I can’t even begin to tell you of the joy I feel as I
write this post.
It is 4:18 pm on June 6, 2013. I am
back at the BOOST (Baptist Outside of School Training Center) in the outskirts of
Butuan City, Philippines. This is where I called home during the summers of
2010 & 2011, as I served through Nehemiah Teams on a medical team.
This place has a certain air about it. Maybe it’s the change of scenery
from big city Davao to simple bukid (rural mountains). Maybe it’s the people
here—ones I have grown with and learned from and loved starting from years ago.
Maybe it is simply the presence of God here. Whatever it is, I am happy and
blessed to be back serving. Even though my role has changed from team member to
a trainer, the air of familiarity remains—of simple living and simple sharing
of a simple love that changes lives. This pulls at my heart in ways that hardly
anything else in my life does.
 |
| View from the BOOST--second home for me. :) |
I am on my one-month break that splits my 2 years volunteering at Mercy
Maternity Center in Davao. Instead of going back home to the US, I am helping
with set-up and training for an incoming mission team from the states. The team
of US college students arrives on Saturday, June 8th here in the
Philippines to join with Filipino believers to share the gospel through
medicine to people in surrounding rural villages. Please remember them in your prayers throughout the summer
months of June and July.
Looking back at this past completed year in the Phils, I can tell you a
few things for certain. Never more have I learned, never more have I loved,
never more have I been put in situations to trust what God has laid in front of
me. And never more have I felt a confirmation that THIS is where I am supposed
to be for this season.
Even though I miss my home in the US and all my friends and family and
just the normality of life as I knew it growing up, I can’t help but marvel at
how true God is to His word. When He says that
“no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life."..(Mark 10: 29-30)
He
really wasn’t joking. He is faithful. He fulfills His word. He is true. I’m
certain I’ve written about this very thing before, but allow me again to be
thankful that our Lord doesn’t change. He doesn’t leave us. He doesn’t forsake
us. He is God.
As I prepare for second and final year serving and learning at Mercy
Maternity, I must be very transparent with those of you who read. I am in great
need. I am once again in need of financial support for clinic fees for this
coming fall. If I can be honest and show a little bit of my discouraged heart,
it is no fun asking and asking and asking for money. BUT let me tell you that
from what I have witnessed of the work of the Lord, He always provides. And He
uses His people to provide. Just like He uses his people to reach those who are
lost.
So once again, boldly I ask for your help in allowing me to continue
serving in the Philippines this year. Each and every amount is something huge.
Every effort to repost my blog, to share with your family and friends, to
challenge your small group, to be apart of the Lord’s work in expanding His
kingdom—it all counts! I challenge each of you who read to be moved to donate a
small amount. A simple $20 from 200 of you would meet the goal. It was done
back in January. I am excited to watch it happen again!
Of course more than anything else, I ask for your prayers. The harvest
in plentiful, but the workers are few; therefore pray that God would send our
workers among the harvest field! That is the goal. That is what we live for as
believers. Let’s together match our actions with this in mind!
I will update as much as I can in June about my experiences here in the
bukid, as well as progress in raising the needed funds by August 1 for me to
continue serving here in the Philippines. Thank you for encouragement and
support and prayers! Oh that God may be glorified for the way He is using His
church!
Brittany :)
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