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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UP Next: Nabunturan

 

Pastor Jerry’s beautiful church location before Typhoon Pablo destroyed it.

Pastor Jerry’s beautiful church location before Typhoon Pablo destroyed it.

 

The “Refuge Out” evangelistic concerts are targeting Nabunturan next. We are hoping to reach a lot more people than we did with the Trento Concert. We learned a lot in our past concert and we intend to reach as many lost souls as we can. I am hoping to do a preliminary scouting trip very soon to work out the logistics. Right now we are hoping to have the concert in September depending on the decision of the key pastors that we are working with like Pastor Jerry Casidsid.

Pastor Jerry

Pastor Jerry Casidsid and his wife at our 2010 Pastor’s Conference.

Like many places in Mindanao, Nabunturan was heavily damaged by Typhoon Pablo in December 2012. Many years before that, we preached at Pastor Jerry’s large church in a big building filled with young people. Unfortunately, that building was totally destroyed during the typhoon and now the church has been meeting in a small house for almost two years.

Pastor Jerry’s small church today.

Pastor Jerry’s small church today.

 

We are praying and believing for God to bring restoration to these faithful churches and pastors who quietly go unnoticed by the rest of the world despite overwhelming circumstances. We are praying for our concert to add scores of newly saved young people to the local churches and bring new life and excitement to the pastors for the Glory of God.

 

Upcoming Outreach in Trento

The Trento Indoor Gymnasium

We are so excited to let you know that we are launching a new stage of our ministry called “The Refuge OUT.” We are doing a series of road show concerts with the full purpose of spreading the Gospel throughout Mindanao.

We are starting our concert tour in Trento, Agusan del Sur.  Trento is a tiny town that was severely damaged during Typhoon Pablo and mostly passed over and forgotten by aid agencies. Edge Radio Trento is partnering with us to promote and host this concert. We are renting the town’s brand new indoor gymnasium with the potential of reaching multiple hundreds of people with the Gospel.

Trento Gym

Thankfully, we have already found someone who will let us borrow their sound system, but we have immediate financial needs for this concert to go forward.  First, we need to purchase or rent lighting. A minimal lighting setup will cost about $500 while renting a professional lighting setup will cost about $250 per event. If we can buy our own equipment it will be a much better investment than renting it as we are going forward with multiple concerts throughout Mindanao. We also need to cover transportation expenses for our ministry team and sound equipment, and we need to purchase prizes for the free games to keep the crowd engaged.

 

Upcoming Baganga Outreach Concert

These are some of the precious kids in Baganga that survived Typhoon Pablo.

These are some of the precious kids in Baganga that survived Typhoon Pablo.

In April, we are doing an evangelistic Easter Outreach in Baganga. For those of you who don’t know, our ministry spent almost a year helping and sowing into the people of Baganga after Typhoon Pablo nearly destroyed their town.

This time we are not returning only with disaster relief goods, but we are bringing something better—The Gospel. We will be doing a multiple day outreach with concerts and other activities for the youth and children there with the intention of winning people to Jesus. We have sown good seed, and now it’s time to reap the Harvest by showing them what Jesus did on the cross for them.

We will also be taking several vehicles more than six hours each way on less than perfect roads and temporary bridges. We plan to bring several high school youth to perform in this awesome outdoor concert. Please pray for all of our safety. Please also pray for us to be able to buy, rent, or borrow an outdoor sound system and lighting for this concert.

We also want to show the people here we haven’t forgotten them. We love them very much and want to bring the love of Jesus with us.

 

Celebration in Baganga

Faith Tabernacle Church Before and AfterAbout two weeks ago, despite significant risk, we went to Baganga to celebrate the dedication of the new church building there.

With the radical Muslims currently in berserker mode in the island, all of the other missionaries decided not to go on this trip. We cautiously proceeded and made sure we were not seen on the way to Baganga and only showed our faces at the church and where we slept.

Praying over the people at Faith Tabernacle Baganga.

Praying over the people at Faith Tabernacle Baganga.

Elijah enjoyed the trip and made new friends in the church.

Even though our alternator went out on our trip, our vehicle got us there and home to Davao City safely. Thank you for your prayers.

Elijah hugging Mommy during our ministry trip to Baganga.

Mission Accomplished!

Faith Tabernacle Baganga Inside truss work

We are happy to announce that we are finally finished with the roof construction project for Faith Tabernacle Church in Baganga.

For those of you who don’t normally read our newsletter, there was a giant typhoon in December that destroyed entire towns, killed thousands of people, almost destroyed this church, and sadly took the life of the pastor’s wife. In response, our ministry took on the project to rebuild this church.

We recently took two trips in the past two weeks and finally finished this seven month long construction project. Our last trip started out with an early morning six hour drive followed by an eleven hour work day of carpentry and mixing concrete. The following day was all about mixing concrete followed by a long drive back to Davao City.

