Perhaps best of all is Bianca Poms is pregnant! Hooray! And as this is your headquarters for all Church in the Word baby happenings, rest assured there will be updates over the next nine to 10 months. Oooh, baby.
In other exciting news, Titus has emailed from the Philippeans ... twice! Here's the first:
I had a free moment, so i thought I would send you guys an update on how I'm doing. Things are going well. I lost my wallet, and a lot of money, but I am okay for the remainder of my trip, so no worries there at all. God has been teaching me a lot about storing my riches up with Him instead of on earth. Solomon says that everything under the sun is vanity... Jesus tells us to store up our treasures in heaven. He says, "where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." it is true, and since the heavens are above the sun, I am no longer going to store up my treasures under the sun.
Well, the ministry out here is going great. I am helping out a lot with speaking, and I am being used as the right hand mand of the pastor in charge, so I get to hear about a lot of different issues and aspects of what is going on. It is pretty neat. We have to be careful and intentional to schedule time with God because there are a lot of things that come up. It isn't that you can't be with God when you're doing those things, and it isn't that you aren't with God always, but time alone with God is what I desire, and I can now get a small glimpse of why Jesus often withdrew himself into the wilderness for time to pray.
God is working here though, in great ways. We will be doing a VBS in April, and that will be very fun, the kids here are awesome and they are love Jesus. So it is very encouraging to be around them. God has also been working in the adults. Last Thursday we got a report that a pastor's wife was having difficulty with her baby. She was 7 months along with a due date in April. Jhun (the head pastor as of now [Rob, who I guess would be called the senior pastor, is in the states]) and I fasted on Friday from dawn until dusk. Then on Sunday before service I found out that the problem was that they could not detect a heartbeat in the baby and the woman was having discharges. She told me about it and I asked her if she wanted prayer, and she said yes, so we (her, her husband, a disciple, and myself) went in to her house to pray (which is connected to the church). While we were in there, we laid hands on her, and prayed for a bit. And then church had to start, but I didn't feel like I was supposed to be in service, and I felt I was supposed to pray for her through the service. So I asked if it was okay to do so and they said sure. So I prayed. And I prayed. And I prayed. It ended up being a three hour service! But the Lord lead me to some scriptures, mainly in John 14, about using Jesus' name, and taught me a lot about what it was to have faith. So she decided to come home with us so that we could take her to the city in the morning and she could go to the doctor for a check up. On the way home from church I was practicing my Tagalog and I was trying to say, "God of life, you are good", which I managed to get out, and Jhun asked me if I was listening to worship, and I said no. He said that they were singing a song about that! The song was in English, Hebrew, and Tagalog. Well anyway, through the day she was saying that her stomach was hard, and looked upset. So when the morning came, we went to the doctors office, dropped her off for the examination. When we came back, she was there and she said that her baby was fine, and that it had a normal heartbeat! Praise God! It was very good news.
So we are now working in more of the ministry aspect of life rather than the repair aspect of it all. A lot of the island has power, and a lot of it has water too. We get brown-outs but it isn't too bad. I haven't been sick either, which is great. Though I have gotten sun burned twice. And it is no fun. The first time was because I didn't wear sun screen at all, the second time was because i didn't think to but sun screen on my lower back, so i have a pink bar across my back from where my shirt lifted up. you live and learn though, right?
Anyway, God is very good, and things are going splended. Please keep me in your prayers and let me know how things are going at church.
Then, today, I got:
Hey guys, sorry for the email again, but I have some good news. Right after I sent out the email to you guys saying that I lost my wallet, and updating you on what has happened, I started to leave the internet place, and there was a tricycle (like a taxi) waiting out there, and when I got in, the driver hands me my ID and says, "Do you know this guy?" Ha! Praise God! It was good, he had all of the contents of my wallet except for the money and the actual wallet, but that's okay. So I got my social security card back, my drivers license and ID, and my bank account number, credit cards and my library card back. I was worried about the library card because I didn't want to come back home and find out that I had overdue books!!! THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN A DISASTER!
But I thought I would update you though. My wallet had been lost for about two weeks, but I knew I would get it back. Now I only have to wait for the money to come back. I told the Lord that when the wallet came we would lead the person to Him, not as a bargain, but for the glory of the Lord. I invited him to the college and career night, which is tomorrow. I think he will come, but if he doesn't, I know that the Lord will give me opportunities to minister to him.
Anyway, God is good, and I need to get going. Keep me in your prayers.
Titus
Good stuff. I've got more. Hopefully I can get back to you tonight before midweek service. Come to midweek service!
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