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June NewsletterVolume 17, No. 6 |
IN TSUNAMI-HIT BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA, THE WAVES LIFTED A GIANT 1,000-TON POWER BARGE OVER HOUSES AND TREES 3 MILES INLAND AND CRUSHED HOMES AND PEOPLE. |
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June NewsletterVolume 17, No. 6 |
IN TSUNAMI-HIT BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA, THE WAVES LIFTED A GIANT 1,000-TON POWER BARGE OVER HOUSES AND TREES 3 MILES INLAND AND CRUSHED HOMES AND PEOPLE. |
THE MINISTRY OF FASTING “Why aren’t you eating?” My university classmates were eating out
together & since I was on an extended fast, I wasn’t eating. Many
of them are unbelievers. It was a great opportunity to share about
this discipline of the Christian Faith. They listened attentively as I explained the four-fold direction that my prayers were led in:
Scripture says we should keep our fasting private. But when you live a busy lifestyle, that is impossible. Instead, it is a tool for evangelism & a challenge for others to do so too. Even PJ & Abby explain to their buddies, “I handed Daddy a piece of candy but he can’t eat it. He is fasting. How many more days, Dad?” Hopefully as they grow up, they too will practice the 7 spiritual disciplines of fasting, prayer, Bible reading, tithing, worship, witnessing and Christian service. |
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YOU KNOW YOU ARE A FILIPINO IF...
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FREE GAS & FREE GRACE!“I was there when the wave came. It was loud. It was fast. It was dirty and black. I outran it.” While waiting 12 hours in the hot Indonesian sun for our identification tags to help The tsunami refugees, I met some survivors and heard their stories. One Acenese student was at a gas station, filling up after the earthquake hit. Since communication lines were destroyed by the quake, the attendant said, “Your gas is free today!” The student then started driving down the street. Suddenly he heard a deafening roar behind him and spun around to see the giant black wave of death 60 feet high growling as it engulfed the street like a huge and thunderous liquid shadow. Nearly 70 miles an hour, it pounced upon people as they screamed, “WATER!”. The student jammed his foot to the floor on the gas pedal, trying to outpace the monstrous tidal wave. Omar’s expression unveiled the horror he felt as he relived his tragedy through the painting of his words. “When the road was too jammed with people, running for their lives, I leapt from my moving car, joining the human wave pouring, plunging, panting forward just meters before the glob of cancerous death. “Praise to Allah,” Omar cried out, “I am now alive to tell you my saga!” These Acenese, who had never heard the saving grace of Jesus who
died for them, had no one to thank for their rescued lives, except
Allah. But now “the walls are down”. Christians have come in to share
the loving compassion that Christians love to express. Over &
over, Acenese people repeated the words of the high school principal
whose school grounds had been trashed by the flood; “You’re not like
others who came. Christians are the most humble. You even cleaned
the muddy windows that still had tsunami mud plastered across them!”
Yes, the light of Jesus is now shining through this window of opportunity
in Aceh. Read my UN
report. |
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DO YOU HAVE A SPRING PROJECT?THESE ARE NEEDS THAT WE HAVE TO SUPPLY FOR OUR 2005 BLC CONSTRUCTION:
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TAKE EVERY OPPORTUNITY“Ferry across?” Driving down the boulevard in Jakarta, Indonesia, a 30-foot wide sewage canal filled with liquid filth flowed between the opposing lanes of the road. Every hundred yards a rope was tied across the canal with a boatman on a 5-ft long raft. For 20 cents he would pull passengers across the sewer. What do you do when faced with a nasty obstacle like that messy, smelly sewer canal? We had a similar problem. From 4 continents our team of 18 had come for 2 weeks to help the tsunami refugees in Meulaboh, Indonesia. But our flight on the last leg of our four-day journey was full. We were stuck an extra day in Medan, 2 hours away from our destination. “Make the most of it!” I challenged. Going outside, for the next 5 hours I befriended dozens of neighborhood children and told them about Jesus. One Muslim woman and her daughter had a legal problem that my interpreter and I were able to solve. As we sing in Sunday School back here in the Philippines with the children, “Brighten the corner where you are!” |
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June 17, 2023
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