 Mixing Cement in Baganga

On the way back, we stopped to ask a local a question, and his gang of thugs let some air out of our rear tire hoping to steal some of our supplies while we were changing the tire. By the grace of God, we didn’t fall for it and got out of there on a underinflated tire which slowed us down for about 45 minutes while we looked for a place with an air compressor.

Thankfully, we got home safely with the satisfaction that we finished this project. Now the people of this church can worship under a larger dry roof that is better than before, and the family can live in the expanded, nicer parsonage. Thank you for supporting us. This could not have been done without your prayers and financial help.

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We Finally Got a Vehicle!

1995 Toyota Tamaraw FX

I just want to praise God that we were finally able to purchase a vehicle!

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It is a very reliable 1995 Toyota Tamaraw FX with a diesel engine. These SUV-type vehicles are known for being workhorses and very rarely let you down. Also, the diesel engine is very economical as diesel fuel is much cheaper than gasoline here.

Although it is a 90’s vehicle, I have that feeling like I just drove off the lot with a brand new car.

I am so relieved that we can finally use this large vehicle to transport up to nine volunteers or lots of much needed supplies to around Mindanao. In the past, we have had to leave large amounts of supplies behind because either we didn’t have the space to move them and quite honestly sometimes not enough money for fuel to make the trips.

I’m so thankful to those of you who donated and prayed for us to help make this possible. I know God will reward you greatly.

Elijah is happy that we got what he calls a "Truck." We probably won't let him paint it though.

Elijah is happy that we got what he calls a “Truck.” We probably won’t let him paint it though.

Thank You for Helping Us Help Others

In December the monster category five Typhoon Bopha locally called “Pablo” hit our island and killed thousands of people. It destroyed entire towns, buildings, and infrastructure for miles in every direction. I just want to quickly review what we have been doing in response.
 Typhoon Pablo Destruction
For the past eight months we have focused primarily on disaster relief. From the start, several ministries teamed up together to bring urgent disaster rescue and relief. It is quite amazing how the various missionaries from different backgrounds have come together in unity.
Typhoon Pablo Destruction Cateel
Through this teamwork, we provided medical teams and saved lives. We brought food, tarpaulin shelters, clothing, hygiene kits, toys, and literally tons of construction materials to rebuild.  Along with the natural help, we were also able to bring spiritual renewal as well. Among the countless times we preached, we were also able to hold a big evangelistic concert with approximately 500 salvations with many youth added to the church.
We had to drive over this scary partially-collapsed bridge to get there.

We had to drive over this scary partially-collapsed bridge to get there.

Of the countless trips we have taken, getting there has never been easy. We have driven over partially standing bridges, drove though floods, avoided landslides, survived accidents, and floated on bamboo rafts getting in and out of there.
We had to use this bamboo raft to cross the river.

We had to use this bamboo raft to cross the river.

Also through a lengthy construction project, we have almost rebuilt a 2,000 square-foot church. None of this could have been done without your help and donations.  Thank you so much for your support.
Baganga Church Roofing Project
If you would like to support our work, please take the time to donate online here:

If you would like to support us through the mail, please send your checks, cashier’s checks, or money orders to:

Extreme Mercy International
P.O. Box 72266
Phoenix, Arizona 85050
U.S.A.
 

Thank you and God bless you.

We Built a Roof for This Little Boy

After our latest disaster relief  trip to Baganga, we are thankfully almost finished with the church roofing project. We covered the final rooms of the parsonage including this little guy’s room. It will likely take one last trip to put up the finishing touches on the roof.

Uriah Faith Tabernacle Baganga

On our last disaster relief trip to Baganga, Extreme Mercy International built a roof for this little boy named Uriah.

As far as functionality, everyone can worship under a dry roof and the families that live there can sleep under a stable dry roof. There are just a few things that need to be completed to add support beams to handle the weight of the roof and do some finishing aesthetics.

Baganga Church Roof Progress

This had been one of the costliest undertakings our ministry has tried to accomplish, and it will be wonderful when we are done with it. It has cost us thousands of dollars to pull this off and we are basically out of money for it.

The cost has not only been financial— It has been hard on my young family to have me gone so often and come home often exhausted, sick, and even injured from these trips.

Truthfully, most of the big aid agencies have pulled out of the area leaving half of the homes still covered with tarpaulins seven months after the storm. Even many of the government buildings and schools are still in shambles.

Church Rebuilding Team

We are one of the few organizations still helping. I spoke to a pastor who said 42 evangelical church buildings were destroyed and the congregations are still displaced. I would love to help them all, but praise God that through your generosity and giving we were able to help this one church and can hopefully help more as God provides.

If you would like to support our work, please donate here:

If you would like to support us through the mail, please send your checks, cashier’s checks, or money orders to:

Extreme Mercy International
P.O. Box 72266
Phoenix, Arizona 85050
U.S.A.
 

Thank you and God bless you.