This is the latest Reaching and Teaching Ministries Philippines update after the director’s recent mission trip there.
“Watching God move in power is always exciting! And when the Lord chooses you to lead others into a personal relationship with Him, that is an awesome privilege.”
RTM director, Kenneth Wilson’s words, who along with his colleagues saw approximately 700 people give their lives to Jesus over a four-week period.
Talking about a visit that he and his travelling companion, Mark Rodgers, made to a secondary school, Kenneth, said: “The headmistress had the whole school gathered in assembly for us as well as all the teachers. Mark shared his testimony, including the Gospel of Jesus. When we had finished we made an appeal for those who wanted to accept Jesus as their Saviour and Lord.”
“For a moment, no-one responded but we just stood quietly and prayed; eventually one young man came forward, then two young ladies stepped out, then three or four emerged and eventually the number reached 50.”
Importantly, Kenneth and Mark took time to talk to these young people and had the joy of leading each of them to the Lord Jesus Christ while the other 100 pupils & teachers looked on.
Kenneth continued: “To our amazement when we had finished with the young people all of the teachers came and asked: ‘Will you pray for us?’ Many of them with tears in their eyes as we prayed for them and ministered to them, asking God’s blessing upon their careers and their teaching. One of the staff was already a born-again Christian, the rest were not and we are not aware of them having made any decision but at least we sowed the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”
A meeting at another school saw ten young people give her lives to God and five of them were also baptized in the Holy Spirit.
An evening ‘open air’ meeting took place in the grounds of another school. Again, Mark testified while Kenneth preached a simple message based on John 3:16 – afterwards another 50 people made a commitment to the Lord.
During a hospital visit, Kenneth had the privilege of leading a husband and wife, William and Melanie to the Lord following an amazing miracle. Taking up the story, he said: “We went into a ward with four beds, a saw a man sitting at the side of a bed crying, I was just drawn over, his wife was lying in the bed. I discovered his name was William and he began to explain to me that his wife had reached her 50th birthday a week or so ago and had suffered a severe stroke. Her whole right-hand side was paralyzed, she couldn’t breathe properly and was on oxygen. I said: “William, would you mind if I prayed for your wife?” He said: “Yes, that would be good.” So I began to pray quietly and minister to her and in a little while she called out: “William, take this oxygen mask away, I don’t need it anymore I can breathe normally now.”
That was the first sign God was doing something, Kenneth went on to say: “I noticed that her hand was clenched tight and her wrist was twisted in. I said: “Melanie, can you open your fingers up in your fist. William spoke up and said: “No she can’t; they are so stiff even I can’t open them.” I said; “Melanie, you try and see if you can open them, slowly she opened the first finger, then the second and the third, and fourth finger, she closed and opened them again quicker and quicker until she was really flicking them open and then her wrist straightened and I said: “Melanie, tell me, do you think you could wiggle your toes?”
Ken remembers that William pulled the sheet up and he could see her foot.
He added: “Sure enough she began to wiggle her toes and exercising her fingers she began to lift her right hand up in the air which she couldn’t do before. Then a little while later as she was still wiggling her toes, she began to draw her leg and her foot up towards her, back and forwards in the bed, the next thing it went up in the air, straight up and down and the sheet fell to the floor.”
Reaching and Teaching Ministries Philippines update – sharing news of how God is working there.
Kenneth’s colleague, Mark Rodgers has a wonderful testimony of delivery from drug abuse. His story of being in prison twice before he was 18 struck a cord with many of the men he and Kenneth met during visits to prisons in the Philippines:
“As Mark shared his testimony, many of the men began to break down and cry and we had the privilege of leading many of these men to faith in Jesus Christ”, recalled Kenneth.
“We went back to those prisons over two or three days and over those institutions, we believe the 200-300 inmates gave their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. The prison Chaplain said he had never saw a move of God like it. In the seven years he had been going in he only saw a handful of prisoners give their lives to Jesus.”
Kenneth and his co-workers also spent some time with students at Bohol University and organized a Pastor’s Gathering to encourage local ministers.
Food and aid where also given out to needy families in some of the villages.
Reflecting on a ‘very worthwhile visit’, Kenneth concluded: “One of the things that struck myself, Mark and our missionaries very forcibly was that God has already been there. The power of the Holy Spirit was at work and the harvest was ripe, people were ready to receive the Gospel and respond to an appeal to commit their lives to Christ.”
Very encouraging and uplifting reports from the Reaching and Teaching Ministries Philippines update. Find out more about RTM on their website here.