Dear All,
The first purpose for this blog was to write about our proposed trip to the Philippines. Travis had planned for us to live there for about three months beginning the first of 2008. Those plans have now changed, and I am sending below a post that Travis wrote regarding that change.
Let me say that although I had nothing to do with the plans, other than to agree to go with him, I really had never felt inclined to go on any of his visits to the Philippines before. Since I am not crazy about flying, I didn't push myself to accompany him on any of his previous trips because I felt that he could accomplish more of what he was planning to do without me along.
When our previous plans were announced to my family (my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister and brother-in-law), my brother wasn't happy about my going, but was supportive of our desires to follow Christ wherever we were lead. My sister simply asked me to pray a specific prayer: "That God would close any door that HE hadn't opened." Apparently, the Lord answered that prayer, and sent the answer to Travis, as per his following post.
Travis:
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:21
The Philippine Project: A village development effort of electrification, livelihood projects, and education inputs to aid remote poor villages in the Philippines. The Philippine Project was God's answer to my prayer for personal meaning to Matthew 25:31-40
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
God's Word had convinced me that all gifts, talents, and abilities are given by God, and those given to me were to be used to bring honor and glory to the Giver. That understanding, coupled with my question of Matthew 25, led me to a series of heart-felt prayers for understanding, and for a life direction decision. I prayed, "Lord, show me, and I will obey." I later added, "Lord, open the doors of opportunity for service and I will walk in if you will walk with me." I feel God had a method of worship that is through service; I just needed direction.
While on a preaching trip to the Philippines with a group of Primitive Baptist preachers, a Filipino PB pastor (who, upon learning that I am an electrical engineer and had, at that time, over 22 years of experience with electric power companies) asked to tell me his dream for his people. "His people" were members of a very poor chuch in the mountains of Southern Mindanoa, where he pastored. Due to El Nino, they had not had rain for eight months. Being farmers who had to have three crops a year just to subsist, their crops had failed, resulting in the starvation of six children in that little village.
He explained that his dream was to get electricity to the village so he could teach the men to weld, and to use power tools, in order to make them employable so that they could find work during periods of failed crops. He said that until now he had not had an electrical engineer like me to help him. It took me about a week of reflection to realize that God had just answered my prayer. In the mind of the Filipino pastor, I had the gifts and ability to help. In the people of these remote villages, in the spirit of Matthew 25:31-40, I had seen "Jesus hungry".
Without a lot of details, I will just say that the Lord brought success to the effort to electrify the pastor's village. This resulted in a continuing effort in the Philippines, and today I am the team leader of the Philippine Project, and we have been further blessed to get electricity to 30 remote villages, with others being planned to be electrified. We have started over 50 livelihood projects, including two ladies' sewing co-ops, a furniture factory, and several agricultural projects. We have distributed several ocean containers of medical equipment to rural hospitals, donated over 400 used computers to needy schools, and placed over 4,000 pounds of used text books and other school supplies in Filipino schools.
From the beginning, this was a work of faith. By that, I mean that I believed (by faith) what God said, and I believe He answers prayer, so I continued to pray, "Lord, You open the door of service and I will walk through it if you will walk with me." He continued to lead.
The trouble for me with works of faith is that I often enjoy the Lord's success, then I'm tempted into thinking I can take the lead for awhile. This attitude has been a problem more than once over the seven years of this project. The results have always been the same; some humbling and repentance has to take place on my part before God will resume the leadership and restart the flow of blessings.
From my own storehouse of knowledge and wisdom, I decided in early 2007 that my wife Elaine and I should move to the Philippines for about a three-month period. I planned to retire from my power company job in early 2008, and spend time in furthering the efforts of the Philippine Project. After explaining that to Elaine, she said she was feeling no leadership of the Spirit in that direction, but she would be obedient to the instruction of Ephesians 5:22. She said that if that is what I thought the Lord wanted, she would go. I guess she had said that enough that I began to pray, "Lord, if this is not what you want, please let me know." That was actually one of my prayers as I was traveling on my most recent trip to the Philippines in September.
