Gordon Hofer and his Team

In the midst of the physical storm following the spider bite, my dear friend, Gordon Hofer and his Healing the Heartache of the Nations missions team came from the USA. I hosted them even in my condition and we had an amazing time together. We ministered in the dump, jails, tribal churches, nice churches, and even to prostitutes on the street. God favored us in so many ways. One day, Gordon preached in the city dump and the next day, he prayed for the President’s daughter who is the mayor of Davao City. While I cannot even write about everything that happened, the next few posts following this one will have many highlights of that trip.

Baganga Celebration

During my fifth ministry road trip to Baganga this year, I was able to join the church anniversary which doubled as a Christmas Party. Pastor Hazel Puzon was officially installed as the senior pastor during this time as her father and my friend Pastor Proceso Puzon whom I loved dearly, graduated to eternity at 76 years old a few months ago. I spoke in the Sunday morning service and the following day I was able to do a Bible service at the police station for the Police Department. It was wonderful!

Bible Giveaway with the Mayor

I had the great blessing of giving away 350 Bibles to help drug rehabilitation members at the request of the local government! This is our second giveaway which brings the total to 700 Cebuano Bibles given directly to the town of Baganga to help their people.

The mayor was present as I was able to give each of the drug rehabilitation graduates a Bible with accompanying Bible studies for new believers in their own language. I was able to open the graduation in bold, strong prayer declaring freedom over Baganga over each of their lives, also blessing the mayor and the officials of Baganga. Each person that received a Bible has undergone weeks of classes including spiritual development taught by a trusted pastor friend of mine. Baganga is about five hours drive from my home over treacherous roads. Thank you for your continual prayers and support as we take the Word of God to remote places!

Bible Distribution Trip and Graduation

This week I’m going to Baganga again with 350 Bibles for the drug rehabilitation graduation. This is a mandatory government program for people who are suspected drug users. The Philippines is currently in a very harsh and controversial drug war right now. For many of the people in this program, it is their last chance at life. Thankfully, part of their mandatory rehab is to hear the Gospel every week from a pastor friend of mine! They have been hearing the Word of God every week for months all at the request of the local government! We providing Bibles for their graduation in their own language This will be our second trip to this group which will total 700 Bibles that we have purchased for these new believers.

Massive Bible Distribution

Through a partnership with Bible League, I was able to fill my SUV with 650 Bibles and help put together a massive Bible distribution in Baganga. Four vehicles carried a total of 2,400 Bibles and pastors from 48 churches in three towns came to Faith Tabernacle Church (the church we rebuilt after Typhoon Pablo) where we gave those Bibles to their churches! That means each pastor left with about 50 Bibles in their language for their people! Just imagine of all the churches and thousands of lives that will be changed by the Word of God! Hallelujah!

Joy over her new Bible

(A Lot) More Bibles for Baganga

The Bible distribution trip to Baganga opened up an incredible new partnership with Bible League Philippines. After buying 400 Bibles from them, I was able to meet with their national director. He told me that if I can gather forty churches in a town or city, they will donate 1,500 Bibles to divide equally among the churches. In one or two days I am returning with him to Baganga with 1,500 Bibles to distribute among the unified pastors. Not only does this provide much-needed Bibles to the churches, but it promotes unity among the churches. Faith Tabernacle (the church we helped rebuild after Typhoon Pablo) will host this gathering of churches and Bible distribution. It is amazing how God maps out these divine partnerships all over the Philippines. These Bibles are in the local Cebuano language which is widely used in Mindanao and is the most widely spoken dialect in this region.

Bibles for Prisoners

Through a series of incredible divine appointments and provision, I was able to take 350 Bibles to Baganga and ended up preaching a salvation message to the general population in the prison and all of them prayed with me to receive Jesus! A representative from each cell block was able to carry a stack of Bibles back to the other inmates.

Prison life is the Philippines very harsh and much more difficult than in the USA. Most of you would be shocked at their conditions. I was also able to preach to and give Bibles to hundreds of former drug users enrolled in a rehab program. When I asked them over 90% of them said it was the first Bible they have ever owned.

I drove the long road trip alone six hours each way safely, but burned out my wheel bearings again on my Ford, but it was totally worth it. Hallelujah!

Baganga and Kapalong Trip

 

IMG_6791-001Right before Christmas, we had an awesome ministry road trip to the remote towns of Baganga and Kapalong. My team had my dad, Michael Triggs, and worship missionaries Josh and Brandie Wilson with their baby Josh Jr.

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IMG_6639-001We preached in Baganga for their anniversary service to maybe 150 people in the building we rebuilt after Typhoon Pablo. It was amazing to see how beautiful the church is now just three years after it was nearly destroyed. However, the most amazing thing was so many people were instantly healed when we prayed for them!

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IMG_6844-001We saw a miraculous repeat of the same in Kapalong. Many people were healed as we asked them to pray for each other. It was powerful because they learned God could use them to heal the sick. Hallelujah!

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Giving to Baganga

The Altar was full of people who wanted to be healed.

The Altar was full of people who wanted to be healed.

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We recently were able to return to Baganga (about a six hour drive) to take a big load of donated clothes and toys to distribute at Faith Tabernacle Church.  They also asked me to preach on Sunday morning, and in that service God instantaneously physically healed almost everyone who came to the altar for prayer.

We were able to give out over 120 toy and clothing bags to the children there, and also gave many clothes to the adults too. The children were so overjoyed to receive nice toys and clothes.

A little girl reading the Bible we just gave her.

A little girl reading the Bible we just gave her.

For those of you who don’t remember, over two years ago a category five super-typhoon named Typhoon Pablo hit Baganga and took hundreds of lives including the pastor’s wife. It nearly destroyed their town and heavily damaged this church. Through your support, we were able to rebuild the church and the parsonage and restore hope to these precious people. Although there has been much progress, many of the people of Baganga are still trying to get back on their feet. We are committed to keep helping these people, and are going back again to minister to them in December.

Elijah enjoying himself in a tricycle in Baganga.

Elijah enjoying himself in a tricycle in Baganga.

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The “Celebrate Baganga” Evangelistic Concert

The "Celebrate Baganga" ConcertOver Easter weekend, we partnered with other ministries and had a big two-day evangelistic blow out in Baganga. We had an outdoor concert, a basketball tournament, free surfing and skim boarding lessons followed by an outdoor evangelistic movie.

The Crowd at the 2014 "Celebrate Baganga" Concert

It was extra challenging because there was a strong rainstorm in the middle of the concert. Filipinos generally don’t like to be out in the rain and it drove some people away, but because we put on a quality concert with good prizes, it kept people from leaving and gave them a chance to hear the Gospel.

"Faith United" playing at the Celebrate Baganga Concert

I was honored with the opportunity to preach to the remaining 150-200 people who all prayed the prayer of salvation with me. I absolutely love these types of outreaches and can’t wait to do more of them in other areas in the future.

The crowd in the rain at the 2014 Celebrate Baganga Concert