A Great Get-a-way

Last Saturday I finally did something I have been wanting to do for a long time, I ran away from the city all by myself to think and reflect and gain perspective. I had not been a rough week in regards to work load or things happening in the church, but in dealing with pain. I had been looking over a popular social networking site in the Philippines that a lot of youth use here to find a youth I had not seen since I had been back. I was shocked to find some not so nice pictures on her site. I sent her a message and asked her whats going on and why she had not come to the church to see me. She replied and gave me her cell phone number. I wanted to meet, and I asked where she was and she replied, "Malate." This got me very very nervous because Malate is part of Manila notorious for prostitution of all ages, bars and foreigners. I went to meet her that night and we chatted and she said she had not come to church because she is shy to the other because she had gotten into some bad things. My worst nightmares were true, a newly turned 17 year old girl had been selling her body to foreigners for the last 4 months. I was absolutely heart broken. I have known this girl for almost 3 years, she is a sweet simple girl and even my parents met her on their first trip here. I pleaded with her to come back and just get away from there. I offered that she could stay with one of my team members and we would take care of her for a while, but she was to shy or embarrassed. So I settled for her to just come and talk with one of our female workers that knows her very well, she did not show.

I was so overwhelmed for days and on Saturday I had to get away. It was 4:30pm Saturday that I decided to go, and by 5pm I was on my bike and off to a wonderful place called Tagaytay. I arrived at 7:30pm and asked one person where I could spend the night, and then the beauty and hospitality of the Filipinos shined. The women took me in to a resort, woke up the worker, got me a room and a cheap price, then fed me and checked up on me the each day. The resort had no others staying there except for Korean tourists during the day coming for boat rides. The place was quite and beautiful and right on the lake! I will attach a picture. It only took till lunch and I new all the staff of the place and mid afternoon I joined the guys working there and we took out a bamboo raft into the lake and swam. It was so nice to laugh and joke with those guys. I spent my nights listening to teaching on my laptop and thinking. The book of Micah has been in my heart for weeks now. I preached on the book a few weeks ago and fell in love with it. Though no one wanted to hear, Micah stood up and fearlessly called out his nation to justice. He called out the social injustices that plagued his people, and elegantly in chapter 6 shows the people what God is really after. I know that it is my call, like Micah, to not let injustice consume the Philippines. The pain of the people has been burning deep in me, and those few nights I spent reflecting God reminded me that it's because of pain I am here. Its so challenging to fight injustice when it is almost a way of life for people. Please pray with me that God will continually reveal to how to effectively and meaningfully fight injustice here.

I came back to the city renewed and missing Vincent or "bunso." I am surprised to say but I really love having him live with me. We have grown close and most nights we wander off and eat dinner together and tease each other. Its so nice to see him happy since I know the deep pain he has endured. I have a good relationship established with him now, and I want to start working towards a more permanent solution for him. Please pray for this because it could be very complicated. Its been a big change having to think about another person all the time. I really feel like a father, and I again find myself in way over my head, but I am also coming to peace with that because it seems to be the story of my life in the Philippines.

The girl we casted a demon out of a few weeks ago is doing well. She just graduated high school and looks like a new person. The next prayer meeting after the exorcism I did everything I could to try and see if there was any more demons in her, thankfully there was none. Near the end of the meeting I told them to each get a partner and pray with them. After a few minutes I noticed she had finished with her first partner and did not have one. I called her over and put my arm around her and asked her to pray first. She began to cry and I listen to a beautiful prayer of thanks giving. She had finally known freedom from the anger that probably was the door for the demon, and I stood there amazed. I gave thanks to God for the healing He had done in her. It was a beautiful moment, and a real triumph for me!

The next few months will be interesting as we are in the middle of summer. Lots of youth around all the time, and we are planning on starting some new ministries. I will be writing some tests for bible school in mid May so please pray for me that I can do well.

Though I feel much better then I did last week, the pain of what people are going through here has become a deep burden, its like I carry it now as well. I know that in the same way Jesus carried my burdens I must for the people. There is no more pure and potent way to show the love of Jesus.

Pray with me as I try and figure out what I am going to do. Pray that God can restore the broken and that I may be faithful hands and feet of Jesus.

Brett

The Wildest Yet!

