EE Works in the Philippines posted by John Sorensen on Apr 05, 2012

God is doing great things in the Philippines where I had the joy of speaking to more than 300 EE trainers at the first EE Philippines national convention last November. Recently, an EE training conference was held on the island of Mindanao for tribal pastors. (There are some 18 indigenous people groups, or tribes, on the island.)
Here is a first-hand report from John Ricards who is with Ministries to Christian Nationals, Inc, and oversees their Tribal Gospel Fellowship ministry.  He shares what occurred at this conference. You’ll be encouraged …

Dear John,

Just a quick word to mention that our conference was VERY, VERY successful, and the EE presenters did a great job.  On Tuesday, we presented the basic concepts (in the tribal pastors’ local language) in a series of workshops. Then, on Wednesday morning, the EE coordinator for Cagayan de Oro followed up with more informative lessons in the morning.

Then, in the afternoon, our whole group shuttled out to one of the ‘tent cities” (refugee centers) where families who had been displaced by Sendong (the December 2011 typhoon and flood) were living in very primitive conditions.  Here, our pastors paired off and roamed around looking for people to engage with their new bold witness.  At the reporting time, later that afternoon, we discovered that between 25 and 35 people prayed to receive Christ!  Many of the reports were very emotional.

One pastor confessed that he had never before shared his faith with another person, and he felt that a huge weight had been lifted from his spirit.  Others shared similar tales of release and freedom…as well as the excitement of so many who came to Christ.

We are praying now that this material can be shared by the tribal pastors with their congregations up in the mountains, and our next news will be of villages being transformed by the gospel!

Thanks again for your involvement and support of this strategic work.

Blessings!!

John Ricards

Nearly 1,000 people died when Typhoon Sendong struck Mindanao last December. Please pray for the people still rebuilding and living in shelters in the wake of this storm. And pray for these newly trained pastors as they, in turn, train their congregations to bring the Gospel to tribal peoples who do not yet know the love of God in Jesus Christ. May whole villages be transformed by the Good News we are celebrating this Resurrection Sunday!