The Lord answered that prayer in an overwhelming way. First of all, the Philippine Electric Co-op that I work with requested that instead of a three-month visit each year, they would prefer that I make more frequent but shorter trips. They thought that would be more productive. During that last trip I was also looking for a good place for Elaine to stay while I would be traveling in the hinterlands of the Philippines. The loction that I had settled on experienced three power outages during my five-night stay there. One of the outages lasted 23 hours, another one lasted twelve hours, and the third lasted six hours. It was not just one town that suffered these outages, but the entire province. The significance of that was that with Elaine's respiratory problems, she must have air conditioning in order to breathe. The climate there adds to the problem in that there are high temperatures and high humidity. She would have had a problem with nowhere within a four-hour drive in order to find relief, and if I were out of touch she would have no transportation.
During my last trip, I traveled through a small village to get to one of my meetings. A group of Communist Rebels overpowered the town police force and took all theier guns and ammunition. The Philippine Army was on full alert with road blocks in several locations, and the U.S. Embassy had issued a strong advisory to all American personnel in the area to use extreme caution. Also while in the Philippines, I checked in on two conference calls with folks back at work in order to keep current with a project I had been working on. I ws advised to expect to receive a request to delay my retirement a little longer than I had intended. I had previously given notice planned to retire January 2, 2008, but a project I was working on looked like it would drag on into the second quarter of 2008. On top of all that, we were having unexpected difficulty finding someone to assume my pastorate in the U. S.
The sum of what I am saying is that I received the Lord's answer to my prayer regarding a move to the Philippines. I am saying that I got ahead of the Lord on this one, and have cancelled our plans for a three-month stay in the Philippines. Until I receive further guidance I will do no more than make shorter trips as I am led.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first purpose for this blog was to write about our proposed trip to the Philippines. Travis had planned for us to live there for about three months beginning the first of 2008. Those plans have now changed, and I am sending below a post that Travis wrote regarding that change.
Let me say that although I had nothing to do with the plans, other than to agree to go with him, I really had never felt inclined to go on any of his visits to the Philippines before. Since I am not crazy about flying, I didn't push myself to accompany him on any of his previous trips because I felt that he could accomplish more of what he was planning to do without me along.
When our previous plans were announced to my family (my brother and sister-in-law, and my sister and brother-in-law), my brother wasn't happy about my going, but was supportive of our desires to follow Christ wherever we were lead. My sister simply asked me to pray a specific prayer: "That God would close any door that HE hadn't opened." Apparently, the Lord answered that prayer, and sent the answer to Travis, as per his following post.
Travis:
"There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Proverbs 14:21
The Philippine Project: A village development effort of electrification, livelihood projects, and education inputs to aid remote poor villages in the Philippines. The Philippine Project was God's answer to my prayer for personal meaning to Matthew 25:31-40
Mat 25:31 When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
Mat 25:32 And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
Mat 25:33 And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35 For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?
Mat 25:38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?
Mat 25:39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
God's Word had convinced me that all gifts, talents, and abilities are given by God, and those given to me were to be used to bring honor and glory to the Giver. That understanding, coupled with my question of Matthew 25, led me to a series of heart-felt prayers for understanding, and for a life direction decision. I prayed, "Lord, show me, and I will obey." I later added, "Lord, open the doors of opportunity for service and I will walk in if you will walk with me." I feel God had a method of worship that is through service; I just needed direction.
While on a preaching trip to the Philippines with a group of Primitive Baptist preachers, a Filipino PB pastor (who, upon learning that I am an electrical engineer and had, at that time, over 22 years of experience with electric power companies) asked to tell me his dream for his people. "His people" were members of a very poor chuch in the mountains of Southern Mindanoa, where he pastored. Due to El Nino, they had not had rain for eight months. Being farmers who had to have three crops a year just to subsist, their crops had failed, resulting in the starvation of six children in that little village.
