Mon, Sep 15th - 6:08AM

Back from the Philippines

Dear Friends & Family,

Thanks for praying for the team and myself.  This is the first time that I've had to write to you.  I've been a bit sick with my stomach.  So here's the update:   This will be short and to the point.

1,250+ men, women, and children came to know the Lord - 900 were prisoners from Antipolo Prison in the Manila area and about 100 were small children from the Payatas dumpsite.  (They live in a garbage dump - literally.)

At the Antipolo prison there were around 100 women prisoners and 833 men.  One of my girls, Hayley, was my translator.  She was great.  She spoke with clarity and emotion just as I did.  She is one of the disciples God has given me from the Philippines.  She wants to be an evangelist and start a church in some poor areas of the Philippines.  She made some good contacts there so that she can start her Bible training with some of the pastors there at another time.  I'm not sure how that is going to play out but I do believe that she will be good at it.  God has given her a real intense relationship with Him.  She get's real specific answers to prayer.  While there she introduced me to her cousin.  After our conversation she received Jesus in our dorm room.  Praise the Lord!!!

300 to 400 rededicated themselves to the Lord.

1600 kg of rice (total) was given to around 800 families.  I found out that this came at a critical time because rice had really gone up in price and the people are already very poor with little to no money even for daily food. Rice is their main staple.

Children were given pencil cases with two pencils, a ruler, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener.  You thought that it was Christmas for these children.  Also 200 coloring books and 100 packages of crayons were given to children in the Mindoro region.  Many of these children don't even have shoes to wear let alone crayons or coloring books. 

On Monday all day we had a pastor's conference where we had pastors, their wives & youth leaders in attendance.  We also gave them rice for their families.  They really enjoyed learning about how to share seven chronological stories which a missionary friend gave me some time ago.  It is great for creating a good foundation for those who have either a poor foundation or no foundation in Scriptures.  It was fun to be with them for the day. My team helped me in the teaching.  We also sang some songs in English especially "Who can Satisfy?"

I hope to have some photos up at a later time.  We literally have more than a thousand photos from the trip.  I'm in the process of organizing them.  After I am done I will let you know.

We had some time for recreation where we went to a famous place in Paxahan where we took a canoe ride in a dugout canoe about two hours down and back to a waterfalls.  There we took a raft and went under the falls.  Wow!  What an experience.

I had diarea for around ten days.  After coming home I was OK for a couple of days and then another bout.  While in the Philippines my sugar levels went from high to normal, especially when I was in the jungle.  I drank quite a bit of guava leaf tea.  It was tasty and it is true, it brought my sugar levels down to normal.  What a blessing.  After coming back to Taiwan I found that I was very tired and weak.  I saw the doctor and she said that I was really doing OK!  So I keep on pushing.

I have a new responsibility on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.  Please pray for me that all will go well.  I'm teaching prospective missionaries some English songs, their meaning, scripture memory, Bible Story Evangelism, simple gospel presentation, their testimony, and some of the parables of Jesus and how to use them with others. I'm charting new territory. I really enjoy teaching the Word and challenging people.

Starting in October I'll be starting a new discipleship class on the 2nd and 4th Sunday evenings.  This is with a pastor and her 5 churches leaders. I hope they catch the vision for making disciples. 

I'm currently praying about going to Israel.  There is a tour going in March.  However, I would like to go in November.  Please pray that I would have God's wisdom in this.  I really don't like tours much.  This one should be good in that I would also go to Egypt and the Jordan and a couple of other places as well.  It's hared for me to read because it is all in Chinese.

I've started back with school and it seems to being quite well. Again I said that I would make this short.  One last thing, I've been asked to speak at a Filipino conference at the end of February or the beginning of March as well as another Filipino Youth conference in the Philippines in May in Mindoro.  I really need God's wisdom and guidance as to what to prepare.

Since going to the Philippines I've heard that revival is breaking out in the areas that we went.  One church in one week doubled in size.  Please pray for these churches and pastors.  The pastors and their congregations are quite poor.  They need finances, food and much needed prayer.  I believe that God will use these people to spread the Good News of Jesus to the rest of the world.  God bless!

Xiao Yang

Matthew 28:19,20

Psalm 2:8

Psalm 37:1-4