In my last update I mentioned that I had a hunch that the girl who had been caught stealing might have had some sort of spiritual attack or something, and I was very right! Two other times we had prayed with her I knew something was not right, her movements and actions did not seem normal at all. On Friday night during our prayer meeting I finally got my confirmation that there was demonic activity going on. When Rodel sat beside her to pray with her I noticed that she rocked forward hard and became upset so I went over to assist him. When I sat down and started praying, the girl threw herself onto the ground and I knew that she had a demon inside her. Rodel and I continued to pray with her and she became more violent and tried to move away from us. One of the other leaders came over to hold her down and she continued to shriek at the top of her lungs, which was honestly one of the worst things I have ever heard in my life! We prayed and prayed for a few minutes without much luck and all the scared youth came in and laid hands on her and prayed with us. Rodel then called them off and told them to step back and I continued alone to pray with her as Rico held her down. I demanded her to say that she is a child of God, and after commanding her in the name of Jesus she declared it, and then I made her say that she is redeemed by the blood of Jesus. After that it was as if she passed out and we all began to sing together. After we sang some more I went and prayed with her again and she woke up and grabbed my hand and I new the demon was gone. It was absolutely the craziest thing I have ever experienced in my life. I had been reviewing a book I read with a part about demon possession, and I am sure glad I did because it gave me a good idea of what I was going to have to deal with. It was profound to me to see how powerful God is. When I spoke of the holy blood of Jesus the demon went crazy and she screamed so loud, as scary as it was, I saw first hand how powerful God is, and the authority God has over all things especially demons. It was an experience I will never forget, but after speaking with people about it here, for sure it wont be the last time. The very spiritual culture of the Philippines opens many doors for demon possession.

On a much lighter and happier note it was Bunso's birthday yesterday and we surprised him with a cake. He came in the church and all the lights were off and we turned them on and brought out the cake and started singing. He did his best to hide his tears but we all saw and it just about gave me some. How many birthdays had he spent in the back of a jeepney alone, and now he has a family, it truly was a very beautiful moment! The boy continues to amaze me! Yesterday I came home to find my house cleaned from top to bottom even the cloths folded on the shelves. He is respectful and intelligent and shows so much potential and I am very happy that God brought him to us. He is now part of the family, and I could not be happier about it. We will continue the process of reconciling with his family, but we are not going to rush that because we don't want him taking off again.

Thank you all for your prayers and love, as you can see we must be doing something right because satan sure does like what he sees. Please continue to pray with us as I feel like this is just the beginning of what is coming.

Brett

Our "Bunso"

When I sent my last update I was pretty frustrated with the way things had been going and what I was seeing. I had sent that email in the morning and things got very interesting that evening. I got hauled out of bed at 11pm to find out that one of my youth had stolen about 250$ from one of the missionaries. It was very overwhelming because I was sure there was a deeper issue at hand, and we found out she has a serious problem with stealing. I really appreciate one of my team mates who has a back round in psychiatry and was able to work with the girl a bit and get the whole story out of her. It was clear that her problems are over all of our heads, but God already provided an option and I have been in contact with a counselor and that will begin soon. When we met with her and got her to confess everything thats happened it was clear there was some spiritual activity. When she was asked to say that "she belongs to god," she had trouble and made a few violent movements. We continued to pray and she said it and seemed to have some healing. After speaking to her the past few days I really feel that we are going to have to work through a lot more spiritual healing. I cant confirm that there is demon possession simply because I dont have any experience but judging by her reactions in some of our prayer times and what she has been saying I think its a reality. Please pray for me and the others here that we can properly discern what is wrong with her weather it simply be a deep emotional pain or something spiritual.

Now the good news! A few days ago a women approached me and told me about a boy who was living in our community who had run away from home a year and a half ago. She wanted us to take care of him, so she called him over and we chatted. I was surprised because the boy was well behaved and respectful, which is not normal for 14 year old boys who call the streets home. The more we talked the more I realized that this kid was going to fit right in with us. So the next night he moved into the church. It worked out great that the social worker from one of our other ministries was at the office and she gave me some advice in how to deal with the situation. Vincent, ran away from home because his parents beat him, that is all he has told us, but I would assume there is more to it since terrible things can happen to children in squatter areas. I will meet with the parents and see if reconciliation is possible and go from there. I am not in a hurry so that we can establish a great relationship with Vincent so he trusts us and will not take off again. It was so amazing to see how the youth in the church embraced him as our own. People got him cloths and all the things he needed, and the older girls have been a mother to him. It was so cool because one day he was sleeping in the back of a jeepny, and the next he literally had a family. Now he is staying at my apartment with me and some other youth so that he can be completely separated from his old life and begin a new one. He has very appropriately been named "bunso" which is the tagalog for the youngest in the family. I am blown away with how good of a kid he is, and I really thank God from bringing him to our church. Please pray for him though as we will try and reconcile with the family and figure out what the real problem is.

