Stage 5 Super Typhoon Yolanda (said to be the largest this year in the Philippines) is coming this direction. Please pass along this request to your prayer network that Super Typhoon Yolanda would turn and go another way and that the Lord would confirm His Word with signs following.
Interestingly, the Lord already had alerted us to be praying about the weather before we left. Good is so good-- He reminds us that He is still in control. The Callis Family We just got the reports in. We were blessed to work with Pastors Jill and Cedric in different regions of the island of Luzon, here is a peek at the results from our three weeks. Only the Lord knows what seeds were planted that were not recorded here because it was done on the side, praying for/in someone's home, at the market or in a church. Each night we did a crusade/concert and during the daytime we went to schools. The following are a result of the THREE weeks from those activities.
We will never forget the lessons learned, the intersession and contending in prayer for God's work to be done in the people. Please pray with us that the harvest is preserved. Thank you Lord for the privilege of serving and advancing your kingdom! After 9 hours in a bus, approx 2 hours waiting for the transfers, 1 hour of accumulated taxis, 13 hours on the plane, and 4 hours in the van. We rolled into our driveway and unloaded our luggage, it's 2:45am. WE'RE HOME! We didn't get into any auto accidents (if you've seen Philippine driving you'd understand what I mean), the plane didn't crash or get hijacked, with the exception of a mild case of tummy blahs, and mosquito bites, we are alive and WELL! What an amazing journey! GOD IS GOOD!
Now to re-set our body clocks, do laundry, paperwork, compile pictures / videos and our memories into something that makes sense. It was a beautiful SUNNY afternoon as we drove into the village. We were greeted with the SHRILLING SCREAMS of a large mama pig being beaten, and tied down....They poured boiling water over her, more SCREAMS! It was an ERIE sound to hear this animal writhing and LITERALLY SCREAMING for her life. We were told that walking distance, just across the the basketball court (the town center), was the gambling house/hut. Later, the kids, and others on the team were saying they saw people with guns on them and under the tables. Again, RAIN threatened this evening's crusade! We prayed fervently, as the drizzle slowly turned into a down pour! God, what next?! Unlike other crusades, this rain didn't seem to let up. Just before we were about to call it quits, an option opened up. One of the neighbors graciously opened up their porch (with electricity) to let the band set up there. We quickly made a shift and the band's overhead tarps became the audience's shelter while the seven member band with instruments SQUEEZED into their mini stage--it was the answer to our prayer! With the rain still pouring, the pigs still continuing to SCREAM for their lives, and the activity of the gamling it seemed like we were light in the middle of it ALL! THANK YOU JESUS we did not give up! Our team continued as scheduled...the concert, Callis girls dancing and singing, testimonies given, Brian preaching, the Gospel of Jesus was shared. In the meanwhile, Pastor Cedric and Philip go into the gamling house passing out our Ang Sagot (The Answer) booklets explaining the way of the cross to our Savior. In this place several money holders carried guns on their body and under the tables. Before Pastor and Philip got out, already many were reading through the booklets!
In FOLLOW-UP the next day is where we see the serious folks who want receive their Bible and sign up to be in a Bible study or church. That day several Bible Studies were started and one church. The gambling house men (with the guns) even showed up with their booklets filled out! They even said if there was a meeting in their Barangay (village) then they would attend. May the gambling house one day be a house of prayer giving honor to God! Praise the Lord! |
AuthorThese writings will be a compilation from each of us so you'll get a perspective of the bigger picture. We hope you ENJOY! Archives
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