He explained that his dream was to get electricity to the village so he could teach the men to weld, and to use power tools, in order to make them employable so that they could find work during periods of failed crops. He said that until now he had not had an electrical engineer like me to help him. It took me about a week of reflection to realize that God had just answered my prayer. In the mind of the Filipino pastor, I had the gifts and ability to help. In the people of these remote villages, in the spirit of Matthew 25:31-40, I had seen "Jesus hungry".
Without a lot of details, I will just say that the Lord brought success to the effort to electrify the pastor's village. This resulted in a continuing effort in the Philippines, and today I am the team leader of the Philippine Project, and we have been further blessed to get electricity to 30 remote villages, with others being planned to be electrified. We have started over 50 livelihood projects, including two ladies' sewing co-ops, a furniture factory, and several agricultural projects. We have distributed several ocean containers of medical equipment to rural hospitals, donated over 400 used computers to needy schools, and placed over 4,000 pounds of used text books and other school supplies in Filipino schools.
From the beginning, this was a work of faith. By that, I mean that I believed (by faith) what God said, and I believe He answers prayer, so I continued to pray, "Lord, You open the door of service and I will walk through it if you will walk with me." He continued to lead.
The trouble for me with works of faith is that I often enjoy the Lord's success, then I'm tempted into thinking I can take the lead for awhile. This attitude has been a problem more than once over the seven years of this project. The results have always been the same; some humbling and repentance has to take place on my part before God will resume the leadership and restart the flow of blessings.
From my own storehouse of knowledge and wisdom, I decided in early 2007 that my wife Elaine and I should move to the Philippines for about a three-month period. I planned to retire from my power company job in early 2008, and spend time in furthering the efforts of the Philippine Project. After explaining that to Elaine, she said she was feeling no leadership of the Spirit in that direction, but she would be obedient to the instruction of Ephesians 5:22. She said that if that is what I thought the Lord wanted, she would go. I guess she had said that enough that I began to pray, "Lord, if this is not what you want, please let me know." That was actually one of my prayers as I was traveling on my most recent trip to the Philippines in September.
The Lord answered that prayer in an overwhelming way. First of all, the Philippine Electric Co-op that I work with requested that instead of a three-month visit each year, they would prefer that I make more frequent but shorter trips. They thought that would be more productive. During that last trip I was also looking for a good place for Elaine to stay while I would be traveling in the hinterlands of the Philippines. The loction that I had settled on experienced three power outages during my five-night stay there. One of the outages lasted 23 hours, another one lasted twelve hours, and the third lasted six hours. It was not just one town that suffered these outages, but the entire province. The significance of that was that with Elaine's respiratory problems, she must have air conditioning in order to breathe. The climate there adds to the problem in that there are high temperatures and high humidity. She would have had a problem with nowhere within a four-hour drive in order to find relief, and if I were out of touch she would have no transportation.
During my last trip, I traveled through a small village to get to one of my meetings. A group of Communist Rebels overpowered the town police force and took all theier guns and ammunition. The Philippine Army was on full alert with road blocks in several locations, and the U.S. Embassy had issued a strong advisory to all American personnel in the area to use extreme caution. Also while in the Philippines, I checked in on two conference calls with folks back at work in order to keep current with a project I had been working on. I ws advised to expect to receive a request to delay my retirement a little longer than I had intended. I had previously given notice planned to retire January 2, 2008, but a project I was working on looked like it would drag on into the second quarter of 2008. On top of all that, we were having unexpected difficulty finding someone to assume my pastorate in the U. S.
The sum of what I am saying is that I received the Lord's answer to my prayer regarding a move to the Philippines. I am saying that I got ahead of the Lord on this one, and have cancelled our plans for a three-month stay in the Philippines. Until I receive further guidance I will do no more than make shorter trips as I am led.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1 Comments:
Sister Elaine,
I've very much enjoyed reading your posts here -- and also Brother Travis' account of the way he's been led in his work in the Philippines. The faith in GOD that both of you possess shines brightly.
And, how good it is to know GOD's vision is infinite -- while we mortals see but the present and make tentative plans at best -- HE always sees all and knows best!
Blessings,
Peggy
Post a Comment
Home