I will keep you all posted on whats happening with our bunso and with the other youth with the stealing problem.

Thank you all,

Brett

Update: Prayer

Last Monday was a very special day for me. Though the actual service was not very good and went massively over time and was 4 and half hours in total, it still was special for me. Apparently a bunch of old pastors don't know how to run a program! ha ha

This week has also been a very challenging one. After a lot of frustrations with the youth workers I had cancel the program. The commitment was not there and I simply gave them something they were not ready to handle. This was really hard for me to accept, but I realized I can't rush people and they grow only as they grow. Its also challenging because in Canada we are fed independence our whole lives, which is the complete opposite to how filipino youth are raised. They can live in poverty and be happy, which is a maturity that I will never understand so I would call us even.

The real reason for this update is to ask for prayer. One thing I did not mention in my other updates was that two weeks a mother came to me with a 8 month old baby who had had diarrhea for a week and dropped almost half its weight. I new this was very serious and thankfully the next night I was able to take the baby to a rescue run by a Canadian family and got the baby treated. The baby was dehydrated and could have easily died. When I go outside and walk to the church and have piles of kids run to me to play or throw them around, this is what I see. Once in a while a baby who almost dies, children who can't go to school in a city where its almost free, and kids dont get to eat. It breaks my heart every time, and the part that hurts me is I have no clue what to do. One of my youth handed me a letter the other day and told me that she wants so badly to serve and make change but she cant even eat breakfast before school or have shampoo. I am desperately trying to find an answer to my question which is -How can our church shine? How can we make a difference? The reality is that I am completely exhausted of ideas and I cant take looking into the eyes of a child or youth who are bound and gagged in poverty and not know what to do.

Please pray with me that God will raise up new people more youth to begin making change. Pray that God will use our church to shine to our community and be a safe haven. Pray that God will enable me and show what His desire is. I know that when all human know how is exhausted God can then move, so please pray that God moves mightily and that we can make real long lasting change in our community.

Thank you all, its moments like this when I am so thankful to be able to email a huge group of people and be able to share my burdens and blessings and know there are people praying.

Brett

Interesting News

I am very nervously but excitingly announcing that this monday I will be officially ordained this Monday as pastor. An organization called "Alliance of Christian Leaders of Makati," will be doing the ordination. This is also the organization that our church will go under for all the legal and registration purposes. Now your probably thinking what I am thinking, which is why would they ordain such a young, inexperienced man. Well to that question I dont have an answer, but I can honestly say that there is nothing I have done in the Philippines since the day I arrived was I ever "ready" for. From speaking with the leader of the organization what I really felt was that he wanted to empower new young leaders, and help them get all the credentials they would need. Since Mackie left for Canada already, it will just be me and Rodel. We are both super nervous and dont really know what to think. Every part of me says I am not ready or I am to young, but I did nothing to make this happen, I even hardly had a say, which makes me confident this is from God.

Last sunday was our churches first year anniversary! It was a really special time for us, especially for me and Rodel as we look where God has brought us from. The place was packed with about 80 people and was so hot! Some of the youth did some drama presentations and it was a wild service. We had around 30 people come forward to commit or recommit their lives to Jesus, and was just overall a very powerful experience. I actually almost laugh when I think of where God has brought us from. Starting with a few kids in a house, to a service, to our own church building and now I will be made an official pastor in the Philippines. Its been just over 2 years now and this is where I am and I cant believe it. God has broken me so many times, shown me His faithfulness so many times, and each experience gets harder and harder and the blessings just keep getting bigger and bigger.

Thank you all for your prayers and support for me over the past few years now. None of this could be done without people committing to interceding and people willing to sacrifice what they have earned so that these youth could know the life changing love of Jesus. May you all be blessed more and more!

