Our Hosea fishing boat has now made its maiden voyage, fully equipped with the much needed lights for night fishing and an ice box for storing the catch and keeping it fresh. Once all the equipment had been purchased and fitted, the fishermen from Aroma village left for their first adventure in open sea fishing with many villagers watching them and waving goodbye as they set sail. And there was even more celebration on their return - the catches from the first trips have been much bigger than anyone dared hope. The fishermen joyously returned to harbour and waded ashore with huge tuna fish on their shoulders, the biggest of which weighed 66 kg!
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Tuna is a really
valuable fish in the Philippines and there are now plenty of them in
the sea around the northern part of Mindoro island – but it wasn't
always like this. During all these past years that I have been visiting
Occidental Mindoro, the fishermen have complained how little life there
is in the sea close to the island. This has been particularly the case
in the northern end of the island where our two Hosea schools are
located - in Mamburao town and Aroma village. The catches of the local
fishermen have always been very small, and often they have returned
very sad and disappointed after long fishing trips with no fish at all
to show for it.
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There has been more life in the sea around the southern part of the Mindoro island close to the town of San Jose, but even there the fishermen have often had to spend several weeks out on the open sea fishing a long way from land, in order to find substantial shoals of fish.
When our boat was
being prepared for its maiden voyage, we heard some very exciting news:
the waters around the northern parts of Mindoro that earlier had been
fairly lifeless with only a few fish here and there, had amazingly
become full of fish. Most surprising of all was that the highly valued
tuna fish had appeared in huge shoals close to Mamburao, along with
another local variety called milkfish. This is a tasty but very bony
fish, not equal to the tuna, but very much loved by the local people,
who call it bangus in the Tagalog language. The bangus can grow up to
one meter long and it is said to be an unofficial symbol of the
Philippines.
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Pastor Sonio & villagers with their catch
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On my last trip to the Philippines in November-December 2009 I visited San Jose in the southern part of Mindoro. I was amazed as I listened to the local fishermen complaining how the fish had disappeared from their nearby waters and had moved to the northern part of the island around Mamburao. They were annoyed about having to sail much further north to try and find any fish.
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But of course I was so
thankful to realise that the revival blessing that the Lord has brought
to Mamburao and Aroma is now even touching the natural world, and the
seas around that area are being blessed with life.
Pastor Sonio has for a long time had a vision to acquire a fishing boat
for Aroma. He has wanted to use it not only for the important aim of
providing work and income for the villagers of Aroma itself, but also
to bring the Gospel to the other islands around Mindoro. In the first
phase Pastor Sonio wants to reach out to Busuanga Island and to its
biggest town, Coron. There are 7000 islands in the Philippines, so I
don't think we will run out of such work in the near future!
God has not told us to fix our vision on those things that we can see
or that by our own human reasoning would be possible. No, as the
Apostle Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:18 (NCV):
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We fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal
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God wants us to reach out for that future goal that His Holy Spirit has birthed in our hearts but which is still invisible to our human eyes.
The Lord has done miracles works in the realm of nature on Vanuatu island, so why would that not also happen on Mindoro? We believed in miracles and we looked to the future with the eyes of the Spirit, and that is why we started to build our first Hosea fishing boat. It turned out to be a bigger boat than we had originally planned, one suitable not only for fishing along the seashore, but also for longer and more dangerous fishing trips on the open sea. The tape measure of the builders somehow got stretched to the dimensions of an open sea boat, but even that “accident” was surely in the plans of God.
MIRACLE IN VANUATU
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On the subject of
miracles in nature, let me tell you about the amazing wonder that took
place a few years ago in a village on Vanuatu island. That little
village had for fourteen years been suffering from lack of water and
fish, as the river that had earlier made the village so lively and
wealthy, had totally dried up. For fourteen long years there had been
no water at all in the base of the river and the villagers had sunk
into poverty and malnutrition.
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Some evangelists that I know well got this village on their hearts and decided to go there and preach the Gospel to the villagers. As a result of their mission trip many villagers found Jesus Christ as their Saviour. The evangelists asked the tribe chief about the village and were told that the villagers' biggest problem was that their river which had previously been so full of life was now totally dry and barren. The evangelists prayed together with the elders of the village and blessed the base of the river, declaring life to come into it. Overnight the Lord did a miracle of nature! The very next day the river was flowing again and teeming with life as God had literally opened the flood gates of water bringing the long awaited shoals of fish back to this remote village. Yet again we saw how God's blessing brings life.
A SECOND FISHING BOAT
As there is so much valuable fish in the waters around Mamburao and
Aroma, we have decided to purchase another fishing boat. I do believe
that we will soon collect enough funds for that. God has promised to
bless those that work for good.
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| “Whenever you are able, do good to
people who need help..” (Prov. 3:27 NCV) |
THE FINAL EXAMS OF THE SCHOOL YEAR
The school year in the Philippines is now coming to an end and all the schools have their final exams going on. It's the same in our schools where our little students do their best in demonstrating what they have learnt. Our oldest pupils who have studied for three years with us, are now moving on to the state school, and our youngest ones move from kindergarten to pre-school.
