God's answers

I will admit, I can be weak in faith at times. I suppose all the emotional highs of my trip have to be balanced by emotional lows now. As I sit and look at all that is before us, I admit to being a bit weak.

Tonight, I was having such a moment. Despite all evidence already given to me, I asked God, "God, I need to know You're with me on this." Again, there have been many instances where God has shown me that. But I am human, and as Psalm 103 reminds us, God "knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust." So, once again God in His mercy answered me.

Less than half an hour after I made my petition, I received an email from Pastor Greg Begafria, pastor of Shiloh Bible Baptist Church Sindangan. You may recognize the recurring family name of "Begafria" as we continue these posts. The Fabulous Begafria Boys are all from the same family (some brothers, some cousins), and they are all ministers on Mindanao.

I had the privilege to meet Pastor Greg during my trip. I even was blessed to speak in his church. But his email to me was a blessing. Part of his email reads as follows:


Pastor Greg preaches
at his church in Sindangan


"The church is glad upon sharing you the good news. We have just baptized this morning 5 souls. To God be the glory! All of them were young people in high school.Thanks a lot for praying and for bearing with the missionary’s burden - that is all about souls being saved and follow Christ in obedience to water baptism."

What a wonderful confirmation! Praise God for answered prayers, sometimes immediately after I have made a request. How wonderful is our God!

Now, Pastor Greg has several prayer requests to add.

• Monthly goal of baptism and more souls saved (the church goal is 150 baptisms this year).
• High school ministries expand with the start of the school year (it starts in June in the Philippines). Particularly Sindangan National High School and Sindangan National Agricultural School are schools where the church hopes to have ministry. Perhaps these five new souls will be part of those outreaches!
• Praying for Christian children's books to assist with their outreach to children.
• Praying for the new opportunities for Bible studies with the military detachment. If you didn't see our post from a day ago about the fruit God is producing through military Bible studies in Ozamis, please check it out.
• Soul-winning youth camp in December (we will tell you more about this need at a later time).
• Church lot (we will tell you more about this need at a later time).

So please, join with us as we praise God for these five souls who publicly proclaimed their allegiance to Jesus Christ. And also join with us as we pray for these needs for Pastor Greg Begafria and the church in Sindangan. Also, please join your prayers with ours as Homegrown Harvesters tries to follow God's leading.