Oh my goodness! It’s been a month since I’ve arrived in the Philippines and I am shocked by how quickly time is flying by here. I apologize for not updating you sooner, but the Lord has been doing some incredible work here and we have been so excited to be a part of God’s work for this nation, that I have almost forgotten to write any updates for you all!
Since arriving to this nation, I have fallen more and more in love with it. I have told everyone I’ve come in contact with that I have never adapted so quickly to a new-to-me country and culture. I have loved getting to know the people at our YWAM Philippines base (YWAM Ph Impact), as we have three other teams staying together here, as well as getting to know the staff and leaders that work through this base. It has been incredible to see the other teams working separately with their ministries, hear the stories they have, and to see their growth in the Lord over the past few weeks. We are all separating for a short time, however, as each team has been called to finish our outreach on different islands in the Philippines, but we’ve grown so close as family, even though there about 75 or more people living on this base together.
Not only have I loved getting to know the other team members well, but I have absolutely loved getting to meet and know the people that live here. I am in awe of the way that they love people so well, and even though we are like “celebrities” here because of our light skin color (or, for me, my height), you can tell that their love for us is genuine. They are completely different than most people in the United States where we tend to ignore passerbys or reject prayer/ministry, but they welcome us with open arms, open hearts, and food – lots of food.
Our ministry is every day (except for our days off on Mondays) and a lot of it is partnering with a nearby church that each team has been assigned. Although I expected ministry to look a lot like walking the streets of the Philippines with just our team and translator, I’m very blessed by the ministry that we have been doing! A lot of our ministry is going house to house in neighborhoods close to the church we partner with, that way, if people respond to the Gospel, they’d have a church they could call home. We have seen such incredible things happen as we’ve gone house to house, including multiple healings! God is a miracle working God, and He delights in showing that He cares about His children in healing them, no matter how small it may seem to that person. Our team has seen deaf ears opened, infections healed overnight, and legs healed all in the Name of Jesus!
Although our team has delighted in witnessing miracles for His children, we know that the most important thing to do for our ministry is to share the Gospel. The wonderful thing about sharing the Gospel with the people we have met here in the Filipinos, is that their hearts are so open to hearing God’s Word and receiving it as Truth and Life! Collectively, our team, through the help of God opening their hearts, helped lead close to 500 people to know Christ and accept Him as His Lord and Savior! Praise God, hallelujah!!
Our team has also helped our local church with feeding programs, where we go to local neighborhoods and feed the children there while we share testimonies and the gospel with them. This has been where we have seen a lot of people come to Christ (children and parents alike). Part of our team has also been to the red light district, where we were able to follow up with them as a whole team and prepare a Love Feast for them. We had food prepared for them, bought them groceries, sang worship with them, shared our testimonies, and shared the Gospel. Every woman who came (some with their children), came to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior that afternoon, and after they came to know Him as we know Him, we washed the women’s feet. That was such a humbling experience as I washed the feet of the woman in front of me, sharing with her just how much her heavenly Father loves her, and sharing with her just what God thinks of her. It was such a sweet moment. I praise God that He cares so much about His children, even those who our society would say are the ones that have “harder hearts” or the ones that society has cast away. He cares and loves them just as much as He loves any one of us, and He pursues them still.
God is continuously breaking my heart for these people in the Philippines, but I would have to say that God really broke my heart this past Friday in a way I never expected Him to do. Our team had the wonderful opportunity to help out with a Christian youth camp last week, and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how well they loved each other, even when some had significant age gaps (campers ranged from 12 to 24 years old), and how much they loved God. Not only that, but they were so vulnerable with us as they shared their past hurts and I felt so honored that they opened up their lives with me, even only knowing me for a total of two full days.
On the last day of camp, we had our team leader from YWAM Ph Impact, Tommy, and our translator/coordinator, Rhema, speak to the campers about the call of missions for Filipinos to the ends of the earth, but more specifically for the 10/40 window. As they were speaking to them about this, I started to tear up, but I fought the tears back as I wanted to be there for the campers and not make it about myself. However, I soon realized that that moment for the call to go to the 10/40 window was not just for them, but also for me. When we were called to pray in small groups for those nations, but then praying specifically for the Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims, I began to weep for them. I knew in that moment that God was giving me a heart for those specific people and for those nations. God was breaking my heart for what breaks His. I have never felt such a heart burden for anyone before, and I know that God is calling me to follow His call to be a missionary in the 10/40 window. I find it to be an extreme honor that He has chosen me to follow His calling to be a missionary for these nations and I will gladly go for the sake of the Gospel.
As we continue our outreach here in the Philippines, there are a few things you can pray for for us. We have, unfortunately, lost two team members as one had to leave to go home because of a very bad reaction she had to a parasite she received, and another due to another illness. Our team leader just got healed completely after having a parasite that took her out of ministry for over a week, but we have another team member that has a parasite, so please be praying for her to receive full healing, in Jesus’ Name, as quickly as possible and pray that no one else gets really sick. Pray that God would give us even more energy and more enthusiasm to share the Gospel as we are about to embark on a three-day hike to an unreached tribe who has yet to hear about Jesus. Pray that they will have open hearts to receive God’s Word and God’s love and pray that we will be able to share the Gospel in the best way possible for them. Please pray the same for our journey to the island of Cebu, where we will be leaving to go to in a couple of weeks to finish our outreach ministry. Pray that we continue to break chains, set people free, and that God will break their hearts to receiving Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
If you would like to continue to support me financially, please click here. Thank you so much for your support in every way possible that you have given me! You all have become like a family to me and I am so grateful that you chose to be a part of my journey with me the past four, going on five, months. I would not be where I am today, nor would my heart be broken the way it has, if it weren’t for you all for allowing me to have this experience. I’m so beyond grateful for all of you!
I do have some future plans to share with you all, as I’m sure you’re perhaps wondering after I’ve shared with you my heart for the 10/40 window, but I will be happy to share more about that at a later time. I would hate for my excitement about the future to prevent myself from enjoying the place that God has placed me in and the work that He has set out for my team to do here and now. We are beyond excited to see how God will work the rest of our time here in the Philippines and I can’t wait to share more testimonies with you in the near future! Thank you!
On the walk with you,
Lydia Summer
