Prayer for the Philippines

Last week despite the travel warnings, we drove four hours to Polomolok, South Cotabato to be part of a United Prayer Rising Event. About a thousand people (mostly youth) attended and prayed fervently for their nation. This was a preliminary event for the much bigger national prayer gathering in September. I am so amazed at this prayer movement and excited about what it will do for the Philippines. I am so excited to be a part of this move of God.

The Refuge is Now Hosting Four Ministries

Worship at the Refuge Youth Center during the YUPG

Worship at the Refuge during the United Prayer Gathering.

The Refuge  is becoming a ministry hub. We have recently opened the doors on Thursdays and Fridays to a youth group needing a temporary home. This means that we now have three churches using the Refuge besides the monthly Youth United Prayer Gathering.

That means four ministries are now using the Refuge for services. The United Prayer Gathering  is an awesome prayer movement to unite the pastors and church leaders of various denominations to pray for Davao City. They also recently invited me to serve on their leadership council. We are so thankful to have the Refuge Youth Center  to facilitate the move of God here in Davao City.

Youth from different churches uniting to pray for their nation.

Youth from different churches uniting to pray for their nation.

 

Our House Almost Caught on FIRE!

The flames can been seen rising above our townhouse building.

The flames can been seen rising above our townhouse building.

Just two days after helping the victims of the Isla Verde fire, we almost became fire victims ourselves. We were suddenly disturbed to hear our neighbors pounding on our door. There was a big fire raging just ten feet behind our house! The fire had completed consumed the two houses behind us and was quickly approaching our rented townhouse.  I stayed behind to rescue some electronics, and see if we could do anything to stop the fire. I rebuked the fire and prayed, “Fire, you cannot touch our house in the Name of JESUS.” Our unsaved neighbor later told me the fire was raging right for our townhouse and the wind suddenly changed.

This was the view from our back window after the Fire Department got the fire under control.

This was the view from our back window after the Fire Department finally got the fire under control.

The fire was so close that Elijah’s bedroom windows and my office windows were too hot to touch. During the commotion, one of our brilliant friends broke the main water pipe behind our house and sprayed it towards the fire which held it at bay until eleven fire trucks responded and put out the fire. It was an absolute miracle our house didn’t catch on fire!

Elijah was so happy to see 11 fire trucks respond to our neighborhood. I was excited too!

Elijah was so excited to see eleven fire trucks respond to the fire. I was excited too!

When Elijah finally came back, he was so excited that the fire trucks came to visit our house. He exclaimed, “Fire Truck, Daddy, Fire Truck!” I suppose I was excited to see the fire trucks too, but in a different way. Thank God for his protection, miracles, friends, and fire trucks!

A fireman extinguishing the fire on top of our neighbor's house that was sadly gutted by the fire.

A fireman extinguishing the fire on top of our neighbor’s house that was sadly gutted by the fire. The tall roof in the background is our townhouse building.

24 Hour Worship Marathon at the Refuge

24 Hour Worship Marathon at the RefugeAbout one week ago, we hosted our first 24 hour praise and worship marathon at the Refuge. We had about sixty on-fire youth passionately worshipping God the whole time. It ran continuously for 24 hours from Friday until Saturday night. It was amazing to see the hunger, fire, and passion the youth displayed the whole time. The atmosphere for worship and soaking in God’s presence was just wonderful.

Soaking at the 24 Hour Worship Marathon.

Sheena who attended announced that her friend Khael was healed at the event, “He testified how his sore throat was instantly healed when he joined the 24 hour non-stop worship.”

Another attendee told me she clearly heard answers from God about things she had been praying for months about. She also told me she enjoyed God’s presence so much that it was hard for her to leave.

This event was such a wonderful success. We can’t wait to have the next one.

Excited to Worship God at the Refuge

So Here I am, a Radical Pentecostal Minister, teaming up with a lesbian.

April 23rd, 2008 by Matthew Triggs

(I wrote this three years ago on my old blog, but It’s such a great story, I thought I would re-post it here)

The other night I was having a hard time sleeping so I went out for a random late night drive on my borrowed motorcycle. I find driving at night relaxing as the traffic is light and it’s a nice way to just be alone and away from the chaos.  I can conceal my white skin and blond hair with my jacket and helmet.  Nobody stares at me and nobody yells “Hey Joe, where are you going?” The only stares I get are the people admiring the borrowed 1980 Yamaha Maxim 400 that I am driving.

After driving for a while, I found myself driving on R. Castillo Street which I seldom drive on.  The church I attend is on that street.  Other than that, I had no reason to be there at that time.

Suddenly, there was a woman staggering around in the middle of the road! She was violently crying, and covering her face.  I had to swerve around her to avoid colliding with her! I quickly turned the bike around to coax her off the road. I also did this to turn my headlight in the face of any oncoming traffic so she wouldn’t be hit in the darkness.

I slowly herded her to the left off the road while driving on the wrong side of the road.

After she was on the sidewalk, I quickly accelerated and parked my bike on a sidewalk ramp with the kickstand uphill which later proved to be a bad idea.  I quickly put my helmet on my right mirror and ran back to her and grabbed her.

By this time, she was still crying and fighting me to go back into the street!  I sat her down on the sidewalk and firmly held onto her. As she struggled with me, I tried to calm her down and ask her what was happening. The stench of alcohol reeked from her breath as she spoke some hysterical, unintelligible words in Cebuano.

She just kept crying and crying as a crowd of pedestrians began to gather.  It must have been quite a sight to see a foreigner hugging and holding a crying, drunk Filipina woman against her will by the roadside.

I shouted to all the bystanders, “I’m going to pray now, so you can pray with me or leave!”  A few of them left as I started shouting out my prayer, “I REBUKE THE SPIRIT OF SUICIDE IN THE NAME OF JESUS! I REBUKE THE SPIRIT OF ALCOHOLISM, AND I PRAY THAT YOU WOULD HEAL THIS WOMAN JESUS OF WHATEVER IS WRONG WITH HER, NOW!”  She went from fighting me to embracing me, still violently crying.

She seemed to be calming down a bit, when one of the teenage bystanders leaned on the motorcycle sending it pummeling over on its side, smashing the mirror and nearly snapping the rear turn signal off.  Also, my beautiful black helmet received a nice big scratch on it as it skidded down the street.

I let go of the woman to check on my bike because the woman appeared to be calm and regaining her sanity.

While I checked on the bike, she ran back into the street in front of a big container truck!

Thankfully, a nearby lesbian woman and I ran out into the street and saved her life for the second time.

So here I am, a radical Pentecostal minister, teaming up with a lesbian to save a crazy drunken woman in the middle of a dark street in the middle of the night!  I’m thinking about all the so-called “Christian” Catholic Filipino people who drove by her leaving her to die without helping her, and here are a lesbian and a foreigner being the good Samaritans.

Finally, to my relief, a police vehicle started coming down the street with its lights blazing.  I ran out into the street to flag it down as it blew by me without stopping. Thankfully, a few minutes later another one came to the scene, and they helped restrain her and take her home.  The same police officers came back a few minutes later to thank me and tell me they successfully took her home, as I was picking up the bike and the mirror off the ride of the road.

I wish I could say that I led her to Jesus or that she was delivered from her demons.  I can’t say that any of those things happened, but I can say that, thankfully, I was on that road at that time or she probably would have died and gone into eternity without Jesus.

If your life is boring, the next time you can’t sleep maybe you should go for a midnight drive.  You never know what might happen.