Brett

Church Mission Trip

I am excited to let you all know that I will be going to a church in a place called Pampangga, about a hour and half north of Manila to preach. I was invited before I left in September, but was not able to make it out there, so after meeting with the pastor early last week we set the next Sunday as my time to speak. One thing I love about the Philippines is how easy it is to do certain things, like have a guest speaker come, and only plan it the week before! The church has about a 100 members, so this will be the biggest crowd I have ever preached to, also the first time the majority are not youth, so to be honest I am a bit nervous. When I began praying and seeking God on what He wanted me to share, He led me to Micah, and to really challenge the people. I was inspired by Micah's calling out of injustice and evil that Israel had fallen into, and I will challenge the people to not sit back and let the injustice that surrounds continue to flourish.

Please pray for me that I will be a blessing to this church, and the the Holy Spirit will enable me to speak with wisdom and encouragement.

This week has been a very interesting one! It has held many conflicts, but also many blessings. We had been having some relationship issues with me and the other pastors, and last Sunday I was feeling very burden and not very excited to preach. With the issues still unresolved, I went ahead and preached to the youth, and it went well. After I spoke, we began to worship again and I was given a mighty big wake up call. I asked the youth, in spite of the evil that our world holds, the seemingly never ending fight against poverty and injustice, who will be the hands and feet of Jesus? A few came forward and then God showed me who was in control. I can honestly say I have never experienced anything more divine then watching youth who carry burdens that i cant begin to understand fall to their knees weeping finally have a moments peace in the presence of God. I went into that service and was emotionally out of gas, but God showed me that even if I am running low He can and will fill me up.

I have been so inspired this week, after the healing of all relationships, God has continued to challenge me to be His hands and feet of compassion, and I will continue relaying that back to these youth. One youth told me that all the youth were going to start meeting saturday morning at 5 am to 6am for prayer, and then go jogging. My jaw almost hit the floor, because I had made no mention of anything close to that, but they had thought of it themselves. These youth continue to blow my mind, and God continues to blow my mind. One thing I have really learned is that if you make yourself fully available for God, He will do some pretty interesting things.

Please also pray for the youth, that they will continue to burn with passion for their nation and work hard for it.

I will send an update after this weekend, and let you all know how my time goes in Pampangga.

Thank you all for joining in this ministry!

Brett

Back in Manila

After a few long days of traveling and a few delays, I am finally back. I had a very interesting time in the airports and met lots of filipinos! By the time i was in Chicago I had already made a whole bunch of filipino friends. It was really nice because I was able to eat with them and talk with them.

The weather right now in the Philippines is absolutely perfect, actually a little cool. Getting into the cold water of the shower takes me a while to do! haha

The first day was a little awkward with the young people which I was expecting, but by the second day, I already felt as if I had not left. I am very proud of Mackie and Rodel for their hard work for the church while I was gone and was very happy to see more then 20 very committed youth serving in the church. In a few weeks I will have a better idea of how the youth are, as it will take me a bit to get to know all the new ones, so please keep that in your prayers as well, that I may be able to really connect with the new youth.

Its already been very overwhelming talking to some of the youth and the things they are going through. Its clear to me now that I will be doing a lot of counseling this year. I really admire these youth, some 5 years younger then me have already faced a 100 times more hardships then me, yet they are still relentless in serving.

On tuesday i met with a group of youth and shared to them my vision for the ministry for 2009. It was a very special time, as I had been waiting for months to be able to share what God had revealed to me. I started off by asking them a question. I asked them if they think its ok that that the only way to get ahead or help your family in the Philippines is to leave the country for work. (this is something that would be considered normal for most filipinos) After I said it I really noticed the question sparked their hearts. One boy looked me right in the eyes and said "NO." Its amazing to see the passion to fight injustice in these youth when they are just given the opportunity. Our ministry these for 2009 will be "becoming the change you want to see in the Philippines." I challenged the youth to follow Jesus' example, by simply loving mercy and being compassionate in everything He did, Jesus flipped the whole world up side down. One thing that is clear to me is that change will never come from the outside, it has to come from within. My dream is to see a new generation of Filipino youth say know to unjust cultural norms stand up and make change in a way honoring to God.

These week I have taken it easy trying to get back to life here and get my new apartment set up. Next week things will get very busy. There is much more to say, but i will save it for my next update.

Thank you all for your commitment in prayers and support!

Brett