The oldest students now undertake something that they have looked forward to for a very long time – their school trip. This is a compulsory part of their studies and of course we are happy to arrange it for our children. For the majority of them it is a unique experience as they would otherwise have no opportunity at all to ever travel outside their own village. Last year's trip was arranged to the far end of the island and our pupils were so thrilled over it and will always remember that day.
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Recently we received
an email from our head teacher at Mamburao School, Nheng Sonio, saying
how much she appreciates the new interactive PC game “My Adventures
Through Heaven” by my son Christopher. She described it as a very
useful and fascinating tool that she was using at school when they tell
the children about heaven. The game has been created with the
illustrations from the My Heaven book and it is a lovely visual and
interactive game aimed at small children. You can get more details and
even download a demonstration version here . |
NEWS FROM PAPUA NEW GUINEA
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Hosea Ministry has again spread to a new area in Papua New Guinea. Our
key man, Pastor Caspar Tambian, travelled with his team of four other
ministers to a town called Lae in Morobe province in December 2009 to
hold evangelistic meetings. Lae is the second biggest town in the
province and it was badly affected by an earthquake which hit the area
in 2007. Now two years later, Pastor Caspar and his fellow evangelists preached
the Good News of Jesus Christ and the results were astounding: 2520
townspeople were saved! Many of those who came
to the meetings had never before seen God doing miracles or even the
power of the Holy Spirit touching people in meetings. But when our five
pastors prayed for them, God touched many folk powerfully and
miraculous healings took place.
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Several of the new believers immediately wanted to get baptised but that will be only later this year in April when mass baptism services are being arranged. In the meantime one of our pastors will travel to Lae to teach these new believers.
The only problem facing us now, and quite a big problem at that, is where to place all these new believers. Where and how do we find a spiritual home for them? It sounds as if there are no suitable lively churches in the town but there is an old, empty church building, now up for sale after the previous pastor had died a couple of years ago. The problem is that we do not have the funds to purchase it. Revival has spread quickly in Papua New Guinea and we already have several other needy churches waiting for funds. Our most urgent need is to buy an electricity generator for the Hosea Bible School where our coming pastors are studying.
In an earlier newsletter (August 2009) I told you about Pastor Apollos who went to build a church in the Madang area of PNG. He has now finished the construction and fifty new believers have got a spiritual home and a roof over their heads. The churches there are made from the local bush materials, so making a church building is a much simpler task than in the Western world, but it still needs quite a lot of money.
A few years ago I preached in one of our newly built churches. The “walls” of that church were various pieces of plastic fixed to a lattice of sticks and blowing in the wind. The monsoon rains had soaked the ground to mud and made the air steamy. The Papuan ladies still managed to look beautiful but I bore a close resemblance to a drowned cat. I had brought some hair straighteners with me from Australia but nobody had told me that there was no electricity supply in that particular locality!
I am used to preach under trees, and I have got used to sleep in
various peculiar places, even in million-star accomodation (ie. under the stars in the heaven!), but this plastic sack church made such
an impact on me that I will never forget it.I would really want, if at all possible, to offer my sisters and brothers at least some sort of proper
shelter against the wind and rain.
We believers from the western world often complain about many insignificant things. Pastors frequently go and study marketing to try and learn how to draw crowds to their churches, but still their churches remain more or less empty. I am not against new methods but often such churches are like an inefficient air conditioner: they blow air and make a noise but there is no power.
And yet God has given us some very effective tools which really will attract people to our churches. One of them is power evangelism - where miracles and signs follow the preaching of God's Word. Our Papuan group lives and evangelises just like the early church apostles did. With the same radical results too. Revival is spreading like bush fire in Papua New Guinea, sinners are repenting and the sick are being healed. The harvest is ready, the crop is ripe but there are not enough workmen and resources in the field.
A NEW HOME FOR OUR SCHOOL
IN TONGA
Our school in Tonga
has finally found a piece of land for its new building. There is a huge
lack of vacant plots in Tonga, because of an ancient law which decrees
that every young man on reaching the age of sixteen must get a piece of
land, at minimal rent, called “api tukuhau” which is 8.25 acres in
size.
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The boy also receives another piece of land from his own home village for starting a family. This old law was very good in olden times but unfortunately the growing population and large numbers of people moving to live in built-up areas have made the law more and more difficult to enforce. But as you will appreciate, the major result is that it is now extremely difficult to find and buy any vacant pieces of land in Tonga.
Even though it was difficult to find the plot for our school in Tonga, God isn't one to leave His project hanging! I told you in our November 2009 newsletter about a millionaire who had seen what our little Hosea school was doing and whose heart was deeply touched. Well, this man was so moved that he promised to take responsibility for not only procuring the land but also constructing the new school building where our children will be able to study until they finish high school. He will also pay all the expenses of the school, so we are free to start a new project elsewhere in Tonga.
I was totally amazed and said to myself that this sort of thing happens only in the movies! But thankfully it was not just a dream but a wonderful demonstration of how much God wants to bless us. I firmly believe that we are about to step into a time when God is going to give us back the inheritance that belonged to us. He is going to return to us everything that the enemy has stolen during the years.
Anne
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