Moving mountains in Mindoro
God continues to move mountains, and move me!
My second month in Mindoro has been rewarding and challenging. God continues to move mountains, and move me! My joy always comes from sharing that God is a personal God who is alive and cares for each of us! So first I’ll share how God has been moving mountains in people’s lives, and then how He has been moving me.
I was recently given the honor of speaking at a youth camp in southern Mindoro. There I saw something I had never seen before! I preached a message and followed it with a time of ministry, praying for any of the 200 students who wanted prayer. Each one who came up had a similar request. They wanted to pray for somebody outside the camp.
I was blown away. These are just teenagers and young adults, but their love for others was so great! I ask myself, “How often do I go to the altar to pray for another’s needs?” God was using them to teach me, and may that lesson spread to us all!
I’ve grown accustomed to seeing God do instant miracles everywhere. So at the youth camp I became a little discouraged, with nothing to back up what I had said about God healing. It wasn’t just this service, either. There was another one like it. As I said earlier, my joy is in sharing that God is a personal God and that He is alive! I know what you’re thinking: this missionary is impatient and probably lacks faith, haha! That may be partially true, or maybe God wants to teach me about patience.
Just a few days ago I talked with one of the pastors from down south and discovered what had been going on behind the scenes. We had prayed for a boy who broke his shoulder playing basketball at the camp, but he wasn’t there during the prayer. He had already been admitted to the hospital and x-rayed, and the break was confirmed. But nothing is impossible when there is a living God on your side! His shoulder was radically healed without anybody needing to lay hands on him!
After this great encouragement of God working on this student’s behalf, I heard another great testimony! Remember the other service I mentioned, where I prayed for a handful of people but saw nothing instant? Well, God was moving behind the scenes again!
There was a lady with two lumps in her chest who was healed, but I didn’t hear about it until yesterday. I had encouraged the people to keep trusting God, telling them it took 30 days for my leg to be healed. She took the challenge to trust God and was not disappointed! In two weeks’ time she too was healed! That opened a door for us to pray for her sick, unbelieving friend, who had a painful cancer in her blood. She was also instantly healed of the pain, and I look forward to hearing the doctor’s report!
We all have seasons in our lives when we feel like we’re going a million miles an hour. Well, I always seem to be in that season, and this month is no different! I suppose it’s getting into the groove of a new routine that really wears us out. My first month here was all about church planting. The second month has been about building relationships with other missionaries and national leaders. I’ve traveled around Mindoro and other islands to meet people. I’ve also been looking for a place to live near my Tagalog (language) teacher.
Thanks to God, I have now found a place! As my family knows, my living arrangements were a real struggle until recently. I still have limited access to the Internet, and to add to the communication barrier, I have a busted computer (hardware issues). It’s possible my MacBook has a defect that Apple can replace. So please pray for favor, that an authorized Apple tech will be able to do it here in the Philippines. It’s just 4 years old and still has plenty of life in it!
But despite all these things, I am very grateful to be able to minister while learning the local language at the same time. Many missionaries need to study the language for 1 year before they can begin to minister to those they love and desire to serve.
Because they haven’t heard,
Justin Gilpin