Helping the Hurting, Reaching the Lost
I was recently invited to preach at the Fire School of Ministry Chapel service. FSM is a Bible college birthed out of the Pensacola Revival. They are the only Spirit-Filled Bible college that I know of in Davao City. They also asked me to pray about being one of their Bible-college teachers for the upcoming June term.
My Dad preaching with Pastor Julito DeGracia interpreting for him in Impasug-Ong, Philippines
My Dad came to visit the Philippines for December and January and we went back to some of the early churches and pastors we met in the Philippines back in 2004. I had not seen some of them in seven years. One pastor, Julito DeGracia, started 11 churches in that time. He has the only church in Impasug-Ong, Philippines and his other churches are among newly-reached tribes in the mountains. Early in his ministry, we bought him a horse to travel to these places because he would walk for days to preach in the mountains. It is amazing to see the fruit of that first horse, and he now has four horses to use for the ministry. Praise God!
Jesus Reigns is an amazing move of God sweeping the Philippines. Once a year they hold a multi-denominational prayer and worship event for the nation. This year’s event was held in 82 provinces. At the Tagum event, the governor, mayor, and vice-mayor all prayed for their nation. To my surprise, I was invited to be the main speaker for the evening worship service. I preached on repentance and the altar was flooded with hundreds of people crying out to God.
Right 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.
We 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!
We 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!
In December the YUPG (Youth United Prayer Gathering) team did an outreach for a local boys home for troubled youth. My Dad and I joined the outreach as these boys desperately need to see strong father figures. The outreach consisted of a concert, dance presentation, preaching, and even a Christian karate demonstration! It was so much fun to share the love of Jesus with these boys who needed to be in this home either for something bad they had done or for their protection. We were instructed not to share any photos of their faces due to the sensitive nature of their backgrounds and history. We proclaim that these boys will have a great future and great hope in Jesus.
Jack Tuls and I went to Mozambique and experienced amazing divine appointments. We arrived in Maputo with no contacts, but within 24 hours we met a Spirit-Filled Pastor with a thriving church. I was just walking by faith and found it about a half mile from where we were staying. The pastor said he had been praying about starting a Bible school, but did not know what to use for curriculum. He was thrilled when we freely gave him the curriculum. The next day, he invited his pastor friend from another city who literally got on his knees and exclaimed, “Adopt me!” to Jack. Basically, within 48 hours we had commitments from two churches in two cities to start new Bible schools.
Before arriving in Inhambane, Jack felt led to change the hotel at the last minute. To make a long story short, we made contact with a young missionary couple through the internet from a friend in Arizona. They “just happened” to live 300 meters away and they graciously took us everywhere and put in contact with a potential host for a Bible school.
Within an hour of arriving in Beira the uncle of the pastor in Maputo immediately committed to start a Bible school and invited me to speak to his youth group. God moved strongly among them and many were saved and filled with the Holy Spirit. Overall, we started three (maybe four) Bible schools. God is so awesome!
Although I am a full time missionary in the Philippines, I am leaving on November 3rd for Mozambique, Africa by faith on a short term missions trip. Dr. Jack Tuls and I will start Bible schools and Kingdom Training Centers in the remote areas of this African nation. I have been on several trips with Jack in the past thirteen years to establish these schools and every one has been miraculous. On these trips we have seen divine appointments, supernatural healing, blind eyes opened, deaf ears healed, salvations, and other undeniable miracles. I expect that this trip will be more of the same.
These trips with Dr. Jack got me started going to the nations and he is really my spiritual father and mentor in the faith. He is now 81 years old and is not showing any signs of slowing down and is also mentally sharper than anyone I know. I am honored, excited, and compelled to go with him any time he asks.
My budget for this trip is $3,000. Thankfully, about $1,600 has already come in. I admit that I need a miracle to meet the remaining $1,400 budget before I leave on November 3rd.
We live by faith every month to meet the budget for the Refuge Youth Center, the Center of Life Children’s Feeding Program, the Flipside Children’s Feeding Program, the various outreaches we do, and for our family of three. We have honestly not even met our October ministry budget yet, but I’m trying to at least get this trip paid for before I leave.
Will you please be part of this miracle?
Thank you for your support.
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.
We are now into our third month of supporting the Center of Life feeding program at the Refuge and the kids are starting to melt my heart. One Saturday when I pulled up the kids were all waiting outside for the doors to open. When I got out of my car, they all cheered and ran up to attack me with their hugs. I cannot put into words the emotions that I experience when I look into these kids eyes before giving them a big hug. I feel joy, love, compassion, and then I feel a rush of empathetic sorrow as I imagine how difficult their lives must be. At least once a week we can put them into a safe, comfortable environment, show them the love of Jesus, and feed them what might be the best meal they eat all week.
Little guy eagerly waiting to be let in for children’s church.
We were invited back for the second time to to speak at Kapalong College of Technology for their anniversary. By the time, I was given the microphone to preach, they knew that we were there to bless them and the listened well.
When I gave the altar call, the Holy Spirit powerfully convicted them of their sins and EVERYONE came rushing forward to the altar call. Many tears flowed as they got their hearts right before God under a heavy atmosphere of repentance. This was not at a church. This was on a secular college campus! God is moving in the Philippines at an accelerated pace. We are thankful to be a part of it.
